Actor Bernard Hill has away. He was known for his stirring cry in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King before leading his soldiers into battle and for sinking the Titanic as the captain.
Agent Lou Coulson announced that Hill, 79, had died early on Sunday.
As Théoden, King of Rohan, Hill debuted in the Lord of the Rings trilogy’s second movie, The Two Towers, released in 2002. He returned to the part in Return of the King the following year, which went on to win eleven Oscars.
One of the most iconic images in the movie features Hill’s character rallying his outmatched troops with a battle cry while mounted, sending them hurtling into the enemy and his own impending demise.
“Arise, arise, riders of Théoden!” Hill yells. “Shields will shatter and spears will quake! A day of swords, a day of red, before the sun rises! Get on the ride now! Get on the ride now! Go! Ride for destruction and the end of the planet! “Death! Death! Death!”
Hill portrayed Captain Edward Smith in Titanic, a 1997 tragic romance starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet that featured one of the few real-life personas. 11 Academy Awards were also won by the movie.
With a somber retreat to the wheelhouse, Hill’s character watches the doomed ship take on water. He draws in a last breath and grips the wheel as water splatters through the glass and the cabin creaks beneath the weight of the waves.
In the 1982 British TV miniseries Boys From the Blackstuff, which followed five jobless men, Hill first gained recognition as Yosser Hughes.
For the part, he received a 1983 British Academy of Film and Television Arts nomination for an award, and the program took home the BAFTA for best drama series.
His passing occurred on the same day as the second season of the drama The Responder, in which he portrayed Martin Freeman’s father, was set to premiere.
Director of BBC Drama Lindsay Salt stated about Bernard Hill, “He blazed a trail across the screen, and his long-lasting career filled with iconic and remarkable roles is a testament to his incredible talent.”
“Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this sad time.”
