Robert William Hoskins was born in Bury St Edmunds on 26 October 1942, the son of Elsie (née Hopkins), a cook and nursery school teacher, and Robert Hoskins, a bookkeeper and lorry driver.[4] One of his grandmothers was Romani.[5] From two weeks old, he was brought up in the Finsbury Park area of London.[6] He attended Stroud Green Secondary School, where he was written off as "stupid" on account of his dyslexia.[7] He left school at 15 with a single O-Level and worked as a porter, lorry driver, plumber, and window cleaner. He started but did not complete a three-year accountancy course.[8][9] He spent six months on a kibbutz in Israel and two years tending to the camels of a Bedouin tribe in Syria.[9]
Hoskins's acting career began in 1968 at the Victoria Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, in a production of Romeo and Juliet in which he played a servant named Peter.[10] A year later, while waiting in the bar at Unity Theatre, London, for his friend the actor Roger Frost, Hoskins found himself being auditioned for a play after being handed a script and told, "You're next."[11] His audition was successful and Frost became his understudy. Frost considered Hoskins "a natural", recalling that "he just got up on stage and was brilliant".[12]
A high point in Hoskins's career was portraying the private investigatorEdward "Eddie" Valiant in the live-action/animated family blockbuster, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Hoskins was not the first choice for the role – Harrison Ford, Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy were all considered for the part.[24] Film critics, among them Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, agreed that Hoskins was perfect for the role.[25] As his character interacts and makes physical contact with animated characters in the film, Hoskins was required to take mime training courses in preparation. He experienced hallucinations for months after production on the film had ended.[26] He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won a British Evening Standard Award for his performance.
In a 1988 interview with Fresh Air'sTerry Gross, when asked about many of his roles being underworld types, Hoskins said, "I think if you've got a face like mine you don't usually wind up with the parts that Errol Flynn played, you know?"[29]
Hoskins told The Guardian in 2007 that he regretted starring as Mario in Super Mario Bros. (1993), saying that he was extremely unhappy with the film, greatly angered by his experiences making it, and referring to it as the "worst thing I ever did".[30] Hoskins was injured several times on set, spent most of the time with co-star John Leguizamo getting drunk to escape boredom, and was not aware that the film was based on a video game until he was informed later by his son.[9] In a 2011 interview, he was asked, "What is the worst job you've done?", "What has been your biggest disappointment?", and "If you could edit your past, what would you change?" His answer to all three was Super Mario Bros.[31]
In 2007, Hoskins appeared in the music video for Jamie T's single "Sheila".[32] In 2009, he returned to television for Jimmy McGovern's drama serial The Street, playing a publican who opposes a local gangster. For this role, he received his only Emmy: Best Actor at the 2010 International Emmys. The 2011 film In Search of La Che features a character "Wermit," whose every line of dialogue is a quote from Bob Hoskins.[33] On 8 August 2012, Hoskins announced his retirement from acting, having been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2011.[34]
Personal life
With his first wife Jane Livesey, Hoskins had two children: Alex (b. 1968) and Sarah (b. 1971). With his second wife, Linda Banwell, he had two more children: Rosa (b. c. 1983) and Jack (b. c. 1986). Hoskins divided his time between the Hampstead area of London[35] and Chiddingly, East Sussex.[36]
When asked in an interview which living person he most despised, Hoskins named Tony Blair and said, "He's done even more damage than Thatcher." He hated Blair to the point that he decided in 2010, for the first time in his life, not to vote for Labour, by then led by Gordon Brown.[38][39]
Hoskins often made light of his similarities with film actor Danny DeVito, who he joked would play him in a film about his life.[39]
Illness and death
The grave of Bob Hoskins, Highgate Cemetery
Hoskins was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2011. He retired from acting in August 2012.[40] On 29 April 2014, Hoskins died of pneumonia at a London hospital, aged 71. He was survived by his wife Linda and his four children.[41]
^"411MANIA". A Bloody Good Time: Tales From the Crypt Season Seven Retrospective (Part 1). Archived from the original on 11 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
Canadian Film Awards 1968–1978, Genie Awards 1980-2011, Canadian Screen Awards 2012–present. Separate awards were presented by gender prior to 2022; a single unified category for best performance regardless of gender has been presented since.
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