Tom Bell was at his most persuasive as a man making life unpleasant for somebody else. We rate him for the conviction he brings to that unpleasantness, particularly as Bill Otley in Prime Suspect.
Fi1m perspective
Bill Otley is the sort of colleague who can make a difficult job worse. In Prime Suspect (1991), Bell makes the sergeant's sexism an obstacle for Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison. We bristled at him because Bell makes the hostility seem so habitual, with no suggestion that Otley thinks himself unreasonable. It is an unsympathetic part played without an appeal to our affection. The drama gains from having an antagonist who feels like someone Tennison must work with, rather than someone put there simply to provoke her.
The early promise included a leading role: Toby in The L-Shaped Room (1962), his breakthrough in British new-wave cinema. He did not become a leading star, but treating that as a failure tells us little about the work he did well. Wish You Were Here (1987) and The Krays (1990) belong to his return to attention in supporting roles. He also played Antonio in Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books (1991), a reminder that the work extended beyond gangsters and policemen.
The danger of that menace is that casting can do too much of the work before Bell has done anything. Peter Medak's The Krays gives him Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie, a gangster part that fits the familiar impression of him. It is a worthwhile film, though our attention stays with the Kemp brothers and Billie Whitelaw in the unsettling family scenes. The psychology becomes repetitive and the criminal threat feels remote. Bell belongs in this company, but his presence is not a reason to pretend the film is tougher or more searching than it is.
Prime Suspect gives him more useful work to do, setting that antagonism beside Mirren's difficult, compelling lead. He returned as Otley in 1993 and 2006, a useful reminder that his television work deserves as much attention as the films. Some later cases press their social concerns too hard; the acting keeps us interested in the people even when the writing insists on its point. Start with Otley, and do not expect Bell to make the evening comfortable.
Biography
Tom Bell was an English stage, film and television actor. Born Thomas George Bell on 2 August 1933 in Liverpool, he trained at the Bradford Civic Theatre School alongside Billie Whitelaw and Robert Stephens. He began his career in repertory theatre and made his television debut in 1959.
Bell appeared in early 1960s kitchen-sink dramas including The L-Shaped Room (1962). He played Adolf Eichmann in the miniseries Holocaust (1978) and earned BAFTA nominations for Out (1978) and Prime Suspect (1991). He portrayed Jack 'The Hat' McVitie in The Krays (1990) and Sergeant Bill Otley opposite Helen Mirren in the first, third and seventh series of Prime Suspect (1991–2006).
Bell's partner was the costume designer Frances Tempest. He died on 4 October 2006 in Brighton, aged 73.
