Iconic actor Bernard Hill, known for his roles in blockbuster movies including “Titanic” and “Lord of the Rings,” has passed away at 79.

Hill’s agent, Lou Coulson, confirmed Hill’s passing, revealing that he passed away on Sunday morning in the presence of his fiancée Alison and his son Gabriel.

Following Hill’s demise, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, the actors in the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) trilogy, paid tribute to their co-star at Comic-Con in Liverpool.

“We love him. He was intrepid, he was funny, he was gruff, he was irascible, he was beautiful,” Astin said.

Alan Bleasdale described Hill’s death as a great loss and also a great surprise.

“It was an astonishing, mesmeric performance – Bernard gave everything to that, and you can see it in all the scenes. He became Yosser Hughes,” Bleasdale said. “I was desperate to work with him. Everything he did – his whole procedure for working, how he worked, and his performance.”

Hill rose to prominence for starring as Yosser Hughes in Alan Bleasdale’s BBC Play for Today program, “The Black Stuff,” and its series sequel, “Boys from the Blackstuff,” from 1980-1982.

He later played supporting roles in “Gandhi,” “The Bounty,” “Shirley Valentine,” “Mountains of the Moon” and “The Ghost and the Darkness.”

In “Titanic,” Hill played Captain Edward Smith, one of the only characters based on a real person in the 1997 tragic romance starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The film also won 11 Academy Awards.

Hill became a fan favorite when he played King Théoden of Rohan (2002-2003) in the 2nd and 3rd films of Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy “The Lord of the Rings.”

Hill made LOTR fans like him even more when he expressed displeasure for Amazon’s “The Rings of Power series,” which is like a prequel to LOTR.

“No, not interested,” he said in 2022 when asked if he had watched the Amazon series. “It’s a money making venture, and I’m not interested in watching that or being in it.”