1. William Hootkins was best known for supporting roles in Hollywood blockbusters such as Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Batman.
18 Facts About William Hootkins
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William Hootkins attended St Mark's School of Texas from grade 1 through 12.
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At age 15, Hootkins found himself caught up in the FBI's investigation into the assassination of President John F Kennedy when he was interviewed about Ruth Paine, his Russian teacher.
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William Hootkins attended Princeton University, studying astrophysics before transferring to oriental studies, where he became fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
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William Hootkins made his home in London until 2002, when he moved to Los Angeles.
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In England, William Hootkins found work in the theatre as well as in film, and he would have his greatest success on stage portraying Alfred Hitchcock in Terry Johnson's 2003 hit play Hitchcock Blonde, first at the Royal Court Theatre and in London's West End.
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The role was such a success that producers planned to take the show to Broadway, but it was canceled after William Hootkins was diagnosed with cancer.
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William Hootkins appeared in many roles that made him a welcome figure at fan conventions, particularly for Star Wars in his role of Porkins, the first X-wing Starfighter pilot to be shot down and destroyed.
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William Hootkins appeared in significant parts in films such as Hardware, Like Father, Like Santa, and Hear My Song, where he was the Mr X who was presumed to be the Irish tenor Josef Locke under a false name.
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William Hootkins portrayed Fatty Arbuckle in Ken Russell's infamous 1977 flop Valentino, and played Hans Zarkov's assistant in the 1980 Flash Gordon.
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William Hootkins appeared in several roles on television, including Charles Frohman in The Lost Boys, Colonel Cobb in the remake of The Tomorrow People and as Uncle George in the 2002 remake of The Magnificent Ambersons.
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William Hootkins delivered Churchill's closing eulogy of his friend before parliament to end the series.
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At the time of his death, William Hootkins was planning a screenplay on Fatty Arbuckle, focusing on the comic's life after his fall from grace in 1921; he had met Arbuckle's last wife, Addie McPhail.
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William Hootkins performed an award-winning, unabridged reading of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick for Naxos Audiobooks that runs for 24 hours and 50 minutes.
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William Hootkins voiced Dingodile in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Maximillian Roivas in the cult hit Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, and Lucifer in the stop-motion film The Miracle Maker.
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William Hootkins played Bobby Mallory in BBC Radio 4's dramatisations of Sara Paretsky's V I Warshawski novels, alongside Kathleen Turner.
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William Hootkins voiced Lex Luthor in Radio 4's The Adventures of Superman.
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William Hootkins died of pancreatic cancer in Santa Monica, California on October 23,2005, at the age of 57.