Ian Holm (1931-2020)

[knives]

Ian Holm

[domino harvey]

Ian Holm

A fun actor and my favorite filmed Lear. RIP

[swo17]

I was obsessed for a while with his performance in The Sweet Hereafter. He made everything he was in better

[therewillbeblus]

That’s the one I think of first, but even his Napoleon in Time Bandits is such perfect casting that it becomes definitive for me. Since I was a kid, when Napoleon has been referenced in history classes or elsewhere I have imagined Ian Holm without even realizing it until now.

[knives]

Yeah, that's my go to as well. He just does it so well.

[Rayon Vert]

I see in his filmography he played Napoleon in an earlier British TV series.

[colinr0380]

I have to second his Napoleon in Time Bandits! I think Holm was at his best in the supporting roles: Ash in Alien of course (one of his last roles was voicing Ash again in the Alien: Isolation game from 2014) but also the officious boss Mr Kurtzmann in Brazil ("Has anybody seen Sam Lowry?") and complaining about his character's incomprehensible accent in eXistenZ. He's great in Naked Lunch as well.

But his big starring role was probably in Singleton's Pluck in 1984. That led to a very strong 1985 as well with roles as Lewis Carroll in Dreamchild, written by Dennis Potter, and Whetherby and Dance With A Stranger.

On TV he was a great Bod in the early 1990s BBC TV series of The Borrowers. I see that he provided the voiceover for the documentary series on the BBC series about the (first) Gulf War too.

EDIT: He also has a great role in the adaptation of the graphic novel about the Jack The Ripper killings, From Hell. Here's his (spoiler) big scene.

[Feego]

I see in his filmography he played Napoleon in an earlier British TV series.

He played Napoleon a third time in the 2001 film The Emperor’s New Clothes.

I’m partial to his performance in DreamChild, where he played Lewis Carroll as socially awkward, possibly dangerous, but still sympathetic.

[flyonthewall2983]

I was obsessed for a while with his performance in The Sweet Hereafter. He made everything he was in better

He was great in Night Falls On Manhattan, which came out the same year.

His final line in Alien feels like it rings pretty true to the state of things in the world now.

[jazzo]

Ian Holm

A fun actor and my favorite filmed Lear. RIP

I’ll always love him most for the way he swats the desk lamp out of his sight line while sitting down with Secondo in Big Night.

[Randall Maysin]

He's one of my all-time favorite actors, and I've never even seen any of his major roles, unless you count Chariots of Fire (his only frigging Oscar nomination...I mean for f*ck's sake!!!!), which I wouldn't. I realized he was a favorite after his first scene in Woody Allen's Another Woman--amidst all those middle-aged academics in grey pants and beige sweaters, standing around laughing at the lamest dialogue I've ever heard and occasionally pausing to declare great love for and attraction to one another, he pulled me in effortlessly, hook, line and sinker. So magnetic and always a pleasure to watch, a true character star. There's something worthy of James Mason in how Holm is just such a joy and comfort to watch, even if the character they are playing is vile (and they can both be really good at playing vile)--their acting is a balm for the soul no matter what. Rest in peace!

[bearcuborg]

I was obsessed for a while with his performance in The Sweet Hereafter. He made everything he was in better

Geez, a young Sarah Polley in that one too. I saw that in the theater as a young teen and would really like to see it again. He portrayed someone with an incredible weight on his shoulders so well that I remember feeling this agony during that car wash scene.

He’s also quite funny in The Fifth Element.

[swo17]

It's out on Blu-ray in Canada and in the UK!

[MichaelB]

It's out on Blu-ray in Canada and in the UK!

And, to my very pleasant surprise, I discovered that I had a copy, courtesy of an impulse purchase of Artificial Eye’s Atom Egoyan box when it was very cheap.

[Swift]

Ian Holm is an actor who I thought had died years ago. Not just in a "haven't seen him in years" forgotten kind of way, but that I legitimately thought he was dead and was disappointed that he wasn't around anymore.

Anyway, a poster named Rupert84 shared a nice story about him on the Guardian article.

I wrote to Ian Holm back in 2006 whilst studying film at University. Full of naive optimisim I asked if he might narrate my graduation short film 'Covent Garden Ladies'. It seemed very unlikely he would say yes but I loved his voice and narration on Wisconsin Death Trip and thought it worth an email.

Unbelievably he said yes! This was a student film with a pretty small budget but he kindly agreed to do it as a favour simply because he liked the project.

A few months later I had the incredible privilege of hearing Ian Holm read the narration for my film. I was very nervous about working with such a legend, but he was both kind and generous, really helping to put me at ease. During the recording he modestly came up with some brilliant suggestions and after we had finished he insisted on listening through the whole recording to check everyone was completely satisfied. I was more than satisfied as his incredible voice greatly improved the narration and added so richly to the film.

Fourteen years later I still can't believe how lucky I was to have such a legend narrate my student film. He was so nice and supportive and will be greatly missed by many I am sure.

I think I will go back and rewatch some of his best films. I remember "The Sweet Hereafter" being particularly good.

Rest in peace you wonderful actor and lovely man.

[Dr Amicus]

No one's mentioned yet what I first came across him in, the BBC's epic radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings in 1981 in which he starred as Frodo. For 26 weeks, Sundays at noon was Radio 4 time and that led me not only to read the book but to listen to radio drama much more than I ever had before (IIRC, this was followed in fairly short order by an adaptation of the two Dahl Charlie books). Also, he was probably the only cast member I got to know and pay attention to at the time as a result of the show - most others I either knew beforehand or did work I never came across (such as on the stage). Obviously a few years later, and he was playing Bilbo for Peter Jackson.

[colinr0380]

Oh gosh, I had forgotten completely about that, and whilst moving things around I just ran across the 13 cassette tape box set of the series that I bought as a Christmas present for my dad a couple of decades ago! With Michael Hordern as Gandalf and John Le Mesurier as Bilbo!

It is as seminal a BBC radio adaptation of the era as The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy radio productions.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

The performance that stands out for me is the J M Barrie trilogy by Andrew Birkin for the BBC and available in a 2 DVD set for a pittance. He was indeed a noble gentleman and hugely generous to his fellow workers across the board, of whom I was one a couple of times. He was also the lead in a film wot I rote and was bemoaned by both of us for the butchering it received during a dizzy post production period after being passed from pillar to post by different distributors.