Bernard Hill was an English actor. Among his many roles, he played Captain Edward Smith in Titanic (1997), Prison Warden Luther Plunkitt in Clint Eastwood's True Crime (1999), and Théoden, King of Rohan, in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2002-2003). Hill also played roles in television dramas, including Yosser Hughes, the troubled "hard man" whose life is falling apart in Alan Bleasdale's 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.

Edward John Smith was a British sea captain and naval officer. In 1880, he joined the White Star Line as an officer, beginning a long career in the British Merchant Navy. Smith went on to serve as the master of numerous White Star Line vessels. During the Second Boer War, he served in the Royal Naval Reserve, transporting British Imperial troops to the Cape Colony. Smith served as captain of the ocean liner Titanic, and went down with the ship when she sank on her maiden voyage.