The Sheffield-born actor is Yorkshire’s special connection to Middle-earth.

Sean Bean was born in Handsworth in 1959, attended Brook Comprehensive School, and later studied welding at Rotherham College of Arts and Technology. Before becoming an actor, he worked at his father’s fabrication company.

Sean made his first on-screen appearance as Horace Clark in the ITV drama, The Bill, in 1984. Then, in 2001, The Fellowship of the Ring was released in cinemas. In what became one of his most iconic roles, Sean was cast as Boromir: heir to the Steward of Gondor.

The Fellowship of the Ring is celebrating its 25th anniversary in December.

Since its release, Sean has shared countless stories of his time on set.

In recent years, his famous line, “One does not simply walk into Mordor,” went viral on social media.

In an interview with Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused, Sean revealed the real reason he kept dramatically staring at the floor: he had taped a copy of the script to his leg.

“That’s why I kept looking down,” he told Josh, “It gave me gravitas.”

Apart from finding creative ways to remember lines, playing Boromir meant travelling a long way from the streets of Sheffield.

The Fellowship of the Ring was filmed in New Zealand, and for certain scenes, Sean flew by helicopter to remote mountains and glaciated peaks.

In an interview with Empire, Sean revealed that he was left terrified after a particularly hair-raising flight.

He refused to catch another helicopter, and when filming on a mountain near Queenstown, decided to wake at 2am and hike to the summit instead.

“I was in full costume and I set off before everyone else, but I got there about the same time as everybody else,” he told the magazine.

Boromir completes a dramatic character arc in The Fellowship of the Ring. Initially tempted by the power of the Ring, he dies as a hero, protecting Merry and Pippin from an Orc attack.

Sean has called it his favourite death scene – a bold statement given his later demise as Ned Stark in Game of Thrones.