Very saddened and more than a little shocked to learn of the death of the great Bob Hoskins. I knew he was suffering from Parkinson's disease and had retired from the acting world, but I hadn't expected him to go so soon.
As a child, I associated him first and foremost with WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, but as an adult I got a chance to appreciate the real diversity of his body of work. I'd be hard pressed to choose a favourite role of his, given the sheer number of movies in which he starred, but he was always one of those actors who was such a class act that, even when he was appearing in something that was complete nonsense, he always succeeded in raising the bar a few notches.
Case in point: for sheer insanity (plus the fact that it was shot in my home town), I'll always have a bit of a soft spot for DANNY THE DOG (a.k.a. UNLEASHED), a martial arts action film shot in Glasgow and starring Jet Li, Kerry Condon and Morgan Freeman. That's a combination of elements you don't see every day, but it somehow it made perfect sense for Bob Hoskins to be at the heart of all the insanity, hamming it up as only he could in the role of the film's main villain: a foul-mouthed, ill-tempered Cockney gangster.
Rest in peace, Bob.
