IAN HOLM CUTHBERT, ENGLISH TELEVISION & CINEMA

Today, The Grandma has been watching some films interpreted by Ian Holm, the English actor who was born on a day like today in 1931.

Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931-19 June 2020) was an English actor. 

After graduating from RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and beginning his career on the British stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he became a successful and prolific performer on television and in film. He received numerous accolades including two BAFTA Awards and a Tony Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 for services to drama.

Holm won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in the Harold Pinter play The Homecoming. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role in the 1998 West End production of King Lear. For his television roles he received two Primetime Emmy Awards for King Lear, and the HBO film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2003).

He gained acclaim for his role in The Bofors Gun (1968) winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and won a second BAFTA Award for his role as athletics trainer Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire (1981). Other notable films he appeared in include Alien (1979), Brazil (1985), Dreamchild (1985), Henry V (1989), Naked Lunch (1991), The Madness of King George (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), and The Aviator (2004). He played Napoleon in three different films. He gained wider appreciation for his role as the elderly Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. Holm's appearance was used posthumously via CGI in 2024 film Alien: Romulus.

Ian Holm Cuthbert was born on 12 September 1931 in Goodmayes, Essex, to Scottish parents.

Holm was an established actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company before he gained notice in television and film. He began in 1954 with minor roles, progressing to Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream and the fool in King Lear.

Holm's first film role to gain much notice was that of Ash, the "calm, technocratic" science officer -later revealed to be an android- in Ridley Scott's science-fiction film Alien (1979).

Holm raised his profile in 1997 with two prominent roles, as the priest Vito Cornelius in Luc Besson's sci-fi The Fifth Element and the lawyer Mitchell Stephens in The Sweet Hereafter.

In 2001, he followed up his radio role as Frodo by appearing as Frodo's older cousin Bilbo Baggins in the blockbuster film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. This brought him wider fame, somewhat overshadowing the rest of his acting career. He returned for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). He later reprised his role as the elderly Bilbo Baggins in the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Martin Freeman portrayed the young Bilbo in those films.

Holm died in hospital in London on 19 June 2020 at the age of 88.

More information: The Guardian

All performances are different.
I don't think it's necessary to compare one with another.
I am just me playing the role of Lear.
You're bound to get a Holm approach to it,
whatever that may be. I just got out there and did it.
I'm very much a doer in my acting.

Ian Holm