Last year Bob Hoskins announced that he was retiring from acting due to the onset of Parkinson’s disease. Now it’s been revealed that he has died due to pneumonia and complications from his disease.
He is best known to many people for playing Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, however that was just a highlight in an illustrious career.
Born in Suffolk on October 26, 1942, Bob Hoskins started out as circus fire-eater (yes, really) and succeeded despite the fact that he never took an acting lesson in his life – something he prided himself on. He started acting on stage and in small television roles, before getting his breakthrough role with the classic 1980 gangster movie, The Long Good Friday.
He followed that with the likes of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club and Mona Lisa. In Hollywood he also played Smee in Steven Spielberg’s Hook and Mario in Super Mario Bros. He also played an important role in the cult classic Terry Gilliam fantasy drama Brazil.
He always felt that his only real competition in Hollywood, in terms of physicality, was Danny DeVito. Indeed, DeVito was originally set to play Mario before Hoskins stepped in to assume the role.
He continued working through the 90s and 2000s in the likes of Son of the Mask, Jet Li’s Unleashed, Mrs. Henderson Presents and Made In Dagenham. His final movie role was in 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman.
Bob Hoskins is survived by four children from his two marriages, including his most recent wife of 32 years, Linda Banwell.
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