I’m not entirely sure an MCM on Welsh actor John Rhys-Davies has turned out to be such a good idea. I thought of it because I noticed him being in several key early frock flicks, like Fall of Eagles and Ivanhoe, but in tracking down his historical filmography, there’s a LOT of what look like probable clunkers here. Nonetheless, I did the work, so I shall share the results! (And YES, we know he played Gimli. Lord of the Rings is not historical!)
There’s a ton of things I can’t find images of Rhys-Davis in; I’ll say this, the guy is prolific! These include:
- Alfred Kidney in The Adventures of Black Beauty (1974)
- Rowley in BBC Play of the Month: “The School for Scandal” (1975)
- Barndoor in The Naked Civil Servant (1975)
- Guy de Maupassant in BBC2 Play of the Week: “Fearless Frank” (1978)
- Nestor in The Nativity (1978)/li>
- Capucius, Ambassador from Emperor Charles V in The BBC Television Shakespeare: “Henry VIII” (1979)
- George Trenett in Enemy at the Door (1980)
- Silas in Peter and Paul (1981)
- Babu in Kim (1984)
- Police Chief Murphy in The Little Match Girl (1987)
- Rossi in Young Toscanini (1988)
- Richard Marriott in Desperado: Badlands Justice (1989)
- El Zaidan in Journey of Honor (1991)
- Gribov in Strauss Dynasty (1991)
- Porthos/Dumas/Alexandre Dumas in The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne (2000)
- Bill Jeffrey in The Game of Their Lives (2005)
- Phillippe De Torres in The King Maker (2005)
- Eusi in War of Resistance (2011) & Return to the Hiding Place (2013)
- Governor Yeardly in To Have and to Hold (2014)
Caleb Selling in The Incredible Robert Baldick: Never Come Night (1972)
“Aristocratic Victorian investigator deals with a supernatural mystery, traveling from place to place in his personal railway train,” per IMDB.
Zinoviev in Fall of Eagles (1974)
Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. Hence hanging out with Patrick Stewart’s Lenin in this BBC miniseries about the ruling dynasties of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Russia from 1848 to 1919.
Macro in I, Claudius (1976)
A classic miniseries about the the early Roman Empire from the years between 24 BCE to 54 CE. Quintus Naevius Cordus Sutorius Macro (21 BCE – 38 CE) was a prefect of the Praetorian Guard, serving under the emperors Tiberius and Caligula.
Vasco Rodrigues in Shogun (1980)
The first TV miniseries adaptation of the novel focused on a real-life English navigator who journeyed to Japan in 1600 and rose to high rank in the service of the shōgun. Rodrigues is a Portuguese sailor and, I’m pretty sure, a fictional character.
Salerio in The Merchant of Venice (1980)
A BBC TV adaptation of the Shakespeare play. Salerio is a messenger from Venice and friend of Antonio, Bassanio, and others.
Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The action-adventure film set in 1936 about a swashbuckling archaeologist who fights Nazis. Sallah is an Egyptian character who helps out Indy in this adventure.
Front-de-Boeuf in Ivanhoe (1982)
A TV adaptation of the medieval-set, 19th-century-written, Sir Walter Scott romanticized take on love between a Christian and a Jew. Plus a lot of other stuff. Front-de-Boeuf is a Norman baron who supports Prince John’s usurpation of the English throne. Front-de-Boeuf literally translates as “beef forehead,” for what it’s worth.
Andre Cassell in Victor/Victoria (1982)
A musical comedy about a female singer pretending to be a female impersonator in 1930s Paris. Cassell is a talent agent.
Tanyatos in Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983)
A TV miniseries about Sidney Reilly, a World War I-era British spy.
Gamal Abdel Nasser in Sadat (1983)
A TV miniseries biopic about Egyptian leader Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat (1918-81). Nasser was president of Egypt from 1954-70.
King Richard in Robin of Sherwood (1984-86)
As in The Lionheart! In one of a million Robin Hood adaptations.
Grimshaw in No Man’s Land (1984)
A TV movie about a female sheriff in the “Old West” who, with her three daughters, captures a band of outlaws.
Baron Fortinbras in Sword of the Valiant (1984)
A feature film about the Green Knight of King Arthur legend.
Dogati in King Solomon’s Mines (1985)
A fortune hunter helps a woman find her lost husband in early 1900s Africa.
Sammy Mutterperl in War and Remembrance (1988)
A TV miniseries about two American families’ experiences in World War II.
Sallah in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Reprising his role.
Joe Gargery in Great Expectations (1989)
A TV miniseries adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel. Gargery is the kindly blacksmith who raises Pip.
O’Connor in I misteri della giungla nera aka The Mysteries of the Dark Jungle (1991)
What must be an Italian TV series which IMDB summarizes as: “In British-ruled India, an Army Officer lost his daughter when she was a child. Now after a long time, he is about to find her. But she falls in love with a native Indian who was also a freedom fighter.”
Challenger in The Lost World (1992) & Return to the Lost World (1992)
An adaptation of an Arthur Conan Doyle novel published in 1912, about two professors searching for a “lost” land where dinosaurs still live.
Agent Michael Malone in The Untouchables (1993-94)
A TV series about the “Untouchables” federal team who investigated Al Capone in Prohibition-era Chicago.
Bruder Parvus in The High Crusade (1994)
“A Monty Pythonesque tale of a band of Crusaders who find themselves in possession of an Alien ship and the Alien to pilot it,” per IMDB.
Pugachev in Catherine the Great (1995)
The TV movie with Catherine Zeta-Jones as the Russian empress. Assuming he’s Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, he’s a Cossack leader who led a rebellion.
Inspector Marais in Marquis de Sade (1996)
A straight-to-cable film about the famous French writer and libertine.
Captain Barrett in Britannic (2000)
“A fictional account of the sinking of the H.M.H.S. Britannic off the Greek island of Kea in November 1916,” per IMDB.
King Priam of Troy in Helen of Troy (2003)
A TV movie adaptation of the Illiad, focused on Helen.
Porthos in La Femme Musketeer (2004)
A Hallmark TV movie about D’Artagnan’s “daughter.”
Mordecai in One Night with the King (2006)
A feature film that’s a “dramatization of the Biblical story of Esther, who risked her life by approaching the King of Persia to request that he save the Jewish people,” per Wikipedia. You’ll be shocked to know it bombed. The start of several Biblical films for Rhys-Davies.
Caiphas in Saul: The Journey to Damascus (2014)
More Bible! This time, direct-to-video. About Saul of Tarsus, if that interests you.
Vocifer in Hieroglyph (2014)
A TV series that was canceled before it aired and that was set in ancient Egypt.
Annas in Killing Jesus (2014)
More Bible! Focused on the life of Jesus. Annas was the high priest of Jerusalem, hence the fancy outfit.
Charles Kemp in Beyond the Mask (2015)
A Christian historical-epic film set during the American Revolution and featuring truly dire costumes. A strong contender for a snark week review!
Peter in The Apostle Peter: Redemption (2016)
Yet More Bible! I can’t keep summarizing these, google them if you care.
Martin Avdeitch in Winter Thaw (2016)
An adaptation of a Tolstoy novel, about an old man who faces a crisis.
Old Patrick in I Am Patrick: The Patron Saint of Ireland (2020)
Okay, Bible-adjacent! The real St. Patrick was a 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland.
William Marshal in Kingslayer (2022)
About Richard the Lionheart, before he became king. William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146 or 1147 – 1219) was a soldier and statesman.
Sallah in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Back for a third round with Indy!
Frederick Ladbroke in The Gates (2023)
“A serial killer has been sentenced to death by electric chair in London in the 1890s, but in his final hours, he puts a curse on the prison he is in, and all of those in it,” per IMDB.
What’s your favorite of John Rhys-Davies many historical roles? Are any of these clunker-looking films not clunkers?
Surely Vasco Rodriguez’s hat is an ordinary fedora with a belt round it?
OMG you’re right, I’m dying!
Oh, god, was Macro the rather clueless soldier whose wife decides not to commit suicide with him at…the…very…last…minute? (“Claudius” was pretty violent, although not gorily so.)
No – you’re thinking of Piso (played by Stratford Johns) and Plancina.
He’s one of those British actors who had to grow into their faces (see also Connery, Brosnan). Also — what we call a “working actor,” will work for food.
Britannic was frankly stupid. I loved it! Maybe I’ll guest review it, for Snark Week?
Front-de-Boeuf. I loved the movie when I was a child and only because I liked Sam O’Neill and John Rhys-Davies. OK, the castle was looking very well too. He has really nice acting skills especially when his character feels ill or angry.
“A serial killer has been sentenced to death by electric chair in London in the 1890s,
WTAF?
You learn something new every day!
I remember reading that his chain-mail in “Ivanhoe” was spray-painted string. It shrank dramatically in the pictured scene and had to be cut off to avoid strangling him!
Ha!
When you mention the great John Rhys Davies appearing in a movie, it seems fair to assume that your audiences will understand that, while he won’t necessarily be appearing in the best movie, he’ll almost certainly be the Best thing in it (Unless it’s a very good film indeed).
Also, for the record, IVANHOE (The novel at least) isn’t about the love between Rebecca bat Isaac and Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe – in fact it might be more accurate to describe it as a novel about what happens when the villain, not the hero of a Romance falls head-over-heels in love with the resident heroine, but she cannot return his affections.
It is also, once you get comfortable with language that was calculatedly anachronistic by Victorian standards (and purple prose to boot) an excellent read and unexpectedly funny to boot.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s at least one early scene (wherein our local posse of villains asks for directions at a crossroads and the resident jester points left while saying “right!”, then leaves our villains to proceed on their merry way, arguing if he actually meant THIS way or THAT way) that always makes
me chuckle at the thought of it.
…
Also, I wan under the impression that ‘Front de Boeuf’ meant something like ‘bullheaded’, but if it’s a reference to the character’s tendency to sunburn then it’s even more amusing!
St. Patrick was a Romano-Briton so Rhys-Davies is finally playing his own ethnicity. Personally I have no problem with him playing assorted Jewish roles.