Background
Hootkins was born in Dallas, Texas.
Hootkins was born in Dallas, Texas.
Hootkins attended Princeton University, studying astrophysics before transferring to oriental studies, where he became fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
At the age of 15, Hootkins found himself caught up in the Federal Bureau of Investigation"s investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy when he was interviewed about Mistress Ruth Paine, the woman "harboring" Marina Oswald, the Russian wife of the presumed assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. He had been studying Russian with Paine at his school, Saint Mark"s in Dallas, where he also developed his taste for theatre, joining the same drama group as Tommy Lee Jones.
Hootkins would later say that, since Jones was better looking and got all the best parts, "I supported from then on in." He was a mainstay of the Theatre Intime, making a particular impact with his performance in Orson Welles" Moby Dick—Rehearsed.
He made his home in London until 2002, when he moved to Los Los Angeles Stage In England, Hootkins found work in the theatre as well as in film, and he would have his greatest success on stage portraying Alfred Hitchcock in Terry Johnson"s 2003 hit play Hitchcock Blonde, first at the Royal Court Theatre and in London"s West End.
The role was such a success that producers planned to take the show to Broadway, but it was canceled after he was diagnosed with cancer. Voice acting He was also a voice artist, recording dozens of plays for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio Drama where his roles ranged from J. Edgar Hoover and Orson Welles to Winston Churchill.
In audio books, he read works by Jack London, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Bloch and Carl Hiaasen and performed a complete reading of Herman Melville"s Moby-Dick for Naxos Records Audiobooks in some 24 hours and 50 minutes.
He also voiced Dingodile in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Maximillian Roivas in the cult hit Eternal Darkness: Sanity"s Requiem, and Lucifer in the stop-motion film The Miracle Maker. He played Bobby Mallory in British Broadcasting Corporation Radio4"s dramatisations of Sara Paretsky"s V. I. Warshawski novels, alongside Kathleen Turner. Hootkins died of pancreatic cancer in Santa Monica, California on October 23, 2005, at the age of 57.
His mausoleum is at Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery.