LITTLE BIG SCREEN HAT SQUAD: REMEMBERING BOB HOSKINS

Bob Hoskins, a British actor whose powerful screen presence earned him a reputation as "the Cockney Cagney" and who, at 5 feet 6 and with a face he likened to a squashed cabbage, gave the short, bald men of the world a reason to swagger, has died. He was 71.

Hoskins, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2012, died Tuesday of pneumonia in a hospital, his family said in a statement released by London publicist Clair Dobbs.

The actor was best known for playing tough guys, often with a vein of tenderness threading beneath their violent surface.

(Steve Chawkins, L.A. Times)

Hoskins is best known for his film work, but it was a TV role that first put him on the map - the lead role of Arthur the sheet music salesman in Dennis Potter's 'Pennies From Heaven'

For the Toobworld Dynamic, this was an example of the unseen influence of Mr. Sweet the Demon, who forced people to play out their lives in musical numbers in order to bare their souls - often losing their lives in the process.  And Arthur eventually paid that price.

There is a counterpart to this production to be found in the Cineverse, an Americanized remake which starred Steve Martin.  It basically followed the same story, but there's probably no hidden involvement by any movie adaptation of Mr. Sweet.  Both productions are independant of each other remain firmly ensnared in their own fictional universes.

Good night and may God bless....