WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers

Born: 26th October 1942

Died: 29th April 2014

Robert William Hoskins was born to a nursery teacher and bookkeeper in Bury St Edmunds but was raised and educated in London. He left school at the age of 15 with one O-Level and went on to do various jobs, including looking after camels of a Bedouin tribe in Syria, before he started his acting career at the age of 26.  Unlike most Bob Hoskins did not have an extensive TV career before he started in film – in fact both his film and television career started in the same year when he was 30 years old.

When you look at Bob Hoskins’ top five it doesn’t fully reflect the varied characters he has played but as it’s his top five I go by here we are. First we have Bob Hoskins role as Nuir, one of the seven dwarves in Snow White and the Huntsman OK cards on the table here – I am not keen on this adaptation of the Snow White story! Mainly because I don’t think Kristen Stewart is a good Snow but what I can say is that one of the best things about it is Hoskins and the dwarves they bring the comedy to which is quite a stale story, obviously that’s my opinion, but for Hoskins’ last performance the blind Muir, leader of the Dwarves, is quite a good role it shows his talent as an actor, maybe not be at its strongest, it is a subtle portrayal of a role that shows the elder statesman he was and the fact that I had to check if Hoskins had gone blind towards the latter stage of his life is a testament to how well he plays the role. Next we have what I think is probably one of the funniest films made by director Robert Zemeckis – Who Framed Roger Rabbit. What I love about this film is that take away the crazy Toons and you have a plot that would fit into any Mickey Spillane or Dashiell Hammett book and to be honest Hoskins’ portrayal of Eddie Valiant probably wouldn’t look out of place in either version. The one thing I’ve always said is that any actor who plays to ‘green screen’ (the idea of acting alongside characters/objects that aren’t visible until post production) has to have a very good acting ability to react to nothing and Hoskins does a very good job at this his reactions are on point and he can carry off comedy perfectly. OK so on to his next film and is it me or is Disney’s A Christmas Carol a bit creepy? This is supposed to be a kid’s film, right? I love an animation but there was something about this film that I found a little weird and one of the main scenes was Hoskins’ first scene, where he plays Fezziwig. Now I could see Bob Hoskins in the character of Fezziwig (I can actually see him playing Fezziwig in an adaptation of A Christmas Carol as he has the jolly look of a the character) but there is a moment when you have to suspend belief as there is a moment during the dancing that doesn’t seem the same as the rest of the scene and it totally lost my interest. Fezziwig isn’t the only role Hoskins has in this film as he is also Old Joe now the problem I have with this is that Bob Hoskins has a very distinctive voice and with this being an animation there is no acting to help us believe this is another character it needs another voice and although Hoskins tries to change his voice for each character it is still obvious that this it is still him – perhaps Disney shouldn’t have been such cheapskates and cast another actor as Old Joe is a small role and didn’t need someone of Bob’s status. As his penultimate film we have Spielberg’s lovely adaptation of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan in the form of Hook. Now you want to talk about a strong cast we have one here in Hoskins, Hoffman and Williams – the three of them play off each other with such synchronicity that it is a joy to watch it’s as if they work off each other’s energy! Hoskins is Smee, Hook’s assistant, and it is the ideal role for him to exercise his funny bone. And finally we have Mr Hoskins as Lionel the well-spoken floor butler in Maid in Manhattan; not the sort of character I was expecting to see him play – normally he plays rougher characters so to see him like this came as a bit of a surprise (not saying he has never played someone with these characteristics before just that I know him more as a rough talking Cockney). It did make a change and goes to show his range is better than your original perception of him.

It is really hard to decide which role of Bob Hoskins’ I enjoy the most as he is such a talented and versatile actor, his top five just scratches the surface of the versatility that that man had, but I guess I would have to say that Eddie Valiant is probably my favourite. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a wonderful film mixing live action with animation, it is full of unexpected, animated cameos and very good cast. Acting alongside a character that is not present at the time of filming is probably one of the hardest thing an actor could possibly do, especially as this film was made early in CGI’s timeline, yet it doesn’t seem to disrupt Hoskins’ performance – although there are rumours that he did start to hallucinate characters by the end of the film! Whether alongside real actors or animated Bob Hoskins plays Eddie with such strength that it is seamless and a joy to watch – those of you who have never seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit you should hunt it out and I hope you’ll find it a new gem in cinematography that you’ll want to watch and introduce your children and grandchildren to.

Bob Hoskins was not only an accomplished actor he was an award winning actor; winning both a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for his role of George in the 1986 crime drama Mona Lisa (this role also got him an Oscar nomination but he lost out to Paul Newman). He also directed and has had several producer credits to his name, he also appears on a couple of soundtracks!

Bob Hoskins was married twice and had four children (a boy and a girl from each). He retired from acting a year after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Two years later he contracted pneumonia and passed away aged 71