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Bob Hoskins, the pugnacious British actor known for playing gangsters, tough guys and working-class gentlemen in such films as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "The Long Good Friday" and "Mermaids," has died, his publicist Clair Dobbs said Wednesday.

He was 71.

His passing comes nearly two years after he retired from acting following a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.

Hoskins was perhaps best known for 1988's live-action and animation hybrid "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." In the comedy, he played detective Eddie Valiant, who hates "toons" -- cartoon figures who live in a separate showbiz world bordering Valiant's 1940s Los Angeles -- and takes up the task of proving the innocence of the cartoon title character, accused of murder. The film was the second-highest grossing movie of 1988, after "Rain Man."

He followed the turn with performances in a variety of films, including 1991's "Hook" in which he played Smee, the pirate assistant of Captain Hook; 1995's "Nixon" as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover; and 2001's "Last Orders" as the gambler friend of protagonist Michael Caine, whose pals gather to spread his ashes after his death.