British actor Bob Hoskins has died just shy of two years after announcing his retirement amidst a battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 71. The death was announced earlier today via a statement put out by his family. He is survived by wife Linda Banwell and their children, Rosa and Jack as well as Alex and Sarah, whom he fathered with first wife Jane Livesey.
Hoskins was best known as the lead live action character in the animation infused Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but is equally remembered for gangster pics The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa, Smee in Steven Spielberg’s Hook, and (more infamously) Mario in the ill-fated adaptation Super Mario Bros. More recently, he held parts in Snow White and the Huntsman, A Christmas Carol, and Doomsday. Hoskins was an actor who managed to balance the challenging extremes of threatening and friendly, moving seamlessly from dark gangster pics to more lighthearted fare.
In a 40 year career, Hoskins appeared in a prodigious 100+ feature film roles in addition to work in TV; he also dipped very occasionally into the directing pool, writing and helming The Raggedy Rawney in 1988, and directing Rainbow in 1995 and segments of Tube Tales in 1999.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all Hoskins’s friends and family, and we will miss his presence, both smiling and glowering, on the big screen.
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