Bernard Hill is a famous British actor who has participated in more than a hundred films. His work is best known in the paintings "Titanic" and "Lord of the Rings."
Education
Bernard Hill was born December 17, 1944 in the small English village of Blackley, a suburb of Manchester, UK. He grows in a rather poor family, his parents earned a living by mining in local mines. They raised their son in strict Catholic views, he even attended the Roman Catholic College "Xaverian" in Manchester. Immediately after graduating from college, he entered the Manchester Polytechnic Institute of Drama, where he began to study acting. Hill received his graduation diploma in 1970 when he was 26 years old.
Career
Immediately after graduation, Bernard Hill began performing in theaters in Manchester. The talent of the young actor was highly appreciated by both the audience and critics, but he was famous only in the territory of his city. However, already in 1976 he got the first role on television, which was the next step on the path to fame. His debut work was a minor character Yuri Forman in the television series Royal Court. Although Hill took part in only one episode, it paid off, because in the same year he was invited in 3 more English programs: “Play of the Day”, “I, Claudius”, “Everyman”, as well as in the criminal action movie “Trial duel".
Hill played his first major role in 1980. He brought to life the character of Fox Fox in the drama series Fox. However, neither the actor nor the series received popularity, but the situation changed dramatically only a few years later. In 1982, Bernard Hill was lucky enough to play the character Yoser Hughes in the groundbreaking drama series Boys on the Sidelines. The picture revealed the atmosphere of British life and the terrifying problem of unemployment under the rule of Margaret Thatcher. The bold and acutely social work brought Bernard Hill universal recognition and many awards.
1982 turned out to be fruitful for the actor, because he was invited to another successful film - "Gandhi", which tells about the life of political activist Mahatma Gandhi. The film received as many as 11 nominations for the prestigious Academy Award, 8 of which he won. Bernard Hill himself did not receive awards for a secondary role, but work in such a successful film had a positive impact on his future career.
Over the next few years, Hill took part in many famous films as a supporting actor. So, in 1984, he worked with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins in the adventure film Bounty, nominated for the Cannes Film Festival. In 1988, he played Madgetta in the tragicomedy "Countdown of the Drowned", who won the festival above.
Bernard Hill played in many popular films, but he gained real fame in 1997 when he starred in the movie Titanic by director James Cameron, which tells of the collision of the eponymous liner with an iceberg and the death of hundreds of people. Hill got the role of captain of the ship - Edward John Smith. The picture won in 11 nominations for the Academy Award and 4 nominations for the Golden Globe Award.
The next wave of fame reached the British actor in 2002, when he got the role of King Theoden in the second part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy - The Lord of the Rings: Two Fortresses, and only a year later in the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. For his work, he received an army of fans and hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties.
He could no longer repeat the success of the early 2000s. However, Hill took part in many famous and successful films with dozens of stars in America and the UK. At the same time, the variety of genres to which the actor devoted his time is striking. He starred in horror films (2003 Gothic with Holly Berry and Robert Downey Jr., Gentlemen's League: Apocalypse with Mark Gaitiss), military films (Joy Division, Operation Valkyrie with Tom Cruise), fantasy (Tales for Adults, Franklin with Eva Green), crime films (Kings of a Scam, Falcon, Golden Years), melodramas (Heart of the Earth, Wimbledon), etc. In addition, he is an actor in the voice acting of several cartoons: “A Midsummer Night's Dream” (2005), “Paranorman, or How to Train Your Zombies” (2012), etc.
Bernard Hill has devoted more than 30 years of his life to cinema, but is now appearing less and less on the screen. One of his latest works is the crime comedy "Golden Years" of 2016 from director John Miller, where he played the role of Arthur Hood. The story tells about the life of an elderly couple who decided to make a living illegally. In the coming years, two more films with the participation of Bernard Hill are expected to be released.
