Titanic and Lord Of The Rings legend Bernard Hill died aged 79 on Sunday.
The actor’s death comes hours before he is due to return to TV in Martin Freeman’s drama The Responder, which will airs on BBC One tonight.
Bernard’s agent announced the sad news Bernard died in the early hours of this morning. His cause of death has yet to be announced.
The second series of the crime drama, stars Martin Freeman, as Chris Carson, a police response officer struggling to keep a grip on his mental health.
Bernard stars as Tom in series two of drama, who is the father of Martin Freeman’s character Chris.
Titanic and Lord Of The Rings legend Bernard Hill died as the age of 79 on Sunday – pictured 2017
His death comes hours before he is due to return to TV in Martin Freeman’s drama The Responder, which will airs on BBC One tonight
Chris is trying to get better and go straight, but when Barnes (Amaka Okafor) tricks him into doing a dodgy car stop, he is drawn into a drug war between two of Liverpool’s top dealers.
Paying tribute, Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, said: ‘Bernard Hill blazed a trail across the screen, and his long-lasting career filled with iconic and remarkable roles is a testament to his incredible talent.
‘From Boys from the Blackstuff, to Wolf Hall, The Responder, and many more, we feel truly honoured to have worked with Bernard at the BBC. Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this sad time.’
Previously speaking about signing up for the series, Bernard said: ‘Well, it all came in a bit of a rush really and I found myself with the script pages for the character they were talking to me about playing, just Tom’s scenes and I thought it could be really interesting to play and wondered what the rest of the script was like and thought it would be quite a good idea to find out, so I said yes!
‘It turns out it was really good! Tony is a very talented writer, he’s a real Scouse writer and writes with real honesty, which is great.’
Bernard revealed he had a connection with his co-star Martin before they started filming which allowed they to ‘get on very well’.
‘I had gotten to know Martin when I was in New Zealand and he was doing The Hobbit, so that was good and a useful bit of a background to come into this with and made it easy because we got on very well.
‘I think we made a very good father and son, and it was good to find the little bits of these characters that were kept hidden.
The second series of the crime drama, stars Martin Freeman, as Chris Carson, a police response officer struggling to keep a grip on his mental health
Chris is trying to get better and go straight, but when Barnes (Amaka Okafor) tricks him into doing a dodgy car stop, he is drawn into a drug war between two of Liverpool’s top dealers
Bernard (L) stars as Tom in series two of drama, who is the father of Martin Freeman’s character Chris
Bernard’s agent announced the sad news, she said, he died in the early hours of this morning
Bernard returned to Liverpool to film the BBC One series where he had lived for many years.
Speaking fondly of the city, he said: ‘Liverpool is one of my favourite places, I’ve got a great relationship with the city. I lived there for a long time and my daughter was born there so it’s like my second home.
‘I went down to the Royal Court Theatre during filming on The Responder and I didn’t know what was on so I just went in.
‘The manager came over to where I was sitting and said, “what are you doing here?” I said, “I’m doing a series”, he said, “right, well do you want to come and see the show” and when I looked it was Boys from the Black Stuff. I couldn’t believe it! It’s 40 years from when I did Boys From The Black Stuff and there I was back in Liverpool watching it on the stage.’
The actor was cast as Yosser Hughes, a working class Liverpudlian in The Black Stuff and its sequel, Boys from the Blackstuff, in 1982.
The same year he took the role of Sergeant Putnam in Richard Attenborough’s Oscar-winning biopic Gandhi, before starring in the BBC‘s 1983 adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play Henry VI, in which he played the Duke of York.
He would later be cast as Captain Edward Smith in James Cameron’s gargantuan film, Titanic.
The 1997 movie saw him play the captain of the infamous vessel on what would be its maiden and only voyage across the Atlantic, before going down with the ship after it hit an iceberg.
It marked the start of a late career renaissance for Bernard, who was then chosen by Peter Jackson in the role of King Theoden in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The actor was praised for his portrayal of the embattled King of Rohan who valiantly fights to save his people from the forces of evil.
Bernard previously starred in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, played King Theoden in the epic fantasy trilogy
The actor also portrayed Captain Edward Smith in the 1997 Oscar-winning film Titanic (pictured)
Hollywood kept calling, with Bernard making appearances in Dwayne Johnson vehicle The Scorpion King, Halle Berry horror film Gothika and the tennis-themed romantic comedy Wimbledon.
He continued to make regular appearances on British television, before being cast in the 2015 BBC drama Wolf Hall.
An adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s historical fiction about the rise of Thomas Cromwell, Bernard portrayed the Duke of Norfolk in the first series of the show, before being replaced by Timothy Spall in the second.
The thespian lived in Suffolk and is survived by his wife Marianna Hill and their son Gabriel.
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