John Hollis
| John Hollis | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Bertie Wyn Hollis 12 November 1927 Fulham, London, England, UK |
| Died |
18 October 2005 (aged 77) London, England |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1959–1999 |
| Spouse(s) | Sheila Hollis |
John Hollis (12 November 1927[1] – 18 October 2005) was an English actor. He played the role of Lobot in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and the German porter at the chateau in The Dirty Dozen. He appeared in the classic 1978 film Superman as one of the Elders of Krypton, and reprised his role in the 1980 theatrical version of Superman II.
He also played the role of Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the cold open of the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, going uncredited due to the controversy over the film rights and characters of Thunderball. In this sequence, his character was famously lifted from a wheelchair and dropped to his death down a chimney stack by Bond (Roger Moore)[2] after he had attempted to kill Bond by using a remote control link to Bond's MI6 helicopter.[3]
Hollis also took the role of Sondergaard in the Jon Pertwee era of Doctor Who in the story The Mutants, and appeared in The Avengers episode The Cybernauts as a sensei and also in The Tomorrow People.
John Hollis was a versatile character actor for BBC Radio. Notable roles include Magwitch in Great Expectations, Leonard Bast in Howards End, Conan Doyle's Inspector Lestrade and Shakespeare's Bardolph. He also took part in some commercial recordings, in parts as various as the March Hare in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the Murderer of the Duke of Clarence in Richard III.
He broadcast his own recollections of a cockney childhood, for the BBC in the 1970s.
References
- ↑ The John Hollis with a birth date of 24 January 1931 refers to a John Digby Hollis who died in November 2005 in the Nottinghamshire district. The actor John Hollis was born Bertie Wyn Hollis in 1927. If you do a Family Tree Search on Ancestry with that name, it'll give his date of death as 18 October 2005. Furthermore, he has two death records on Ancestry & Find My Past (one as John, the other Bertie Wyn).
- ↑ "James Bond multimedia | John Hollis (Bald Man With White Cat)". Jamesbondmm.co.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
- ↑