Ian Holm  Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 193119 June 2020), known as Ian Holm, was an English actor. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in "The Homecoming" and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of "King Lear". He won the 1981 BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role as athletics trainer Sam Mussabini in "Chariots of Fire", for which he was also nominated for an Academy Award. His other well-known film roles include Ash in "Alien", Father Vito Cornelius in "The Fifth Element", Chef Skinner in "Ratatouille", and Bilbo Baggins in "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" film series. Ian Holm Cuthbert was born on 12 September 1931 in Goodmayes, Essex, to Scottish parents, James Harvey Cuthbert and his wife Jean Wilson (née Holm). His father was a psychiatrist who worked as the superintendent of the West Ham Corporation Mental Hospital and was one of the pioneers of electric shock therapy; his mother was a nurse. He had an older brother, who died when Ian was 12 years old. Holm was educated at the independent Chigwell School in Essex. His parents retired to Mortehoe in Devon and then to Worthing, where he joined an amateur dramatic society. A chance encounter with Henry Baynton, a well-known provincial Shakespearean actor, helped Holm train for admission to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he secured a place from 1950. His studies there were interrupted a year later when he was called up for National Service in the British Army, during which he was posted to Klagenfurt, Austria, and attained the rank of Lance Corporal. They were then interrupted a second time when he volunteered to go on an acting tour of the United States in 1952. Holm graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1953. He made his stage debut in 1954, at Stratford-upon-Avon, playing a spear-carrier in a staging of "Othello". Two years later, he made his London stage debut in "Love Affair". Holm was an established star of the Royal Shakespeare Company before making an effect on television and film. In 1965, he played Richard III in the BBC serialisation of "The Wars of The Roses", based on the RSC production of the plays.