Bernard Hill is a famous British actor who has taken part in more than a hundred films. Most famous for his work in the paintings "Titanic" and "The Lord of the Rings".
Education
Bernard Hill was born on December 17, 1944 in the small English village of Blackley, a suburb of Manchester, UK. Growing up 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 diploma in 1970, when he was 26 years old.
Career
Right after graduation, Bernard Hill began performing in theaters in Manchester. The talent of the young actor was highly appreciated by both spectators and critics, but he was famous only in the territory of his city. However, already in 1976 he got his first role on television, which was another step on the path to fame. His debut work was a minor character Yuri Foreman in the television series Royal Court. Although Hill took part in only one episode, it bore fruit, because in the same year he was invited to 3 more English programs: "Play of the Day", "I, Claudius", "Everyman", as well as in the crime thriller "Judicial duel".
Hill played his first major role in 1980. He brought to life the character of Vin Fox in the drama series Fox. However, neither the actor nor the series gained popularity, but the situation changed dramatically just a few years later. In 1982, Bernard Hill was fortunate enough to play the character of Yoser Hughes in the groundbreaking drama series Boys on the Road. The picture revealed the atmosphere of British life and the horrific problem of unemployment under the rule of Margaret Thatcher. Bernard Hill's courageous and social work has earned him universal recognition and many awards.
1982 was a fruitful year for the actor, because he was invited to another successful film - "Gandhi", which tells about the life of the political activist Mahatma Gandhi. The film received as many as 11 nominations for the prestigious film award "Oscar", 8 of which he won. Bernard Hill himself did not receive awards for a supporting 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 Madgett in the tragicomedy "Countdown of the Drowned", which won the aforementioned festival.
Bernard Hill played in many popular films, but he gained real fame in 1997, when he starred in the film "Titanic" by director James Cameron, which tells about the collision of the liner of the same name with an iceberg and the death of hundreds of people. Hill got the role of the ship's captain - Edward John Smith. The film won 11 Oscar nominations and 4 Golden Globe nominations.
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: The Two Towers, and just a year later in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. For his work, he received armies of fans and hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties.
He no longer managed to repeat the success of the early 2000s. Nevertheless, Hill has appeared in many famous and successful films with dozens of American and British stars. At the same time, the variety of genres to which the actor devoted his time is striking. He starred in horror films (2003's Gothic with Halle Berry and Robert Downey Jr., League of Gentlemen: Apocalypse with Mark Gatiss), war films (Joy Division, Operation Valkyrie with Tom Cruise), fantasy ("Fairy Tales for Adults", "Franklin" with Eva Green), crime films ("Kings of Fraud", "Falcon", "Golden Years"), melodramas ("Heart of the Earth", "Wimbledon"), etc. In addition, he is a voice actor for several cartoons: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (2005), "Paranorman, or How to Train a Zombie" (2012), etc.
Bernard Hill has devoted more than 30 years of his life to cinema, but now appears on the screen less and less. One of his most recent works is the 2016 crime comedy Golden Years from director John Miller, in which he portrays Arthur Goode. The story tells about the life of an elderly couple who decided to make a living illegally. Two more films with Bernard Hill are expected to be released in the coming years.
Personal life
For some time, the popular actor was in a relationship with actress Katie Bates - a colleague on the set of the movie "Titanic", who began a relationship with Bernard Hill immediately after the divorce from her first husband. The novel, however, did not last long.
Currently, the actor is trying not to spread about his personal life. It is known that he is married to Marianne Hill, with whom he has a son, Gabriel. The family lives in Ipswich, a small town in the British county of Suffolk.
