My sympathies to Bob Hoskins, who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and will retire from acting. Although best known for tough guy roles, he was an actor of tremendous range who could also be endearing, gentle and funny on screen.
His breakout performance in “The Long Good Friday” is his best work, indeed one of the most potent star turns in the history of gangster films. I reviewed it here, and recommend it again to all Hoskins fans who will be missing him on screen and wishing him well with his illness.
Tags: Bob Hoskins
For me he’ll always be Eddie Valiant in “Who Framed Roger Rabit?”. Comedy must be played serious and Hoskins played Valiant as a conflicted man with vital concerns. He made that movie.
To quote the old joke, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”
Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa is number 2 on my list for Hoskins, really great film although IMHO it doesn’t hold up at the very end.
I first saw him in Flickers.
He never disappointed.
I will always remember him in Long Goodbye. We saw it the day it opened in NYC and went out to toast his performance afterwards. And made it a point to see everything he was in from then on. Here’s hoping a remedy for Parkinson’s may soon be found.
I am Nikita Sergeivich Khrushchev.
Enemy at the Gates