The Avengers International Fan Forum

Readers may be interested in finding out more about Get Carter, filmed in 1970 a full nine years after Ian left The Avengers. It's interesting that Ian played bad guys so well. Look at his performance in The Hill for confirmation. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why Ian never became an international star. He was simply better at playing bad guys...I'd be interested in hearing what you think. Although he was great in The Avengers, many people have commented that there was something ever so slightly furtive about his on-screen presence.

I think that Get Carter was a very important film, not only as a classic thriller in itself, one of the best, but because it was a defining moment in Ian's career. He was almost 40 and it was clear that his career had peaked. Although Ian would have been well aware that the whole business of attaining international stardom is an arbitrary, hit-and-miss business, he was entitled to feel sore that he had been eclipsed by Caine. Ian's daughter told me that Ian had told her that he disliked Caine. It's as well to remember that Ian lost out to Caine, not only for the part of Carter in Get Carter but also for the part of Bromhead in Zulu. Also, of course, there were similarities between Ian's low-budget film Live Now Pay later and Caine's Alfie. The only thing was that Alfie went viral, as they say nowadays.

You may be interested in reading an account of the filming of Get Carter in this excerpt from a chapter of my biography of Ian - Send in the Clowns - the Yo Yo Life of Ian Hendry. This is from a website called The Sabotage Times. Just follow this link. http://sabotagetimes.com/books/a-fil...-of-ian-hendry Hopefully, you will be interested to read on and then buy the book itself here. http://www.lulu.com/shop/gabriel-her...-20974696.html#

Perhaps, given that Ian Hendry had some photos taken which modelled knitwear, we should be grateful that Maurice Micklewhite/Michael Caine saved the nickname "The Big Knit" for Roger Moore!

Ian can do "furtive" but I don't think it's obvious in The Avengers or in some of his other roles like the villain in The Persuaders! episode "The Time And The Place". It may be that people contrast his more naturalistic acting, which was very cutting edge and different from others of his (and earlier) generations, with the actors around him and so the reflective and thoughtful bits (and looking around and listening to other characters) comes across as somehow "furtive". I just take it as characters who genuinely listen and observe the people around them, which few actors bother to show.

Frankymole wrote:Perhaps, given that Ian Hendry had some photos taken which modelled knitwear, we should be grateful that Maurice Micklewhite/Michael Caine saved the nickname "The Big Knit" for Roger Moore!

Ian can do "furtive" but I don't think it's obvious in The Avengers or in some of his other roles like the villain in The Persuaders! episode "The Time And The Place". It may be that people contrast his more naturalistic acting, which was very cutting edge and different from others of his (and earlier) generations, with the actors around him and so the reflective and thoughtful bits (and looking around and listening to other characters) comes across as somehow "furtive". I just take it as characters who genuinely listen and observe the people around them, which few actors bother to show.

well...the choices of scripts and projects, chose by either their agent, or the actor in question, can certainly impact them in many ways...