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Hill is best known for his roles in Titanic and Lord of the Rings. He played Captain Edward Smith in the 1997 Oscar-winning film and King Théoden in the Lord of the Rings.
His breakout role was in 1982 BBC TV drama Boys from the Blackstuff, where he portrayed Yosser Hughes, a character who struggled - and often failed - to cope with unemployment in Liverpool.
He died early on Sunday morning, his agent Lou Coulson confirmed. With him at the time were his fiancee Alison and his son Gabriel.
Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, the actors who played the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, paid tribute to their co-star at Comic Con in Liverpool.
Sean Astin said: "We love him. He was intrepid, he was funny, he was gruff, he was irascible, he was beautiful."
Boyd recounted watching the trilogy with Monaghan, saying: "I don't think anyone spoke Tolkien's words as great as Bernard did. He would break my heart. He will be solely missed."
Alan Bleasdale, who wrote Boys from the Blackstuff, said Hill's death was a "great loss and also a great surprise".
Hill, who was from Manchester and lived in Suffolk, was due to return to TV screens in series two of The Responder, a BBC drama starring Martin Freeman.
Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, paid tribute to him, saying: "Bernard Hill blazed a trail across the screen, and his long-lasting career filled with iconic and remarkable roles is a testament to his incredible talent."
Other roles in Hill's decades-long career included the 1976 BBC TV series I, Claudius, an appearance in 1982's Gandhi, Shirley Valentine in 1989, The Scorpion King in 2002 and 2008 Tom Cruise film Valkyrie.
He was meant to be at Comic Con Liverpool on Saturday, but had to cancel at the last minute, the convention said in a post on X. As news of his death broke, the organizers said on the platform they were "heartbroken" at Hill's death, and wished his family a "lot of strength".
Scottish musician Barbara Dickson also paid tribute on X, saying he had been a "really marvelous actor".
She added: "It was a privilege to have crossed paths with him. RIP Benny x."
Lewis Musonye
