Known for his roles in films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Brazil and the infamous Super Mario Bros movie, beloved British actor Bob Hoskins passed away yesterday at the age of 71.
A familiar face on the big and small screen since the early ’70s, Hoskins’s gruff charm made him a natural fit for roles as curmudgeonly detectives (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?), working class joes (Brazil), fantasy pirate sidekicks (Hook), sleazy band managers with very little screen time (Pink Floyd — The Wall) and funny little shopkeepers who somehow wind up dating Cher (Mermaids).
It was that gruff charm that eventually led to Hoskins getting the part of Mario opposite John Leguizamo’s Luigi in 1993’s Super Mario Bros movie. A massive critical failure, Hoskins’ considered Super Mario Bros to be the worst thing he ever did.
“The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Brothers. It was a fuckin’ nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! Fuckin’ nightmare. Fuckin’ idiots.”
Hoskins retired from acting in 2012 following a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. He passed away on Tuesday after being hospitalized for pneumonia.
Bob Hoskins dies aged 71 [Guardian]
Picture: AP, by Matt Dunham
Comments
14 responses to “Bob Hoskins, Star Of Super Mario Bros. Film, Dead At 71”
Oh dude… lame…
RIP Bob. 🙁
As a kid, Roger Rabbit was one of my favourite (if not #1) movies. RIP Eddie Valiant
If youre stuck home alone on a saturday night, and can turn your brain off, mario bros is a pretty entertaining flick. Its bad, but not unwatchable. There are Some pretty amusing scenes
what about smee……
lol filling his pants with treasure and cutlery…
Absolutely loved him as Smee.
Smee’s me, what about me!?
Now that cliffhanger ending at the end of Super Mario Bros will never be resolved 🙁
Check out the Super Mario Bros Movie Archive (at least I think that’s what they call the site), they created a sequel comic based on the ideas and stuff that would have gone into a sequel. Still have to get around to checking it out myself actually.
he also played both Winston Churchill and Nikita Khrushchev in different movies. but Hook is my favorite of his work
with this mans amazing and epic body of work, you choose to use “Super Mario Bros” to sum up his career?! Speechless.
How else would it be relevant on a video gaming website if not in the context of a movie based on a video game ?
Edit: Directed to @blakeavon since the reply doesn’t always seem to attribute to the comment its supposed to.
video game websites, dont always need to be just about video games, in fact on the next page after there is a story about Games of Thrones show and a thing about Every thing wrong with Spider-man 3. Thats like saying io9 is always about science fiction.
My bad, guess ill just slink away back to lifehacker and gizmodo now.
The only times i come here is when there is a ‘cross promotion’ that i actually want to read, everything I’ve ever seen on kotaku has been about games.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit was my favourite movie as a kid. I had no idea it was him in it though, I don’t think I’ve seen it since I was younger than 10.
Always loved the crap out of the Mario Bros movie though. Sad news.