Bob Hoskins, 1942-2014

Bob Hoskins, with animated Jessica Rabbit, in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Bob Hoskins, who had a long and varied career from perforing Shakespeare on stage to gangsters on film, has died at the age of 71. I'm not certain which of Hoskins' roles would be considered his best remembered, although one good guess would be Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which had Hoskins playing a private detective in a Hollywood that was an homage to 1940s noir, opposite a bunch of animated characters. Critical acclaim came in the form of an Oscar nomination for playing an ex-con who gets a job as chauffeur to a call girl in Mona Lisa, a movie that I have to admit I haven't seen before.

As evidence of how broad a set of roles Hoskins played, his filmography includes 1985's dystopian classic Brazil; a small role in the 2004 period movie Vanity Fair; the Peter Pan disaster Hook; and Mario in the video-game themed movie Super Mario Bros. He also played himself in the film Spice World; it's hard to believe it's been 17 years since the phenomenon that was the Spice Girls.

Hoskins retired from acting in 2012 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.