 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Just watched him!
Rip
Brm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Apr 15, 2018 - 11:13 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Rollin Hand
(Member)
|
¶ He was on countless telefilms and television series during the 1960's and 1970's as the dry character actor.
¶ He was the guest actor on many Quinn Martin series: see 12 O'Clock High, The Fugitive, The FBI, Dan August, Cannon, Banyon, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, The Manhunter.
¶ He appeared twice on The Outer Limits (see "Moonstone" and "Soldier") and on Columbo ("Double Shock" and "Old Fashioned Murder").
¶ He also guested once in many anthologies: 'Way Out (see "Button, Button"), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (see "What Really Happened"), The Twilight Zone (see "On Thursday We Leave for Home").
¶ He is best-remembered for two series: Peyton Place (1964) and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Apr 15, 2018 - 10:44 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
After 10 years of doing guest roles on television, Tim O'Connor landed a regular series role of his own in "Peyton Place", the ABC series based on Grace Metalious' steamy novel that became a hit 1957 movie starring Lana Turner. In the series, Dorothy Malone assumed the Turner role as "Constance Mackenzie," the bookshop operator who harbored a dark secret about the birth of her daughter "Allison," played on the show by 19-year-old Mia Farrow.
ABC took a gamble on "Peyton Place," scheduling what was essentially a soap opera in prime time three times a week. It proved to be a ratings winner, winning new prominence for Malone and making stars of Farrow, Ryan O'Neal, and Barbara Parkins.
Beginning with the 25th episode, Tim O'Connor began appearing as "Elliott Carson," the real father of Allison. Carson had spent 18 years in jail for a false accusation and later became the editor of the local newspaper. Eventually, he marries Constance MacKenzie and they have a son.
"Peyton Place" was on the air for five seasons, with O'Connor appearing in 440 of the 514 episodes. In 1968, near the end of the fourth season, several crises draw Elliott and Constance in deep enough to compromise them. So Elliot persuades Constance that they and their son deserve a new better life away from Peyton Place.
In real life, Dorothy Malone was written out of the show after complaining that she was given little to do. With Malone leaving, Tim O'Connor's character was written out as well. Malone sued 20th Century Fox for $1.6 million for breach of contract; it was settled out of court. She and O'Connor would later return to their roles in the TV movies MURDER IN PEYTON PLACE (1977) and PEYTON PLACE: THE NEXT GENERATION (1985).
Dorothy Malone, Tim O'Connor, and Mia Farrow in "Peyton Place"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Apr 15, 2018 - 11:00 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Tim O'Connor's first major feature film was WILD IN THE SKY, a film that, for various reasons, has fallen into obscurity. Sometime in the late 1960s, William T. Naud, Dick Gautier, and Peter Marshall came up with a story about a group of anti-war, anti-establishment guerrillas, who scheme to hijack a B-52 and destroy Fort Knox with an atom bomb. It was a comedy. Naud was a producer-director who had made two 1960s exploitation films for the Southern drive-in circuit: THUNDER IN DIXIE (1964) and HOT ROD HULLABALOO (1966). Dick Gautier was an actor, comedian, composer, and author, and originally a night-club comic and a singer for dance orchestras. He had acted on television and in the occasional film role since the early 1960s. Gautier and Peter Marshall had written the screenplay for the 1968 exploitationer MARYJANE. Peter Marshall had been appearing in films and on television, as a character and as himself, since 1949. But he is best remembered as the 15-year host of the game show “Hollywood Squares.”
In developing their story into a film, Naud and Gautier split up the other major tasks on the project, with Naud directing, and he and Gautier writing the screenplay and producing for Bald Eagle Productions. Starring in the film was Brandon De Wilde. De Wilde's first released film was THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING (1952), recreating a role that he had played on Broadway; however, his actual first film acting role was in SHANE (1953), in which he portrayed "Joey Starrett," the hero-worshipping child who utters the film's famous closing line, "Shane! Shane! Come back!" During the 1950s and 1960s, De Wilde alternated television work with feature films, with memorable turns in BLUE DENIM (1959), HUD (1963), and IN HARM’S WAY (1965). Co-starring were noted character actors Keenan Wynn and Robert Lansing. Dick Gautier took a major role for himself, and the film also featured a number of actors best known for television work: Tim O’Connor had played the role of “Elliot Carson” on “Peyton Place;” James Daly was currently starring in “Medical Center;” Larry Hovis (in his feature film debut) was co-starring in “Hogan’s Heroes,” and sixth-billed Georg Stanford Brown was at that time doing mainly television guest star roles, with the occasional film like DAYTON’S DEVILS (1968).
It’s unclear when filming began. Various news items suggest the film began production in late 1969 or early 1970, under the titles “God Bless the Bomb” and “God Bless You, Uncle Sam.” The film was reportedly completed in late 1971. American International acquired distribution rights for the film, and it was copyrighted on 15 March 1972 under the title WILD IN THE SKY. Shortly thereafter, the film was trade-screened, and an advertising campaign was prepared under that title. Boxoffice magazine reviewed the film on 27 March 1972. Boxoffice reported that the film “is a bit preachy in spots, but for the most part, it’s entertaining and has some interesting side plots.” But the review also noted that “Action lags badly during the last third of the movie, and the laugh lines are rather slow in coming.”
Although it was expected that the film would be released in March 1972, there are no confirmed showings of the film in major cities. I’m sure, however, that it played in some smaller markets under the WILD IN THE SKY title, because I have an ad for the film from a small-town newspaper.
But fate was to intervene in the film’s fortunes. On 6 July 1972, star Brandon De Wilde died in a Colorado hospital from injuries suffered in a traffic accident. The 30-year-old actor had been in Denver to appear in a theater production of “Butterflies are Free.” Perhaps because of this unfortunate circumstance, WILD IN THE SKY was withdrawn from distribution and quietly put on the shelf.
More than a year later, in late 1973, American International changed the title of the film once again, to BLACK JACK. AIP also changed the film’s ending, and created a revised advertising campaign for the picture. The 1972 ads for the film, when it was titled WILD IN THE SKY, show the MPAA rating as GP, but the 1973 ads and reviews for the film as BLACK JACK list the rating as PG, reflecting the MPAA ratings name change from GP to PG that had been made in late 1972. More importantly, the new ads changed the cast billing to emphasize the role of Georg Stanford Brown, who was by then one of the stars of the popular television series “The Rookies,” which had premiered in September 1972. The new ads showed Brown as the star, and positioned the picture as a blaxploitation film, using the tagline "Meet Jivin' Jack Lynch. He's got The Man on the pan...and he's gonna fry him good!"
Even with the new title and ad campaign, the film didn’t get much traction. It opened in New York the week of 6 December 1973, but was all but ignored by the critics. Variety’s “Sege” called it a “sporadically funny comedy” whose “central problem is the absurdity of the plot line” and “the creators’ apparent inability to decide whether the picture is a spoof of the military or basically a thriller with laugh elements as fillip.” “Sege” concluded that the film was “a fumbling hybrid that fails to score on either count.” And Cue’s Donald J. Mayerson, the only major New York critic to review the film, felt that “this idiotic effort” had a “screwy plot,” and he declared that “the results are asinine.”
The public didn’t take to the film under its new guise either, and it quickly dropped out of sight, seemingly for good. WILD IN THE SKY / BLACK JACK has never been issued on video, and no print of the film is known to exist.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Apr 15, 2018 - 11:47 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Heather Menzies co-starred with Strother Martin and Dirk Benedict in the 1973 snake horror film SSSSSSS. In the film, a college student (Benedict) becomes a lab assistant to a scientist (Martin) who is working on a serum that can transform humans into snakes.
The film opens in the middle of the night, as "Dr. Carl Stoner" (Martin), a professor of herpetology at a rural college, receives $800 from a man named "Kogen" (Tim O'Connor) for the contents of a large, heavy crate. After loading the crate into his vehicle, Kogen praises Stoner as “a real gentleman” and a “ bona fide genius.” Kogen, we later learn, is the owner of a sideshow.
Bernard L. Kowalski directed the film, his last theatrical feature. Patrick Williams' score has not had a release.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Apr 17, 2018 - 1:57 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
filmusicnow
(Member)
|
After 10 years of doing guest roles on television, Tim O'Connor landed a regular series role of his own in "Peyton Place", the ABC series based on Grace Metalious' steamy novel that became a hit 1957 movie starring Lana Turner. In the series, Dorothy Malone assumed the Turner role as "Constance Mackenzie," the bookshop operator who harbored a dark secret about the birth of her daughter "Allison," played on the show by 19-year-old Mia Farrow.
ABC took a gamble on "Peyton Place," scheduling what was essentially a soap opera in prime time three times a week. It proved to be a ratings winner, winning new prominence for Malone and making stars of Farrow, Ryan O'Neal, and Barbara Parkins.
Beginning with the 25th episode, Tim O'Connor began appearing as "Elliott Carson," the real father of Allison. Carson had spent 18 years in jail for a false accusation and later became the editor of the local newspaper. Eventually, he marries Constance MacKenzie and they have a son.
"Peyton Place" was on the air for five seasons, with O'Connor appearing in 440 of the 514 episodes. In 1968, near the end of the fourth season, several crises draw Elliott and Constance in deep enough to compromise them. So Elliot persuades Constance that they and their son deserve a new better life away from Peyton Place.
In real life, Dorothy Malone was written out of the show after complaining that she was given little to do. With Malone leaving, Tim O'Connor's character was written out as well. Malone sued 20th Century Fox for $1.6 million for breach of contract; it was settled out of court. She and O'Connor would later return to their roles in the TV movies MURDER IN PEYTON PLACE (1977) and PEYTON PLACE: THE NEXT GENERATION (1985).
Dorothy Malone, Tim O'Connor, and Mia Farrow in "Peyton Place"
"Manhunter" of course was the pilot for the series that starred Howard but only lasted four months (one of Quinn Martin's few failures).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
