The Lord of the Rings star Ian Holm dies

British actor Ian Holm has died at the age of 88.

HOLM, who starred as Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, passed away in hospital in London on Friday, after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.

“It is with great sadness that the actor Sir Ian Holm CBE passed away this morning at the age of 88,” his agent said “He died peacefully in hospital, with his family and carer. Charming, kind and ferociously talented, we will miss him hugely.”

After a stellar stage career, Holm earned fans worldwide with his performance as android Ash in Ridley Scott’s 1979 movie Alien. He went on to win a supporting actor BAFTA and receive an Oscar nomination for his role as athletics coach Sam Mussabini in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire, and became a regular presence on movie and TV screens, starring in films like The Fifth Element and Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.

It is for his role as Frodo’s uncle Bilbo Baggins in Jackson’s adaptations of J R R Tolkien’s fantasy novels that he is best known. He played the character in The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King and he reprised the role alongside Martin Freeman as a younger version of the character in The Hobbit movies.

He is survived by his fourth wife, Sophie de Stempel, and five children from previous relationships, as well as his third wife, actress Penelope Wilton.