Orson Bean played Bilbo Baggins in the 1977 animated film based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
Produced by Rankin/Bass, the television film adapts Tolkien’s 1937 novel in an animated musical format. Bean supplied Bilbo’s speaking voice, while the cast included John Huston as Gandalf and Theodore Gottlieb as Gollum. The production was broadcast in the United States in November 1977.
The film is often mixed up with later screen adaptations. Peter Jackson’s live-action Hobbit trilogy, released from 2012 to 2014, featured Martin Freeman as Bilbo. The 1977 version instead belongs to an earlier group of Rankin/Bass Tolkien productions and has a distinctive visual style influenced partly by Japanese animation. Its songs include “The Greatest Adventure,” which became closely associated with the television film.