- Born
- Died
- Birth nameIan Holm Cuthbert
- Height5′ 5″ (1.65 m)
- Sir Ian Holm was one of the world's greatest actors, a Laurence Olivier Award-winning, Tony Award-winning, BAFTA-winning and Academy Award-nominated British star of films and the stage. He was a member of the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company and has played more than 100 roles in films and on television.
He was born Ian Holm Cuthbert on September 12, 1931, in Goodmayes, Essex, to Scottish parents who worked at the Essex mental asylum. His mother, Jean Wilson (née Holm), was a nurse, and his father, Doctor James Harvey Cuthbert, was a psychiatrist. Young Holm was brought up in London. At the age of seven he was inspired by the seeing 'Les Miserables' and became fond of acting. Holm studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, graduating in 1950 to the Royal Shakespeare Company. There he emerged as an actor whose range and effortless style allowed him to play almost entire Shakespeare's repertoire. In 1959 his stage partner Laurence Olivier scored a hit on Ian Holm in a sword fight in a production of 'Coriolanus'. Holm still had a scar on his finger.
In 1965 Holm made his debut on television as Richard III on the BBC's The Wars of the Roses (1965), which was a filmed theatrical production of four of Shakespeare's plays condensed down into a trilogy. In 1969 Holm won his first BAFTA Film Award Best Supporting Actor for The Bofors Gun (1968), then followed a flow of awards and nominations for his numerous works in film and on television. In 1981, he played one of his best known roles, Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire (1981), for which he was nominated for Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In the late 1990s, he gave a highly-acclaimed turn as the lawyer, Mitchell, in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter (1997), and was subsequently cast in a number of high-profile Hollywood films of the next decade, playing Father Vito Cornelius in The Fifth Element (1997), Bilbo in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), and Professor Fitz in The Aviator (2004), as well as Zach Braff's character's father Gideon in Garden State (2004). His last non-Hobbit film role was a voice part as Skinner in Ratatouille (2007).
Ian Holm had five children, three daughters and two sons from the first two of his four wives and from an additional relationship. In 1989 Holm was created a Commander of the British Empire (CBE), and in 1998 he was knighted for his services to drama. He died in London in June 2020.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov
- SpousesSophie de Stempel(December 2003 - June 19, 2020) (his death)Penelope Wilton(March 1991 - 2001) (divorced)Sophie Baker(1982 - 1986) (divorced, 1 child)Lynn Mary Shaw(1955 - 1965) (divorced, 2 children)
- Children
- ParentsJean Wilson CuthbertJames Harvey Cuthbert
- Rich smooth voice
- He developed a severe case of stage fright in 1976 while performing "The Iceman Cometh" and left the theatre. He has only returned three times since then.
- He hated milk. Much to his discomfort, he had to repeatedly gargle and spit it out during his final scene in Alien (1979).
- He played Napoleon Bonaparte three times in Napoleon and Love (1974), Time Bandits (1981) and The Emperor's New Clothes (2001) - and was a front-runner for the role in Stanley Kubrick's unproduced biography.
- He was slated to play Pope John Paul II in a CBS miniseries, but had to drop out because of undisclosed "personal reasons". Jon Voight took his place.
- He was the son of Jean Wilson (née Holm), a nurse, and James Harvey Cuthbert, a doctor, who were originally from Scotland.
- [on his Hobbit feet in the Lord of the Rings films] These things are like boats with toes.
- While shooting in Mexico, all conversation was dominated by bowels. During filming, if you'll pardon the expression, you're frightened to fart.
- I've always been a minimalist. It was Bogart [Humphrey Bogart] who once said, "If you think the right thoughts, the camera will pick it up." The most important thing in the face is the eyes, and if you can make the eyes talk, you're halfway there.
- I'm completely amazed by the reaction that the films have had. I get a lot of fan mail addressed to Bilbo and sometimes Sir Bilbo. It's hardly ever addressed to Ian Holm."
- I had a brother who alas went off to fight for his country, and died of cancer before it was fashionable.
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