Bob Hoskins, the hostile British actor known for playing gangsta, tough guys and working-class gentlemen in such films as “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “The Long Good Friday” and “Mermaids,” has died, his publicist Clair Dobbs said.
Hoskins was 71 and is survived by his wife, Linda Banwell, and four children.
He retired from acting following a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.
Hoskins was best known for 1988’s live-action and animation hybrid “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” In the comedy film, he played the role of detective Eddie Valiant, who hates “toons” / cartoon figures who live in a separate showbiz world bordering Valiant’s 1940s Los Angeles — and takes up the task of proving the innocence of the cartoon title character, accused of murder. The film was the second-highest grossing movie of 1988, after “Rain Man.”
In one of his last roles, he played the elf Muir in 2012’s “Snow White and the Huntsman.” In the 2011 TV miniseries and Peter Pan prequel “Neverland,” he played Smee — a character he had portrayed in “Hook.”
The Telegraph described his natural voice as “cockney as jellied eels” — he hated to put on airs.
2 Comments