IAN HOLM
Name: Ian Holm
Birth name: Ian Holm Cuthbert
Born: 12 September 1931 Goodmayes, Essex, England
Sir Ian Holm (born 12 September 1931), is an Academy Award-nominated and
Tony Award-winning English actor known for his stage work and for many film
roles, including the hobbit Bilbo Baggins in the first and third films of the
Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Father Vito Cornelius in The Fifth Element and
the android Ash in Alien.
Holm was born Ian Holm Cuthbert in Goodmayes, Essex, the son of "relatively
elderly" Scottish parents. Jean Holm (née Wilson), a nurse, and Dr.
James Harvey Cuthbert, a psychiatrist who worked as the superintendent of the
West Ham Corporation Mental Hospital and was also a pioneer of electric shock
therapy. He had an older brother, Eric. Holm was educated at Chigwell
School and then the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Holm was an established star of the Royal Shakespeare Company before making an
impact on television and film. In 1965, Holm played Richard III in the BBCs
serialisation of the Wars of the Roses plays, based on the RSC production of the
plays, and gradually made a name for himself with minor roles in films such as
Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Mary, Queen of
Scots (1971) and Young Winston (1972). In 1967, he won a Tony Award for Best
Featured Actor in a Play, for playing the role of Lenny in The Homecoming by
Harold Pinter.
His first film role to have a major impact was that of the evil android in
Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). His portrayal of Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire
(1981), earned him a special award at the Cannes Film Festival and an Academy
Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Back home in England, he won a BAFTA
award, for Best Supporting Actor, for Chariots. In the 1980s, he had memorable
roles in Time Bandits (1981), Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
(1984) and Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985). He played Lewis Carroll, author of
Alice in Wonderland in the Dennis Potter-scripted fantasy Dreamchild (1985).
In 1989 he was nominated for a BAFTA award for the TV series Game, Set, and
Match. Based on the novels by Len Deighton this tells the story of an
intelligence officer (Holm) who discovers that his own wife is an enemy spy. He
continued to perform Shakespeare, and appeared with Kenneth Branagh in Henry V (1989)
and as Polonius to Mel Gibson's Hamlet (1990).
He raised his profile in 1997 with two prominent roles, as the stressed but
gentle priest Vito Cornelius in the The Fifth Element and the tormented
plaintiff's lawyer in The Sweet Hereafter. In 2001 he starred in From Hell as
the physician Sir William Withey Gull. The same year he appeared as Bilbo
Baggins in the blockbuster film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring, having previously played Bilbo's nephew Frodo Baggins in a 1981 BBC Radio
adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. He reappeared in the trilogy in The Lord of
the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), for which he shared a SAG award for
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
He has been nominated for an Emmy Award twice, for a PBS broadcast of a National
Theatre production of King Lear, in 1999; and for a supporting role in the HBO
film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells opposite Judi Dench, in 2001. Holm has
provided voice-overs for many British TV documentaries and commercials.
Holm is a favorite actor of Terry Gilliam, having appeared in Time Bandits and
Brazil. Holm is also Harold Pinter's favourite actor, the playwright once
stating: "He puts on my shoe, and it fits!" Holm made a stir as Lenny in the
first ever performance of Pinter's masterpiece The Homecoming.
He has played Napoleon Bonaparte three times. First, in the 1972 television
series Napoleon and Love. Next, in a cameo comic rendition, in Terry Gilliam's
Time Bandits from 1981. He completed the set in 2001 playing the fallen and
exiled leader in the fanciful film The Emperor's New Clothes
Name: Ian Holm
Birth name: Ian Holm Cuthbert
Born: 12 September 1931 Goodmayes, Essex, England
Sir Ian Holm (born 12 September 1931), is an Academy Award-nominated and
Tony Award-winning English actor known for his stage work and for many film
roles, including the hobbit Bilbo Baggins in the first and third films of the
Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Father Vito Cornelius in The Fifth Element and
the android Ash in Alien.
Holm was born Ian Holm Cuthbert in Goodmayes, Essex, the son of "relatively
elderly" Scottish parents. Jean Holm (née Wilson), a nurse, and Dr.
James Harvey Cuthbert, a psychiatrist who worked as the superintendent of the
West Ham Corporation Mental Hospital and was also a pioneer of electric shock
therapy. He had an older brother, Eric. Holm was educated at Chigwell
School and then the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Holm was an established star of the Royal Shakespeare Company before making an
impact on television and film. In 1965, Holm played Richard III in the BBCs
serialisation of the Wars of the Roses plays, based on the RSC production of the
plays, and gradually made a name for himself with minor roles in films such as
Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Mary, Queen of
Scots (1971) and Young Winston (1972). In 1967, he won a Tony Award for Best
Featured Actor in a Play, for playing the role of Lenny in The Homecoming by
Harold Pinter.
His first film role to have a major impact was that of the evil android in
Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). His portrayal of Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire
(1981), earned him a special award at the Cannes Film Festival and an Academy
Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Back home in England, he won a BAFTA
award, for Best Supporting Actor, for Chariots. In the 1980s, he had memorable
roles in Time Bandits (1981), Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
(1984) and Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985). He played Lewis Carroll, author of
Alice in Wonderland in the Dennis Potter-scripted fantasy Dreamchild (1985).
In 1989 he was nominated for a BAFTA award for the TV series Game, Set, and
Match. Based on the novels by Len Deighton this tells the story of an
intelligence officer (Holm) who discovers that his own wife is an enemy spy. He
continued to perform Shakespeare, and appeared with Kenneth Branagh in Henry V (1989)
and as Polonius to Mel Gibson's Hamlet (1990).
He raised his profile in 1997 with two prominent roles, as the stressed but
gentle priest Vito Cornelius in the The Fifth Element and the tormented
plaintiff's lawyer in The Sweet Hereafter. In 2001 he starred in From Hell as
the physician Sir William Withey Gull. The same year he appeared as Bilbo
Baggins in the blockbuster film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring, having previously played Bilbo's nephew Frodo Baggins in a 1981 BBC Radio
adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. He reappeared in the trilogy in The Lord of
the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), for which he shared a SAG award for
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
He has been nominated for an Emmy Award twice, for a PBS broadcast of a National
Theatre production of King Lear, in 1999; and for a supporting role in the HBO
film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells opposite Judi Dench, in 2001. Holm has
provided voice-overs for many British TV documentaries and commercials.
Holm is a favorite actor of Terry Gilliam, having appeared in Time Bandits and
Brazil. Holm is also Harold Pinter's favourite actor, the playwright once
stating: "He puts on my shoe, and it fits!" Holm made a stir as Lenny in the
first ever performance of Pinter's masterpiece The Homecoming.
He has played Napoleon Bonaparte three times. First, in the 1972 television
series Napoleon and Love. Next, in a cameo comic rendition, in Terry Gilliam's
Time Bandits from 1981. He completed the set in 2001 playing the fallen and
exiled leader in the fanciful film The Emperor's New Clothes