Bernard Hill will make an emotional TV appearance tonight as The Responder ... trends now
Titanic and Lord Of The Rings legend Bernard Hill died aged 79 on Sunday.
The actor's death comes hours before he is due to return to TV in Martin Freeman's drama The Responder, which will airs on BBC One tonight.
Bernard's agent announced the sad news Bernard died in the early hours of this morning. His cause of death has yet to be announced.
The second series of the crime drama, stars Martin Freeman, as Chris Carson, a police response officer struggling to keep a grip on his mental health.
Bernard stars as Tom in series two of drama, who is the father of Martin Freeman's character Chris.
Titanic and Lord of the Rings legend Bernard Hill died as the age of 79 on Sunday - pictured 2017
His death comes hours before he is due to return to TV in Martin Freeman's drama The Responder, which will airs on BBC One tonight
Chris is trying to get better and go straight, but when Barnes (Amaka Okafor) tricks him into doing a dodgy car stop, he is drawn into a drug war between two of Liverpool's top dealers.
Paying tribute, Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, said: 'Bernard Hill blazed a trail across the screen, and his long-lasting career filled with iconic and remarkable roles is a testament to his incredible talent.
'From Boys from the Blackstuff, to Wolf Hall, The Responder, and many more, we feel truly honoured to have worked with Bernard at the BBC. Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this sad time.'
Previously speaking about signing up for the series, Bernard said: 'Well, it all came in a bit of a rush really and I found myself with the script pages for the character they were talking to me about playing, just Tom's scenes and I thought it could be really interesting to play and wondered what the rest of the script was like and thought it would be quite a good idea to find out, so I said yes!
'It turns out it was really good! Tony is a very talented writer, he's a real Scouse writer and writes with real honesty, which is great.'
Bernard revealed he had a connection with his co-star Martin before they started filming which allowed they to 'get on very well'.
'I had gotten to know Martin when I was in New Zealand and he was doing The Hobbit, so that was good and a useful bit of a background to come into this with and made it easy because we got on very well.
'I think we made a very good father and son, and it was good to find the little bits of these characters that were kept hidden.
