2023 is drawing to a close, and, unfortunately, we have one last bit of bad news (at least, we hope so) to share before the bells ring in the new year tomorrow night.
Reports are coming in that highly-respected British actor Tom Wilkinson has passed away at the age of 75.
The actor’s death was confirmed in a statement shared by his agent on behalf of his family.
“It is with great sadness that the family of Tom Wilkinson announce that he died suddenly at home on December 30. His wife and family were with him,” the statement read. “The family asks for privacy at this time.”
Wilkinson will be best-know to CBM fans for his supporting role as the villainous Gotham City mob boss Carmine Falcone in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, but his career spans almost six decades, with 130 film and TV credits to his name.
He won a BAFTA for 1997’s The Full Monty, and reprised the role of Gerald for the recent Disney+ sequel series. He received six BAFTA nominations in total, as well as two Oscar nominations, for Michael Clayton and In The Bedroom.
Wilkinson also earned an Emmy for playing US political figure Benjamin Franklin in the 2008 mini-series John Adams, and an Emmy nomination as John F Kennedy’s father Joe in The Kennedys. He played President Lyndon B. Johnson in 2014’s Selma, and appeared in The Grand Budapest Hotel and Girl with a Pearl Earring.
“For the first time in my life, I started doing something I knew how to do,” Wilkinson said of starting his acting career at the age of 18. “I realised it wasn’t necessarily just these southern middle-class types that got to be actors; it could possibly be people like me. And once I knew, I never changed my mind.”
Our condolences to Wilkinson’s friends and family during this very difficult time.
You can check out Wilkinson’s most famous scene from Batman Begins below.
A young Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels to the Far East, where he’s trained in the martial arts by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), a member of the mysterious League of Shadows. When Ducard reveals the League’s true purpose — the complete destruction of Gotham City — Wayne returns to Gotham intent on cleaning up the city without resorting to murder. With the help of Alfred (Michael Caine), his loyal butler, and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a tech expert at Wayne Enterprises, Batman is born.
