"It is with great sadness we can confirm that the actor Sir Ian Holm CBE passed away this morning at the age of 88," his agent said in a statement, "He died peacefully in hospital with his family and carer."

His illness was Parkinson's-related, his agent confirmed.

Ian Holm, who has died aged 88, was a brilliant actor in all media whose career fell into distinct phases. On stage, he enjoyed a dazzling early period and triumphant later years, most especially in Shakespeare and Pinter; but, if there was a prolonged period when Holm was absent from the theatre, it was because he suffered a temporarily paralysing form of stage fright. The theatre’s loss, however, was the cinema’s gain. He transferred the vocal precision, technical skill and impish mischief he had displayed on stage to the screen, enjoying a new, late-flowering career in scores of movies including, most notably, the Lord of the Rings cycle.

In 1955 he married Lynn Shaw, and they had two daughters, Jessica and Sarah-Jane. They divorced in 1965, and with the photographer Bee Gilbert, his partner until 1976, he had a son, Barnaby, and a daughter, Lissy. In 1982 he married Sophie Baker, with whom he had a son, Harry. They divorced in 1986, and in 1991 Wilton became his third wife, the marriage ending in divorce in 2002. The following year he married Sophie de Stempel. She and his children, and eight grandchildren, Talulah, Poppy, Tierney, Archie, Karris, Ellie, Edie and Teddy, survive him.