Early years

Holm was born Ian Holm Cuthbert on 12 September 1931 in Goodmayes, in Essex, to Scottish parents, Jean Wilson (née Holm) and James Harvey Cuthbert. His mother was a nurse, and his father was a psychiatrist who worked as the superintendent of the West Ham Corporation Mental Hospital and was one of the pioneers of electric shock therapy. He had an older brother, Eric, who died in 1943. Holm was educated at the independent Chigwell School in Essex. His parents retired to Mortehoe, Devon and then Worthing where he joined an amateur dramatic society.

A visit to the dentist led to an introduction to Henry Baynton, a well-known provincial Shakespearean actor who helped Holm train for admission to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he secured a place in 1949. His studies there were interrupted a year later when he was called up for National Service in the British Army, during which he was posted to Klagenfurt, Austria and attained the rank of Lance Corporal. They were then interrupted a second time when he volunteered to go on an acting tour of the United States in 1952. He finally graduated from RADA in 1953; whilst there he had been offered 'spear-carrying' roles at Stratford and he stayed there for 13 years, soon graduating to more significant roles and abandoning plans to move on after Peter Hall founded the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1960.

Career

Holm was an established star of the Royal Shakespeare Company before making an impact on television and film. In 1965, he played Richard III in the BBC serialisation of The Wars of The Roses, based on the RSC production of the plays, and gradually made a name for himself with minor roles in films such as Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) and Young Winston (1972). In 1967, he won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play as Lenny in The Homecoming by Harold Pinter. In 1977, Holm appeared in the TV mini-series Jesus of Nazareth as the Sadducee Zerah, and a villainous Moroccan in March or Die. The following year he played J. M. Barrie in the award-winning BBC TV series The Lost Boys, in which his son Barnaby played the young George Llewelyn Davies.

In 1981 he played Frodo Baggins in the BBC radio adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

Holm's first film role to have a major impact was that of the treacherous android, Ash, in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). His portrayal of Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire (1981), earned him a special award at the Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Back home in England, he won a BAFTA award, for Best Supporting Actor, for Chariots. In the 1980s, he had memorable roles in Time Bandits (1981), Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) and Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985). He played Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland in the Dennis Potter-scripted fantasy Dreamchild (1985).

In 1989 Holm was nominated for a BAFTA award for the TV series Game, Set and Match. Based on the novels by Len Deighton, this tells the story of an intelligence officer (Holm) who discovers that his own wife is an enemy spy. He continued to perform Shakespeare, and appeared with Kenneth Branagh in Henry V (1989) and as Polonius to Mel Gibson's Hamlet (1990). Holm was reunited with Kenneth Branagh in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), playing the father of Branagh's Victor Frankenstein.

Holm raised his profile in 1997 with two prominent roles, as the stressed but gentle priest Vito Cornelius in The Fifth Element and the tormented plaintiff's lawyer in The Sweet Hereafter. In 2001 he starred in From Hell as the physician Sir William Withey Gull. The same year he appeared as Bilbo Baggins in the blockbuster film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, having previously played Bilbo's nephew Frodo Baggins in a 1981 BBC Radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. He reappeared in the trilogy in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), for which he shared a SAG award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. He reprised his role as the elder Bilbo Baggins in the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

Holm has been nominated for an Emmy Award twice, for a PBS broadcast of a National Theatre production of King Lear, in 1999; and for a supporting role in the HBO film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells opposite Judi Dench, in 2001. Holm has provided voice-overs for many British TV documentaries and commercials.

Holm has appeared in two David Cronenberg films: Naked Lunch (1991) and eXistenZ (1999). He was Harold Pinter's favourite actor, the playwright once stating: "He puts on my shoe, and it fits!" Holm played Lenny in the first performance of Pinter's masterpiece The Homecoming.

He has played Napoleon Bonaparte three times: first, in the 1972 television series Napoleon and Love; next, in a cameo comic rendition, in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits from 1981; third, in 2001 he played the fallen and exiled leader in the fanciful film The Emperor's New Clothes.

Personal life

Holm has been married four times. His first three marriages ended in divorce. In 1991, he married his third wife, actress Penelope Wilton, in Wiltshire. They appeared together in The Borrowers (1993) on British television. They divorced in 2001. He is currently married to artist Sophie de Stempel, a protégée and life model of Lucian Freud.

Holm has five children; three daughters (Jessica, Sarah-Jane and Melissa) and two sons (Barnaby and Henry) from three women, including the first two of his four wives.

He was treated for prostate cancer in 2001.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	The Bofors Gun	Flynn	BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
	The Fixer	Grubeshov
	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Puck, or Robin Goodfellow
1969	Oh! What a Lovely War	President Poincaré
1970	A Severed Head	Martin Lynch-Gibbon
1971	Nicholas and Alexandra	Commissar Yakovlev
	Mary, Queen of Scots	David Rizzio
1972	Young Winston	George E. Buckle
1973	The Homecoming	Lenny
1974	Napoleon and Love	Napoleon I	(TV)
	Juggernaut	Nicholas Porter
1976	Robin and Marian	King John
	Shout at the Devil	Mohammed
1977	The Man in the Iron Mask	Duval
	March or Die	El Krim
	Jesus of Nazareth	Zerah
1978	Les Misérables	Thénardier
	Do You Remember?		(TV) Nominated — British Academy Television Award for Best Actor
	The Lost Boys	J. M. Barrie	(TV) Royal Television Society Award for Best Performance Nominated — British Academy Television Award for Best Actor
	Holocaust	Heinrich Himmler	(TV)
1979	All Quiet on the Western Front	Himmelstoss	(TV Film)
	Alien	Ash	Reprised physical role in Alien: Isolation
	S.O.S. Titanic	J. Bruce Ismay
1980	We, the Accused	Paul Pressett	(TV)
1981	Chariots of Fire	Sam Mussabini	BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Cannes Film Festival Award Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — American Movie Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Time Bandits	Napoleon
1982	The Bell	Michael Meade	(TV)
	The Return of the Soldier	Doctor Anderson
	Inside the Third Reich	Goebbels
1984	Laughterhouse	Ben Singleton
	Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes	Capitain Philippe D'Arnot	Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
	Terror in the Aisles
1985	The Browning Version	Andrew Crocker-Harris	CableACE Award for Best Actor in a Theatrical or Dramatic Special
	Dreamchild	Reverend Charles L. Dodgson/Lewis Carroll	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Fantasporto's International Fantasy Film Award for Best Actor Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Wetherby	Stanley Pilborough	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — National Society of Film Critics Award Best Supporting Actor
	Brazil	Mr Kurtzmann	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — National Society of Film Critics Award Best Supporting Actor
	Dance with a Stranger	Desmond Cussen	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — National Society of Film Critics Award Best Supporting Actor
	Mr and Mrs Edgehill	Eustace Edgehill
1986	Murder by the Book	Hercule Poirot	(TV)
1988	Game, Set and Match	Bernard Samson	(TV) Nominated — British Academy Television Award for Best Actor
	Another Woman	Ken Post
1989	Henry V	Fluellen
1990	Hamlet	Polonius
1991	Uncle Vanya	Astrov	BBC TV
	Naked Lunch	Tom Frost
	Kafka	Doctor Murnau
1992	Blue Ice	Sir Hector
	The Borrowers	Pod Clock	(TV)
1993	The Hour of the Pig	Albertus	Also known as The Advocate
	The Return of the Borrowers	Pod Clock	(TV)
1994	Mary Shelley's Frankenstein	Baron Frankenstein
	The Madness of King George	Dr. Willis	Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1996	Big Night	Pascal
	Loch Ness	Water Bailiff
1997	Night Falls on Manhattan	Liam Casey
	The Sweet Hereafter	Mitchell Stephens	Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor National Board of Review Award for Best Cast Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated — Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated — National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Nominated — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Nominated — Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
	The Fifth Element	Father Vito Cornelius
	A Life Less Ordinary	Naville
	Incognito	John
1998	Alice Through the Looking Glass	White Knight
	King Lear	Lear	Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor Evening Standard Award for Best Actor Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie
1999	Animal Farm	Squealer	Voice
	Shergar	Joseph Maguire
	eXistenZ	Kiri Vinokur
	Simon Magus	Sirius/Boris/The Devil
	Wisconsin Death Trip	Frank Cooper (voice)
	The Match	Big Tam
2000	Joe Gould's Secret	Joe Gould
	The Miracle Maker	Pontius Pilate	Voice
	The Last of the Blonde Bombshells	Patrick	Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
	Esther Kahn	Nathan Quellen
	Beautiful Joe	George The Geek
	Bless the Child	Reverend Grissom
2001	From Hell	Sir William Gull
	The Emperor's New Clothes	Napoleon/Sergeant Eugene Lenormand
	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Bilbo Baggins	Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated — Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Bilbo Baggins	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast National Board of Review Award for Best Cast Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated — Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2004	The Day After Tomorrow	Professor Terry Rapson
	Garden State	Gideon Largeman
	The Aviator	Professor Fitz	Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
	Monsters We Met	Narrator	(TV documentary)
	The Last Dragon	Narrator	(TV)
2005	Strangers with Candy	Dr. Putney
	Chromophobia	Edward Aylesbury
	Lord of War	Simeon Weisz
	The Adventures of Errol Flynn	Narrator	(TV documentary)
2005-2008	Horizon	Narrator	(TV documentary)
2006	Renaissance	Jonas Muller
	O Jerusalem	Ben Gurion
	The Treatment	Dr. Ernesto Morales
2007	Ratatouille	Skinner	Voice Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production
2009	1066: The Battle for Middle Earth	Narrator	(TV)
2012	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	Old Bilbo Baggins
2014	The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies	Old Bilbo Baggins

Honours and awards

Nominations and awards for films and TV roles are listed in filmography.

Honours

• 1990: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
• 1998: Knight Bachelor for services to drama

Awards

• 1965: Evening Standard Award for Best Actor - Henry V
• 1967: Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play - The Homecoming
• 1993: Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor - Moonlight
• 1993: Evening Standard Award for Best Actor - Moonlight

Bibliography

• Holm, Ian; Jacobi, Steven (2004). Acting my Life. London: Bantam Press. ISBN 0-593-05214-5.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]