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William Hootkins

Date of birth: 1948-07-05

Place of birth: Dallas, Texas, USA

Known for: Acting

Also known as: Bill Hootkins, William Michael Hootkins

Biography

William Michael Hootkins was born on July 5, 1948, in Dallas, Texas. He moved to London, England in the early '70s and lived there up until 2002. Hootkins was an actor at Theatre Intime while attending Princeton University where he learned how to speak fluent Mandarin Chinese. He also trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, and attended St. Marks, where he was in the same theater group as Tommy Lee Jones. The imposingly bulky and heavyset Hootkins first began acting in films and TV shows alike in the mid '70s. His more noteworthy parts include the first of the Rebel fighter pilots to get killed while attacking the Death Star in "Star Wars", scientist Topol's bumbling oaf assistant in "Flash Gordon", Major Eaton, sent by the US government in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", one of Rod Steiger's demented sons in "American Gothic", a corrupt police lieutenant in "Batman", a disgusting sleazy voyeur in "Hardware", a coarse South African police chief in "Dust Devil", the mysterious and duplicitous Mr. X in "Hear My Song", a haughty corporate executive in "Death Machine", Santa Claus in "Like Father, Like Santa", and an opera-singing vampire in "The Breed". Moreover, Hootkins had small parts in two "Pink Panther" pictures: he's a taxi driver in both "The Trail of the Pink Panther" and "Curse of the Pink Panther". Among the TV shows he did guest spots on are "Yanks Go Home", "Agony", "Play for Today", "Tales of the Unexpected", "The Life and Times of David Lloyd George", "Brett Maverick", "Cagney and Lacey", "Taxi", "Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense", "Poirot", "Chancer", "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", "The Tomorrow People", "The West Wing", and "Absolute Power". Hootkins received many accolades for his outstanding performance as Sir Alfred Hitchcock in Terry Johnson's hit play "Hitchcock Blonde". In addition to his substantial film and TV credits, Hootkins was also a popular and prolific voice artist who recorded dozens of plays for BBC Radio Drama; he supplied the voices for such iconic individuals as Orson Welles, J. Edgar Hoover, and Winston Churchill. William Hootkins died of pancreatic cancer on October 23, 2005. IMDb Mini Biography

Movie Credits

4.1

Star Wars

1977-05-25

Princess Leia is captured and held hostage by the evil Imperial forces in their effort to take over

Raiders of the Lost Ark

1981-06-12

When Dr. Indiana Jones – the tweed-suited professor who just happens to be a celebrated archaeologis

3.6

Batman

1989-06-21

Having witnessed his parents' brutal murder as a child, millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne fight

3.5

A River Runs Through It

1992-10-09

The Maclean brothers, Paul and Norman, live a relatively idyllic life in rural Montana, spending muc

2.9

Death Machine

1995-05-02

Chaank Armaments is experimenting with the ultimate fighting machine which is part human - part mach

3.1

Flash Gordon

1980-12-05

A football player and his mates travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny

Monkeys

1989-02-08

The story of John DeLorean's life, involvement in drug trafficking and eventual arrest. Based on the

The Lady Vanishes

1979-04-30

On the eve of World War II, zany heiress Amanda Kelly travels by train to Switzerland. While passing

3.1

Dust Devil

1992-07-11

A woman on the run from her abusive husband encounters a mysterious hitch-hiker.

2.4

Blessed

2004-05-16

Heather Graham and James Purefoy play a couple who desperately want to have a baby. Unfortunately, s

2.6

Biggles

1986-05-30

Unassuming catering salesmen Jim Ferguson falls through a time hole to 1917 where he saves the life

Hardware

1990-09-14

Mark 13 is a government-built killing machine programmed with artificial intelligence, able to repai

3.3

Bad Timing

1980-03-02

Alex Linden is a psychiatrist living in Vienna who meets Milena Flaherty though a mutual friend. Tho

2.4

The Island of Dr. Moreau

1996-08-23

A plane crash surviving attorney stumbles upon a mysterious island and is shocked to discover that a

2.8

Hanover Street

1979-05-18

Margaret is a nurse in England during WW2, and married to a secret agent. Things get complicated whe

2.6

Trail of the Pink Panther

1982-12-03

The Pink Panther diamond is stolen once again from Lugash and the authorities call in Chief Inspecto

Valentino

1977-09-07

The untimely death of silent screen star Rudolph Valentino prompts the many women in his past to rem

3.4

The Cement Garden

1993-02-20

After the death of her husband, the mother of Julie, Jack, Sue and Tom begins to suffer from a myste

3.4

White Nights

1985-11-22

After his plane crashes in Siberia, a Russian dancer, who defected to the West, is held prisoner in

2.8

Sphinx

1981-02-11

Egyptologist Erica Baron finds more than she bargained for during her long-planned trip to The Land

4.5

Animated Epics: Moby Dick

2000-01-01

Paint-on-glass animation of the classic novel.

2.6

The Breed

2001-07-19

Vampires have come out of the shadows and are living as normal citizens. Two policemen, one a vampir

2.9

American Gothic

1987-08-17

When six friends fly off on a weekend getaway and are suddenly plagued by engine trouble, they're fo

Hear My Song

1991-12-27

Singer Josef Locke fled to Ireland 25 years ago to escape the clutches of the tax man and police Chi

3.2

Twilight's Last Gleaming

1977-02-09

A renegade USAF general, Lawrence Dell, escapes from a military prison and takes over an ICBM silo n

Time Life Animal Oddities: The Meanest Animal Alive

1995-01-01

Shows the killer instinct in action in an African honey badger, a savage, relentless predator which

Predators of the Wild: Bats

1991-01-01

Fascinating footage of swooping bats, their remarkable habits and habitats, and close-up looks at th

2.5

This World, Then the Fireworks

1997-07-11

In 1950s, two incestuous lovers, a depraved suave journalist and his equally depraved prostitute sis

0.7

A State of Emergency

1986-11-01

This story is about a crusading scientist out to stop nuclear testing who is motivated by scientific

3.5

Come Back, Little Sheba

1977-12-31

An emotionally remote recovering alcoholic and his dowdy, unambitious wife face a personal crisis wh

U.S. Marshals: Waco & Rhinehart

1987-03-27

Two unorthodox, anything-goes law enforcement partners, unencumbered by regulations and the law, sea

2.3

Curse of the Pink Panther

1983-08-12

Inspector Clouseau disappears, and the Surete wants the world's second best detective to look for hi

2.5

Like Father, Like Santa

1998-12-01

An unscrupulous businessman, embittered by years of neglect from his true father, who happens to be

2.3

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

1987-07-24

With global superpowers engaged in an increasingly hostile arms race, Superman leads a crusade to ri

The Ambassadors

1977-03-13

Dramatisation of Henry James's novel. Lambert Strether comes to Europe on a difficult and delicate m

2.5

Hussy

1980-05-01

Beaty, a prostitute, and Emory, a lighting/sound technician, fall in love while working at the same

2.7

Zina

1985-11-01

Zina, the daughter of Leon Trotsky by his first wife, is undergoing freudian analysis in Berlin in t

3.3

Dreamchild

1985-10-04

Eighty-year-old Alice Hargreaves is about to visit Columbia University to attend a reception in hono

Mars: Pioneering the Planet

2003-08-10

3.1

Hamilton Mattress

2002-01-01

Sludger the aardvark tries to make it big as a drummer in the big city.

Water

1985-01-11

The British governor of a tiny island nation in the Caribbean Commonwealth finds his idyllic existen

1.5

The Milky Life

1993-02-23

Retired billionaire, Rooney, feels his family loves only his money and not him. He plans to live as

2.7

Haunted Honeymoon

1986-07-25

Radio personalities Larry Abbot and Vickie Pearle are stars of a mystery show. Since they announced

The Life and Times of David Lloyd George

1981-03-04

The Life and Times of David Lloyd George charts the life of the controversial Liberal politician wit

3.3

Funny Bones

1995-09-20

Tommy Fawkes wants to be a successful comedian. After his Las Vegas debut is a failure, he returns t

2.9

Colour Me Kubrick

2005-10-06

The true story of a man who posed as director Stanley Kubrick during the production of Kubrick's las

The Lost Boys

1978-10-11

The story of J.M. Barrie and his relationship with the Llewelyn-Davies family. Barrie writes PETER P

Virgin Mary

1995-10-12

In 1981 in Medjugorje (BA), a group of kids claim that Virgin Mary appeared to them on a hill. The l

Big Zapper

1973-07-05

A female private detective, Harriet Zapper, is hired by a rich old man to find his missing children,

1.3

Something to Believe In

1998-05-08

Reports of a weeping Madonna in Italy reach Las Vegas, where blackjack dealer Maggie has just learnt

2.7

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Espionage Escapades

2000-07-13

Posing as a dancer for the Ballets Russes in Barcelona, Indy meets old friend Pablo Picasso, and nar

2.8

The Tempest

1982-09-24

Exiled Prospero lives on a desolate island with his daughter, Miranda. When Prospero's usurping brot

2.5

The Pope Must Die

1991-06-21

A less-than-qualified and far-from-perfect priest is mistakenly named the new pope. As the pontiff,

Rhinoceros Hunting in Budapest

1997-01-19

A young man's odyssey from a small town in Colorado to Budapest, in search of his estranged girlfrie

2.8

Charlie Muffin

1979-12-11

Charlie Muffin, top British Intelligence operative, has just broken up a major Soviet spy network in

3.5

The Billion Dollar Bubble

1978-06-08

The Billion Dollar Bubble is a 1976 film made for the BBC series Horizon and directed by Brian Gibso

The Paradise Run

1976-04-05

Johnny has joined the army because he likes canoeing, but ends up in a war-torn city and is compromi

2.2

The NeverEnding Story III

1994-10-26

A young boy must restore order when a group of bullies steal the magical book that acts as a portal

2.9

Age of Treason

1993-06-20

It's 69AD in Rome and streetwise hustler Marcus Didius Falco gets caught up in the death of the son

Before Water Lilies

1981-03-24

For various reasons, a number of people have come see the painting Water Lilies by Claude Monet in t

2.9

Dear Wendy

2005-02-04

In a blue-collar American town, a group of teens bands together to form the Dandies, a gang of gunsl

2.3

The Omega Code

1999-10-15

An ancient prophecy is about to be fulfilled as a secret code brings the world to the edge of apocal

2.8

The Magnificent Ambersons

2002-01-12

The spoiled rotten and utterly unlikable rich kid George Amberson becomes horrified when his recentl

2.3

Town & Country

2001-04-27

Porter Stoddard is a well-known New York architect who is at a crossroads... a nexus where twists an

Black Carrion

1984-11-12

Two journalists search for a rock band that was popular 20 years ago but just seemed to have vanishe

Rabbit Pie Day

1980-11-10

As World War II draws to a close thousands of Russian soldiers overtaken by the Allied advance in Eu

Survivor Science: The Dead Man Walking

1999-08-12

Documentary of the Jarrell, Texas F5 tornado that killed 27 people and obliterated the Double Creek

Gummed Labels

1992-09-08

Comedy thriller deals with an arranged marriage.