# Bob Hoskins

Robert William Hoskins (26 October 1942 – 29 April 2014) was an English actor and film director. Known for his intense but sensitive portrayals of "tough guy" characters, he began his career on stage before making his screen breakthrough playing Arthur Parker on the 1978 BBC Television serial Pennies from Heaven. He subsequently played acclaimed lead roles in the films The Long Good Friday (1980), Mona Lisa (1986), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Mermaids (1990) and The Good Pope: Pope John XXIII (2002).
Hoskins had supporting roles in Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982), The Honorary Consul (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), Brazil (1985), Hook (1991), Nixon (1995), Enemy at the Gates (2001), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005), A Christmas Carol (2009), Made in Dagenham (2010), and Snow White and the Huntsman (2012). He portrayed Mario in the 1993 film Super Mario Bros., based on the video game of the same name, and voiced Boris Goosinov in the animated film Balto (1995). Hoskins also directed two feature films: The Raggedy Rawney (1988) and Rainbow (1996).
Hoskins received the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his role in Mona Lisa. Hoskins won a Canadian Genie Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Felicia's Journey. In 2009, he won an International Emmy Award for Best Actor for his appearance on the BBC One drama The Street. Hoskins retired from acting in 2012 owing to Parkinson's disease after being diagnosed the previous year. He died in April 2014 from pneumonia.

## Early life

Robert William Hoskins was born in Bury St Edmunds on 26 October 1942, the son of Elsie (née Hopkins), a cook and nursery school teacher, and Robert Hoskins, a bookkeeper and lorry driver. One of his grandmothers was Romani. From two weeks old, he was brought up in the Finsbury Park area of London. He attended Stroud Green Secondary School, where he was written off as "stupid" on account of his dyslexia. He left school at 15 with a single O-Level and worked as a porter, lorry driver, plumber, and window cleaner. He started but did not complete a three-year accountancy course. He spent six months on a kibbutz in Israel and two years tending to the camels of a Bedouin tribe in Syria.

## Career

Hoskins's acting career began in 1968 at the Victoria Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, in a production of Romeo and Juliet in which he played a servant named Peter. A year later, while waiting in the bar at Unity Theatre, London, for his friend the actor Roger Frost, Hoskins found himself being auditioned for a play after being handed a script and told, "You're next." His audition was successful and Frost became his understudy. Frost considered Hoskins "a natural", recalling that "he just got up on stage and was brilliant".
In late 1969, he was part of Bolton's Octagon Theatre outreach troupe, which became the Ken Campbell Roadshow.
Hoskins's London theatre career included portraying a "vigorous" Alfred Doolittle in a West End production of Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion opposite Diana Rigg at the Albery Theatre in 1974, and in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh at the Aldwych Theatre in 1976 as Rocky the bartender, opposite Patrick Stewart. In 1981, he starred with Helen Mirren in The Duchess of Malfi at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and the London Roundhouse.
Hoskins's first major television role was in On the Move (1975–1976), an educational drama series directed by Barbara Derkow aimed at tackling adult illiteracy. He portrayed the character Alf Hunt, a removal man who had problems reading and writing. According to producer George Auckland, up to 17 million people watched the series. His breakthrough in television came later in the original BBC version of Dennis Potter's 6-part drama Pennies from Heaven (1978), in which he portrayed adulterous sheet music salesman Arthur Parker. He later played Iago (opposite Anthony Hopkins) in Jonathan Miller's BBC Television Shakespeare production of Othello (1981). In 1983, Hoskins voiced an advert for Weetabix and, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, he appeared in advertising for British Gas and British Telecom (now BT Group). Other television work included Flickers, portraying Wilkins Micawber in David Copperfield (1999) and The Wind in the Willows (2006).
British films such as The Long Good Friday (1980) and Mona Lisa (1986) won him the wider approval of critics, the latter film winning him a Cannes Award, Best Actor Golden Globe, BAFTA Awards and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Hoskins's other film parts included Spoor in Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985), Smee in Hook (1991) and in Neverland (2011), starring opposite Cher in Mermaids (1990), portraying Nikita Khrushchev as a political commissar in Enemy at the Gates (2001) and playing Uncle Bart, the violent psychopathic "owner" of Jet Li in Unleashed (2005, aka Danny the Dog). He had a small role as the protagonist's rock and roll manager in The Wall (1982) and, in 1997, had a cameo as Ginger Spice's disguise in the Spice Girls' film, Spice World. He directed two films that he also starred in: The Raggedy Rawney (1988) and Rainbow (1996), and produced Mrs Henderson Presents alongside Norma Heyman, for which he was nominated as Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film.
A high point in Hoskins's career was portraying the private investigator Edward "Eddie" Valiant in the live-action/animated family blockbuster, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Hoskins was not the first choice for the role – Harrison Ford, Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy were all considered for the part. Film critics, among them Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, agreed that Hoskins was perfect for the role. As his character interacts and makes physical contact with animated characters in the film, Hoskins was required to take mime training courses in preparation. He experienced hallucinations for months after production on the film had ended. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won a British Evening Standard Award for his performance.
Hoskins's portrayal of the Los Angeles investigator Valiant was one of several roles where he used an American accent; he was described by Trey Barrineau of USA Today as having "a knack for playing Americans better than most American actors could". Others included Rocky the bartender in the play The Iceman Cometh (1976), gangster Owney Madden in Francis Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984), Gus Klein in Wolfgang Petersen's Shattered (1991), Mario in Super Mario Bros. (1993), J. Edgar Hoover in Oliver Stone's Nixon (1995), and Eddie Mannix in Hollywoodland (2006). He was slated to be the last-minute replacement in case Robert De Niro refused the role of Al Capone in The Untouchables (1987).
In a 1988 interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross, when asked about many of his roles being underworld types, Hoskins said, "I think if you've got a face like mine you don't usually wind up with the parts that Errol Flynn played, you know?"
Hoskins told The Guardian in 2007 that he regretted starring as Mario in Super Mario Bros. (1993), saying that he was extremely unhappy with the film, greatly angered by his experiences making it, and referring to it as the "worst thing I ever did". Hoskins was injured several times on set, spent most of the time with co-star John Leguizamo getting drunk to escape boredom, and was not aware that the film was based on a video game until he was informed later by his son. In a 2011 interview, he was asked, "What is the worst job you've done?", "What has been your biggest disappointment?", and "If you could edit your past, what would you change?" His answer to all three was Super Mario Bros.
In 2007, Hoskins appeared in the music video for Jamie T's single "Sheila". In 2009, he returned to television for Jimmy McGovern's drama serial The Street, playing a publican who opposes a local gangster. For this role, he received his only Emmy: Best Actor at the 2010 International Emmys. The 2011 film In Search of La Che features a character "Wermit," whose every line of dialogue is a quote from Bob Hoskins. On 8 August 2012, Hoskins announced his retirement from acting, having been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2011.

## Personal life

With his first wife Jane Livesey, Hoskins had two children: Alex (b. 1968) and Sarah (b. 1972). With his second wife, Linda Banwell, he had two more children: Rosa (b. c. 1983) and Jack (b. c. 1985). Hoskins divided his time between the Hampstead area of London and Chiddingly, East Sussex.
Later in life, Hoskins gave up drinking alcohol. He said that his wife persuaded him to go sober.
When asked in an interview which living person he most despised, Hoskins named Tony Blair and said, "He's done even more damage than Thatcher." He hated Blair to the point that he decided in 2010, for the first time in his life, not to vote for Labour, by then led by Gordon Brown.
Hoskins often made light of his similarities with film actor Danny DeVito, who he joked would play him in a film about his life.

## Illness and death

Hoskins was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2011. He retired from acting in August 2012. On 29 April 2014, Hoskins died of pneumonia at a London hospital, aged 71. He was survived by his wife Linda and his four children.
Among actors who paid tribute at his funeral were Stephen Fry, Samuel L. Jackson, and Helen Mirren. Hoskins is buried in Highgate Cemetery in London.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1972 | Up the Front | Recruiting sergeant | |
| 1973 | The National Health | Foster | |
| 1975 | Royal Flash | Police Constable | |
| 1975 | Inserts | Big Mac | |
| 1979 | Zulu Dawn | CSM Williams | |
| 1980 | The Long Good Friday | Harold Shand | |
| 1982 | Pink Floyd – The Wall | Band manager | |
| 1983 | The Honorary Consul | Colonel Perez | |
| 1984 | Lassiter | Inspector John Becker | |
| 1984 | The Cotton Club | Owney Madden | |
| 1985 | The Woman Who Married Clark Gable | George | |
| 1985 | The Dunera Boys | Morrie Mendellsohn | |
| 1985 | Brazil | Spoor | |
| 1986 | Sweet Liberty | Stanley Gould | |
| 1986 | Mona Lisa | George | |
| 1987 | A Prayer for the Dying | Father Michael Da Costa | |
| 1987 | The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne | James Madden | |
| 1988 | Who Framed Roger Rabbit | Eddie Valiant | |
| 1988 | The Raggedy Rawney | Darky | Also director |
| 1990 | Heart Condition | Jack Moony | |
| 1990 | Mermaids | Lou Landsky | |
| 1991 | The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish | Louis Aubinard | |
| 1991 | Shattered | Gus Klein | |
| 1991 | Hook | Smee | |
| 1991 | The Inner Circle | Lavrentiy Beria | |
| 1992 | Passed Away | Johnny Scanlan | |
| 1992 | Blue Ice | Sam Garcia | |
| 1993 | Super Mario Bros. | Mario Mario | |
| 1993 | The Big Freeze | Sidney | |
| 1995 | Nixon | J. Edgar Hoover | |
| 1995 | Balto | Boris Goosinoff | Voice |
| 1996 | Rainbow | Frank Bailey | Also director |
| 1996 | The Secret Agent | Verloc | |
| 1996 | Michael | Vartan Malt | |
| 1997 | Twenty Four Seven | Alan Darcy | |
| 1997 | Spice World | Himself as Ginger Spice's disguise | Cameo |
| 1998 | Cousin Bette | Cesar Crevel | |
| 1999 | Parting Shots | Gerd Layton | |
| 1999 | Captain Jack | Jack Armistead | |
| 1999 | Felicia's Journey | Hilditch | |
| 1999 | A Room for Romeo Brass | Steven Laws | |
| 1999 | The White River Kid | Brother Edgar | |
| 2000 | American Virgin | Joey | |
| 2001 | Enemy at the Gates | Nikita Khrushchev | |
| 2001 | Last Orders | Ray "Raysie" Johnson | |
| 2002 | Where Eskimos Live | Sharkey | |
| 2002 | Maid in Manhattan | Lionel Bloch | |
| 2003 | The Sleeping Dictionary | Henry | |
| 2003 | Den of Lions | Darius Paskevic | |
| 2004 | Vanity Fair | Sir Pitt Crawley | |
| 2004 | Beyond the Sea | Charlie Maffia | |
| 2005 | Unleashed | Bart | |
| 2005 | Son of the Mask | Odin | |
| 2005 | Mrs Henderson Presents | Vivian Van Damm | |
| 2005 | Stay | Dr. Leon Patterson | |
| 2006 | Paris, je t'aime | Bob Leander | Segment: "Pigalle" |
| 2006 | Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties | Winston | Voice |
| 2006 | Hollywoodland | Eddie Mannix | |
| 2007 | Sparkle | Vince | |
| 2007 | Outlaw | Walter Lewis | |
| 2007 | Ruby Blue | Jack | |
| 2007 | Go Go Tales | The Baron | |
| 2008 | Doomsday | Bill Nelson | |
| 2009 | A Christmas Carol | Mr. Fezziwig / Old Joe | Motion capture; voice |
| 2010 | Made in Dagenham | Albert | |
| 2011 | Will | Davey | |
| 2012 | Outside Bet | Percy "Smudge" Smith | |
| 2012 | Snow White and the Huntsman | Muir | Final film role |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1972 | Villains | Charles Grindley | 3 episodes |
| 1972 | Play for Today | Taxi driver | Episode: "The Bankrupt" |
| 1973 | Crown Court | Freddie Dean | 3 episodes |
| 1973 | New Scotland Yard | Eddie Wharton | Episode: "Weight of Evidence" |
| 1973 | Softly, Softly: Task Force | Parker | Episode: "Signed Off" |
| 1973 | Play for Today | Woodbine | Episode: "Her Majesty's Pleasure" |
| 1974 | Shoulder to Shoulder | Jack Dunn | Episode: "Outrage" |
| 1974 | Thick as Thieves | Dobbs | 8 episodes |
| 1974 | Play for Today | Blake | Episode: "Schmoedipus" |
| 1975 | On the Move | Alf | 2 episodes |
| 1976 | Thriller | Sammy Draper | Episode: "Kill Two Birds"/"Cry Terror" |
| 1976 | The Crezz | Detective Sergeant Marble | Episode: "A Flash of Inspiration" |
| 1977 | Van der Valk | Johnny Palmer | Episode: "Dead on Arrival" |
| 1977 | Rock Follies of '77 | Johnny Britten | Episode: "The Real Life" |
| 1978 | Pennies from Heaven | Arthur Parker | 6 episodes |
| 1979 | Of Mycenae and Men | Mr. Taramasalatopoulos | Television short |
| 1980 | Flickers | Arnie Cole | 6 episodes |
| 1981 | Othello | Iago | Television film - BBC |
| 1983 | The Beggar's Opera | Beggar | Television film - BBC |
| 1985 | Mussolini and I | Benito Mussolini | Television film |
| 1985 | The Dunera Boys | Morrie Mendellsohn | 2 episodes |
| 1994 | The Changeling | De Flores | Television film |
| 1994 | World War II: When Lions Roared | Winston Churchill | 2 episodes |
| 1995–1999 | The Forgotten Toys | Teddy | Voice 26 episodes |
| 1996 | Tales from the Crypt | Redmond | Episode: "Fatal Caper" Also director |
| 1999 | David Copperfield | Wilkins Micawber | 2 episodes |
| 2000 | Noriega: God's Favorite | Manuel Noriega | Television film |
| 2000 | Don Quixote | Sancho Panza | Television film - TNT |
| 2001 | The Lost World | Professor George Challenger | Television film - BBC |
| 2003 | Frasier | Coach Fuller | Episode: "Trophy Girlfriend" |
| 2003 | The Good Pope: Pope John XXIII | Angelo Roncalli/Pope John XXIII | Television film |
| 2006 | The Wind in the Willows | Badger | Television film |
| 2008 | The Englishman's Boy | Damon Ira Chance | 2 episodes |
| 2008 | Pinocchio | Geppetto | 2 episodes |
| 2008 | The Last Word Monologues | Unnamed hitman | Episode: "A Bit of Private Business" |
| 2009 | The Street | Paddy Gargan | 2 episodes |
| 2011 | Neverland | Smee | 2 episodes |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Awards | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| 1979 | British Academy Television Awards | Best Actor | Pennies from Heaven | Nominated |
| 1981 | Evening Standard British Film Awards | Best Actor | The Long Good Friday | Won |
| 1982 | British Academy Film Awards | Best Actor in a Leading Role | The Long Good Friday | Nominated |
| 1982 | Laurence Olivier Awards | Best Actor in a Musical | Guys and Dolls | Nominated |
| 1984 | British Academy Film Awards | Best Actor in a Supporting Role | The Honorary Consul | Nominated |
| 1986 | Boston Society of Film Critics | Best Actor | Mona Lisa | Won |
| 1986 | Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award | Best Actor | Mona Lisa | Won |
| 1986 | Los Angeles Film Critics Association | Best Actor | Mona Lisa | Won |
| 1986 | Valladolid International Film Festival | Best Actor | Mona Lisa | Won |
| 1987 | Academy Awards | Best Actor | Mona Lisa | Nominated |
| 1987 | British Academy Film Awards | Best Actor in a Leading Role | Mona Lisa | Won |
| 1987 | Cannes Film Festival | Best Actor | Mona Lisa | Won |
| 1987 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama | Mona Lisa | Won |
| 1987 | London Film Critics' Circle | Actor of the Year | Mona Lisa | Won |
| 1987 | National Society of Film Critics | Best Actor | Mona Lisa | Won |
| 1987 | New York Film Critics Circle | Best Actor | Mona Lisa | Won |
| 1989 | Evening Standard British Film Awards | Best Actor | Who Framed Roger Rabbit / The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne | Won |
| 1989 | Golden Globe | Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Who Framed Roger Rabbit | Nominated |
| 1990 | Saturn Awards | Best Actor | Who Framed Roger Rabbit | Nominated |
| 1996 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | Nixon | Nominated |
| 1997 | European Film Awards | Best Actor | Twenty Four Seven | Won |
| 2000 | Canadian Screen Awards | Best Actor | Felicia's Journey | Won |
| 2001 | European Film Awards | Best Actor | Last Orders | Nominated |
| 2001 | National Board of Review | Best Acing by an Ensemble | Last Orders | Won |
| 2001 | Satellite Awards | Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film | Noriega: God's Favorite | Nominated |
| 2004 | DVD Exclusive Awards | Best Supporting Actor | The Sleeping Dictionary | Won |
| 2005 | British Independent Film Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film | Mrs Henderson Presents | Nominated |
| 2005 | National Board of Review | Best Acting by an Ensemble | Mrs Henderson Presents | Won |
| 2005 | St. Louis Film Critics Association | Best Supporting Actor | Mrs Henderson Presents | Nominated |
| 2006 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture | Mrs Henderson Presents | Nominated |
| 2006 | Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Supporting Actor | Son of the Mask | Nominated |
| 2008 | Oxford International Film Festival | Best Actor | Ruby Blue | Won |
| 2010 | British Independent Film Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Made in Dagenham | Nominated |
| 2010 | International Emmy Awards | Best Actor | The Street | Won |