Unfulfilled Promise?

[wadsy]

I think it was Richard Burton (as quoted by Melvyn Bragg) who stated that He



couldn't understand why he had made it when he thought that there were other



actors who hadn,t who were better looking or who had just as much talent as he



did. Obviously talentwise Burton was almost peerless, but he had a point.



Can members think of anyone who perhaps should have been more successful



or more appreciated but for whatever reason wasn't?

[rustywhite]

Director Michael Reeves. His last film showed signs he could have been great. Accidental death or suicide, doesn't matter. A great talent cut off way to early.

[batman]

Maxwell Reed. He arrived on the scene at the same time as Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey and should have been as big a star as both. Bogarde was the best actor of the three and deserved his success. Max was just as good as Mr Skikne (who is also a favourite of mine) but scuppered his chances of international success by a strange desire to be 'the new Stewart Granger', only to discover the world was happy with the one it had already got!

[CaptainWaggett]

name='rustywhite']Director Michael Reeves. His last film showed signs he could have been great. Accidental death or suicide, doesn't matter. A great talent cut off way to early.

Ditto Pen Tennyson - both The Proud Valley and There Ain't No Justice are absolutely terrific. Presumably Balcon would have let him do what he liked after the war - who knows what films he might have made?

[GRAEME]

Ollie Reed. Great as he was, he should have been bigger - especially in America.

[James Fox]

David Janssen was a television star with "The Fugitive" and "Harry O," but he never really made it as a film actor.



Shame, because the performance he gave in "A Sensitive, Passionate Man" is one of my all-time favorites.

[stuart.scot]

I've already mentioned Gemma Craven on another thread



Admittedly she retired young, but even so IMHO Rosamund John is one of our greatest actresses, as The Way To The Stars Prove



Tommy Steele gave up film acting to concentrate almost exclusively on his stage career when at his pk, meaning, despite his success, his audience was smaller.



Mary Ure didn't get the credit she deserved for Where Eagles Dare and died just a few yrs later. She was also good in Look Back In Anger and Sons And Lovers



Rita Tushingham ended up in Bread in the 80s, yet looked set for greatness after A Taste Of Honey and The Knack



Suzzanne Lloyd, the brilliant Canadian actress, who started out in the 50s series Zoro, made a big impact in episodes of The Saint and The Avengers, as one of the best ever leading ladies to appear in both shows. She was also leading lady to both Morcambe And Wise in The Riveria Touch



Sue Llyod, who was in The Baron and The Ipcress File, ending up in Crossroads in the 80s.



Talking of Crossroads, Jimmy Hanley played a beau of Noele Gordon's just over a decade after playing the hero in The Blue Lamp



Sarah Miles, hot in 60s with The Servant (one could also say Wendy Craig from that movie, but she's had a great tv career), Those Magnificent Men In Those Flying Machines and Ryan's Daughter. However, apart from Hope And Glory, what else in later decades



Shirley Anne Field, who made Saturday Night Sunday Morning and The Entertainer. Rachel Roberts also in SNSM and This Sporting Life probably deserved a better career



Eileen Erskine was great in This Happy Breed and Great Expectations, but not much after.



All the young actors in Charriots Of Fire, save Nigel Havers



Susan George looked great early on, but I think took early retirement after her career declined.



In America I thought Linda Purl was going to do great things

[Chevyman]

I'd like to add Bob Peck, an extremely versatile actor who never seemed to be out of work right up until his untimely death, aged 53, in 1999.



I particularly remember his stage presence and I was lucky enough to see him play "The Scottish King" opposite Sara Kestleman at the RST Stratford, and the title role in Edward Bond's "Lear" at The Other Place.



A committed and consumate professional

[stuart.scot]

Chevvyman



You mentioning Bob Peck reminded me of Joanne Whalley, his one time co-star, who after playing Scarlett in GWTW sequal, seems to have diasappered



Lysette Anthony, who after Domby And Son, Three Up Two Down and Ivanhoe, suffered after making Night Train To Murder with Eric and Ernie when the great duo were past their best

[batman]

Richard Bradford. A great film debut in The Chase followed by Man in a Suitcase in the 60s. Apart from a few very brief supporting roles he virtually disappeared until the 80s when he re-emerged as a superior character actor in films like The Mean Season and The Untouchables.

[stuart.scot]

Batman



I did read that Bradford, despite the great success of MIAS, he was difficult to work with and possibly found it a strain being the shows sole leading man, so a second series wasn't commissioned. Perhaps if he'd had the run Roger Moore had with The Saint, things might have been different.



Bradford was good as a gunfighter out to kill Cameron Mitchell's Buck in an above average The High Chapperal. only to be out foxed by the wily cowhand.



He was also Mary Beth's father in Cagney And Lacey, working for the secret service. It's a pity they didn't use Mgill's name and say MIAS was the father, lol.



He was also one of Jackie Smith's several step fathers in the Christine Cromwell Mysteries

[batman]

name='stuart.scot']I did read that Bradford, despite the great success of MIAS, he was difficult to work with.

Bradford admits to being 'difficult' and says he now regrets some of that behaviour, but felt at the time he was being 'shafted' by the producers. In the TV guest appearances I have seen him in he is always excellent. He is semi-retired now but still turns up now and again, most recently in Andy Garcia's The Lost City.

[stuart.scot]

Batman



I did wonder if what Joan Collins said about Maxwell Reid's treatment of her may have hurt his career

[batman]

name='stuart.scot']Batman



I did wonder if what Joan Collins said about Maxwell Reid's treatment of her may have hurt his career

A bit late to do that ... he was already dead when she published her book!



I expect there would have been some serious legal action from Max if she'd published when he was alive. His family managed to get some of the allegations removed from later editions. Also, many of Joan's allegations have been contradicted by others who knew them both.

[EHV_Emmetts]

Anthony Andrews seemed to have a successful career in place when he appeared in Brideshead Revisited in 1981. Unfortunately this early promise never really materialised, instead all the critical plaudits and awards have gone to his co-star Jeremy Irons.

[CaptainWaggett]

name='stuart.scot']Sarah Miles, hot in 60s with The Servant (one could also say Wendy Craig from that movie, but she's had a great tv career), Those Magnificent Men In Those Flying Machines and Ryan's Daughter. However, apart from Hope And Glory, what else in later decades

She's on stage in London at the moment

[stuart.scot]

I was thinking about American actress Susan Peters, who was so good as second leading lady in Random Harvest. Tragically Susan accidently shot herself while hunting, leaving her in constant pain and in a wheelchair. She did manage a series where she played a disabled lawyer, but her injuries took their toll and she died young.