Alan Bates was my hero

Had to be a traumatic childhood. In England young men are routinely addressed as Master.

I would routinely address Sir Alan as Master R1... Routinely

He was fabulous in An Englishman Abroad

I've still never been able to find The Fixer, the film, based on Malamud, with his only Oscar-nominated performance.

His obituary read : a modest giant with fifty years of excellency. He was also apparently the first full frontal A-lister and the first male cover of vogue. I loved him in all of his 60's/70's movies. He was very hot in Ivory's "quartet" with the beautiful french actress Isabelle Adjani. The ultimate sugar daddy.

Daddy..

Beautiful homo

Gorgeous man, great actor

"I felt darkly disturbed watching him."

MARY OP!!!

the butt shot in King of Hearts clinched it for me

He was a top R10. Give him points for showing butt in the 60's already.

Who had the bigger dick? Bates or Reed?

Exact same size. A girthy 8+. But they were originally cast in the reverse parts. Bates should have played upper class and Reeves rugged Birkin. Reed refused to play ' bi' and demanded to switch parts. Bates didn' 't mind and obliged.

So your hero was a closeted neglectful husband and father who even treated his male partners like shit.

okay

[quote]Exact same size.

Erm............

A girthy 8+

Inches ???!?!?

R14 Nick Grace is that you ? I know first hand that he was none of that. Adorable generous man.

Anyway, it's the screen persona that people,are responding to: deeply masculine, tender, sly, beautiful

What R17 said....

I kinda liked him.

He plays gay in BUTLEY--it's a brilliant piece of acting. And the movie is very funny.

Handsome face, gorgeous hair, and a beautiful, natural body that has thankfully been preserved in several films. Loved seeing his bum in ‘Georgy Girl.’

I will always be in love with Alan Bates.

I found Alan Bates a bit too dumpy/husky for my tastes.

Fuck off, r14, you tiresome cunt.

Mmmmmmh yes PLEASE....

Thanks R26. You're loved

R27, I take it you'll like this as well . . .

Yes sir ! Could you imagine any male A-lister today talking that kind of risks ? Wow... They don't come hotter than that

Loved Alan Bates, one of the best actors every. I loved him in the 1975 film In Celebration. This film along with Return of a Solider are so underrated.

I think ' whistle down the wind ' is some kind of a cult classic in the U.K. anyone saw that one ?

In what world was he "dumpy"?

Only on DL...

Nothing but the Best (1964) is worth tracking down: Bates has a good role as a real bastard, and is very well photographed in color by Nicolas Roeg.

Teach me to dance...will you?

Alan really was quite beautiful.

Found this on Youtube - a fan put together a montage of clips of AB from youth to age 69.

He was the most beautiful man ever IMO

Hey R4, The Fixer is on Youtube for free.

I've been waiting for a decent DVD or Blu Ray release of 'Persecution' (1974).

I always forget he was in 'The rose'. Damn he was hot !

His fig-eating scene in Women In Love! At the time I wished he had been cast opposite Glenda Jackson, since I also liked her a lot, but Reed was very good with her. R38 he was even beautiful enough to look good in that beard-only style, which I loathe. I think for me his beauty is augmented by my memory of his voice and seductive manner.

R40 That was Ralph, not Alan. He was kind of cute too.

What's weird is that both Bateses died of pancreatic cancer.

R39. Thanks! Wonder why it isn't available on DVD or streaming?

Anyone read "Otherwise Engaged," the Spoto bio?

Gabriel Oak in ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ with Julie Christie.

I was smitten.

Hot as hell in the magnificent "The Go-Between" and little Dominic Guard is starting to get "funny" feelings "down there," one can tell.

Hot in everything. Even in The Rose.

Just all round beautiful and complex and a man to contemplate. Not many of those, straight or gay.

I saw him onstage in Butley, very good, but playing a self-hating, unpleasant gay man. Had a line I still quote: “I’m a one-woman man, and I’ve had mine.”

My first view of him was probably Georgy Girl, but it was in Far From the Madding Crowd that I loved him, playing Gabriel Oak. Oak indeed. Husband material.

R30 I adored IN CELEBRATION. Bate’s character’s attitude and childhood trauma reminded me very much of my father. I showed him the movie and he loved it too.

An Unmarried Woman

He was in a lot of good movies.So handsome here.

R46 don't. It's a big stinking pile of BS. He was HAWT as a nasty controlling uber chic daddy in quartet

A critic once wrote that Bates' ass was the most exposed in cinematic annals.

He was shy and had a habit of clinching his ass when uncomfortable

Do you think he and Oliver ever...

Dear R46, I am writing to you as a friend.

I advise you to refrain from mentioning the name "Donald Spoto".

That person is a charlatan. They retail gossip-mongering of the very worst sort.

No intelligent person takes his ludicrous, constant scuttlebutt seriously. He was kicked out of a seminary for his grubby hearsay.

[quote]He was kicked out of a seminary for his grubby hearsay.

Maybe someone should write a tell-all bio of Spoto.

Spoto is a leech.

A parasitic leech who makes money telling lies about people he's never met.

Spoto is worse than Darwin Porter?

That's not possible.

I'd like ke to see an early film -- "A Kind of Loving." Kind of a kitchen-sink film about a young couple.

Thanks R57, as it happens, I knew the man himself quite well, and the Spoto book is just complete distortion and fiction. And no R56 Oliv'I'er (or is it Oliver Reed ?) weren't Alan's lovers. Alan never had an affair with another movie star.

If you knew Bates, can you give us some dirt?

He was lovely.

I can't trash him because he was completely adorable, but I can answer questions

What kind of guys was he into?

Cute white bottoms

Heh heh, R54.

Did you know Peter Wyngarde?

Don't get me started on Wyngarde. He was... Never mind..

Even I've heard...Scary in "The Innocents," without a word, IIRC.

Can you say if you're in "the business"?

R70

R66 what did you think of Langella's chapter on him in "Dropped Names"?

If you can divulge, did he have a favourite female co-star?

I didn't read the Langella book but they were great friends. Wyngarde was really a bad person and Alan didn't want any business with him at all. He had been very abused and manipulated by that man in his youth. Favourite female CO stars were France de la Tour, Maggie Smith, But he was friendly with most great stage actresses. No I am not in the business currently On film, Charlotte Rampling, Kristin Scott-Thomas

I meant, on film his Favourite costars were Rampling and Scott-Thomas, and no I am not in the business

R75 thanks. If you have any info on Susannah York, that would be most appreciated.

No, not on Susannah, sorry. The only female CO-star who Alan really didn't like was (shocker) Faye Dunaway

Well he was probably in good company with that!

What were some of his own films that he especially liked?

Actors generally don't like to rate their own films or congratulate themselves. He would rather talk about his favourite directors, Schlesinger, Cacoyannis, De Broca, were among his fav, he was disappointed he lost the oscar to a largely forgotten performance, because he thought he had done a good job in a difficult and gruelling shooting. He was unhappy about Altman's editing of ' gosford park'. And one of his worst experience was' 'zorba the greek' ' he admired Signoret and she had a nervous breakdown and was replaced, and he himself was very depressed during the shooting. He was blackmailed emotionnally by Wyngarde at the time. Olivier he didn't like at all. One of hs favourite male co star was James Mason.

Which other male co-stars did he like working with? What other stars did he dislike?

He liked all actors. He had very intense frienships with various actors, and adored his friends. He spoke very highly of them, with the exception of Anthony Sher, Olivier, Burton and Alec Guiness. He remembered fondly Isabelle Adjani but said she was spoilt and really rude to his friend Maggie Smith. He loved Denholm Elliott. He liked working with Peter Finch, Bob Hoskins, Lee Remick, Julie Andrews, Ian McNeice, joan Plowright, Rachel Kempson, Frank Langella, Malcolm McDowell, Terence Stamp, he liked funny people , he loved a good laugh

Why did he hate Olivier and Guiness?

Did he give you any gossip about who else was gay in showbiz?

Not anyone that we don't know about already

He didn't like Olivier and Guiness because they were rude and unpleasant. Olivier was a tyrant. He loved to keep everyone on their toes. His sets were sad and full of fear

I have just re-watched 'Georgy Girl' from 1965.

The four characters are a little bit likeable and a little bit awful.

I can see how 'Muriel's Wedding' stole ideas from it. But it's ultimately very sad—especially as how three of those four characters are dead.

An Unmarried Woman. I think I'll watch it today.

^^ I might too. We can watch it together, in spirit.

and order some Paper Shrimp in.

Bates showed his buttocks in 'Georgy Girl' (1965) and King of Hearts (1966) as well as his penis in 'Women in Love' (1969).

NOBODY seems to have liked Olivier. And the more I read about Guiness the more unlikeable he seems though I believe he got along very well with the cast of Star Wars. All the more remarkable as he ended up hating the film and the fans. And he went on record saying that Lucas cheated him out of .25% of the profits which is probably in the millions of dollars.

I saw Bates on stage with Eileen Atkins off Broadway in The Unexpected Man and it was one of the most memorable theater experiences of my life. I will never see their likes again. Nobody will.

^ Codswallop!

Olivier was a Titan of the stage for half of a century!

Lots of little people seethed with jealousy over Olivier's beauty, name, wife and his Promethean energy. Alan Bates worked with him at least 3 times.

R91 You really shouldn't expose your small-minded American ignorance like this.

Read this thorough biography and get back to us—

[quote] The ultimate sugar daddy.

You use that term. I don't think it means what you think it means.

Small minded American ignorance. How so? Guiness did hate the whole Star Wars phenomenon reducing children to tears by his own admission and did say Lucas cheated him out of .25% of the profits. And right here someone is saying Bates found him rude and unpleasant. And Glenn Ford was made uncomfortable by his predatory attentions and ended up trying to avoid him. He also was arrested for soliciting in a public men's room but lied his way out of the situation. So what did I get wrong?

And yes Olivier was a titan of the stage and he gives the best performance in English by a male actor ever on screen in Carrie but nobody liked him and everybody who worked with him has their stories about how ungenerous and downright nasty he was. Maggie Smith talks about him hitting her on stage in Othello and literally knocking her out after her glowing reviews. Not to mention intentionally overpraising a line reading in a comedy to the point where she lost the laugh and never got it back. Lots and lots of stories like that.

I think Alan Bates was naked in even more films than were listed above.

I saw him on stage in "Fortune's Fool" for which he won a Tony, and he had one of the best drunk scenes ever. Just brilliant. Frank Langella won supporting Tony for that play, and he was great too.

King of Hearts; ending of film is worth price of admission.

End:

[quote]Who had the bigger dick? Bates or Reed?

Well they were average, at least flaccid, as you can see in the film but it did concern Reed. There used to be a full interview that I posted here years ago with Oliver talking about the movie. Reed was nervous that Bates might show him up. They were both really nervous and had a few drinks first and Reed was relieved that when the time came he saw they were similar. Of course can't find the interview today but this is till up online.

So handsome. Made me realise I was gay when I was young. Went to see anything he was in. I only went to see Women in Love because of the fight scene. Years later, a few years before he died he passed me on the street in th West End of London. I recognised him and even at that age I still would have.

[quote] he was disappointed he lost the oscar to a largely forgotten performance, because he thought he had done a good job in a difficult and gruelling shooting.

What an odd thing to say, considering his performance in The Fixer is even more forgotten than Robertson's in Charly. The Fixer has all but vanished off the face of the earth.