30 replies to this topic

[PrinceKamalKhan]

Today(21Mar03), James Bond #4(not counting Barry Nelson and David Niven) turns 57 years old. Many happy returns to the most underrated Bond actor of them all and the one who(IMHO) most accurately portrayed Bond as Ian Fleming wrote him. Have a terrific birthday, Tim!

[Dr. Tynan]

Happy Bday Tim D

[TheSaint]

Does anyone know of an address to send Tim birthday greetings?

[Xenobia]

Happy Birthday Mr. Dalton. In honor of all the Bond fans you made very happy in the late 1980's, I hope you have a wonderful day, and many more wonderful birthdays to come.

-- Xenobia

[RITZ]

Happy Birthday Timothy Dalton

You are my favourite 007 Respect.

[kevrichardson]

Great Happy Birthday to the most underrated Bond ever . Timothy Dalton .

[ChandlerBing]

Happy Birthday, Mr. Dalton, I look forward to hearing about your latest movie for the Fox Family Channel! I can't wait to hear about your buddy movie with George Lazenby!

[Loomis]

Originally posted by ChandlerBing
Happy Birthday, Mr. Dalton, I look forward to hearing about your latest movie for the Fox Family Channel!  I can't wait to hear about your buddy movie with George Lazenby!  

Happy birthday, Mr Dalton. Don't worry about ChandlerBing, he's drunk or insane and really doesn't know what he's typing. Thanks for giving us Bond fans two of the finest performances ever as 007 in two of the greatest Bond films ever. Brosnan doesn't hold a candle to you. Many of us mourn the third Bond movie you never made, but continue to follow your career with interest. Many happy returns! (And no, I'm not Bondpurist posting under a different name.)

[ChandlerBing]

Nope, I'm sober, maybe a little crazy, but aren't we all? Insanity would have been in making that idiotic 3rd Dalton Bond movie. Dalton never caught on with the mainstream.

Where is Bondpurist anyway?

[Daltonitus]

Dalton never cought on with the mainstream.

A bunch of stupid kids craving mindless action laughing about silly sex jokes riding skateboards and spitting alot.

I think i'll keep away from the mainstream

[ChandlerBing]

When your first Bond film only sells 13.1 million tickets and your next one does even worse with 8.7, what does that tell you? Play Monday morning quarterback all you want, Dalton didn't catch on with the mainstream public, no matter how much you want to demean them.

[Loomis]

I don't care about the mainstream and massive grosses in film any more than I do in music. Britney Spears is "mainstream". It's all about quality, people. Dalton was the last proper screen incarnation of Bond, and unquestionably the most perfect choice to portray Fleming's Bond. His Bond and his Bond films didn't try to suck up to US audiences (well, I suppose LICENCE TO KILL did, to an extent). Brosnan is a mid-Atlantic action hero whose Bond films have none of the class and panache of the Dalton outings. GOLDENEYE, TOMORROW NEVER DIES, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and DIE ANOTHER DAY are all reasonably entertaining, but they pale beside THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and LICENCE TO KILL.

[ChandlerBing]

Well, since quite a few people never did see either Dalton movie, you're going to have a hard time away from this board finding someone to debate that.

[Loomis]

There are plenty of fine films that "the man on the street" or Average Joe won't have heard about. Mass appeal has little to do with quality.

ChandlerBing, I know you don't care for LICENCE TO KILL, but where do you stand on THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS? A pretty good Bond flick regardless of one's views on Dalton, no?

[Mourning Becomes Electra]

*sniff* Yes the low popularity of his films just proves he's better than all the rest, he was just too good for those silly masses. Ah the class, panache, elegance, style and wit of LTK, we'll never see it's like again... wait we didn't see any of that in the film to begin with... nevermind.

Oh Happy Birthday Tim, you were a great Neville Sinclair!

[Loomis]

Hang on, MBE, I'm not snobbishly proclaiming that the Dalton Bonds were great BECAUSE they were unpopular (although I don't agree that they were as unpopular as all that, anyway). I'm saying that the fact that they didn't have the mass appeal of the Brosnan Bonds doesn't mean that they were lousy films. And mass appeal DOES have little to do with quality. Was SPIDER-MAN the best film of last year since it grossed more than any other?

[RayBros007]

Originally posted by Mourning Becomes Electra
*sniff*  Yes the low popularity of his films just proves he's better than all the rest, he was just too good for those silly masses.  Ah the class, panache, elegance, style and wit of LTK, we'll never see it's like again...  wait we didn't see any of that in the film to begin with... nevermind.  

Oh Happy Birthday Tim, you were a great Neville Sinclair!

LOL MBE... That's classic;) Anyway Mr. Dalton enjoy your 57th birthday as much as I enjoyed your green peter-pan tights in Flash Gordon:D !!!

[Loomis]

All actors have appeared in bad movies. There are some real turkeys in Brosnan's filmography, which is conveniently forgotten by the people on these forums who seem to think he's an almost holy figure.

To all you Dalton-bashers: come back and mock him once you've achieved the success in your lives and careers that he has. I'm sure he wouldn't wish to swap places with any of you.

[Mourning Becomes Electra]

Loomis, oh I'm just tweaking you. I know that's not what you said specifiically but I've heard it all before; that Dalton and his films are for *true* Bond purists, and failure to realize his and their superiority is just indicative of a supbar understanding of Bond, less refined tastes or basically someone who's entertained by watching squirrels.

And no Spiderman wasn't the best film by far last year. I thought it was an overhyped albeit enjoyable fun flick. And many of my favorite films have barely made a dime. But Bond isn't exactly a niche film series for particular tastes, it's massive with not only a built in audience but a larger audience willing to be wooed, and it's done that to varying degrees of success over 40 years. During that span Dalton's were indeed not very popular compared to most of their Bond compatriots, particularly LTK in the U.S. where it was a dud, which was ironic because I felt it tried to "cater" more to US crime/action film tastes of the 80's than any recent Bond film has tried to "cater" to the U.S. I just don't think it was a good film, let alone one of the best of the Bond series.

[Mourning Becomes Electra]

Well I liked his Baron in Flash Gordon, I thought he was the best thing in the film (liked the tights too), ditto his wonderful Neville Sinclair in the otherwise rather flacid Rocketer. So I wasn't mocking. If I was mocking I'd have brought up Sextette. But of course all actors just as all directors have dogs in their career. As for PB, oh please, he comes in for more than his share of mocking on this forum but like Dalton I'm sure he can take it. As you said they can laugh at us all the way to the bank.

[Loomis]

Heh heh, tweak away, MBE. For my part, I always rise to the bait of the Dalton-bashers, especially ChandlerBing. This attitude of, Ooh, Brosnan was born to play Bond, and his films have made a hundred zillion hillion bucks, and Fleming's Bond is old and dull and boring, and we the people like Brosnan with his big explosions every two minutes. CB's succeeded in provoking me a few times before, particularly on LICENCE TO KILL, and every time I think, no, I'm going to let it lie, I find I've made about 15 posts before I even know it.

I leave you to enjoy the overgrown schoolboy that is Brosnan while I savour the REAL Bond: Dalton's Bond, Fleming's Bond! The proper British 007 from a world of boarding schools, beatings and fags*! The Bond of snobbery, sexism, racism and imperialism! The Bond who smoked 60 cigarettes a day! Not today's namby-pamby, New Labour-voting, caring, sharing, sensitive New Man! Boy, another pink gin! (My goodness, maybe I AM turning into Bondpurist:D). Oh, look! What a pretty squirrel!

*I use the term to denote both pupils who in days gone by acted as servants to older boys at British boarding schools, and cigarettes.

[Mourning Becomes Electra]

Dalton as Fleming's Bond.... I don't think so... the Prozac Bond yeah sure.... as in badly in need of some for those bizarro eye bulging teeth gnashing mood swings of his. But hey some (OK lots.... ca-ching, ca-ching!) prefer the more subtle, complex, world weary, charming, elegant, steely (!), lethal, hedonist and yeah I'll say it SEXY Bond of Brosnan.... ooh look a pretty explosion see how fast he runs too!

[Loomis]

Brosnan? Grrr.... Such a fine actor, isn't he? He's normally nice enough to give us at least three different accents to enjoy in every Bond film he makes. And so thoughtful of him to mince down those stairs in GOLDENEYE (mustn't forget the "pink pound"). And he doesn't go in for shouting or speaking very, very slowly with hideously theatrical movements when he wants to convey emotion, does he? He hasn't had plastic surgery to make himself look more of a beauty. Neither has Michael Jackson.

Bondpurist, Jim, where are you guys? Help me out here!

[The Girl With The Golden Gun]

Hold on, hold on, let's remember what we were trying to do here, which was to wish Timothy Dalton a very Happy Birthday!

many happy returns to you, sir.

[Mourning Becomes Electra]

Loomis, if you're in need of a Jim slam, just pop his name and Brosnan's in the search engine and voila I'm sure you'll find one to your taste. But he's not going to be of much with Dalton and LTK... now if you were extolling Connery.... As for hideously theatrical, isn't that what you like, otherwise why would you like Dalton as Bond? The man has splinters in his teeth. And we're not going to get into looks are we.... because I don't want to be criticising Tim 's looks in his birthday topic... that would be in bad taste, unlike criticising his acting (which you made me do as a comparison! LOL).

[Loomis]

Originally posted by Mourning Becomes Electra

As for hideously theatrical, isn't that what you like, otherwise why would you like Dalton as Bond?  The man has splinters in his teeth.  

LOL MBE! Excellent post, which there's no way I'm going to be able to follow. You've reminded me of a review I once read of LTK that claimed it was "like Miami Vice with Hamlet in the lead". You've also got me remembering something Jim once wrote about the theatricality of Dalton's performances. Splinters in his teeth, indeed. Yes, you could say that.

[Mourning Becomes Electra]

And on that gracious note I will take The Girl With The Golden Gun's excellent advice and once again wish Mr Dalton a most happy birthday.

[Jeff007]

Happy Birthday Tim! Thanks for the memories.

[00Kevin]

happy Birthday Tim!

I was on history channel.com today and clicked on this day in history

It said:

1946 - Timothy Dalton (actor: Centennial, Licence to Kill, The Lion in Winter, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Flash Gordon)

It was a surprise that LTK was on there, even more of a surprise that it was on over TLD

[Xenobia]

Speaking of Cenntenial...and I love dropping in this little factoid whenever I can....

Stephanie Zimbalist, as far as I know, is the only actress who can claim to have worked with two Bonds *before* they were Bond....Mr. Dalton in Cenntenial, and if you don't know the second one...go back to sleep.

I hope you having a good day, Mr. Dalton.

-- Xenobia