Actor and writer Stephen Hibbert has died aged 68. He was best known for playing the hitchhiker The Gimp in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction

Stephen Hibbert, the British-born writer and actor famed for his role as The Gimp in Pulp Fiction, has tragically died at 68. He suffered a sudden heart attack in Denver on Monday (March 2).

His family confirmed the sad news and paid their respects. In a heartfelt statement to TMZ, his children, Ronnie, Roslaind and Greg, said: “Our father, Stephen Hibbert, passed away unexpectedly this week. His life was full of love and dedication to the arts and his family. He will be dearly missed by many.”

The actor was best known for playing the role of The Gimp in Quentin Tarantino’s classic 1994 movie, Pulp Fiction – an eerie masked character that Bruce Willis’ character, Butch, runs into the basement of a pawn shop in Los Angeles.

His character was seen chained up and dressed in a black latex bodysuit as he kept an eye on Butch after he was captured. When Butch finally manages to escape, The Gimp makes an attempt to prevent him from leaving and raising the alarm, but he’s left unconscious after a single punch. While he had no lines in the movie, The Gimp’s scene remained one of the standouts from the production.

The actor was part of an improv group, The Groundlings, in 1992, when he first met Tarantino, who would appear as a guest each week. Speaking about their bond, he told AARP two years ago: “He was pretty much the same then as now, hilarious, endlessly curious and passionate about film.

“Quentin, Julia and I were moviegoing buddies and sometime collaborators already, so he asked us to audition for Pulp Fiction.” Speaking of the legendary film, he said previously that it was “one of the greatest films of all time,” and a “great time capsule” of Los Angeles in the Nineties.

Elsewhere, speaking about working with Willis, the late Peter Greene and Ving Rhames, he commented: “Bruce is a lovely guy. At the end of the day he’d invite me, Duane Whitaker, Peter Greene and Ving Rhames over to his swanky, state-of-the-art trailer for drinks. He was totally cool.”

For his audition, he and Tarantino played the roles of a master and a slave. Hibbert said, “He bossed me around the office, and I grovelled. I felt like I’d been training all of my work life for an opportunity to audition for a role like that.”

Hibbert, born in Fleetwood, Lancs, made a name for himself as a television writer in the 1980s, before going on to work on the Late Night with David Letterman show and penning animated children’s shows during the Nineties.

He was also known for adding to scripts for shows, including MADtv and Boy Meets World. In 1994, he went on to write It’s Pat: The Movie, starring Saturday Night Live legend Julia Sweeney.

Stephen also taught improv at the Chaos Bloom Theatre, Denver, as well as film theory at the Denver School of Arts.