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Sir Ian Holm, Bilbo In ‘Lord of the Rings,’ Ash In ‘Alien,’ Dead At 88

   DailyWire.com
LONDON - JUNE 12: Sir Ian Holm poses during a photo call held on June 12, 2005 at the Hollywood Mews in London, England.
Photo by Cambridge Jones/Getty Images

The great British actor Ian Holm, whose life’s work included a bevy of iconic and diverse characters, from the malevolent android Ash in Ridley Scott’s “Alien” to the ornery hobbit Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings,” died on Friday due to complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 88.

“It is with great sadness that the actor Sir Ian Holm CBE passed away this morning at the age of 88,” his agent told The Guardian. “He died peacefully in hospital, with his family and carer. Charming, kind and ferociously talented, we will miss him hugely.”

As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, Holm became a favorite in sci-fi circles for his portrayal of Ash in Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” a scientist aboard the Nostromo whose identity is later revealed to be a android with some dark ulterior motives. “You have my sympathies,” he uttered to Ellen Ripley in a chillingly iconic moment that still resonates 40+ years after its debut.

Holm would later star in the sci-fi fantasy adventure “Time Bandits,” the sci-fi Orwellian nightmare “Brazil,” and the sci-fi action pop fever dream “The Fifth Element.”

He played Tolkien’s beloved character Bilbo Baggins in the four movies directed by Peter Jackson: “The Fellowship of the Ring,” “Return of the King,” “An Unexpected Journey,” and “The Battle of the Five Armies.”

He was nominated for one Oscar in 1981’s Best Picture-winning “Chariots of Fire.”

“I’m never the same twice, and I’m not a movie-star type, so people don’t demand that I’m always the same,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2000.

More from The Hollywood Reporter:

Ian Holm Cuthbert was born on Sept. 12, 1931, in Goodmayes, England. His Scottish parents worked in a psychiatric hospital; his mother was a nurse and his father a psychiatrist and early innovator in the technique of electroshock therapy.

A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company starting in the 1950s, Holm collected Tony and Olivier awards before a case of stage fright that blindsided him during previews for The Iceman Cometh left him queasy about working in front of a live audience for more than a decade.

Holm cemented his place in British cinema history when he played the eccentric track coach Sam Mussabini in the historical sporting drama Chariots of Fire (1981). The film, one of England’s most beloved, took the Oscar for best picture, and Holm was nominated for best supporting actor (he lost out to countryman John Gielgud of Arthur).

The chameleon-like actor also played King John in Robin and Marian (1976), the father of the scientist in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), a nasty restaurateur in Big Night (1996), a New York City cop in Sidney Lumet’s Night Falls on Manhattan (1996), a holy man in The Fifth Element (1997) and Zach Braff’s psychiatrist father in Garden State (2004).

Holm is survived by his wife, Sophie, and his five children. He was married four times.

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