Linda Banwell (m. 1982–2014), Jane Livesey (m. 1967–1978)
Mark
Gravelly voice and strong cockney accent.
Fact
Father of Alex Hoskins (born 1968) and Sarah Hoskins (born 1972) with Jane Livesey.
Bob Hoskins was born on October 26, 1942, in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. His parents, Elsie (née Lovell) and Robert Hoskins, were publicans. He had three sisters, Pat, Peggy and Gillian. His father died when he was nine years old, and Hoskins was brought up by his mother and sisters. He left school at the age of 15 with no qualifications and worked as a bricklayer, a window cleaner and a plasterer. He also worked as a fight promoter and a bouncer at a nightclub.
Hoskins’ first acting role was in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the age of 17. He joined the National Youth Theatre and began training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He made his film debut in 1967’s A Matter of Life and Death.
Hoskins’ breakthrough role came in the 1971 film Get Carter, in which he played a small-time hoodlum who seeks revenge after his brother is murdered. The film was a critical and commercial success, and Hoskins’ performance earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. He followed this with roles in several British films, including The Long Good Friday (1980), in which he played a gangster on the verge of retirement; Mona Lisa (1986), for which he won a BAFTA Award for Best Actor; and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), in which he played a private detective who helps an animated rabbit solve a mystery.
Hoskins’ later films include Hook (1991), Nixon (1995), Enemy at the Gates (2001) and Snow White and the Huntsman (2012). He retired from acting in 2012 after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Hoskins was married to Jane Livesey from 1967 to 1972. They had two children, Alex and Sarah. He married Suzanne Accosta in 1978. They had two children, Rosa and Jack. Hoskins was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2012 and retired from acting. He died on April 29, 2014, at the age of 71.
General Info
Full Name
Bob Hoskins
Net Worth
$12 million
Date Of Birth
October 26, 1942
Died
April 29, 2014, London, United Kingdom
Height
1.68 m
Profession
Film producer, Voice Actor, Film director
Education
Central School of Speech and Drama
Nationality
British
Family
Spouse
Linda Banwell (m. 1982–2014), Jane Livesey (m. 1967–1978)
Children
Rosa Hoskins, Sarah Hoskins, Jack Hoskins, Alex Hoskins
Parents
Robert William Hoskins, Elsie Lillian Hoskins
Accomplishments
Awards
Cannes Best Actor Award, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture – Drama, British Independent Film Award – The Richard Harris Award, International Emmy Award for Best Performance by an Actor, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best A...
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Actor, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role,...
Movies
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa, Hook, Snow White and the Huntsman, Mermaids, Mrs Henderson Presents, Made in Dagenham, Felicia's Journey, Unleashed, Enemy at the Gates, Last Orders, Super Mario Bros., A Christmas Carol, Hollywoodland, Doomsday, The Cotton Club, Heart Condit...
TV Shows
Pennies from Heaven, The Crezz, Softly, Softly: Taskforce, New Scotland Yard, The Street, Big Jim And The Figaro Club, Thick as Thieves, The Main Chance, Värsta språket, Sir Yellow, The Hollywood Greats, Performance (UK), Shoulder to Shoulder, The Englishman's Boy, Kate
Frequently played grouchy, short-tempered characters
3
Gravelly voice and strong cockney accent.
Quotes
#
Quote
1
[on moving in middle-class circles] There are four types of reaction. They lock up the silver. They talk to you slowly like you're an idiot. They think Hamlet in a cockney accent is the funniest thing in the world. Or they tell you most of their friends are working class and some are even black.
2
[asked why he did a much-maligned series of adverts for British Telecom] For 500,000 reasons, all of them with the Queen's head on.
3
[on what song he would like played at his funeral] Play what you like, I won't be there.
There was a time when people said, "You've got to speak like you don't, walk like you don't, be like you aren't." I said, "Ere, 'ang on, who am I? I'd be lost if I did that. I'd be disappearing. I'd be ectoplasm!".
6
[in his last-ever interview in August 2012] My greatest pleasure in life is a completely appointment-less day with nothing to do. It means I can read a book, listen to the radio and do exactly as I wish. If you are going to do a film properly you have to give yourself completely to it. You can't slip in and slip out again. You give it the business. My diary now is free, completely free. That's the way I like it. I only do what I want to do.
7
It's funny, going in a pub now and there's no smoke. It may be healthier but it doesn't feel right. Even the beer tastes different.
8
Family's all I've got. I've got money, yeah, but it's my family that I care about.
9
Acting is a lark but I'm trying to work less. They say: "Bob I know you're trying to retire but we've got a little swan song here which is the business..." and I get talked into it. The more you don't want to work, the more work you get. I want to be at home with the wife, but she doesn't want me to retire, she wants me out of the house.
10
[on Method acting] Method is a load of bollocks.
11
I realized one day that men are emotional cripples. We can't express ourselves emotionally, we can only do it with anger and humor. Emotional stability and expression comes from women. When they have babies they say "hello, you're welcome" and they mean it. It is an emotional honesty.
12
[on the acting profession] I came into this business uneducated, dyslexic, 5ft 6in, cubic, with a face like a squashed cabbage and they welcomed me with open arms.
13
[on Neil Jordan] I think Neil is a magician. And I believe in magic.
[on Robert De Niro] De Niro has only shown me kindness. He's a real friend. He's helped me shop for my wife's and my kids' Christmas presents. He's invited me round to meet his granny and he's come to my house for a pot-luck dinner. That really knocked my wife out. I think she was finally impressed with me.
16
The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Bros. (1993). It was a f**kin' nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks, their own agent told them to get off the set! F**kin' nightmare. F**kin' idiots.
17
You reach a point where the cameo is the governor. You go in there for a couple of weeks, you're paid a lot of money, everybody treats you like the crown jewels, you're in and out, and if the film's a load of shit, nobody blames you, y'knowwhadimean. It's wonderful.
18
You don't end up with a face like this if you're hard, do ya? This comes from having too much mouth and nothing to back it up with. The nose has been broken so many times.
19
I've watched films and even forgotten I'm in them.
20
My own mum wouldn't call me pretty.
21
When you get to my age, what you want is the cameo. You get paid a lot of money. You fly in for a couple of weeks. Everybody treats you like the crown jewels. It's all great and if the film turns out to be a load of shit, nobody blames you.
22
Most dictators were short, fat, middle-aged and hairless. Besides Danny DeVito, there's only me to play them.
23
[in 1988] My life has taken off - my life, my career - everything. I can honestly say I've never been happier. I'm walking around thinking any minute now, 25 tons of horseshit is going to fall on my head.
24
On getting his first role: I was three parts pissed. We were going to a party. And this bloke comes around and says: "Right. You're next. Have you seen the script?" And I got the leading part.
Facts
#
Fact
1
Was considered for the role of The Penguin in Batman Returns.
2
Bob's body was cremated. His urn was given to his wife, Linda.
3
Was the only child of a bookkeeper and nursery school teacher.
4
Was the original choice to play Buster Edwards in Buster (1988), but the filmmakers decided the role of a cockney villain was too close to roles he had played before in The Long Good Friday (1980) and Mona Lisa (1986), so singer Phil Collins was cast instead.
5
His acting career began in 1969 at the Unity Theatre. One evening, he was waiting in the Unity Theatre bar for his friend, the actor Roger Frost, to finish an audition. Whilst drinking at the bar, he was given a script and told "You're next.".
6
Did not start acting until he was 26 years old.
7
Attempted a three-year accounting course, but dropped out.
8
Worked as a porter, lorry driver and window cleaner before he discovered acting.
9
Spent a short period of time volunteering at Kibbutz Zikim in Israel when he was age 25.
10
All the lines of the character Wermit in the film In Search of La Che (2011) are all quotes of Bob Hoskins.
11
(August 8, 2012) Announced his retirement from acting after the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in Autumn 2011.
12
He played the role of Smee, Captain Hook's right hand man, in both Hook (1991) and Neverland (2011).
13
The first record he bought was "Your Eyes Are the Eyes of a Woman in Love" by Frankie Laine. He was a huge fan of jazz music and his favorite albums include "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis and "Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross!".
14
He was friends with actor/gangster John Bindon and gave a character reference at his Old Bailey murder trial. Bindon was acquitted.
In his earlier years before acting, he wound up looking after camels in Syria and later packing fruit on a kibbutz in Israel, among many other odd jobs.
Was considered for the role of Senator Ralph Owen Brewster in The Aviator (2004), before Alan Alda was cast.
19
Attended and graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England.
20
Spent several seasons with the Royal National Theatre and the Old Vic Theatre in London, where his credits included everything from a range of Shakespeare to Chechov to Shaw.
21
He was awarded the 1982 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards (Drama Theatre Award) for Best Actor of 1981 for his performance in "Guys and Dolls" and "True West".
22
His grandmother was a Romani (Gypsy). His film, The Raggedy Rawney (1988), was based on stories his grandmother used to tell him.
23
Described himself as "Five-foot-six and cubic". He once described his face as looking like squashed cabbage.
He was Brian De Palma's second choice for the role of Al Capone in The Untouchables (1987) if Robert De Niro was not available. Hoskins was reportedly given a six-figure paycheck by De Palma for "being a great standby".
