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Ulitzer95

The Lord of the Rings

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The final Lord of the Rings film was released over 20 years ago and the death of Bernard Hill today means that 3 of the principal cast are gone, with a further half a dozen supporting actors also dead:

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Noel Appleby (1933–2007) Everard Proudfoot

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Martyn Sanderson (1938–2009) Bree Gate-keeper

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Elizabeth Moody (1939–2010) Lobelia Sackville-Baggins

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Alan Howard CBE (1937–2015) The One Ring (voice)

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Sir Christopher Lee CBE (1922–2015) Saruman

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Bill Johnson (1924–2016) Old Noakes

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Alistair Browning (1954–2019) Damrod

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Sir Ian Holm CBE (1931–2020) Bilbo Baggins

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Bernard Hill (1944–2024) Théoden, King of Rohan

Here are the living actors who are 70 or older:

Norman Forsey (b. 1937) Gaffer Gamgee
David Weatherley (b. 1939) Barliman Butterbur
Sir Ian McKellen CBE (b. 1939) Gandalf
John Rhys-Davies (b. 1944) Gimli
Bruce Spence (b. 1945) Mouth of Sauron
John Bach (b. 1946) Madril
John Noble (b. 1948) Denethor, Steward of Gondor
Brad Dourif (b. 1950) Gríma Wormtongue
Bruce Phillips (b. 1951) Grimbold
Paul Norell (b. 1952) King of the Dead
Nathaniel Lees (b. 1952) Ugluk

I'll add other big cast members (e.g. Sean Bean, Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis, Cate Blanchett etc.) once they're old enough to merit any kind of attention.

Not going to do lists for The Hobbit trilogy, the animated series, radio series, or any other spin offs but this topic can be used to report their deaths too.

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1 hour ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Not going to do lists for The Hobbit trilogy, the animated series, radio series, or any other spin offs but this topic can be used to report their deaths too.

For the Jackson Hobbit trilogy 70+ there is...

 

John Callen (b.1946) Oin

Ken Stott (b.1954) Balin

Sylvester McCoy (b.1943) Radagast

Billy Connolly (b.1942) Dáin II Ironfoot

Jeffrey Thomas (b.1945) Thrór

 

Animation wise The Hobbit (1977) has no surviving actors, the Return of the King (1980) has Nellie Bellflower (b.1946) and Sonny Melendrez (b.1946) as the only two surviving actors, Lord of the Rings (1978) has got...

 

Christopher Guard (b.1953) Frodo

Anthony Daniels (b.1946) Legolas

Simon Chandler (b.1953) Merry

Annette Crosbie (b.1934) Galadriel

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18 minutes ago, Commtech Sio Bibble said:

For the Jackson Hobbit trilogy 70+ there is...

 

John Callen (b.1946) Oin

Ken Stott (b.1954) Balin

Sylvester McCoy (b.1943) Radagast

Billy Connolly (b.1942) Dáin II Ironfoot

Jeffrey Thomas (b.1945) Thrór

 

Animation wise The Hobbit (1977) has no surviving actors, the Return of the King (1980) has Nellie Bellflower (b.1946) and Sonny Melendrez (b.1946) as the only two surviving actors, Lord of the Rings (1978) has got...

 

Christopher Guard (b.1953) Frodo

Anthony Daniels (b.1946) Legolas

Simon Chandler (b.1953) Merry

Annette Crosbie (b.1934) Galadriel


Other than Sir Ian Holm and Sir Christopher Lee I’m guessing nobody else from The Hobbit trilogy is dead?

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1 minute ago, Ulitzer95 said:


Other than Sir Ian Holm and Sir Christopher Lee I’m guessing nobody else from The Hobbit trilogy is dead?

There's one other actor who played a named character, Anthony Sher who played Thrain (Thorin's dad), and then about a dozen extras who played hobbits/elves/'laketowners'.

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I knew that Brad Dourif had quasi-retired from acting and was only doing voice stuff from now on (mainly Chucky), but I just saw this recent video of him... he looks absolutely terrible, much older than 74.

 

 

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56 minutes ago, Ulitzer95 said:


Other than Sir Ian Holm and Sir Christopher Lee I’m guessing nobody else from The Hobbit trilogy is dead?

Barry Humphries performed motion capture for and voiced the Goblin King in An Unexpected Journey (2012).

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Considering Peter Jackson and Sean Astin's children were in the movies and under 8 at the time (roughly), this thread could be going on for a while.

 

Just want to make a post though that the first three movies were my comfort movies as a teenager, and I spent my pocket money and waited an extra year just to buy the extended editions. So I have a lot of in depth knowledge and very passionate about the trilogy.

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The BBC Radio series of The Lord of the Rings (1981) was a 26 part production which included some very well known actors of whom the following have died:

Gerald Murphy           Narrator   (1948-2013)

Sir Ian Holm               Frodo        (1931-2020)

Sir Michael Hordern  Gandalf     (1911-1995)

Sir Robert Stephens  Aragorn     (1931-1995)

John le Mesurier        Bilbo          (1912-1983)

Peter Woodthorpe     Gollum      (1931-2004)

Jack May                    Theoden    (1922-1997)

Simon Cadell              Celeborn    (1950-1996)

Peter Howell               Saruman    (1919-2015)

Leonard Fenton         Daddy Twofoot (1926-2022)

Sean Arnold               Proudfoot     (1941-2020)

James Grout             Barliman Butterbur (1927-2012)

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9 minutes ago, The Watcher said:

The BBC Radio series of The Lord of the Rings (1981) was a 26 part production which included some very well known actors of whom the following have died:

Gerald Murphy           Narrator   (1948-2013)

Sir Ian Holm               Frodo        (1931-2020)

Sir Michael Hordern  Gandalf     (1911-1995)

Sir Robert Stephens  Aragorn     (1931-1995)

John le Mesurier        Bilbo          (1912-1983)

Peter Woodthorpe     Gollum      (1931-2004)

Jack May                    Theoden    (1922-1997)

Simon Cadell              Celeborn    (1950-1996)

Peter Howell               Saruman    (1919-2015)

Leonard Fenton         Daddy Twofoot (1926-2022)

Sean Arnold               Proudfoot     (1941-2020)

James Grout             Barliman Butterbur (1927-2012)

 

You can add Philip Voss & David Collings to that list

 

 

I would be more interested in a list of survivors the only name that I can recall off the top of my head is Bill Nighy

 

Oz Clarke (yes that one) sang The Bard

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17 hours ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Here are the living actors who are 70 or older:

Norman Forsey (b. 1937) Gaffer Gamgee
David Weatherley (b. 1939) Barliman Butterbur
Sir Ian McKellen CBE (b. 1939) Gandalf
John Rhys-Davies (b. 1944) Gimli
Bruce Spence (b. 1945) Mouth of Sauron
John Bach (b. 1946) Madril
John Noble (b. 1948) Denethor, Steward of Gondor
Brad Dourif (b. 1950) Gríma Wormtongue
Bruce Phillips (b. 1951) Grimbold
Paul Norell (b. 1952) King of the Dead
Nathaniel Lees (b. 1952) Ugluk

I've found some additional actors who portrayed minor characters in the trilogy:

 

Michael Elsworth (b. 1932, IMDb) Gondorian Archivist / Cirdan the Shipwright

 

Peter Corrigan (b. 1950, IMDb) Otho Sackville

 

 

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Peter McKenzie (19432023?, IMDb) Elendil

- He married Deirdre Tarrant CNZM (b. 1946, wiki) in 1971 (McKenzie is named as Peter Leo McKenzie). Their son is Bret McKenzie (b. 1976, wiki), who portrayed an elf in Rivendell / Figwit in the original trilogy.

- I've found a possible match: an obituary from the New Zealand Herald for Peter Leo McKenzie, who passed away on September 9, 2023 in Melbourne "in his eightieth year". One commenter below references his role as Elendil and states "We enjoyed time together on Lord Of The Rings". 

Edit: there's a Find A Grave page for him, is birthdate is given as August 10, 1943.

 

 

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Bruce Allpress (19302020, IMDb) Aldor; an elderly man from Rohan. He accidentaly fires his bow at the start of the Battle of Helm's Deep before the command is given, resulting in the first fatality of the battle.

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BBC Radio Adaptation (1981) - Most of the cast do not have Wiki pages but the following have pages and birthdates

 

Bill Nighy (1949 -

Richard O' Callaghan (1940 - The son of Patricia Hayes

Paul Brooke (1944 - 

Graham Faulkner (1947 -  retired as an actor and became a banker, may not obit

Oz Clarke (1949 -

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The Hobbit trilogy (2012-2014)

 

Since we've got a list with actors from the Lord of the Rings trilogy who passed away, below is a similar list for Peter Jackson's the Hobbit trilogy:

 

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Sir Christopher Lee CBE CStJ (1922-2015) Saruman the White

 

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Richard Whiteside (1968-2015) Butterbur Sr.; additional roles

 

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Merv Smith (1933-2018) Tosser Grubb (extended edition)

 

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Ray Henwood (1937-2019) Old Fisherman

 

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Sir Ian Holm CBE (1931-2020) Old Bilbo

 

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Peter Vere-Jones (1939-2021) Mirkwood Spiders (voice)

 

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Sir Anthony Sher KBE (1949-2021) Thráin II (extended edition)

 

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Barry Humphries AC CBE (1934-2023) The Great Goblin

 

Compared to the LotR movies which ended eleven years before, there are quite a lot of deaths in the cast of the Hobbit; these were however mostly the older actors. The ten oldest members of cast for the Hobbit trilogy (whose age I could find):

 

Sir Ian McKellen CH CBE (b. 1939) Gandalf the Grey
Sir Billy Connolly CBE (b. 1942) Dáin II Ironfoot
Sylvester McCoy (b. 1943) Radagast the Brown
Joan Dawe (b. 1944) Hobbit; Laketown Refugee
Jeffrey Thomas (b. 1945) Thrór
John Callen (b. 1946) Óin
Ken Stott (b. 1954) Balin
Kiran Shah (b. 1956) Goblin Scribe
Stephen Fry (b. 1957) Master of Lake-town
Mark Hadlow ONZM (b. 1957) Dori / Bert the Troll

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34 minutes ago, polar duck said:

Shoot me. The Silmarillion  presumably. I used to  like the books. God help us. Cash in. 

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1 minute ago, Bentrovato said:

Shoot me. The Silmarillion  presumably. I used to  like the books. God help us. Cash in. 

nah, the rights to the Silm is still with the estate

 

per news, it;s a Gollum movie, likely Gandalf and Aragorn's search for Gollum or the Mirkwood elves losing him and then searching for him

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40 minutes ago, polar duck said:


Article actually says a whole series of new films.
 

I’m a big LOTR fan but I had hoped they weren’t going to milk it anymore.

 

Is it possible for Hollywood not to franchise the fuck out of a single fantasy or sci fi concept nowadays?

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Is the NZ economy really this   much in shit that they need this?

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14 minutes ago, Bentrovato said:

Is the NZ economy really this   much in shit that they need this?

Yep...

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21 minutes ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Article actually says a whole series of new films.

I’m a big LOTR fan but I had hoped they weren’t going to milk it anymore.

 

I'm not sure about this Gollum one, but there are quite a few separate stories that could be done, eg Beren and Luthien

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Just now, Toast said:

 

I'm not sure about this Gollum one, but there are quite a few separate stories that could be done, eg Beren and Luthien

 

As long as they don't cast either Tom Holland or Timothee whats-his-name as Beren...

 

But yeah, if they ever get the rights to the Silm there are several stories that could be done as standalones (or I guess they wait until it hits the public domain in the UK? It'll take forever to hit public domain in the US)

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7 minutes ago, RetroGamer47 said:

Ian McKellen has a pretty nasty fall on stage.

Oh, that can often be the accelerator of decline.

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14 minutes ago, RetroGamer47 said:

Ian McKellen has a pretty nasty fall on stage.

The lack of updates is odd and somewhat concerning.

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4 hours ago, gcreptile said:

Oh, that can often be the accelerator of decline.

 

Ian's apparently going to be fine - per a statement from the theatre to Variety: " Following a scan, the brilliant NHS team have assured us that he will make a speedy and full recovery and Ian is in good spirits".

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On 17/06/2024 at 22:08, gcreptile said:

Oh, that can often be the accelerator of decline.

Maybe the decline has started. 

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