Bill Bixby's acting
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LarryBrownHouston — 18 years ago(February 06, 2008 02:58 PM)
I don't think Bill was much of a character actor. In everything I've ever seen, he plays the same character: a warm, intelligent, quiet, dignified, compassionate man. As such, he's more in the vein of a "leading man" that has a recognizable style that he always plays. John Wayne, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart. For example, his "magician" character is the same as his "Dr. David Banner" character, and he comes off the same when hosting "The World's best magic" or even when on a talk show. Essentially he played himself. So I think that's why you are frustrated if you want to see him stretch his acting ability and play different colorful characters. I think this is a choice that some actors make, if they feel they are big enough, and that's what makes them a leading man. Other actors don't make this choice, they immerse themselves in various roles, and those are character actors.
However, I wonder if Bill would have had a more relaxed lifestyle had he chosen to play movies rather than TV. A weekly TV show is hard work. Early calls to makeup, working late into the evening, a lot of pressure, and it's a daily grind, just like a working joe. Movies would seem to allow more time off. -
naillon-2 — 18 years ago(February 10, 2008 06:09 AM)
I do agree that Bill was always recognizable, whatever character he played; his face and voice were one-of-a-kind. However, he wasn't always playing himself. If you haven't seen "Steambath" - and it sounds like you haven't - then you'll see what he was really capable of doing with a role. His performance in that film is truly astonishing.
As for Tony Blake vs. David Banner they're both humanitarians who go out of their way to help others, so the two roles are rather similar. The difference being, of course, that Tony Blake chooses a life of danger, whereas Banner has it thrust upon him. I see a definite difference in the way Bill plays those two roles; the thing is that he's so good, and so subtle, it's easy to miss the little things he does.
I also wonder about his life and what TV took out of it. It seems that he was very career-driven, and I wonder if it was his way of attempting to avoid something unpleasant in his life - not just his first marriage, which was desperately unhappy, but something else, something that had him putting his all into his acting right from the beginning of his career. -
h-ahmad-1 — 18 years ago(March 04, 2008 03:20 PM)
As you've said, Bill excelled at playing nice men, but don't forget that he could play villains well, too. He played killers in two episodes of The Streets Of San Francisco and on two occasions, played the bad guy in The Incredible Hulk - Broken Image and Dark Side. So he did, indeed, have the range.
I remember seeing a clip of him in Lonely Are The Brave as a rather innocent-looking, keen pilot who gets shot down by Kirk Douglas. -
marvel88 — 18 years ago(March 16, 2008 07:12 PM)
I think Bill would have done really good on the big screen, but I agree that he just belonged on television. He's very underappreciated nowadays and was one of the best actors on TV at the time. He just fit in that 70's and 80's television scene.
"I know you're in there, Fagerstrom!"-Conan O'Brien -
mpoconnor7 — 15 years ago(June 25, 2010 04:07 PM)
I don't think Bill Bixby had a whole lot of range - he was more like Burt Reynolds or James Garner who just play themselves in every project. That being said, I thought he was a very good actor, and he raised the level of everything I ever saw him in. I doubt the Hulk series would have lasted one season with any other actor in the lead role.
I was a little disappointed that with all the television he directed in the 70's, and he directed a lot of television shows and Rich Man Poor Man, that he never made the leap to directing feature films in the 1980's. By that time in the mid 80's he was in his late 40's which was a little late to become a leading man in feature films, but it is not unprecedented as Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins became major film stars after 50. I think at that point he had been typecast as a TV star and it is difficult for TV stars to make the leap to movie stars (SNL actors excluded), especially at that age, unless he re-emerged in feature films as a supporting character actor as Martin Landau did at about that time. But I don't think Bill Bixby had the range or ability to transform himself into another character the way Martin Landau could. -
death_jamm_productions — 14 years ago(September 09, 2011 08:49 AM)
very good actor, his guest role in fantasy island was brilliant
http://www.mickey-rourke.com/ -
LightningLad — 13 years ago(June 15, 2012 10:46 PM)
Apple Dumpling Gang.
But seriously - he was great. It was amazing how well he got the pathos of the Dr. Banner character. It was a very special show.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mortal-Creeps-ebook/dp/B006LO3TCA