Ray Stevenson has passed away (Rome, Vikings)

He was hospitalized in Italy while working on a film. Aged 58.

His Punisher movie was kind of insane.

He was also Blackbeard on Black Sails.

He was awesome as Titus Pullo on Rome.

He really was the best character in the series.

He was just one of those guys I was always happy to see in a movie or TV show.

He was ridiculously OTT as the villain in RRR but frankly every single person and thing in the film was OTT.

My husband was very saddened by this. He loved the Viking series and is very much looking forward to Ahsoka, in which he had a role. The older I get, the more 58 seems far to young to die.

Aw shit I loved him. Pullo always.

What a tragedy, far too young. He Das great in everything I saw him in.

I mean, that whole movie is amazing, but also comes from a film tradition of being way over the top. Restraint is probably one of the few words not used to describe it.

Of the four onscreen Punishers, he was the only comics-accurate one, IMHO. He fit perfectly the Garth Ennis period of the book. Also liked him on Dexter.

It’s a strange movie in a way, but it is a lot of fun. I’d recommend it, to be honest. I heard an interview with the director, who had not read any Punisher in advance. She went on message boards and talked to fans of Punisher and read the books and tried to make the movie like the comic the fans loved.

She was, and is, not a major director. She just kind of got the opportunity to do a Punisher movie and tried really hard to do her best.

One of the first times I saw Stevenson in a film was in the 2004 King Arthur film, with Clive Owen and Keira Knightley. It didn’t do well at the box office, but I really enjoyed it.

Stevenson was great as Dagonet, one of Arthur’s knights, who was infamously lustful, and had sired a large number of children. When one of the other knights asks Dagonet what his wife sees in him, he replies with (spoilered because it’s kind of crude, but hilarious, and delivered perfectly): “A baby’s arm, holding an apple.”

She did a great job, and should have gotten more credit for it.