Last week, Sir Ian Holm died at the age of 88. The iconic actor starred in many films over his life, but is perhaps best known for his role as Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit prequels. Now his director Peter Jackson has paid a touching tribute to the great actor.
In a Facebook post titled The Wonderful Sir Ian Holm, Jackson wrote: “I’m feeling very sad at the passing of Sir Ian Holm.
“Ian was such a delightful, generous man. Quiet, but cheeky, with a lovely twinkle in his eye.
“Back in early 2000, before we started shooting our Bilbo scenes for The Fellowship of the Ring, I was nervous about working with such an esteemed actor, but he immediately put me at ease.
“Standing in Bag End on the first day, before cameras started rolling, he took me to one side and said that he would be trying different things in every take, but I shouldn’t be alarmed.”
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Jackson then recounted how he managed to persuade an elderly Holm to reprise Bilbo for The Hobbit prequels in the first half of the last decade.
He wrote: “Over a decade later, we hoped that Ian would play Bilbo again for the opening scenes of The Hobbit. Fran and I had dinner with Ian and his wife Sophie in London, and he told us that he was very sorry, but he couldn’t do it.
“Adding to our shock, he confided that he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and could no longer remember lines. He had difficulty walking, and certainly couldn’t travel to New Zealand. Always a private man, he told us that he’d basically retired, but wasn’t announcing it.
“This was a blow because we had worked out a nice way to hand the role over from Ian as Old Bilbo, to Martin Freeman as Young Bilbo. I described this to him, and he liked it. I also told him how my mother and an uncle had both endured Parkinson’s for years, and I was very familiar with the effects of the disease.”
The Lord of the Rings director added: “At this point, our dinner – which we thought would be about us describing the new scenes we’d like him to do, and Ian thought would be about him explaining why he couldn’t do it – suddenly turned into a think tank, with Ian, Sophie, Fran and I trying to figure out a process that would allow Ian to play Bilbo one last time.
“We’re shooting the movies in New Zealand – but what say we came to London and shoot his scenes close to home? By the end of the dinner he nodded slowly, and said, ‘Yes, I think I could do that’.
“But I knew he was only doing it as a favour to me, and I held his hands and thanked him with tears in my eyes.”
Jackson ended by reminiscing Bilbo’s final scene in The Return of the King, writing: “I’ve always loved Ian’s performance in the final scenes of Return of the King. Farewell, dear Bilbo. Safe travels, darling Ian.”