Definite List of Deceased Actors from Middle-earth Franchise

Noel Appleby was born on 5 April 1933. He was an actor, known for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988). He died on 17 May 2007 in New Zealand.

Martyn Sanderson was born on 24 February 1938 in Granity, New Zealand. He was an actor and writer, known for Flying Fox in a Freedom Tree (1989), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Harp in the South (1987). He was married to Wanjiku Kiare. He died on 14 October 2009 in Otaki, Manawatu, New Zealand.

Elizabeth Moody was born on 29 October 1939 in Worthing, Sussex, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Dead Alive (1992), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and Heavenly Creatures (1994). She was married to Terence Moody. She died on 12 January 2010 in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Alan Howard was born on 5 August 1937 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) and A Perfect Spy (1987). He was married to Sally Beauman and Stephanie Hinchcliffe Davies. He died on 14 February 2015 in Hampstead, London, England, UK.

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it be Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), or Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), or as the title monster in the Hammer Horror film, The Mummy (1959).

Lee was born in 1922 in London, England, where he and his older sister Xandra were raised by their parents, Contessa Estelle Marie (Carandini di Sarzano) and Geoffrey Trollope Lee, a professional soldier, until their divorce in 1926. Later, while Lee was still a child, his mother married (and later divorced) Harcourt George St.-Croix (nicknamed Ingle), who was a banker. Lee's maternal great-grandfather was an Italian political refugee, while Lee's great-grandmother was English opera singer Marie (Burgess) Carandini.

After attending Wellington College from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organisation in 1947, training as an actor in their "Charm School" and playing a number of bit parts in such films as Corridor of Mirrors (1948). He made a brief appearance in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), in which his future partner-in-horror Peter Cushing also appeared. Both actors also appeared later in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their horror films together.

Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s. He struggled initially in his new career because he was discriminated as being taller than the leading male actors of his time and being too foreign-looking. However, playing the monster in the Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) proved to be a blessing in disguise, since the was successful, leading to him being signed on for future roles in Hammer Film Productions.

Lee's association with Hammer Film Productions brought him into contact with Peter Cushing, and they became good friends. Lee and Cushing often than not played contrasting roles in Hammer films, where Cushing was the protagonist and Lee the villain, whether it be Van Helsing and Dracula respectively in Horror of Dracula (1958), or John Banning and Kharis the Mummy respectively in The Mummy (1959).

Lee continued his role as "Dracula" in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. During this time, he co-starred in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), and made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu, most notably in the first of the series The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), and also appeared in a number of films in Europe. With his own production company, Charlemagne Productions, Ltd., Lee made Nothing But the Night (1973) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976).

By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), and the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).

The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England. The beginning of the new millennium relaunched his career to some degree, during which he has played Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and as Saruman the White in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Lee played Count Dooku again in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), and portrayed the father of Willy Wonka, played by Johnny Depp, in the Tim Burton film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).

On 16 June 2001, he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama. He was created a Knight Bachelor on 13 June 2009 in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and charity. In addition he was made a Commander of the Order of St John on 16 January 1997.

Lee died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 7 June 2015 at 8:30 am after being admitted for respiratory problems and heart failure, shortly after celebrating his 93rd birthday there. His wife delayed the public announcement until 11 June, in order to break the news to their family.

Richard Whiteside was born on 15 April 1968 in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. He was an actor and producer, known for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013), Black Sheep (2006) and Players (2012). He died on 11 August 2015 in Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

William Johnson was born in May 1924 in Hebden Bridge, Great Britain. He was an actor, known for King Kong (2005), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Water Horse (2007). He was married to Merle. He died on 23 September 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Merv Smith was born on 11 March 1933 in Piopio, New Zealand. He was an actor, known for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), This Giant Papier-Mâché Boulder Is Actually Really Heavy (2016) and Lucy (2003). He died on 24 September 2018 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Alistair has been working as an actor and stage-director for 43 years, in New Zealand, Australia and England. He has won seven awards for acting and one for for directing. He trained at Theatre Corporate and the Mercury Theatre in Auckland, NZ and went on to play Hamlet and many other Shakespeare and classic roles, as well as comedies, modern dramas and musicals in theaters around New Zealand, and then in the countries above. He then began an ongoing career in film and television. He continues to work to this day, based in Auckland, NZ.

Bruce Allpress was born on 25 August 1930 in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. He was an actor, known for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Water Horse (2007) and Klynham Summer (1982). He died on 23 April 2020 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Sir Ian Holm was one of the world's greatest actors, a Laurence Olivier Award-winning, Tony Award-winning, BAFTA-winning and Academy Award-nominated British star of films and the stage. He was a member of the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company and has played more than 100 roles in films and on television.

He was born Ian Holm Cuthbert on September 12, 1931, in Goodmayes, Essex, to Scottish parents who worked at the Essex mental asylum. His mother, Jean Wilson (née Holm), was a nurse, and his father, Doctor James Harvey Cuthbert, was a psychiatrist. Young Holm was brought up in London. At the age of seven he was inspired by the seeing 'Les Miserables' and became fond of acting. Holm studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, graduating in 1950 to the Royal Shakespeare Company. There he emerged as an actor whose range and effortless style allowed him to play almost entire Shakespeare's repertoire. In 1959 his stage partner Laurence Olivier scored a hit on Ian Holm in a sword fight in a production of 'Coriolanus'. Holm still had a scar on his finger.

In 1965 Holm made his debut on television as Richard III on the BBC's The Wars of the Roses (1965), which was a filmed theatrical production of four of Shakespeare's plays condensed down into a trilogy. In 1969 Holm won his first BAFTA Film Award Best Supporting Actor for The Bofors Gun (1968), then followed a flow of awards and nominations for his numerous works in film and on television. In 1981, he played one of his best known roles, Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire (1981), for which he was nominated for Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In the late 1990s, he gave a highly-acclaimed turn as the lawyer, Mitchell, in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter (1997), and was subsequently cast in a number of high-profile Hollywood films of the next decade, playing Father Vito Cornelius in The Fifth Element (1997), Bilbo in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), and Professor Fitz in The Aviator (2004), as well as Zach Braff's character's father Gideon in Garden State (2004). His last non-Hobbit film role was a voice part as Skinner in Ratatouille (2007).

Ian Holm had five children, three daughters and two sons from the first two of his four wives and from an additional relationship. In 1989 Holm was created a Commander of the British Empire (CBE), and in 1998 he was knighted for his services to drama. He died in London in June 2020.

Peter Vere-Jones was born on 21 October 1939 in Cheshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Dead Alive (1992), Bad Taste (1987) and Meet the Feebles (1989). He died on 26 January 2021 in New Zealand.

Born in 1949, Antony Sher was raised in South Africa before going to London to study at the Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art between 1969 and 1971. After performing for the Gay Sweatshop theatrical group in "Thinking Straight" (1975), "The Fork" (1976), and "Stone" (1976), he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982. Three years later, his performance in the title role of "Richard III" won him a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and, in 1997, he won another Laurence Olivier Award for "Stanley".

Although he spent more time onstage, Sher appeared in a number of films and TV series, including The History Man (1981), Shadey (1985), The Young Poisoner's Handbook (1995) and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (1996). He gave a charming performance as Benjamin Disraeli in Mrs. Brown (1997), and played "Dr. Moth" in Shakespeare in Love (1998).

Sher was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000.

Pete Smith was born on 7 August 1958 in Kaitaia, New Zealand. He was an actor, known for The Quiet Earth (1985), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Piano (1993). He was married to Mona Papali'i. He died on 29 January 2022 in Kaitaia, Far North District, New Zealand.

His father was a well-to-do builder. Barry was a highly intelligent boy who attended Melbourne University. There, he began acting in revues and doing impersonations. He moved to London in 1959 and began his professional performing career on the West End and Broadway stages as Mr Sowerby in Oliver!, and in Peter Cook's Establishment nightclub. He has created numerous characters including Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.

Peter McKenzie was an actor, known for King Kong (2005), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Legend of William Tell (1998). He died on 9 September 2023 in Wellington, New Zealand.

Ray Henwood was born on 15 January 1937 in Swansea, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013), Heavenly Creatures (1994) and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995). He was married to Carolyn. He died on 26 August 2019 in New Zealand.

Bernard Hill was an English actor. He was well recognized for playing King Théoden in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Captain Edward Smith in Titanic, and Luther Plunkitt, the Warden of San Quentin Prison in the Clint Eastwood film True Crime. Hill was also known for playing roles in television dramas, including Yosser Hughes, the troubled "hard man" whose life is falling apart in Alan Bleasdale's groundbreaking Boys from the Blackstuff in the 1980s, and more recently, as the Duke of Norfolk in the BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.

Educated at The Quintin School to 'O'level GCE standard. Left England for Canada in '56 and served 5 years in the Canadian Army (Provost Sgt.). Arrived in NZ '61 intending to join the NZ Army - unhappily a motorcycle accident finished that idea. Started in amateur theatre '62, and became involved in Radio Drama, TV and commercial voicing. Moved to Wellington '64 for the Downstage production of Oh What a Lovely War, followed by a NZ tour of the RSC's The Comedy of Errors, then a National tour of OWaLW. Lots of Radio Drama - commercial voice work and a period singing folk songs in coffee bars. In '67 I returned to Auckland to play Henry V at Central Theatre, plus 5 more productions before joining the original company at the Mercury Theatre, where I remained based for 20 years appearing in about 120 productions, interspersed with: Performing at the NZ pavilion at 'Expo 70 in Osaka. New Zealand Arts Council sponsored study trip to London '80. Evita (Peron) NZ tour, then filming Jack Holborn for ZDF TV (Munich) in Yugoslavia in '82. Evita (Peron) Brisbane '83, Honolulu Auckland & Wellington'84; Sydney '89. Chess (Molokov): NZ tour '93, Melboune '97; Ken Hill's Phantom (Mephistopheles & Persian Prince)toured NZ '94. Hal Prince's Showboat Sydney (Vallon + understudy Capt Andy) '98. Bryce Courtenay's The Potato Factory (Sir Jasper Waterlow) TV Mini-series Ch 7 Sydney '98. Lord of the Rings (Barliman Butterbur) '99. Oliver (Mr Bumble) Court Theatre Christchurch '05/'06. PowerRangers (Spencer + voice of Benglo) '06/'07'. Plus lots of other TV and film work. Won 2006 Best Actor at the Richmond Rd Short Film Festival for Together. I am divorced and have 2 children. I am an active Freemason - have been Master of my Lodge twice. I'm a Great Priory Officer of the Knights Templar, and District Grand Chancellor in the Order of the Secret Monitor. Also a Knight of Grace in the non-masonic Order of St Lazarus (Jerusalem) and a Knight Commander in the Order of St Stanislas (Poland).