Cast of the Lord of the Rings pay tribute to late co-star Bernard Hill, declaring 'No-one spoke Tolkien's words as great as Bernard did'

The starring Hobbits from Lord of the Rings stood together to pay tribute to Bernard Hill this evening, hours after he died age 79.

The Manchester-born actor, who shot to fame as Yosser Hughes in Boys from the Blackstuff before becoming known to a generation as the embattled King Theoden in Peter Jackson's film trilogy, died surrounded by loved ones this morning.

The star, who went on to play Captain Edward Smith in the 1997 Oscar winning film Titanic, had been due to speak at Liverpool Comic Con yesterday pulled out of the event the day before, explaining his partner had become 'very ill'.

Tonight, his co-stars from the film series based on JRR Tolkien's novels, stood at the event in Merseyside and paid tribute to their 'intrepid, funny, gruff, irascible and beautiful' friend and colleague.

Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan and Sean Astin - who played the four hobbits in the trilogy - stood on stage as they told fans they 'lost a member of our family' today.

It was announced on Sunday that Bernard Hill had died age 79, hours before he was due to appear at Comic Con

Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan and Sean Astin - who played the four hobbits in the trilogy - paid tribute to Bernard Hill this evening following his death age 79

Bernard Hill, pictured here in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, played King Theoden in the epic fantasy trilogy

Bernard Hill rose to fame for his performance as Yosser Hughes in the 1982 BBC drama Boys from the Blackstuff

Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee, led the homage, telling the crowd: 'So we lost a member of our family this morning, Bernard passed, like King Théoden did. So we want to take a moment before we go off the stage to honour him.

'He was supposed to be here yesterday. We love him. He was intrepid, he was funny, he was gruff, he was irascible, he was beautiful.'

Billy Boyd, who plays Pippin, added: 'We were watching and talking about the movies and I said to Dom, I don't think anyone spoke Tolkien's words as great as Bernard did. The way he grounded those words, he would break my heart on screen.

'He was a wonderful man and he will be solely missed.'

Hill died in the early hours of Sunday morning his agent confirmed. 

'It is with the greatest sadness that we must announce that Bernard Hill, renowned for his roles in Titanic and Lord of the Rings, passed away in the early hours of this morning at the age of 79,' a family statement read.

Hill will be remembered for countless films throughout his career but most memorably for his role as Yosser Hughes in the 1980s series Boys from the Blackstuff.

His role as Yosser - the unemployed character known for saying 'gizza job' - not only brought him to the attention of Hollywood but quickly became representative of an era, defining a generation of working class men living in the North of England.

The actor also portrayed Captain Edward Smith in the 1997 Oscar-winning film Titanic (pictured)

The thespian is set to return to our screens tonight in the Martin Freeman drama The Responder. Pictured: Hill (left) on set with Freeman (right) during filming for the BBC programme

Bernard Hill had a varied screen career, coming to prominence acting in small down to earth dramas before going on to star in films that made billions worldwide. Pictured: Hill at the premier of 'Gods Own Country' in Edinburgh in June 2017

Alan Bleasdale, who co- wrote the 1980's hit films, said that Hill's death was 'a great loss and great surprise' adding that his performance as Yosser was 'the great, definitive performance of his generation'.

James Graham, who adapted the film for the stage paid tribute: 'It's almost impossible to overstate the extent of the impact and legacy Bernard Hill, alongside Alan Bleasdale, created when they made Yosser Hughes.

'How rare it is that a character can so definitively come to represent an era, both for Liverpool but way beyond.'

He went on to play Captain Edward Smith in the 1997 award-winning film Titanic, which crossed $1billion at the box office, and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - both films won 11 Oscars each.

Hill's passing comes hours before he was due to return to TV screens in Martin Freeman drama The Responder, which airs on BBC One tonight.

Just a day before his death, the beloved star, 79, was also notably absent from a get-together with his former cast mates, including Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd.

The famous gang were seen posing together on Friday night at a restaurant in Liverpool following the culture convention yet Hill was nowhere to be seen.

The pictured shared by Monaghan was captioned '3 hobbits and an elf and the CONVERSATION tonight was VAULTED,' while a second picture of the group on Saturday read '#squadgoals'.

The actor, pictured as King Theoden, won plaudits for his portrayal of the ageing monarch trying to protect his people from the forces of evil 

The actor also portrayed the Duke of Norfolk in the 2015 adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. Pictured: Bernard Hill on the Wolf Hall set in Gloucester in 2014

Hill also won plaudits for his portrayal of Captain Edward Smith in 1997 drama Titanic. Pictured: The actor on set as Captain Smith

Hill had also been due to speak at the convention in Merseyside yet the event was cancelled a day before.

A message posted on Comic Con's Instagram said: 'Due to Bernard's partner being taken very ill he can no longer attend the event. He sends his sincere apologies and thanks you all for you understanding'.

The sad news of his death comes as a video emerged of him telling his fans to 'keep going'.

After attending Comic Con Scotland in Aberdeen in March, when asked what his plans for after the event, he said: 'A good night's sleep. It was pretty brutal coming in on that tiny aeroplane. It didn't bother me, I liked it. I left me a bit weary at the end of it.'

Tributes from fans and those within the acting world have been paid to the thespian this afternoon, praising him for his 'incredible talent' and a career that saw him 'blaze a rail across the screen'.

Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, said: 'Bernard Hill blazed a trail across the screen, and his long-lasting career filled with iconic and remarkable roles is a testament to his incredible talent.

'From Boys from the Blackstuff, to Wolf Hall, The Responder, and many more, we feel truly honoured to have worked with Bernard at the BBC. Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this sad time.'

Writer Mr Bleasdale added: ': 'It was an astonishing, mesmeric performance - Bernard gave everything to that and you can see it in all the scenes. He became Yosser Hughes.

The actor pictured with Steven MacKintosh in From There to Here, a 2013 series about the IRA Manchester bombing 

Bernard Hill pictured with his wife Marianna Hill at the premier of the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2002

Hill played Praetorian Guard Gratus in the British television drama I, Claudius about the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius

'I was desperate to work with him. Everything he did - his whole procedure for working, the manner in which he worked and his performance was everything that you could ever wish for.

'You always felt that Bernard would live forever. He had a great strength, physically and of personality.'

'Yosser is often remembered as a head-butting brute, which he was,' Mr Graham added.

'But Bernard's mesmerising and heart-breaking incarnation of a man being slowly broken, in his spirit and his mind, by the cruelty of the world around him, it's easy to forget how much heart there was there too.'

Actress and musician Barbara Dickson, who starred with him in a musical based on the Beatles, was among those paying tribute, describing him as a 'marvellous actor'.

Alongside a photo of them together, she wrote: 'It's with great sadness that I note the death of Bernard Hill.

'We worked together in John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert, (by) Willy Russell marvellous show 1974-1975.

'A really marvellous actor. It was a privilege to have crossed paths with him. RIP Benny x.'

The Manchester native will star opposite Martin Freeman in the second series of The Responder, which airs on the BBC tonight

The sad news of his death comes as a video emerged of him telling his fans at Scotland's Comic Con to 'keep going'

Hill had been due to speak at Comic Con in Liverpool today but cancelled because his wife was ill 

A message posted on Comic Con's Instagram said: 'Due to Bernard's partner being taken very ill he can no longer attend the event. He sends his sincere apologies and thanks you all for you understanding'

Lord of the rings star reunion Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd, Sean Astin and Dom Monaghan dining together this weekend - with Hill notably absent 

The Manchester native had a varied on-screen career, coming to prominence acting in small realistic dramas, before going on to star in films that made billions worldwide.

Born in Blackley into a family of coal miners, he would attend acting school with Richard Griffiths, before moving into television.

After bit roles in Hard Labour and the poorly received but now acclaimed I, Claudius, he got his first major break in the early 1980s.

The actor was cast as Yosser Hughes, a working class Liverpudlian in The Black Stuff and its sequel, Boys from the Blackstuff, in 1982.

His character was a man left struggling to do the right thing after becoming unemployed and coined the phrase 'gizza job' - meaning 'give us a job' - became a common refrain among protesters in Thatcherite Britain.

The sequel won a Bafta for best drama series in 1983 and was listed as the seventh best TV show ever made on a British Film Institute list in 2000.

The same year he took the role of Sergeant Putnam in Richard Attenborough's Oscar-winning biopic Gandhi, before starring in the BBC's 1983 adaptation of Shakespeare's classic play Henry VI, in which he played the Duke of York.

He would later be cast as Captain Edward Smith in James Cameron's gargantuan film, Titanic.

The 1997 movie saw him play the captain of the infamous vessel on what would be its maiden and only voyage across the Atlantic, before going down with the ship after it hit an iceberg.

It marked the start of a late career renaissance for Hill, who was then chosen by Peter Jackson in the role of King Theoden in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The actor was praised for his portrayal of the embattled King of Rohan who valiantly fights to save his people from the forces of evil.

Hollywood kept calling, with Hill making appearances in Dwayne Johnson vehicle The Scorpion King, Halle Berry horror film Gothika and the tennis-themed romantic comedy Wimbledon.

He continued to make regular appearances on British television, before being cast in the 2015 BBC drama Wolf Hall.

An adaptation of Hilary Mantel's historical fiction about the rise of Thomas Cromwell, Hill portrayed the Duke of Norfolk in the first series of the show, before being replaced by Timothy Spall in the second.

He had been due to return to our screens once more tonight, with a role in Martin Freeman's BBC show The Responder.

The thespian lived in Suffolk and is survived by his wife Marianna Hill and their son Gabriel.