Bernard Hill

Bernard Hill
Bernard Hill in September 2007
Born	(1944-12-17) 17 December 1944 (age 72) Blackley, Manchester, England
Nationality	British
Education	Xaverian College
Alma mater	Manchester Metropolitan University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1975–present
Spouse(s)	Marianne Hill (? – present)
Children	Gabriel Hill

Bernard Hill (born 17 December 1944) is an English film, stage and television actor. He is known for playing Yosser Hughes, the troubled 'hard man' whose life is falling apart in Alan Bleasdale's groundbreaking 1980s TV drama Boys from the Blackstuff and, more recently, as the Duke of Norfolk in the BBC adaption of Dame Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. He is also known for roles in blockbuster films, including Captain Edward Smith in Titanic, King Théoden in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and Luther Plunkitt, the Warden of San Quentin Prison in the Clint Eastwood film True Crime.

Hill was born in Blackley, Manchester. He was brought up in a Catholic family of miners. Hill attended Xaverian College, and then Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama at the same time as Richard Griffiths. He graduated with a diploma in theatre in 1970.

Hill first came to prominence as Yosser Hughes, a Liverpool working class man ultimately driven to the edge by an uncaring system, in Alan Bleasdale's BBC Play for Today programme, The Black Stuff, and its more famous series sequel, Boys from the Blackstuff. His character's much-repeated phrase Gizza job ("Give us a job") became popular with protesters against Margaret Thatcher's government, because of the high unemployment of the time.