Even if Tom Bell’s name doesn’t ring a bell, watching him in action will have you thinking ring-a-ding-ding! Early on in his career, the alluring Englishman trained with Billie Whitelaw and Robert Stephens at the Bradford Civic Theatre. With performances in The Kitchen (1961) and The L-Shaped Room (1962), the brunette babe became one of the faces of the British New Wave flicks of the 1960s. Since then, Mr. Bell exposed his sense of humor (among other things) in the sex comedies Lock Up Your Daughters! (1969) and Preaching to the Perverted (1997). In between, the suave stud rattled his sword alongside Malcolm McDowell, Alan Bates, and Oliver Reed in the sexy swashbuckler Royal Flash (1975). In addition to portraying real-life killer Jack McVitie in the biopic The Krays (1990), Bell earned a reputation for playing larger-than-life villains on the small screen per the miniseries Holocaust (1978); the crime dramas Out (1978) and Prime Suspect (1991, 1993, 2006); and the historical saga Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire (2006). During the ’80s, Tom acted in the televised adaptations of D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers (1981) and The Rainbow (1988). Among his 100+ credits on film (The Boxer, H.M.S. Defiant, Swept from the Sea) and TV (The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles), our favorite remains the movie Straight on Till Morning (1972). The thriller gets extra thrilling when Tom reveals his back and butt during a hump! Needless to say, we’ll remember the late actor’s delicious derriere straight on till mourning!
