@Sharpe thought you might appreciate this paragraph from Anthony Lane’s appreciation in the New Yorker:
Given the chance, he could filch an entire film. Whenever moviegoers I’ve talked to mention “Chariots of Fire” (1981), they always, without exception, mention Holm’s performance as the trainer Sam Mussabini, which brought him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. It is Sam who prepares Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) for the hundred-metre sprint at the Paris Olympics of 1924, and who, on the day, can’t bring himself to watch the race. Instead, he waits alone in a nearby hotel room, from where, at last, he hears “God Save the King” and sees the Union Jack flag ascend. His boy has won. And how does he signal his joy? By sitting on the bed and punching a fist through the top of his straw boater. He laughs at his own audacity, then quickly stifles the laugh. Again, it’s the clarity of Holm’s movement that stays with you. Any more would mean less.
Although, I thought that in the film he was actually banned from attending the race. Either Anthony or I has misremembered…
For millions of viewers, Holm was Bilbo, in two of the three parts of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings,” and again in the two halves of “The Hobbit.”
Did Holm appear in framing scenes in the Hobbit movies? Otherwise, check your facts, Anthony. Also, there were 3 Hobbit movies, more’s the pity.