Today, I hit a milestone for this blog. I reached 5,000 page views. That is something I am really proud of. A lot of those views have come from my Awesome Fat Guy of the week posts. I love doing these posts. Not only do I get to show some love for a Fat Guy but I also learn even more about them during the research. Having said that let’s get to today subject John Rhys-Davies.
John Rhys-Davies was born on May 5th, 1944 in Ammanford, Wales. His mother, Mary Margaretta Phyllis Jones, was a nurse and his father, Rhys Davies, was both a mechanical engineer and Colonial Officer. Rhys-Davies spent most of his childhood in Ammanford except for when he was in Tanganyika which became Tanzania. He attended the Truro School and the University of East Anglia. Rhys-Davies taught at Walton County Secondary School in Norfolk after which he won a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic art.
Rhys-Davies appeared sporadically on UK Television in the early 70s. It wasn’t until he played the character of Naevius Sutortius Macro in "I, Claudius" that his popularity began to grow. In 1980 he appeared in the TV miniseries Shogun, based on the novel by James Clavell. One year later he would star in one of his most famous roles. Rhys-Davies would star in Raiders of the Lost Ark in the role of Sallah. He would return to the role in the third entry of the franchise Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989.
Between the two Indian Jones movies Rhys-Davies was featured in many diverse roles. Both on the small and big screen. He had roles in the TV movie Ivanhoe and in the mini-series War and Remembrance, and Reilly, Ace of spies. On the big screen he could be seen in Sahara, King Solomon’s Mines, and The Living Daylights.
A lot of Rhys-Davies most famous roles came from his TV work. He starred in the remake of the 1950s TV series The Untouchables and the Sci-Fi series Sliders. Rhys-Davies would also make guest appearances on Star Trek: Voyager, The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, and La Femme Musketeer.
In 2001 Rhys-Davies career took a huge upturn. It was that year that he appeared in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as Gimli the dwarf. The movie would go on to earn over $870 million worldwide. He would play the character in all three parts of the trilogy. Even pulling double duty in the second movie by voicing the character of Treebeard. All in all the movies ended up making $2,917,506,956 and winning 17 academy awards.
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| John Rhys-Davies voiced Macbeth on Gargoyles. |
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| The Chupacabra from Chupacabra: Dark Seas. |
As you can see the man has run the gamut from high profile films and huge blockbusters to shlock Sci-Fi and cheap fantasy. Here is the important thing. Rhys-Davies has appeared in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, two Indian Jones films, and a Bond film. Three incredibly high profile series. If that isn’t enough his work in TV and B-Movies has made him a favorite of geeks world wide. The man starred as the Kingpin in The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, played the role of Thor in the Fantastic Four and Incredible Hulk cartoons, and starred in one of the best Sci-Fi series of the 90’s in Sliders.
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| Recently John Rhys-Davies has lost a lot of weight. He is still awesome though. |
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