photo: http://www.nndb.com/people/429/000024357/bhoskins2.jpg
Biography
Robert William "Bob" Hoskins (born October 26, 1942) is a British actor best known for playing Cockney rough diamonds and gangsters, for family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, Eddie Valiant).
Early life
Born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (of part Roma descent), Bob Hoskins had a number of occupations before going into acting, made his stage debut in 1969.
He hit the big time in 1978 when he starred in Dennis Potter's successful BBC drama serial, Pennies From Heaven. He is married with two children.
Career
His performances in British films such as The Long Good Friday (1980) and Mona Lisa (1986) won him the approval of the critics and, in the case of the latter, an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He also delivered comic turns in Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985), Super Mario Bros. (1993) and Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) - for which he was nominated for an Golden Globe award(Best Supporting Actor). During the late 1980s and early 1990s he had successful roles in advertising the recently privatised companies of British Gas and British Telecoms (Now BT Group).
Hoskins is known for his "cold bum test" which he uses whenever he receives a new script. He takes it to the lavatory to read, and if it's an enthralling script, his buttocks will have gone cold due to the time elapsed.
He played Nikita Khrushchev in the movie Enemy at the Gates (2001). Khrushchev was shown in his political commissar days during the Battle of Stalingrad.
He made a cameo appearance as a rock band's manager in the Pink Floyd film The Wall, with a one-word expletive spoken part. He has also directed films. He was almost going to be a last minute replacement in The Untouchables, had star Robert DeNiro not decided to play Al Capone. When DeNiro took the part, director Brian DePalma mailed Hoskins a check for $200,000 with a Thank You note, which prompted Hoskins to call up DePalma and ask him if there were any more movies he didn't want him to be in.
Some of Hoskins other notable appearances include playing the fallen-on-hard-times detective, Eddie Valiant, in the classic animation/live action Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), as well as Mrs. Flax's (Cher's) opposite in Mermaids (1990) and Uncle Bart, the violent "owner" of Jet Li in Unleashed.
