Rick Dalton was certainly a caricature of actors during the time of Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. We saw the rise and fall of Dalton in Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar-nominated film. The ending of the movie also showed that there may be hope for Dalton. While he had gone overseas to do some pictures, he ultimately was back in the states, but not sure what the future had in store for him. He just had to let go of his body-double, Brad Pitt’s Cliff Boothe after years of service and friendship. But, after killing members of the Manson family and meeting Margot Robbie’s Sharon Tate, what was next for Dalton?
“The whole incident with the flamethrower and the hippies got a lot of play. No one quite knows what a big deal that was, but it was still a big deal. And it’s a big deal that he killed ‘em with the flamethrower, with the prop from one of his most popular movies. So he starts becoming in demand again. I mean, not in demand like Michael Sarrazin at that time was in demand, but he’s got some publicity and now all of a sudden “The 14 Fists of McCluskey” is playing more on Channel 5 during Combat Week and stuff. And so he gets offered a couple of features — low-budget ones, but studio ones. But the thing is, on the episodic-TV circuit, he’s a bigger name now. He’s not quite Darren McGavin, all right? Darren McGavin would get paid the highest you could get paid as a guest star back in that time. But Rick’s about where John Saxon was, maybe just a little bit higher. So he’s getting good money and doing the best shows. And the episodes are all built around him. So as opposed to doing ‘Land of the Giants’ and ‘Bingo Martin,’ now he’s the bad guy on ‘Mission: Impossible,’ and it’s his episode… Oh, and he does a Vince Edwards show, ‘Matt Lincoln.’ Or a Glenn Ford show, ‘Cade’s County.’ And that’s a big deal, ’cause he did ‘Hell-Fire Texas’ with Glenn Ford and they didn’t really get along. But now they bury the hatchet and they make a big deal about the two guys doing it together. And then he does a couple of Paul Wendkos’ TV movies… And you know, he’s doing OK.”
What do you think of Tarantino’s assessment of Dalton’s career post-killing Manson family/meeting Sharon Tate?
Source: Collider
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