Photograph: Werner Schmidt

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Tony Curtis: The Viking And Playboy

The newspapers and media report today that American actor Tony Curtis died yesterday, 85 years old.

He was in many memorable movies, but here at HTBS, Curtis will be especially remembered for two roles, the American playboy Danny Wilde in the TV-series The Persuaders (1971) and Erik in The Vikings (1958). In The Persuaders Curtis played against British actor Roger Moore, who was the British playboy Lord Brett Sinclair. The show was not successful in the USA, but very popular in some European countries, among them, Sweden. Although, Wilde and Sinclair did not row in the series, every episode began with a ‘presentation’ of the characters Wilde and Sinclair. The latter, being an aristocrat, of course rowed in a Blue Boat at Oxford, which the viewers quickly see flashing by. To watch the opening, click here.

The Vikings, with Curtis and Kirk Douglas, is maybe not the best of Viking movies, but they do row in this film. My old coach, Tore Persson, at my rowing club in Malmö was an extra in this movie which was filmed in Norway. To read an article I wrote about Persson and The Vikings, please click here. To watch the first minutes of the movie, click below,



1 comment:

  1. Love it. Nothing like pure organic cornball washed down with hokum for breakfast.

    ReplyDelete