Social Entertainment / People

William Hootkins

Acting · Born July 5, 1948 · Dallas, Texas, USA

William Michael Hootkins was born on July 5, 1948, in Dallas, Texas. He moved to London, England in the early '70s and lived there up until 2002. Hootkins was an actor at Theatre Intime while attending Princeton University where he learned how to speak fluent Mandarin Chinese. He also trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, and attended St. Marks, where he was in the same theater group as Tommy Lee Jones. The imposingly bulky and heavyset Hootkins first began acting in films and TV shows alike in the mid '70s. His more noteworthy parts include the first of the Rebel fighter pilots to get killed while attacking the Death Star in "Star Wars", scientist Topol's bumbling oaf assistant in "Flash Gordon", Major Eaton, sent by the US government in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", one of Rod Steiger's demented sons in "American Gothic", a corrupt police lieutenant in "Batman", a disgusting sleazy voyeur in "Hardware", a coarse South African police chief in "Dust Devil", the mysterious and duplicitous Mr. X in "Hear My Song", a haughty corporate executive in "Death Machine", Santa Claus in "Like Father, Like Santa", and an opera-singing vampire in "The Breed". Moreover, Hootkins had small parts in two "Pink Panther" pictures: he's a taxi driver in both "The Trail of the Pink Panther" and "Curse of the Pink Panther".

Movies with William Hootkins

• Star Wars (1977) — Red Six (Porkins)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) — Major Eaton
• Batman (1989) — Eckhardt
• A River Runs Through It (1992) — Murphy
• Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) — Harry Howler
• Flash Gordon (1980) — Munson
• Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) — Taxi Driver
• Hardware (1990) — Lincoln Wineberg Jr.
• The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) — Kiril
• The NeverEnding Story III (1994) — Bark Troll / Falkor (voice)
• Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) — Taxi Driver
• White Nights (1985) — Chuck Malarek

TV shows with William Hootkins

• Extreme Machines (1997) — Narrator