Bernard Hill, the stage, television and film actor who rose to fame for his unforgettable portrayal of Yosser Hughes, has died at the age of 79.

Hill played the unemployed character with the famous “gizza job” catchphrase in Alan Bleasdale’s 1982 BBC series Boys from the Blackstuff. It helped launch a stellar career that included playing the captain of the Titanic in James Cameron’s 1997 film and Théoden, king of Rohan, in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Hill’s agent Lou Coulson said the actor died in the early hours of Sunday.

One of the first to pay tribute on Sunday was the singer Barbara Dickson who worked with Hill in Willy Russell’s 1974 stage musical John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert.

Dickson said on X: “A really marvellous actor. It was a privilege to have crossed paths with him. RIP Benny x.”

Hill played John Lennon in the musical, one of a number of Merseyside characters that the Manchester-born actor became famous for.

None more so than Yosser Hughes, a jobless, desperate father of three who became an emblem of everything that was wrong in Thatcher’s Britain. The character would pester and hector people saying: “Gizza job. Go on. Gizza job. I could do that,” and when he wasn’t head-butting people he was banging his own head against the wall, literally and metaphorically.

The writer James Graham, who has adapted Boys from the Blackstuff for the stage, paid tribute, saying: “It’s almost impossible to overstate the extent of the impact and legacy Bernard Hill, alongside Alan Bleasdale, created when they made Yosser Hughes. How rare it is that a character can so definitively come to represent an era, both for Liverpool but way beyond.

“Yosser is often remembered as a head-butting brute, which he was. But Bernard’s mesmerising and heart-breaking incarnation of a man being slowly broken, in his spirit and his mind, by the cruelty of the world around him, it’s easy to forget how much heart there was there too.”Hill’s performance gained him a nomination for a best television actor Bafta, losing out to Alec Guinness for Smiley’s People.

Bleasdale has described Hill’s performance as Yosser as “the great, definitive performance of his generation”.

Hill was reunited with Willy Russell in the film Shirley Valentine, starring Pauline Collins, in which he played the title character’s husband, Joe.

He is posthumously back on British TV screens this weekend, playing Martin Freeman’s dad in the BBC police series The Responder, set in Liverpool.

Interviewed recently about his fondness for the city, Hill said: “Liverpool is one of my favourite places, I’ve got a great relationship with the city. I lived there for a long time and my daughter was born there so it’s like my second home.”

Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, paid tribute. “Bernard Hill blazed a trail across the screen, and his long-lasting career filled with iconic and remarkable roles is a testament to his incredible talent,” she said.

“From Boys from the Blackstuff, to Wolf Hall, The Responder, and many more, we feel truly honoured to have worked with Bernard at the BBC. Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this sad time.”

When Hollywood came knocking for Hill it led to roles that included Titanic, as well as the San Quentin prison warden Luther Plunkitt in Clint Eastwood’s True Crime and the friendly inventor Philos opposite Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, in The Scorpion King.

Hill enjoyed the work but said he never wanted to join other British actors moving to Los Angeles. He will be best known to many people as Théoden in the Lord of the Rings films. Asked about his experience filming in New Zealand Hill said: “I loved every minute of every day that I was on Lord of the Rings.”

The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson remembered Hill as “one of the funniest and quickest witted people we ever had the good fortune to work with. His performance as Théoden, King of Rohan, is beloved by millions and stands testament to his brilliance as an actor. But we will remember him as a deeply loyal and loving friend.”

Hill had been due to be at Comic Con in Liverpool on Sunday. It said on X: “We’re heartbroken to hear the news of Bernard Hill’s passing. A great loss. Thinking of his family at this very sad time, and wishing them a lot of strength.”

His many television roles included playing David Blunkett in Channel 4’s A Very Social Secretary, for which he was again nominated for a Bafta, this time missing out to Mark Rylance for The Government Inspector.

In 2015, he played the Duke of Norfolk in the BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall.

Hill’s theatre work included Macbeth at the Leicester Haymarket in 1985, Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard in the West End in 1989 and Sir Chiffley Lockheart in Ben Elton’s debut play Gasping at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1990.

Hill was born to working-class parents in 1944. After college in Rusholme he trained as a quantity surveyor but had dreams of being an actor.

When he failed an audition for drama school he decided to train as a teacher but was encouraged to stick at drama by a part-time tutor he met at college – Mike Leigh.

In 1973, Hill, in one of his earliest roles, appeared in Leigh’s first TV drama Hard Labour as the son of a woman, played by Liz Smith, quietly enduring a life of grinding domestic work.