English stage and film actor Sir Ian Holm, who played ‘Bilbo Baggins’ in The Lord of the Rings films, has died at age 88.
The award-winning actor passed away on Friday morning in the UK after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Announcing his death, Sir Ian’s agent Alex Irwin said;
It is with great sadness we can confirm that the actor Sir Ian Holm CBE passed away this morning at the age of 88. He died peacefully in hospital, with his family and carer. His illness was Parkinson’s related.
Sir Ian was globally recognised for his extraordinarily act in Chariots of Fire, The Fifth Element, Alien, The Sweet Hereafter, Time Bandits, The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Madness of King George.
He won a British Academy Film and Television Acts (BAFTA) award and gained a supporting-actor Oscar nomination for portraying coach Sam Mussabini in the hit 1982 film “Chariots of Fire.”
Sir Ian was also a charismatic theater actor who won a Tony Award for best featured actor as Lenny in Harold Pinter’s play “The Homecoming” in 1967.
However, his stage career was cut short after he developed acute stage fright during a production of “The Iceman Cometh” in 1976.
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) artistic director Gregory Doran, reacting to the death of the long time member of the company said;
It is with great sadness that we heard today of the death of Sir Ian Holm. Ian was quite simply one of the RSC greats. Long before he found fame in Chariots Of Fire, Alien, Greystoke and as Bilbo Baggins in The Lord Of The Rings, Ian joined the Stratford Company in 1958. Ian perfectly expressed the cross fertilisation between classics and new writing that Peter Hall forged in the early days of the RSC.
He added;
He married the technique of a classical Shakespeare actor and the intense naturalism and economy of style of a modern tradition. Ian was entirely original. Entirely a one-off. He had a simmering cool, a compressed volcanic sense of ferocity, of danger, a pressure cooker actor, a rare and magnificent talent. There is a great spirit gone.
The icon, widely considered as one of the greatest British actors, played more than 100 roles in films, television and on stage.
He won a Laurence Olivier award, a Tony and a Bafta, and was a member of the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company.
Sir Ian was married four times, most recently to artist Sophie de Stempel, and had five children.
