I just heard the news that Bob Hoskins has died. He was always one of my favorites, among a handful of great British actors that embraced genre work and helped to elevate those works above their B-movie reputation. I first noticed Hoskins in Coppola's sorely underrated Cotton Club followed quickly by his memorable role in Terry Gilliam's brilliant Brazil, but I really fell in love with his acting a few years later in the Jack Higgins adaptation A Prayer for the Dying. Of course, he followed that up with a star turn in the huge box office hit Who Framed Roger Rabbit. From that point on he was a bonafide star in the US where he earned a Oscar nomination for his amazing performance in Jordan's Mona Lisa. It was always a treat to find out Hoskins was in a film. Here is a list of some of Hoskins's genre work. Seek one out in the next few days and watch it in his honor.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- Snow White and the Huntsman
- The Wind in the Willows
- Doomsday
- The Lost World
- Brazil
If, like me, your nerdy genre of choice is horror, you can check out the Tales from the Crypt episode that Hoskins both directed and starred in, "Fatal Caper."