Ian Holm


Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert , known as Ian Holm, was an English actor. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear. He won the 1981 BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role as athletics trainer Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire, for which he was also nominated for an Academy Award.
His other well-known film roles include Ash in Alien, Father Vito Cornelius in The Fifth Element, Chef Skinner in Ratatouille, and Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film series.

Early life

Ian Holm Cuthbert was born on 12 September 1931 in Goodmayes, Essex, to Scottish parents, James Harvey Cuthbert and his wife Jean Wilson. His father was a psychiatrist who worked as the superintendent of the West Ham Corporation Mental Hospital and was one of the pioneers of electric shock therapy; his mother was a nurse. He had an older brother, who died when Ian was 12 years old. Holm was educated at the independent Chigwell School in Essex. His parents retired to Mortehoe in Devon and then to Worthing, where he joined an amateur dramatic society.
A chance encounter with Henry Baynton, a well-known provincial Shakespearean actor, helped Holm train for admission to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he secured a place from 1950. His studies there were interrupted a year later when he was called up for National Service in the British Army, during which he was posted to Klagenfurt, Austria, and attained the rank of Lance Corporal. They were then interrupted a second time when he volunteered to go on an acting tour of the United States in 1952. Holm graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1953. He made his stage debut in 1954, at Stratford-upon-Avon, playing a spear-carrier in a staging of Othello. Two years later, he made his London stage debut in Love Affair.

Career

Holm was an established star of the Royal Shakespeare Company before making an effect on television and film. In 1965, he played Richard III in the BBC serialisation of The Wars of The Roses, based on the RSC production of the plays. In 1969, he appeared in Moonlight on the Highway. He appeared in minor roles in films such as Oh! What a Lovely War, Nicholas and Alexandra, Mary, Queen of Scots and Young Winston.
In 1967 Holm won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play as Lenny in The Homecoming by Harold Pinter. In 1977, Holm appeared in the television mini-series Jesus of Nazareth as the Sadducee Zerah, and a villainous Moroccan in March or Die. The following year he played J. M. Barrie in the award-winning BBC mini-series The Lost Boys, In 1981, he played Frodo Baggins in the BBC radio adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Holm's first film role to have a major effect was that of Ash, the "calm, technocratic" science officer in Ridley Scott's science-fiction film Alien. His portrayal of Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire earned him a special award at the Cannes Film Festival, a BAFTA award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In the 1980s, he had memorable roles in Time Bandits, ' and Terry Gilliam's Brazil. He played Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, in Dreamchild.
In 1989, Holm was nominated for a BAFTA award for the television series Game, Set and Match. Based on the novels by Len Deighton, this tells the story of an intelligence officer who discovers that his own wife is an enemy spy. He continued to perform Shakespeare, and appeared with Kenneth Branagh in Henry V and as Polonius to Mel Gibson's Hamlet. Holm was reunited with Kenneth Branagh in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, playing the father of Branagh's Victor Frankenstein.
Holm raised his profile in 1997 with two prominent roles, as the stressed but gentle priest Vito Cornelius in The Fifth Element and lawyer Mitchell Stephens 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 ', having previously played Bilbo's nephew Frodo Baggins in the 1981 BBC Radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. He returned for ', for which he shared a SAG award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. He later reprised his role as the elderly Bilbo Baggins in the movie ' and . Martin Freeman portrayed the young Bilbo Baggins in those films.
Holm was 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. He appeared in two David Cronenberg films: Naked Lunch and eXistenZ. He was Harold Pinter's favourite actor, the playwright once stating: "He puts on my shoe, and it fits!" Holm played Lenny in both the London and New York City premieres of Pinter's The Homecoming. He played Napoleon Bonaparte three times: in the television mini-series Napoleon and Love, Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits, and The Emperor's New Clothes.

Personal life

Holm was married four times: to Lynn Mary Shaw in 1955 ; to Sophie Baker in 1982 ; to actress Penelope Wilton, in Wiltshire, in 1991 ; and to the artist Sophie de Stempel in 2003. He had two daughters from his first marriage, a son from his second marriage, and a son and daughter from his 15-year relationship with the photographer Bee Gilbert.
Holm and Wilton appeared together in the BBC miniseries The Borrowers. His last wife, Sophie de Stempel, is a protégée and was a life model of Lucian Freud, as well as an artist in her own right.
Holm was treated for prostate cancer in 2001 and was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He died in hospital in London on 19 June 2020 at the age of 88.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Honours and awards

s and awards for films and TV roles are listed in filmography.
; Honours
; Awards
YearAwardCategoryNominated workResultRef.
1965Evening Standard AwardBest ActorHenry V
1967Tony AwardBest Featured Actor in a PlayThe Homecoming
1968BAFTA AwardSupporting ActorThe Bofors Gun
1978BAFTA AwardBest ActorDo You Remember?
1978Royal Television Society AwardBest PerformanceThe Lost Boys
1978BAFTA AwardBest ActorThe Lost Boys
1981Cannes Film FestivalBest Supporting ActorChariots of Fire
1981Academy AwardBest Supporting ActorChariots of Fire
1981BAFTA AwardBest Supporting ActorChariots of Fire
1984BAFTA AwardBest Supporting Actor'
1985Saturn AwardBest Supporting ActorDreamchild
1985Boston Society of Film CriticsBest Supporting ActorDreamchild
1985Boston Society of Film CriticsBest Supporting ActorWetherby
1985National Society of Film Critics AwardSupporting ActorWetherby
1985Boston Society of Film CriticsBest Supporting ActorBrazil
1985National Society of Film Critics AwardBest Supporting ActorBrazil
1985Boston Society of Film CriticsBest Supporting ActorDance with a Stranger
1985National Society of Film Critics AwardsBest Supporting ActorDance with a Stranger
1993Critics' Circle Theatre AwardBest ActorMoonlight
1993Evening Standard AwardBest ActorMoonlight
1988BAFTA AwardBest ActorGame, Set and Match
1995BAFTA AwardBest Supporting ActorThe Madness of King George
1997Genie AwardBest ActorThe Sweet Hereafter
1997Kansas City Film Critics CircleBest ActorThe Sweet Hereafter
1997National Board of ReviewBest CastThe Sweet Hereafter
1997Toronto Film Critics AssociationBest ActorThe Sweet Hereafter
1997Chicago Film Critics AssociationBest ActorThe Sweet Hereafter
1997National Society of Film Critics AwardBest ActorThe Sweet Hereafter
1997New York Film Critics CircleBest ActorThe Sweet Hereafter
1998Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Actor - Miniseries or MovieKing Lear
1998Olivier AwardBest ActorKing Lear
1998Critics' Circle Theatre AwardBest ActorKing Lear
1998Evening Standard AwardBest ActorKing Lear
2000Primetime Emmy AwardSupporting Actor - Miniseries or MovieThe Last of the Blonde Bombshells
2001Screen Actors Guild AwardOutstanding Cast in a Motion Picture'
2001Phoenix Film Critics Society AwardBest Cast'
2001Las Vegas Film Critics Society AwardBest Supporting Actor'
2003Screen Actors Guild AwardOutstanding Cast in a Motion Picture'
2003Broadcast Film Critics AssociationBest Cast'
2003National Board of ReviewBest Cast'
2003Phoenix Film Critics SocietyBest Cast'
2004Screen Actors Guild AwardOutstanding Cast in a Motion PictureThe Aviator
2007Annie AwardVoice Acting in a Feature ProductionRatatouille