The Lord of the Rings (film series) compiled by "Empire", with Viggo Mortensen's portrayal of Aragorn ranking No. 15, Ian McKellen's portrayal of Gandalf ranking No. 30, Ian Holm's portrayal of Bilbo Baggins (shared with Martin Freeman for his portrayal of the same character in "The Hobbit" films) ranking No. 61, Andy Serkis' portrayal of Gollum ranking No. 66, Sean Astin's portrayal of Samwise Gamgee ranking No. 77, and Orlando Bloom's portrayal of Legolas ranking No. 94. The three films together were nominated for a total of 30 Academy Awards, of which they won 17, a record for any movie trilogy (the three nominations for "" and
The History of The Hobbit Hobbit", the task was given to Taum Santoski in the 1980s. Santoski had connections to the Marquette collection of Tolkien material, which is where the original manuscripts reside. He died in 1991, and ultimately the task passed to John Rateliff. Although Christopher Tolkien did not work directly on "The History of The Hobbit", the work is in a very similar vein to the "literary archaeology" of his "History of Middle-earth". Rateliff submitted a finished draft of the book to Christopher Tolkien, who, approving of the work, gave "The History of The Hobbit" his personal blessing to be published in association