Baker or Burton

[stuart.uk]

IMO humble opinion Ray Milland, Anthony Hopkins and possibly even Timothy Dalton were better Welsh screen actors than Richard Burton. That leaves Stanley Baker.

To me Burton was like Laurence Olivier, a great stage actor with a magnificent voice, but while he had many noteable screen performances, I felt like Olivier he was a stage actor acting on screen.

I found myself recently comparing Burton to Stanley Baker from the early 50s to Baker's death in the mid 70s. In that time though Burton, through his Hollywood movies was more famous, Baker made as many good films as his counterpart. I wonder to just how Baker would have been remembered, if he hadn't died do young in 1978

Burton certainly had the advaintage in Hollywood with the likes of The Robe, while Baker was playing villians in British made Knights Of The Round Table with Robert Taylor and Hell Below Zero with Alan Ladd, but at the same time was making The Cruel Sea in a small role, The Good Die Young with Richard Baseheart, Campbell's Kingdom with Dirk Bogarde and as the hero in Hell Drivers with Dangerman Patrick MaGoohan as the nasty villain.

I think Baker's clowning glory has to be Zulu, as he also produced as well as playing the star of the film that made Michael Caine.

Here's a clip from Hell Drivers with many future stars including Jill Ireland

[mongoII]

With 7 Oscar nominations under his belt, Burton for sure.

[moira finnie]

In certain roles Stanley Baker was certainly a standout, but his screen persona is one that I associate with anger. Did Stanley Baker ever play a character who wasn't seething with rage?

[RedRiver]

He could have embraced the Zulu. Gotten to know them.

[stuart.uk]

he was calm in Zulu and was Michael Crawford's Marathon coach in The Games. He also played the Donald Crisp role in a tv version of How Green Was My Valley

[moira finnie]

he was calm in Zulu and was Michael Crawford's Marathon coach in The Games. He also played the Donald Crisp role in a tv version of How Green Was My Valley

Thanks, Stuart. I do remember Baker in The Games as a total pro regarding his approach to the Olympics. I am not sure if anyone in Zulu was really calm exactly, but he was one of the guys I would definitely have wanted on my side during a siege! I would love to have seen him playing the father in How Green Was My Valley--I am sure that he did Wales proud. I love the Ford version but have always felt that the director made everyone behave too much like his take on Irishmen--not Welshmen. Filmed in Wales and played by Welsh people, with far less censorship than the Hollywood version had to endure, the Baker version probably came much closer to Richard Llewelyn's beautiful book (which has a nice edge of justifiable anger too).

He could have embraced the Zulu. Gotten to know them.

Red! You are too funny!

[stuart.uk]

In the Baker version the Morgan parents were also the right age. 40 something Sian Phillips was Beth and Nerys Hughes as Bronwen.

If they were to do a new version I've always thought Catherine Zeta Jones would make a good Beth, but another Welsh actress is hot on her heels as a top Welsh actress, Eve Myles from Torchwood, though she is a bit younger

[JackFavell]

I only just discovered Stanley Baker, but I have to say I prefer him to Burton so far. He can be a bit scary, but I like his quiet intensity.

He was excellent in the movie Sea Fury, a film way better than it sounds, despite the cheap production values. He had the starring role opposite Vic MacLaglen, and was a very effective, tough (and sexy) hero in this suspenseful nail-biter. I also like him in Guns of Navarone, though the other actors are more showy. He scared the daylights out of me in In the French Style, so repressed he looks all tied up in his suits, though I'm not sure I was supposed to be scared of him!

I'd REALLY like to see the 1956 TV version of Jane Eyre, in which he played Mr. Rochester....

[charliechaplinfan]

I think Burton could be very good, think The Night of the Iguana or could not be bothered, he certainly had the talent and I prefer a good Burton picture to Anthony Hopkins. Timothy Dalton has had his moments, Ray Milland for me is middling, Stanley Baker I'm still discovering but have been impressed so far.

[JackFavell]

Gosh I love Timothy Dalton, but he just didn't have the career. I like Anthony Hopkins a lot, but his publicity as 'the great actor' is overdone a bit for me. Ray Milland is in a different category.. he can be absolutely amazing, as in The Lost Weekend, but he's most definitely "Hollywood". More versatile though, than any of the others.

[Rita Hayworth]

Stanley Baker or Richard Burton.

Baker is more dynamic in my opinion ... Burton is hard fellow to crack and I really find him too much of enigma. I love the charisma of Stanley Baker more than Elisabeth Taylor's most celebrated Husband of her. I maybe in the minority here; but do watch many of their movies and I can recall Stanley Baker's films better than Richard Burton. I was very sad when he died in 1976. When, I was a teenager he was my most favorite actor in action films and when he did ZULU with Micheal Caine ... I was very impressed by his performance.

[JackFavell]

I find it hard to believe that Timothy Dalton could be inadequate. Especially as Romeo.

[moira finnie]

Oh, no. Timothy Dalton has feet of clay? I always thought he was the kind of actor whose potential was never realized because of the crassness of his time and that he was born fifty years too late. Perhaps some of the fault lies in ourselves?

Yes, I did see Anthony Hopkins in Hollywood Wives--mostly because I couldn't believe it. (I figure it was before he went on the wagon for good). He was also ghastly opposite Bo Derek in A Change of Seasons (1980)--but mostly he is better than his material. Just not always.

Seeing Accident is one of the first times I can remember being repulsed by Stanley Baker's manner. I realize it takes great skill to play such a Pinteresque creation and that the film is about a series of psycho-sexual power plays among fairly oblivous academic types. I just don't want to spend more time than necessary in the company of some of the characters.