Tom Wilkinson Dies: ‘The Full Monty’ & ‘In the Bedroom’ Star Was 75
Tom Wilkinson, an Emmy Award winner and a two-time Oscar nominee, has died at age 75.
The BBC confirmed the news of the British actor’s passing with a statement from his agent. “It is with great sadness that the family of Tom Wilkinson announce that he died suddenly at home on December 30,” the statement reads. “His wife and family were with him. The family asks for privacy at this time.”
Wilkinson starred as Gerald in the 1997 film The Full Monty and picked up a BAFTA Film Award for his performance. He returned for the FX series of the same name, which premiered this June on Hulu.
The actor was also known for his roles as Matt Fowler (pictured below) in the 2001 film In the Bedroom, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and as Arthur Edens in the 2007 film Michael Clayton, for which he earned a supporting-actor Oscar nomination.
Tom Wilkinson in In the Bedroom (Credit: Everett Collection)
Wilkinson’s other film credits include 1998’s Shakespeare in Love, 2000’s The Patriot, 2003’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2005’s Batman Begins, 2008’s Valkyrie, and 2011’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
On the small screen, Wilkinson earned an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for portraying Benjamin Franklin in the 2008 HBO biopic miniseries John Adams. He also voiced Threarah in the 2018 Netflix miniseries Watership Down and played the Earl of Brockenhurst in the 2020 Epix miniseries Belgravia.
The Cornwall-raised thespian found his calling when he was asked to direct a play at age 18, the BBC reports. “For the first time in my life, I started doing something I knew how to do,” he once recalled of that time. “I realized 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.”
Wilkinson is survived by wife and frequent costar Diana Hardcastle, with whom he welcomed daughters Alice and Molly, per the BBC.
