---
name: "Tim O'Kelly"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/tim-okelly"
fi1m_id: "tim-okelly"
imdb_id: "nm0641517"
tmdb_id: 84628
wikidata_id: "Q7804064"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "12 March 1941"
died: "4 January 1990"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-26T16:48:07.876425+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Tim O'Kelly

## Identity

Tim O'Kelly

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/tim-okelly
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** tim-okelly
- **IMDb ID:** nm0641517
- **TMDB ID:** 84628
- **Wikidata ID:** Q7804064
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_O%27Kelly, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7804064, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0641517/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/84628

Actor. Born 12 March 1941 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Died 4 January 1990.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 12 March 1941, Los Angeles, California, USA
- **Died:** 4 January 1990
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_O%27Kelly, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7804064, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0641517/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/84628

## Fi1m on Tim O'Kelly

> Tim O'Kelly makes the clean-cut young man in *Targets* frightening without making him conspicuously sinister. His brief screen career offers limited evidence, but this detached, believable performance is worth seeking out.

Tim O'Kelly looks disconcertingly ordinary in *Targets* (1968). As Bobby Thompson, he gives us a clean-cut young man whose detachment makes the film's random violence harder to dismiss as something safely outside everyday life. The performance offers little of the conspicuous menace that would make him easier to categorise. We were frightened by that ordinariness, because O'Kelly makes Bobby believable without making his violence understandable. It is a strong performance, and the clearest reason to take an interest in his work.

His boyish appearance fitted the television parts that preceded it, including the Western *The Monroes* (1966–67) and guest appearances in *Batman* (1966–67). These were the clean-cut types for which he was readily cast. In Peter Bogdanovich's *Targets*, that same quality becomes disturbing. The film asks us to accept Bobby's apparent normality, and O'Kelly's understated acting makes that possible. A more demonstratively troubled performance would have made the casting less unsettling.

The contrast with Boris Karloff is central to why *Targets* works. Karloff supplies warmth and dignity to a film that sets Gothic horror against gun violence, while O'Kelly remains detached. We recommend it with a caveat: Bogdanovich can make that comparison too tidy for the harm being depicted. O'Kelly's performance gives us something more convincing to watch than the comparison itself. His Bobby is credible enough that we need not agree with every connection the film makes to feel its threat.

The *Hawaii Five-O* pilot (1968) suggests how much depended on casting. O'Kelly played Danny 'Danno' Williams but was replaced for the series after test audiences found him too young. His final credited film role was Eddie Molina in *The Grasshopper* (1970), leaving a brief screen career on which to judge him. Seek out *Targets* for O'Kelly as well as Karloff; his ordinariness is difficult to shake.

## Biography

Tim O'Kelly (born Timothy Patrick Wright) was an American actor. He was born on 12 March 1941 in Los Angeles, California, and died there on 4 January 1990.

O'Kelly began as a stage actor with the Santa Monica Group Theater, where he also directed and coached. His television work included appearances in Western series such as *The Monroes*, *Cimarron Strip*, *The Big Valley* and *The Guns of Will Sonnett*, as well as *Batman* (as Pete, the Royal Jester). He played Danny in the pilot episode of *Hawaii Five-O* (1968) but was replaced for the series.

His principal film role was as Bobby Thompson, the spree killer, in Peter Bogdanovich's *Targets* (1968), opposite Boris Karloff. His final screen credit was in *The Grasshopper* (1970).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Targets* (1968), Fi1m 82, as Bobby Thompson — [page](https://film.one/film/targets.md)

## Complete filmography (8)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Grasshopper* (1970), as Eddie Molina
- *Hawaii Five-O* (1969), series, as Danny
- *Operation Heartbeat* (1969), as Johnson
- *Cocoon* (1968), as Danny
- *Targets* (1968), as Bobby Thompson — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/targets.md)
- *For Pete's Sake* (1966), Actor
- *Shane* (1966), series, as Eddy
- *Batman* (1966), series, as Pete, Royal Jester

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/tim-okelly