There's an old joke that suggests that for the average American there are three British accents to recognise: those of Prince Charles, Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins. The BBC has annouced that the loss of that third, familiar voice.
I had the privilege of meeting Hoskins on a couple of occasions over the years and he was not just one of the UK's best actors, but also a gentleman and a raconteur - so it was incredibly sad to hear a couple of years ago that he was being forced to retire due to the onset of Parkinsons - a cruel enough disease in itself but particualrly harsh for a person who thrived on creativity and performance and who was unable to contine in his beloved profession.
So the announcement that Hoskins has died at the age of 71, apparently from pneumonia, is equally sad.
It's impossible to pick out his greatest roles, merely the ones that made the biggest impact, but there's no shortage of examples to be found. An unconventional leading man he refused to be pigeon-holed and found himself in the position of being asked to play roles that reflected a vast range of personalities. There were the sinister 'heavy' roles such as gangsters (most famously in The Long Good Friday), flawed but sympathetic everymen (Mona Lisa) and also a string of comedic roles in such fare as the ground-breaking part-animation Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. He appeared in Zulu Dawn, Brazil and The Cotton Club. He was the only memorable thing about Super Mario Bros., the perfect 'Smee' in Steven Spielberg's Hook and equally the perfect foil for Dame Judi Dench in Mrs Henderson Presents. But he was also Odin in The Son of the Mask and the voice of Badger in The Wind in the Willows, Sancho Panza in Don Quixote, a homeless man in 24/7 and Arthur Parker in Pennies from Heaven. He was last seen on the screen in a literally small but notable role as a dwarf in Snow White and the Huntsman.
But he will be forever linked with the kind of crumpled characters often just a little down on their luck and faced with challenges outside their comfort zone... sometimes facing tragedy, some violence and some a cream-pie in the face but Hoskins' characters always took on those worlds with tenacity and a sense of tired resolution and determination.
It is hard to think of an actor with that kind of range and there's little doubt that the world of entertainment has lost on of its best ironic and iconic - and best-loved - elder statesmen.
