Bernard Hill (Manchester, 17 December 1944 – Reydon, 5 May 2024) was a British actor of film, television, and theatre. He rose to fame in the United Kingdom in 1982 with his intense portrayal of Yosser Hughes in the BBC series *Boys from the Blackstuff*, a role that earned him a BAFTA award nomination. His international career is inextricably linked to two iconic characters: Captain Edward Smith in James Cameron's blockbuster *Titanic* (1997) and King Théoden in Peter Jackson's *The Lord of the Rings* trilogy (*The Two Towers* and *The Return of the King*). Thanks to these roles, he is the only actor in history to have appeared in two of the three films to have won 11 Academy Awards. His versatile filmography also includes titles such as *Gandhi* (1982), *Shirley Valentine* (1989), and *Valkyrie* (2008). Among his accolades, he shared a Screen Actors Guild Award with the rest of the cast for *The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King* and received an honorary doctorate from the University of East Anglia.