Bob Hoskins, the salt of the earth British actor who made a successful jump to Hollywood, was remembered during the 2015 Academy awards – in contrast to this year’s Baftas, where he was left out of the list of tributes.
Bafta responded to the snub by saying they’d included him in their tributes at their television awards – but while he first appeared in Dennis Potter’s TV series Pennies From Heaven, film was where Hoskins really made his name, with significant roles in the US as well as the UK.
He broke through with The Long Good Friday, playing a gangster trying to haul himself out of the underworld; roles in The Cotton Club and Terry Gilliam’s techno-dystopia Brazil followed, along with his performance in Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa as a driver for a prostitute, which earned him a Bafta, Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.
Big Hollywood productions like Hook, Mermaids and Super Mario Bros beckoned – the latter described by Hoskins as the worst thing he’d ever done – along with the innovative Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in which he played a noir detective sucked into a technicolour world of cartoons.
He was drawn back to the independent British scene though, appearing in Shane Meadows’ debut Twenty Four Seven as well as his Room For Romeo Brass. He traded in on his gangster pedigree for Outlaw, joined classy Brit flicks like Mrs Henderson Presents and Made in Dagenham, and played historical figures from J Edgar Hoover to Nikita Khrushchev and Hollywood fixer Eddie Mannix.
He died of pneumonia in April last year, following a diagnosis of Parkinson’s in 2011 which prompted his retirement from acting.
The Academy Awards are taking place at the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles and are being hosted by Gone Girl star Neil Patrick Harris.
