Bernard Hill is known to millions of moviegoers globally for his performances in two beloved movies that each won 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture; in James Cameron's Titanic, he portrayed the ship's Captain Edward James Smith, and in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, he portrayed King Theoden (after having first played the part in the director's prior The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers). For the latter film, he shared multiple accolades with the ensemble, including the top Screen Actors Guild Award.
Among his many other feature credits are a third Best Picture Oscar winner, Richard Attenborough's Gandhi; Roger Donaldson's The Bounty; Peter Smith's No Surrender; Richard Loncraine's Bellman and True; Peter Greenaway's Drowning by Numbers; Lewis Gilbert's Shirley Valentine, opposite Academy Award nominee Pauline Collins; Bob Rafelson's Mountains of the Moon; Clint Eastwood's True Crime; Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream; Mike Figgis' The Loss of Sexual Innocence; Mathieu Kassovitz's Gothika; and Bryan Singer's Valkyrie.
The Manchester, U.K. native has starred in numerous telefilms and miniseries. These include such classics as I, Claudius and Lipstick on Your Collar. Mr. Hill received a BAFTA Award nomination, and won a Broadcasting Press Guild Award, for Best Actor for Boys from the Blackstuff. He was again a BAFTA Award nominee for A Very Social Secretary, directed by Jon Jones; the performance also brought him an International Emmy Award nomination for Best Actor.
His stage credits include Macbeth and Twelfth Night, both staged by Nancy Meckler; The Cherry Orchard, directed by Sam Mendes; Normal Service and John, Paul, George, Ringo & Bert, both staged by Alan Dosser; and A View from the Bridge, directed by David Thacker.
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