h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

To me he will be the first big movie star of sci-fi.At a time when most actors thought sci-fi was was just B movies he did Planet of the apes(1968), The Omega man(1971)and Soylent green(1973) he was not the first actor to do sci-fi but he was the first big movie star to do sci-fi.

*is glad someone else clicked the discuss button cos she has not a lot to say on the matter*

Oh, except that actors shouldn't tell us about their actual thoughts because it ruins the idea we have that they are like thier characters.

I dunno, TL, Claude Rains was a pretty big star in the 40s and he did The Invisible Man, etc, plus there was Steve McQueen in The Blob. But I take your point, Heston was the first A-list Hollywood star to do SF movies. The three you mention all rate as (at least) minor classics of the genre.

Would it really be fair if actors were the only people in society denied the chance to express their political views? Is it possible to have an opinion that isn't political in some way? (Well, obviously, 'I prefer vanilla ice cream to chocolate flavour' probably counts as such.) Hmmm.

*was not expressing a serious opinion, just thought it'd be nicer for us*

Well, I can't help but agree with you. Still, nothing truly worthwhile is ever easy...

more than not hearing their political views, I'd love just not to see them every time I buy a paper - I want news, not stars...

meanwhile, I just dived in here cos someone mentioned Claude Rains, and I fell utterly in love with him when I saw Robin Hood as a wee brat...

I'll never forget him as Louis in Casablanca.

Man:'We'll be in your office at six in the morning!'

Claude Rains: 'As you wish, I'll be there at ten.'

Robin Hood... I have many thoughts about that, but is it the film that has been done the most times ever? (if not, what is?)

Good quote there, Awix.

very good quote!

I dunno about the most times, but IMO that Errol Flynn version is the best - Claude Rains and Basil Rathbone as villains
aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

*wonders whether she sould mention robin hood men in tights*

The most filmed film is Dracula then Frankenstein!
Steve Mc Queen did the blob long before he was a star were Heston did his films at the height of his fame when being in sci-fi was not very popular.Before star wars the top sci-fi films were 2001 and Planet of the apes(series of films) which made around $15 million at the box office so top stars didn't do sci-fi as sci-fi never made money and never won awards.

Hmmm. I'd tend to roughly agree with TL on the 'most-filmed' thing, but let's not forget there are a *lot* of Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan movies out there too...

And, yup again, I really can't argue with the assessment of Heston as the only established star to come to the SF genre then build up a serious body of work in it (even if he only actually stars in three SF movies).

It was a question i asked in a quiz one time the answer is from the Guinness book of records!

Is Robin Hood in the top ten?
I did know it was Dracula, actually.

Hmmm. When you've been gipped in as many pub quizzes as me, you gets to be a mite suspicious about these things.

However, checking the IMDB reveals 131 productions where male actors (including, believe it or not, Morgan Freeman and David Niven) played a character called Dracula (a few of these would have been in TV shows, some of them wouldn't have been playing the actual Dracula, etc.).

The same database lists 164 productions where male actors played a character called Sherlock Holmes (Christopher Lee is, inevitably, on both lists).

There are 140 Tarzans, too...

Lest we forget - 71 Robin Hoods and 140 Frankensteins (though the figure includes both actors playing the monster and those giving us their interpretations of the baron himself).

Though I hasten to add, if we talking about actual adaptations of the source novels, I reckon Timelord's right (even if the majority of Dracula flicks completely ignore the book). Not exactly a straight comparison though - there's only one Dracula novel, but dozens of Sherlock Holmes stories!

isn't the thing with Dracula that the films would take their plots from Bram Stoker's one novel, whereas Sherlock Holmes take from a lot of different stories. Is the most filmed character different from the most filmed story?

Morgan Freeman as Dracula? Okaaaay. Did he have bad hair?

There is a difference between charcters and stories, I mean there was an episode of Buffy with Dracula in, but no-one is likely to argue that that would count.

Christopher Lee Also played DR Watson,Mycroft Holmes,Henry Baskerville and Moriarty.
Only two books were written the first ends with the famous fight at the waterfalls were Holmes is thought to have died.Then the second is set a few years latter each book contains a number of short story's!

I beg to differ again, Timelord, but there were four Sherlock Holmes novels and a large number of short stories, which have been collected together in different anthologies over the years.

Shall we agree that Sherlock Holmes is the most-portrayed character, but that Dracula is the most-filmed novel (even if a large number of the movies aren't based on the book and don't feature Dracula himself?).