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R.I.P., Sir Bernard Hill. BBC Obit
You were a great actor in many roles — the Captain of the Titanic and the wily Duke of Norfolk. But to me, you will always be Théoden King. May the Simbelmynë bloom ever white upon your funeral mound, and your memory be ever green.
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The king has fallen
The thing I love about books is the parts which forever capture our imagination. We replay them in our minds with complete control and that can be a bad thing when the book is made into a movie. I think anyone who has read Return of the King feared how Peter Jackson would portray The Ride of the Rohirrim. It had to be epic and the charge had to be led by someone with enough charisma to stand out in crowd of 6000 horsemen (and one horsewoman). Sir Bernard Hill nailed it.
RIP Théoden King. People will be watching your charge for as long as we have movies.
The best.
I grew up reading Tolkien, and had probably read LOTR a dozen times before the movies came out. I really enjoyed the movies, but the characters already were very much fixed in my brain by then. I appreciated the performances, and there were some fine ones, but they didn’t change my mental image of what the characters looked like. The two exceptions were Miranda Otto’s Eowyn, and Bernard Hill’s Theoden. In my mind now, these actors are the characters and always will be.
Hill stole every single scene he was in, but interestingly the one that moved me the most wasn’t even in the book. It’s when he is standing in front of Theodred’s barrow, trying to retain his dignity through unfathomable grief. When he looks at Gandalf and says, “No parent should have to bury their child.” My heart breaks, just thinking about it.
Emma
“No parent should have to bury their child.”
You said it, Emma Anne,
I still remember the pain and grief I felt when my first child was born 27 years ago (the anniversary is coming up in the next few days), and did not survive the process. The only time I was able to hold her in my arms was when I carried her casket to the grave two days later.
I have gone through a long grieving process. And I am so thankful for those silent supporters who just allowed me to sit in silence when my emotions threatened to overwhelm me. Be nearby for moral support, but give me space to process.
For the most part the loss of my first child is something that I can talk about factually. I do not carry it on my sleeve, but I can talk about it without having an emotional breakdown. But for some reason, my eyes started misting over as I was writing this. Probably because I realized that next week is the anniversary of those sad events.
Jessica Nicole
The Moment
When Eowyn said "I am no man".
Yosser Forever
He played an iconic character in Alan Bleasdale's 'Boys from the Blackstuff' TV Series. Yosser Hughes aka 'giveusajob'.
Rip sir. You always gave it 100000%.
Samantha
So much to appreciate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JIDexBoWFc
A fun movie!
Love, Andrea Lena
He was brilliant in Boys from
He was brilliant in Boys from the Blackstuff, but as Théoden, he was out of this world. He was my favorite character in the movies. I have read the books and liked Théoden in them, but the scene where he makes the speech before the battle is wonderful.
Leeanna