In the category of news I didn’t enjoy waking up to read, actor Bob Hoskins died this morning after battling pneumonia, following his announcement two years ago that he would be retiring from acting due to being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
Hoskins is not exactly a name everyone will immediately recognize, but as an actor he touched more than one generation beginning with his first big break in 1978 with the mini-series “Pennies From Heaven“, to The Long Good Friday in 1980, then there was Terry Gilliam‘s Brazil in 1985 and Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988.
The ’90s saw him star as Smee in Steven Spielberg‘s Hook, one of the titular brothers in the ill-fated Super Mario Bros., J. Edgar Hoover in Oliver Stone‘s Nixon and most recently, in his final feature film role, he played the dwarf Muir in Snow White and the Huntsman.
His most lauded performance came in Neil Jordan‘s Mona Lisa for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Golden Globe, BAFTA, New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics, Boston Society of Film Critics and Cannes Film Festival’s Best Actor Awards.
He’s an actor with a wide-ranging filmography and I’m sure everyone will have a favorite performance and favorite film he starred in. For me, it’s The Long Good Friday and with that, here’s that film’s final scene.
