Dalton's Non-Bond films.

I like Flash Gordon and a little movie called Hawks with a pre-ER Anthony Edwards. They play terminal cancer patients who break away from their hospice to live a little bit and trying not to think about their fate. It's a nice little film and gives Dalton a chance to show his humorous side.

I'm surprised Jaelle hasn't jumped on this thread yet.
Give me time, Turn, give me time! The problem with this thread is that it's a subject I can go on about at too much length and am always far too willing to talk about!! So all you guys who are sick of me raving on about Timboy....go to another thread right now!

You folks have mentioned some good ones...

The Informant - a gritty original Showtime film Tim did around 1997 in which he plays a tough, nasty, bigoted loyalist police detective in Northern Ireland who's trying to apprehend NRA terrorists; Tim sports a really scratchy beard and a mean accent...he's just really mean!

Agatha, 1979 -- again, Tim is SO ROTTEN as poor Agatha Christie's philandering husband. Co-starring Vanessa Redgrave and Dustin Hoffman (and directed by future Bond director Michael Apted), this was one of Tim's early high-profile films that got loads of attention during the period when he was getting so much industry and press attention as being "on the brink of stardom" (Tim was *always* "on the brink of stardom"!)

Time Share (aka "Bitter Suite" in Europe), 2000 - a US/German co-production, produced by Nastassia Kinski, a nice little romantic comedy showcasing Tim's terrific abilities with kids; often shown on US TV's Family channel, the version shown here is not the complete one---a couple of great scenes are cut (incl. a funny sex scene).

Cromwell, 1970 - another one of Tim's high-profile films, starring Alec Guinness and Richard Harris; a terrific historical film marred only by (imo) Harris' poor interpretation of Cromwell himself. I love the scene in which Tim's character (badly injured, exhausted, having sacrificed so much for his king) is savagely berated by the king (Guinness).

Beautician & the Beast, 1996 - a light romantic comedy produced by Fran Drescher and her husband as her first major project after her TV show ended. Tim loved to doing it it was the first time he was given the opportunity to do comedy on film (he'd done a lot of it on stage). I think there are some really funny jokes in the film. It's incredibly silly nonsense but I would've enjoyed it even without Tim (Kevin Kline was Fran Drescher's first choice for Tim's role). Tim and Fran had great chemistry and Fran wound up saying the same thing I've read so many of his co-stars say: "he's very nice on the eyes and I thoroughly enjoyed kissing him." His long-time girlfriend and mother of his child, Oksana, can be seen briefly in the film as the pianist in the orchestra at the party scene (she's a concert pianist in real life).

Booyeah mentioned Tim's episode of Tales From the Crypt (1992) -- the "old man" he referred to was none other than Walter Gotell, playing an old Nazi who Tim (playing a werewolf hunter) shoots in the head. Tim is very nasty and sexy in this one! A personal favorite, but it's too short!

(BTW, you can get most of these cheaply on video or dvd, and a lot of them are repeated often on various US channels; if you get digital or satellite TV, you have more chance of catching them on reruns).

One of my favorite Tim projects is a documentary - In the Company of Wolves on the National Geographic channel from 1994. Tim traveled with wolf experts for a year in the wilds of Alaska and other cold places in the US and Canada looking for wolves. He narrates it and you see him roughing it in various locales trying to find wolves and finally meeting up with them.

I had to laugh at Chaotician's mention of Brenda Starr! LOL!! This film was made in 1986 and due to lawsuits and federal investigations of the producers, it was only released 6 years later. (It was the film that Tim had to finish before doing TLD). It was meant as a showcase for the young starlet Brooke Shields, intended as her first major film role. It's hilariously BAD!! But I love ogling Tim running around wearing a Zorro-like outfit and an eyepatch always rescuing Brooke just in the nick of time. Brooke's verdict on Tim: "Timothy Dalton is very sweet and very sexy, it was nice kissing him." (She was about 19, he was 39 or so).

I put Sextette (1978) along with Brenda Starr as Tim's contribution to Hollywood kitsch (Tim called Sextette his "contribution to vaudeville.") It was Mae West's last film and she chose him specifically to play her sixth husband. It co-starred a zillion big names and Tim played a guy who winds up being a secret British agent who's "bigger than James Bond!" And Tim actually sings! *shudder*

Ok, my very special favorites (other than both Bond films):

1. #1 among all true Timothy Dalton fans is his biggest audience success: Jane Eyre. Almost overnight, this 1983 BBC two-part miniseries caused Dalton fan clubs to spring up all over the place. He had an enormous impact in Russia especially, where even today there are websites and fan clubs devoted to him due to Jane Eyre and later the Bond films. The series was labeled the best TV production of that year by various critics, including the NY Times, Variety and the LA Times. The Times of London called him "a Byronically sexual Rochester." British members of this forum who remember the impact that Colin Firth had on the female British population with Pride & Prejudice will understand the type of impact Tim had on women after Jane Eyre was broadcast---it was the same hysteria. It's not that he just looked and sounded incredibly gorgeous but it featured his strongest talent: his powerful ability with *language* and *repressed emotion*. Since Tim asked to severely cut down the dialogue in his Bond films, Bond fans are not aware of Tim's ability with difficult dialogue. He's really quite remarkable in his command of language.

2. The Lion in Winter, 1968 - Tim's film debut; he was specifically chosen by Peter O'Toole for his role in the film; his primary scene with O'Toole is exquisite, it's amazing to watch this young actor hold his own with someone like O'Toole. And his work with Hopkins is one of my favorite scenes in any film, ever.

3. Framed, 1993 - this four-hour BBC production was shown on A&E in the US as a two-hour film; Tim plays a police informant who's also a rich, sexy art dealer who has his own harem of beautiful girls (incl. the young Penelope Cruz) and manages to corrupt a young police officer to steal a stash of money and escape from the police. As critic John Leonard said, "Dalton is superb" in this; interestingly, the writer Lynda LaPlante (who created the series with Helen Mirren PRIME SUSPECT) wrote the story with Tim specifically in mind after she met a criminal and former police informant who had facial reconstructive surgery and had asked the doctors to make his face look like Timothy Dalton.

4. Possessed, 2000 - another original Showtime film in which Tim plays a 1940s hard-drinking priest in St. Louis (he slugs a cop, fights with some thugs, curses....not your stereotypical priest). He's brilliant in this film, struggling with his traumatic experience in the war, dealing with a young boy who's possessed with such gentleness, and with his own doubts about his faith... It's based on the US' only documented exorcism.

4. The Rocketeer, 1991 -- what can I say that hasn't already been said? Tim's the best thing in the film!

5. The King's Whore, 1990 - an independent film in which Tim plays a king who falls passionately and destructively in love with the wife of one of his ministers; Tim does a lot of fencing and fighting and lovemaking!

6. Lie Down with Lions - not a great film but Tim is fantastic as a morally conflicted CIA agent; he does a lot of great action stunts, beats up a couple of skinheads, whacks a KGB agent with a baseball bat and shoots him, has some great love scenes with Marg Helgenberger, works great with Omar Sharif... I love it!

7. Antony & Cleopatra, 1983 - this is a theatrical production of the Shakespearean play that was filmed for video. It's also available on dvd. It's fantastic. It co-stars Lynn Redgrave and various well-known US character actors. Tim is just brilliant as Antony, just riveting!

8. Hawks, 1988 - Tim plays a cancer patient and has some very moving scenes, a sweet black comedy.

8. The Reef (aka Passion's Way), 1999 - a CBS telefilm with Sela Ward and Leslie Caron set in the 19th century, a romantic drama adaptation of an Edith Wharton story; Tim plays an American diplomat caught in a triangle.

8. Wuthering Heights, 1971 - when Tim was hired to play Heathcliffe, Laurence Olivier was quoted as saying that he "wouldn't have chosen anyone else" to play the role he'd made so famous in the 1930s. The film got mixed reviews but I think Tim is absolutely wonderful playing "a beast in a man's shape."

9. El Hombre Que Supo Amar, 1977 - ("The Man Who Knew How to Love") - a highly regarded Spanish film set in the 16th century in which Tim plays a young bookseller who gets caught in the Inquisition politics of the period. Tim is just amazing in this film, he's so human and innocent and decent and compassionate.

IndyB007 asked about The Doctor & the Devils, 1985... it was based on a story by Dylan Thomas, it's sometimes repeated on the Starz/Encore network. It was another one of Tim's high-profile films. He played the lead and co-starred with Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Pryce and Sian Philips. He plays a brilliant doctor in the 19th century fighting against the prejudices of the period that prohibited doctors and medical students to work with corpses in examining the human body. In his zeal to get corpses, unfortunately for him, he winds up getting involved with some street criminals who start killing people so the doctor will pay them for fresh corpses. I love Tim in this but he appears far too infrequently for me, tho he is the lead!

There's also his endearing performance in the popular 1978 miniseries CENTENNIAL, which was his major introduction to US TV audiences. Although they'd first seen him in the massively hyped episode of Charlie's Angels in which he played Farrah Fawcett's lover, "Fallen Angel." The episode got a lot of PR because it marked Fawcett's return to the show (she was the "It" girl of the time). Tim's character was a suave British thief described as having "James Bondian tastes."

I've also seen Tim in three plays and am about to see him next month in London in HIS DARK MATERIALS. In that play one critic said "he really looks like someone who could lead a war against God!" and another said "when he finally appears on the stage, you suddenly remember the powerful voices of past generations of British stage actors; you suddenly remember what we've lost."

You can see what he looks like in the play here:

http://www.nationalt...mpl=whatsonpics

Awsome!

I remeber Jaelle well...we had some great chit chats (when I was either Ray T or Sensualist or Scorpion on this site.) :cooltongue:

Wonder what she's up to these days. And interesting how the new Bond in the Timothy D mould is involved in own work with HIS DARK MARTEIALS.

I recently bought Flash Gordon and enjoyed his performance very much!

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