Biography
Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert CBE (September 12, 1931 – June 19, 2020) was an English actor. After beginning his career on the British stage as a leading member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he became a successful and prolific performer on television and in films. He received numerous accolades including two BAFTA Awards and a Tony Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award and two Emmy Awards. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1989 by Queen Elizabeth II. H...
Known For
Complete Filmography

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
2014
as Old Bilbo Baggins
Following Smaug's attack on Laketown, Bilbo and the dwarves try to defend Erebor's mountain of treasure from others who claim it: the men of the ruine...

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2012
as Old Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit enjoying his quiet life, is swept into an epic quest by Gandalf the Grey and thirteen dwarves who seek to reclaim their mounta...

Discovering Hamlet
2011
as Polonius (archive footage)
Journey into "Hamlet"-the play and the man-through the experiences of some of the major actors and directors who have brought Shakespeare's great trag...

Ratatouille
2007
as Skinner (voice)
Remy, a resident of Paris, appreciates good food and has quite a sophisticated palate. He would love to become a chef so he can create and enjoy culin...

The Real Middle Earth
2007
as Narrator
This fascinating documentary takes us in Tolkien's footsteps and investigates the landscapes and buildings, the places and names that helped shape Mid...

The Treatment
2007
as Dr. Ernesto Morales
Jake Singer is at loose ends in NYC, and neck deep in psychoanalysis with the outrageous Dr. Morales when he meets the enigmatic and beautiful widow A...

O Jerusalem
2006
as Ben Gurion
A tale of friendship between two men, one Jewish and the other Arab, as the state of Israel is being created.

Strangers with Candy
2006
as Dr. Putney
A prequel to the critically acclaimed series featuring Jerri Blank, a 46 year old ex-junkie, ex-con who returns to high school in a bid to start her l...

Chromophobia
2006
as Edward Aylesbury
Encouraged by his editor to seek 'sexy stories that sell', a reporter preys upon the private life of an erstwhile friend, with disastrous results.

The Queen of Trees
2005
as Narrator
In Africa, the giant fig tree and the tiny fig wasp differ in size a billion times over, but neither could exist without the other. Their extraordinar...

Lord of War
2005
as Simeon Weisz
Yuri Orlov is a globetrotting arms dealer and, through some of the deadliest war zones, he struggles to stay one step ahead of a relentless Interpol a...

The Adventures of Errol Flynn
2005
as Narrator (voice)
A documentary about the life of Errol Flynn, with recollections from friends and family.

The Aviator
2004
as Professor Fitz
A biopic depicting the life of filmmaker and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes from 1927 to 1947, during which time he became a successful film producer ...

A Filmmaker's Journey: Making 'The Return of the King'
2004
as Self
A documentary about the making of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'.

Garden State
2004
as Gideon Largeman
Andrew returns to his hometown for the funeral of his mother, a journey that reconnects him with past friends. The trip coincides with his decision to...

D-Day 6.6.1944
2004
as Narrator (voice)
On June 6th, 1944 the largest military invasion and defence the world has ever seen occurred. D-Day tells the epic story of the preparation and execut...

The Day After Tomorrow
2004
as Terry Rapson
After paleoclimatologist Jack Hall is largely ignored by UN officials when presenting his environmental concerns about the beginning of a new Ice Age,...

The Making of the Return of the King
2004
as Self
A behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." Created by filmmaker Costa Botes (personally selecte...

The Last Dragon
2004
as Narrator
"The Last Dragon" is a nature mockumentary about a British scientific team that attempts to understand the unique incredible beasts that have fascinat...

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2003
as Bilbo
As armies mass for a final battle that will decide the fate of the world--and powerful, ancient forces of Light and Dark compete to determine the outc...

The Beast Within: Making Alien
2003
as (archive footage)
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of “Alien,” the terrifying classic about a spaceship crew trapped with a hideous monster that's hunting them on...

Prisoner of Paradise
2003
as Narrator (voice)
The film tells the true story of Kurt Gerron, a German-Jewish cabaret and film actor in the 1920s and 1930s who was sent to the Theresienstadt concent...

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2001
as Bilbo
Young hobbit Frodo Baggins, after inheriting a mysterious ring from his uncle Bilbo, must leave his home in order to keep it from falling into the han...

The Emperor's New Clothes
2001
as Napoleon Bonaparte / Sergeant Eugene Lenormand
Napoleon, exiled, devises a plan to retake the throne. He'll swap places with commoner Eugene Lenormand, sneak into Paris, then Lenormand will reveal ...

From Hell
2001
as Sir William Gull
Frederick Abberline is an opium-huffing inspector from Scotland Yard who falls for one of Jack the Ripper's prostitute targets in this Hughes brothers...

Esther Kahn
2000
as Nathan Quellen
A Jewish girl in 19th century London dreams of becoming a stage actress.

The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
2000
as Patrick
After Elizabeth's husband dies, she begins to play her tenor saxophone again, and remembers when she was 15 and a member of the Blonde Bombshells, an ...

Bless the Child
2000
as Reverend Grissom
When Maggie's sister Jenna saddles her with an autistic newborn named Cody she touches Maggie's heart and becomes the daughter she has always longed f...

Beautiful Joe
2000
as George The Geek
A bad girl becomes a con artist, gets into trouble with the mob and taps a nice-guy florist for help.

The Miracle Maker
2000
as Pontius Pilate (voice)
A mother and father in search of help for their sick daughter cross paths with an extraordinary carpenter named Jesus, who has devoted his life to spr...

Joe Gould's Secret
2000
as Joe Gould
Around 1940, New Yorker staff writer Joe Mitchell meets Joe Gould, a Greenwich Village character who cadges meals, drinks, and contributions to the Jo...

Animal Farm
1999
as Squealer (voice)
Animals on a farm lead a revolution against the farmers to put their destiny in their own hands. However this revolution eats their own children and t...

Wisconsin Death Trip
1999
as Narrator (voice)
Inspired by the book of the same name, film-maker James Marsh relays a tale of tragedy, murder and mayhem that erupted behind the respectable facade o...

The Match
1999
as Big Tam
Romantic comedy set against the story of a grudge football match between two pubs. The prize for the winner of the centenary match is the the closure ...

Shergar
1999
as Joseph Maguire
Shergar, Ireland's most decorated thoroughbread and perhaps the greatest race horse of all time, is kidnapped by IRA terrorists and held for a $2 mill...

eXistenZ
1999
as Kiri Vinokur
A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been dam...

Simon Magus
1999
as Sirius / Boris / The Devil
Simon is an outcast from his Jewish community because he claims that the devil talks to him and he has the ability to put curses on crops. When Dovid ...

Alice Through the Looking Glass
1998
as White Knight
A modern adaptation of the classic children's story 'Alice through the Looking Glass', which continued on from the popular 'Alice in Wonderland' story...

Tale of the Tides
1998
as Narrator
In Africa there is a fable that explains the creation of the tides. When a hyaena challenged a mudskipper to a drinking contest to decide who should o...

King Lear
1998
as King Lear
An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

Incognito
1997
as John (uncredited)
Harry Donovan is an art forger who paints fake Rembrandt picture for $500,000. The girl he meets and gets into bed with in Paris, Marieke, turns out t...

A Life Less Ordinary
1997
as Mr. Naville
A couple of angels, O'Reilly and Jackson, are sent to Earth to make sure that their next supervised love-connection succeeds. They follow Celine, a sp...

The Sweet Hereafter
1997
as Mitchell Stephens
A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives...

The Fifth Element
1997
as Cornelius
In 2257, a taxi driver is unintentionally given the task of saving a young girl who is part of the key that will ensure the survival of humanity.

Night Falls on Manhattan
1997
as Liam Casey
A newly elected District attorney finds himself in the middle of a police corruption investigation that may involve his father and his partner.

Big Night
1996
as Pascal
Primo and Secondo, two immigrant brothers, pin their hopes on a banquet honoring Louis Prima to save their struggling restaurant.

Loch Ness
1996
as Water Bailiff
Dr. Dempsey, an American scientist, is sent to Scotland to disprove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. He is shocked when Laura, an inn-keeper, i...
A Little Fish in Deep Water
1996
as Narrator
Lake Tanganyika is an 'Ocean' in Africa. Millions of years ago it was colonized by a little fish called 'Cichlid'. Otters, crocodiles, cobras and corm...
Little Red Riding Hood
1995
as Don Mini
Roald Dahl's version of Little Red Riding Hood
Landscape
1995
as Duff
A middle aged couple, housekeeper and chauffeur sit in the huge bare kitchen of a country house pursuing their own thoughts aloud in a ghastly semblan...

There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
1995
as Narrator (voice)
A documentary about the largest display of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt.

The Madness of King George
1994
as Willis
Aging King George III of England is exhibiting signs of madness, a problem little understood in 1788. As the monarch alternates between bouts of confu...

The Deep Blue Sea
1994
as Sir William Collyer
Hester Collyer is rescued by a neighbor after attempting suicide in the flat she shares with her young lover, ex-RAF pilot Freddie Page. The neighbors...

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
1994
as Baron Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein is a promising young doctor who, devastated by the death of his mother during childbirth, becomes obsessed with bringing the dead ...

Mustang: The Hidden Kingdom
1994
as (voice)
Documentary following the journey of the Dalai Lama's personal envoy to the remote feudal kingdom of Mustang.

The Tailor of Gloucester
1993
as The Tailor (voice)
A tailor is making a coat for the Mayor of Gloucester. He is nearly finished except for some cherry coloured silk. Some mice finish the coat in the ni...

The Mysterious Career of Lee Harvey Oswald
1993
as Narrator (voice) (UK version, Timewatch: The Mysterious Career of Lee Harvey Oswald)
An investigative biography originally broadcast in 1993 for BBC Timewatch about the man at the center of the political crime of the 20th century. At t...

The Hour of the Pig
1993
as Albertus
In medieval France, young lawyer Richard Courtois leaves Paris for the simpler life in the country. However, he is soon drawn into amorous and politic...

Blue Ice
1992
as Sir Hector
An ex-British spy (Michael Caine) helps a U.S. diplomat's wife (Sean Young) and blows the lid off a deadly government cover-up.

The Last Romantics
1992
as F.R. Leavis
A semi-fictionalized account of the life of writer F.R. Leavis, his mentor Arthur Quiller Couch, and Leavis's own students at Cambridge University.

Elizabeth R: A Year in the Life of The Queen
1992
as Self - Narrator (voice)
Join the BBC cameras as they go behind the glitter of Buckingham Palace and the pomp of Windsor Castle for a close-up look at the minutia of the monar...

Naked Lunch
1991
as Tom Frost
Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee and his dead-eyed wife, Joan, like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meetin...

Kafka
1991
as Dr. Murnau
Kafka, an insurance worker gets embroiled in an underground group after a co-worker is murdered. The underground group is responsible for bombings all...

Uncle Vanya
1991
as Astrov
Vanya is a bitter, sarcastic man, obsessed with his wasted years and what might have been. He has spent his life toiling for the benefit of the schola...

Mel Gibson Goes Back to School
1991
as Polonius (archive footage)
Mel Gibson teaches Hamlet to a group of high school drama students.

Hamlet
1990
as Polonius
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, finds out that his uncle Claudius killed his father to obtain the throne, and plans revenge.

A Season of Giants
1990
as Lorenzo de' Medici
At the turn of the sixteenth century, Michelangelo (Mark Frankel), Raphael (Andrea Prodan), and Leonardo Da Vinci (John Glover) create their masterpie...

The Tailor of Gloucester
1989
as The Tailor
An ill tailor is trying to finish a coat for a wealthy man. He is hindered by his cat and helped by some grateful mice.

Henry V
1989
as Captain Fluellen
In the midst of the Hundred Years War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.

The Endless Game
1989
as Control
A British agent comes back from retirement after several of his former colleagues, including his former lover, are murdered. He must examine events fr...

The Kingdom of Fun
1989
as Narrator
The largest leisure and shopping complex in Europe, the Metro Centre in Tynemouth, and its creator John Hall.

Another Woman
1988
as Ken
Marion is a woman who has learned to shield herself from her emotions. She rents an apartment to work undisturbed on her new book, but by some acousti...

The Fishing Party
1986
as Narrator
Four prosperous City men take a fishing holiday in Scotland. Their aim is a world record for skate. What emerges is the outspoken, even outrageous, po...

Cry From Home
1986
as Narrator
'I'm British', says the young lady with strawberry blonde hair and a Midlands accent, 'but I don't have a drop of British blood in me.' Carmen Laanema...

Murder by the Book
1986
as Hercule Poirot
Agatha Christie’s agents propose that it’s time for her to publish the manuscript she wrote thirty-five years earlier, a novel in which she finally ki...

The Browning Version
1985
as Andrew Crocker-Harris
Adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play produced for the BBC in 1985.

Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill
1985
as Eustace Edgehill
Eustace and Dorrie Edgehill have decided to leave Samola, a British protectorate in the Pacific. After the failure of his latest harebrained scheme, n...

Dreamchild
1985
as Reverend Charles L. Dodgson / Lewis Carroll
Eighty-year-old Alice Hargreaves is about to visit Columbia University to attend a reception in honor of author Lewis Carroll. As a child, Alice had a...

Wetherby
1985
as Stanley Pilborough
The mysterious death of an enigmatic young man newly arrived in the suburb of Wetherby releases the long-repressed, dark passions of some of its resid...

Dance with a Stranger
1985
as Desmond Cussen
Ruth Ellis lives with her ten-year old son Andy next to a night club. One night she meets David Blakely, and they start a love affair. However, for Da...

Brazil
1985
as Mr. Kurtzmann
Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautif...

Visions of Power
1985
as Narrator
A look at the way TV affects and manipulates viewers.

The Cost of Treachery
1984
as Narrator
In 1949, at the height of the Cold War, the British and American Governments decided to fight back at the growing Soviet Empire with a secret plan, th...

Laughterhouse
1984
as Ben Singleton
A farmer becomes an unintentional celebrity when, because of a strike, he has to walk his 5000 geese 100 miles to market.

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
1984
as Capitaine Phillippe D'Arnot
A shipping disaster in the 19th Century has stranded a man and woman in the wilds of Africa. The lady is pregnant, and gives birth to a son in their t...

Bette Davis: The Benevolent Volcano
1983
as Narrator (voice)
A documentary about and an interview with Hollywood actress Bette Davis about her life and career from the late 1920s to the 1980s on stage and mostly...

The Return of the Soldier
1983
as Doctor Anderson
The horrors of World War I have robbed returning veteran Chris Baldry of his memory. The traumatized soldier doesn't even recognize his own wife, Kitt...

Soft Targets
1982
as Alexei
Stephen Poliakoff's parody of the spy-thriller genre. A Russian diplomat becomes convinced that he is at the centre of a Foreign Office plot.

Inside the Third Reich
1982
as Dr. Joseph Goebbels
A dramatization of the life of Albert Speer, Hitler's young architect and onetime confidant, and his meteoric rise into the Nazi hierarchy. Based upon...

Strike: The Birth of Solidarity
1981
as Lech Walesa
British TV Movie drama/documentary detailing the birth of Poland's Solidarity union

Time Bandits
1981
as Napoleon
Young history buff Kevin can scarcely believe it when six dwarfs emerge from his closet one night. Former employees of the Supreme Being, they've purl...

Chariots of Fire
1981
as Sam Mussabini
In the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners train for the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddell, a d...

S.O.S. Titanic
1980
as J. Bruce Ismay
The Titanic disaster as seen through the eyes of one couple in each of the three classes on board.

The Misanthrope
1980
as Alceste
One man's defiant stand against the hypocrisy of polite society is the theme of Molière's comic masterpiece. Ian Holm stars in this film set in Paris...

All Quiet on the Western Front
1979
as Himmelstoss
At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerl...

Alien
1979
as Ash
During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew...

Les Misérables
1978
as Thénardier
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both me...

The Lost Boys
1978
as J.M. Barrie
The story of J.M. Barrie and his relationship with the Llewelyn-Davies family. Barrie writes PETER PAN for the five boys, and later adopts George, Jac...

Flayed
1978
as The Man
'There's absolutely no escape. No chairs or tables to hold on to, no fags to light or drinks to pour: no small talk or trivial daytime chatter. Just t...

The Thief of Baghdad
1978
as The Gatekeeper
A resourceful thief helps a handscome prince fight an evil wizard and win the hand of a beautiful princess.

March or Die
1977
as El Krim
Just after World War I, Major Foster is incorporating new recruits into his French Foreign Legion platoon when he is sent to his former remote outpost...

The Man in the Iron Mask
1977
as Duval
Years have passed since the Three Musketeers, Aramis, Athos and Porthos, have fought together with their friend, D'Artagnan. But with the tyrannical K...

Shout at the Devil
1976
as Mohammed
During World War One an English adventurer, an American elephant poacher and the latter's attractive young daughter, set out to destroy a German battl...

Robin and Marian
1976
as King John
Robin Hood, aging none too gracefully, returns exhausted from the Crusades to woo and win Maid Marian one last time.

The Wood Demon
1974
as Khrushchov
A luncheon party gathers to celebrate a wealthy unmarried man's birthday; his sister hopes he'll marry Sonya, the daughter of a selfish gout-ridden ol...

Juggernaut
1974
as Nicholas Porter
A terrorist demands a huge ransom in exchange for information on how to disarm the seven bombs he has planted aboard a trans-Atlantic cruise ship.

The Homecoming
1973
as Lenny
In a dreary North London flat, the site of perpetual psychological warfare, a philosophy professor visits his family after a nine-year absence and int...

Young Winston
1972
as George E. Buckle
This historical drama is an account of the early life of British politician Winston Churchill, including his childhood years, his time as a war corres...

Mary, Queen of Scots
1971
as David Riccio
Mary Stuart, who was named Queen of Scotland when she was only six days old, is the last Roman Catholic ruler of Scotland. She is imprisoned at the ag...

Nicholas and Alexandra
1971
as Yakovlev
Tsar Nicholas II, the inept last monarch of Russia, insensitive to the needs of his people, is overthrown and exiled to Siberia with his family.
Funny
1971
as Huw
In London, Tom and Phyl are self-assured and in control of the situation whenever they meet their friends Huw and Tegwen. But when they're not on home...

A Severed Head
1971
as Martin Lynch-Gibbon
Antonia Lynch-Gibbon, wife of upper-crust wine dealer Martin, falls in love with her husband's best friend, noted psychiatrist Palmer Anderson. While ...
The End of the Line
1970
as Reverend P. Bagley
On the Edinburgh to London night train, two strangers meet in an otherwise empty carriage. They start to reveal some shocking facts about themselves a...

Emma's Time
1970
as Mark Lang
After the death of novelist Robert Kelvin, his mistress Emma tries to adjust and reflects upon their relationship.
Omri's Burning
1969
as Omri
A study of a man’s slide into the abyss of alcoholism and of the women who attempt to save him

Moonlight on the Highway
1969
Writing for ITV's SATURDAY NIGHT THEATRE series, Dennis Potter introduced the notion that popular music expresses the yearning of the human spirit for...

Oh! What a Lovely War
1969
as President Poincare
The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the three boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warf...

Edward the Confessor
1969
as Edward Gobey
Edward Gobey has a strange compulsion.

The Fixer
1968
as Grubeshov
Set in tsarist Russia around the turn of the century and based on a true story of a Russian Jewish peasant Yakov Bog who was wrongly imprisoned for a ...

Frankenstein
1968
as Frankenstein / The Monster
A version of the famous story in which Ian Holm plays both Dr. Frankenstein and the Creature he puts together from parts of dead bodies and brings to ...

A Midsummer Night's Dream
1968
as Puck
Peter Hall's film adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy, filmed in and around an English country house and starring actors from the Royal Shakespeare Com...

The Bofors Gun
1968
as Gunner Flynn
A national service NCO (David Warner) comes face to face with an embittered Irish Gunner (Nicol Williamson) who is determined to humiliate him.

Opus
1967
as Lenny (The Homecoming)
Impressions of contemporary British arts and fashion. Summary of art through the ages taking in every thing from Mary Quant to the Marat/Sade producti...

The Wars of the Roses
1965
as King Richard III
A 1965 BBC adaptation of William Shakespeare's first historical tetralogy (1 Henry VI, 2 Henry VI, 3 Henry VI and Richard III), which deals with the c...
The Paradise Suite
1963
as Jamie Norton
A troubled actress has conversations with a range of different people.

The Cherry Orchard
1962
as Trofimov
Madame Ranevsky and her daughter Anya return home from Paris to find that their beloved family estate and cherry orchard are to be auctioned off to pa...

Girls at Sea
1958
as Marine (uncredited)
When HMS Scotia pays a visit to the French Riviera, the officers throw a lavish party to celebrate the engagement of Captain Robert Randall to Jill Ea...
Rope
1957
as Granillo
British iTV adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's Rope that aired as a part of ITV Play of the Week.