Ash to ashes, Bilbo bagged

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Sir Ian Holm's died.

[Sean of the Shed]

Holm wood bound.

[ad hoc]

[tee rex]

Ah, sad. One of those actors who could muster a really good top 10 films on his CV (without needing hobbits).

[elguapo4]

Brilliant actor, Tee Rex said it for me, though I'm a Hobbit fanatic.

[Sits]

That’s a real shame; always good to watch. I particularly enjoyed his murderous automaton in Alien.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Ah, sad. One of those actors who could muster a really good top 10 films on his CV (without needing hobbits).

Absolutely. Just looking through his roles I'm reminded that he was in three of my all-time favourites, Ash in Alien of course, but also Mr Kutzmann in Brazil and his cameo as Napoleon in Time Bandits. His Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire was also very good and I even liked his portrayal of Sir William "Jack The Riper" Gull in From Hell.

Played Himmler in Holocaust and Goebbels in Inside the Third Reich, which is probably a bit of an unwanted double. "Make an ideal Nazi sociopath" isn't the sort of role pitch anyone really wants on their acting CV.

[elguapo4]

I don't know, there's always someone making a nazi film, it's better than being Ken Barlow all your life.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Not to focus on Alien (although it is one of my favourite films) but the subtlety of Ian Holm's portrayal there is masterful. He isn't just a murderous android, you see. He is one increasingly conflicted by two primary orders that are impossible to reconcile - protect his crewmates but bring the creature home. Only when Ripley reveals her plan to blow up the ship and escape does the android know it cannot do both, and blows its circuits. Even then you can see his turmoil in how to proceed. It's a brilliant piece of acting.

[Guy Profumo]

A shame.


Always the definitive Frodo for me, on the radio.


But far far more to his great body of work.

[Hot Pepsi]

Ah crap. One of my favorites.

[diggedy derek]

I was listening to the BBC LOTR today, his acting is fantastic in it, basically playing someone who it burdened with existential dread and fear and a sense of duty, it's quite something. He's so human in it.

[Guy Profumo]

I was listening to the BBC LOTR today, his acting is fantastic in it, basically playing someone who it burdened with existential dread and fear and a sense of duty, it's quite something. He's so human in it.

I'd remembered Michael Horden, John le Mesurier, and John Hurt in it, but hadn't remembered (or clocked at the time) Bill Nighy.

[Gangster Octopus]

Bill Nighy is odd like that. He's been around
for decades, but no one noticed him until the turn of the millennium...

[Gangster Octopus]

By the way, my favourite memory of Ian is drunken Napoleonic rant about short historical heroes in Time Bandits.

[Nocturnal Submission]

By the way, my favourite memory of Ian is drunken Napoleonic rant about short historical heroes in Time Bandits.

Ditto. I was trying to find a clip of that on YT quite recently, without any great success.

Time Bandits might be my all-time favourite film.

[Felicity, I guess so]

BBC focused on the mythical beasties films but also made the bizarre comment that he was 5 feet 5, so ideal for The Borrowers

[Gangster Octopus]

Time Bandits is now on Film4. If you tune into Freeview 45 in 50 minutes, you'll catch the Napoleon bit.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Good spot GO.

[Guy Profumo]

I was listening to the BBC LOTR today, his acting is fantastic in it, basically playing someone who it burdened with existential dread and fear and a sense of duty, it's quite something. He's so human in it.

Scratch the previous.

False memory syndrome kicking in.

John Hurt was in the Ralph Bakshi film.


(Peter Woodthorpe in both of course)

[Guy Profumo]

Time Bandits is now on Film4. If you tune into Freeview 45 in 50 minutes, you'll catch the Napoleon bit.

I liked the bit at the end, with Sean Connery's time-travelling Agamemnon.

Just after, "Mum, Dad, don't touch it, it's a piece of pure evil…"

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

SPOILERS

[Nocturnal Submission]

Time Bandits is now on Film4. If you tune into Freeview 45 in 50 minutes, you'll catch the Napoleon bit.

Yes, that is a good spot, GO.

I've actually got the film on DVD, a free giveaway by a national newspaper a few years ago.

[diggedy derek]

Bill Nighy has a great singing voice, judging from 1981 LOTR

[Patrick Thistle]

The thing about Ash in Alien is that Ian Holm plays him with real humanity - he's blowing on his hands to keep warm while waiting for the exploration party to return. To start with it seems he breaks quarantine to try and save Kane and to bring Dallas and Lambert back inside as well. Then, later we find out what he was really trying to do.

He was a great actor. RIP.