[1] Known for his intense but sensitive portrayals of "tough guy" characters,[2][3] he began his career on stage before making his screen breakthrough playing Arthur Parker on the 1978 BBC Television serial Pennies from Heaven.

Hoskins had supporting roles in Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982), The Honorary Consul (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), Brazil (1985), Hook (1991), Nixon (1995), Enemy at the Gates (2001), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005), A Christmas Carol (2009), Made in Dagenham (2010), and Snow White and the Huntsman (2012).

[9] Hoskins's acting career began in 1968 at the Victoria Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, in a production of Romeo and Juliet in which he played a servant named Peter.

[10] A year later, while waiting in the bar at Unity Theatre, London, for his friend the actor Roger Frost, Hoskins found himself being auditioned for a play after being handed a script and told, "You're next.

[17] Hoskins's first major television role was in On the Move (1975–1976), an educational drama series directed by Barbara Derkow aimed at tackling adult illiteracy.

[19] His breakthrough in television came later in the original BBC version of Dennis Potter's 6-part drama Pennies from Heaven (1978), in which he portrayed adulterous sheet music salesman Arthur Parker.

He later played Iago (opposite Anthony Hopkins) in Jonathan Miller's BBC Television Shakespeare production of Othello (1981).

Hoskins's other film parts included Spoor in Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985), Smee in Hook (1991) and in Neverland (2011), starring opposite Cher in Mermaids (1990), portraying Nikita Khrushchev as a political commissar in Enemy at the Gates (2001) and playing Uncle Bart, the violent psychopathic "owner" of Jet Li in Unleashed (2005, aka Danny the Dog).

[23] A high point in Hoskins's career was portraying the private investigator Edward "Eddie" Valiant in the live-action/animated family blockbuster, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).

He was slated to be the last-minute replacement in case Robert De Niro refused the role of Al Capone in The Untouchables (1987).

In a 1988 interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross, when asked about many of his roles being underworld types, Hoskins said, "I think if you've got a face like mine you don't usually wind up with the parts that Errol Flynn played, you know?

[31] In 2009, he returned to television for Jimmy McGovern's drama serial The Street, playing a publican who opposes a local gangster.

The 2011 film In Search of La Che features a character "Wermit," whose every line of dialogue is a quote from Bob Hoskins.

[36] When asked in an interview which living person he most despised, Hoskins named Tony Blair and said, "He's done even more damage than Thatcher."