Ray Stevenson, Actor in the Thor Movies and ‘RRR,’ Dies at 58 

Ray Stevenson, the burly British actor who starred as Volstagg in the Thor movies and as the brutally evil governor in the recent Oscar-winning Indian hit RRR, has died. He was 58.

Stevenson died Sunday, four days shy of his birthday, his publicist Nicki Fioravante told The Hollywood Reporter. The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported he had been hospitalized on the island of Ischia while in production on the film Cassino on Ischia, directed by Frank Ciota.

No other details of his death were immediately available.

The 6-foot-3 actor was an imposing presence onscreen and commanded attention when he took to the stage for a public appearance at Star Wars Celebration in April. He is one of the main antagonists in the upcoming Star Wars series Ahsoka.

“Getting to wield the light saber is just the best feeling in the world,” he said at Celebration. “The first time they handed it to for the camera test, I couldn’t help myself, I made the noise.”

Stevenson became known to U.S. audiences as the charming, if morally questionable, soldier Titus Pullo on the big-budget 2005-07 HBO series Rome.

A year after that series ended, he was onscreen in Punisher: War Zone (2008) as Marvel anti-hero Frank Castle, and he would return to the Marvel well several more times with small roles in Thor (2011) as Volstagg, a member of Thor’s pals known as the Warriors Three. He last played the part in Thor: Ragnarok (2017).

He was a regular supporting player in multiple franchises, popping up in G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) as the classic toy character Firefly and in Divergent (2014) and its two sequels, The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015) and The Divergent Series: Allegient (2016) as Marcus Eaton.

He played Scott Buxton, the brutal and racist governor and villain in RRR (2022), the action movie that became a sensation on Netflix, one of the highest-grossing films in India, and an awards contender that captured the best song prize at the Oscars.

More to come …