The Olyphant Man
I saw the new film, The Crazies, last weekend (before catching the heart-stopping, gold medal-on-the-line Olympics hockey game between teams Canada and U.S.) and must say I was really impressed with just how well done the remake of the 1973 George A. Romero horror flick is. Truthfully, until the reviews started coming in I didn’t even know that an original existed; now I’m curious to check it out. Anyway, aside from the generally positive reviews and an invitation from my dim sum pal to see the film, there was another reason I was curious to see the movie: its star, Timothy Olyphant. The name may not be recognizable now but hopefully in the next little while that will change and Timothy will be a 15-years-in-the-making overnight sensation.
TIMOTHY OLYPHANT
From what I was able to uncover, the 42 year old actor (who looks about 30) has been on the scene since 1996. I think my first exposure to him was in the
“Valley of the Twenty-Something Guys” episode of my beloved Sex and the City television series. (I must re-visit that episode again soon…) He’s subsequently appeared in many other tv shows, including Deadwood (2004-2006) and more recently on the 2009 season of Damages and an admirable volume of motion pictures, too.
Despite an impressive body of work, I can only say that I’ve recently started to take notice of Olyphant’s movies. I was surprised to read that he was in the gay flick, The Broken Hearts Club (2000), a film that I saw when it was released but didn’t remember him being in it. Ditto for the film, Go (1999) and Scream 2 (1997). Could my memory be that bad?
It was last year, and on a plane no less, when I began to see Olyphant in a different light as I viewed his film, A Perfect Getaway, a nifty little thriller that went largely unnoticed when it was released theatrically last August ($23 million worldwide, $15.5 of it domestically) but definitely worth renting if you haven’t seen it. Not only was he ever so easy on the eyes, but charismatic and a good actor. I was intrigued.
In The Crazies, Olyphant heads into leading man territory and is triumphant in his role as the Sheriff of a small town whose citizens are stricken with insanity and then death after being exposed to a contaminated water supply. Timothy Olyphant has total screen presence.
While I wait for his next feature to be released, I just may start checking out his past efforts, starting with The Hitman (2007). Although panned by critics at the time, the film nonetheless went on to score almost $100 million worldwide.
So I guess you could say I’m crushin’ a bit on The Olyphant Man. Better late than never to discover talent, right?
Cheerio,
S.R.
