Hoskins, Bob (Robert William) (1942– )

English character actor. He progressed to fame from a series of supporting roles, and has played a range of both comic and dramatic parts, effortlessly shifting from humorous sidekick or love-interest to menacing sociopath. Films include The Long Good Friday (1980), Mona Lisa (1986), Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), Mermaids (1990), Shattered (1991), Last Orders (2001), and Vanity Fair (2004).

He starred in British film-maker Shane Meadow's feature film debut twentyfourseven (1997) and appeared in Michael Winner's black comedy Parting Shots (1998). He played the lead role of the sheet music salesman in Dennis Potter's television serial Pennies From Heaven. Later films include Felicia's Journey and A Room for Romeo Brass (both 1999), Enemy at the Gates (2001), and The Sleeping Dictionary (2003).

His screen career began in the UK in such films as The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa, which served to make him a household name. He also gave a powerful performance as Iago in the BBC's 1981 production of Othello. From the late 1980s he worked extensively in the USA, often masking his cockney accent playing Americans in a range of films. His other work includes The Cotton Club (1984), A Prayer for the Dying (1987), The Raggedy Rawney (1988), which he both wrote and directed, and Nixon (1995), in which he played the FBI chief J Edgar Hoover.