Ten Essential Films From Bob Hoskins

The Long Good Friday (1980)

Hoskins would score his second BAFTA nomination for John Mackenzie's 1980 contemporary crime saga The Long Good Friday - the first came for 1978 effort Pennies From Heaven - and his performance as crime boss Harold Shand who must protect his turf from a rival gang trying to muscle their way in by planting bombs at key locations of Shand's territory. This one's a minor classic, well worth seeking out.

Pink Floyd The Wall (1982)

Yes, though often overlooked amidst the Hook's of his career, a young Bob Hoskins made a splash with a key part in one of the greatest rock and roll films ever made, playing the Rock And Roll Manager in the Alan Parker film version of Pink Floyd's The Wall. Just looking at the behind the scenes photo above it's already dead easy to see the sort of manic intensity that would mark Hoskin's career over the decades already in full force.

Brazil (1985)

The high water mark of Terry Gilliam's career - and by far my favorite film ever made - 1985 dystopic science fiction effort Brazil features an absolutely magnetic support performance by Hoskins as a borderline psychotic heating engineer. Are you one of those poor, sad souls that has never seen Brazil? Run, don't walk. It remains an incredibly powerful and prophetic piece of cinema to this day.

Mona Lisa (1986)

In terms of critical response, Neil Jordan's romantic crime drama Mona Lisa - in which Hoskins plays a freshly released convict hired on as a driver for a high class call girl - is clearly the high point of Hoskins career. He would win both the BAFTA and Golden Globe as Best Actor for the film while also netting an Oscar nomination, which he lost to Paul Newman for The Color Of Money. The cast in this is absolutely stellar from top to bottom and any time you not only hold your own against but dominate Michael Caine ... well, you're doing something right.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Is there anything to say about Robert Zemeckis' ground breaking 1988 hybrid of live action and classical animation that hasn't been said already, and said many time over? Hoskins is amazing, the movie is amazing, just go see it.

A Room For Romeo Brass (1999)

Having ridden the critical success of Mona Lisa and cult hit Roger Rabbit to the highest point of his commercial success with big parts in big Hollywood, Hoskins settled back into life as a character player in smaller films in the late nineties and continued to show a remarkable knack for working with emerging talent in the process. Case in point, his part in Shane Meadows' A Room For Romeo Brass. Hoskins is a small but memorable piece of this one and the film itself is absolutely stellar, the picture that both established Meadows as the talent that he is while also launching Paddy Considine into the public eye.

Felicia's Journey (1999)

Following the runaway success of his 1997 effort The Sweet Hereafter Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan pretty much had his pick of the litter in terms of what he wanted to do and who he wanted to work with. And what he wanted was Bob Hoskins as the lead in an adaptation of William Trevor's Felicia's Journey. Egoyan has had more misses than hits since but his story of a reclusive chef's growing obsession with a young woman remains one of his most engaging efforts.

Enemy At The Gate (2001)

Hoskins as Khrushchev? It seems odd on the surface but it happened in Jean-Jacques Annaud's Enemy At The Gates, a film that casts everybody as being from countries other than where they're actually from in the story of a German and Russian sniper facing off during the Battle of Stalingrad. A minor flop at the box office - in part thanks to the mish mash of accents and focus on a part of history that almost nobody in the west really knows about - Enemy has fared far better over time, with critics being increasingly impressed by the craft and care put into the film.

Mrs Henderson Presents (2005)

Hoskins' last big splash on the awards circuit came with Stephen Frears' wartime comedy Mrs Henderson Presents, playing opposite Judi Dench as the titular Mrs Henderson who buys a London theater to put on all nude reviews. Hoskins received a Golden Globe nomination for this one (his third) while sharing in a National Board Of Review award for the best acting ensemble.

Unleashed (aka Danny The Dog, 2005)

Hoskins chews the scenery with incredible vigor in what is by far the best film Jet Li has ever made in his forays outside of Asia (seriously, it's not even close), slipping back into British gangster mode as the thuggish brute who has caged Jet Li's Danny from childhood, raising him to be a savage pit fighter. Unleashed vaulted director Louis Leterrier immediately onto Hollywood's A-list and Hoskins is a huge part of why, his scene stealing performance elevating the film way above the level that it likely should have lived at. The fights are damn good, too.