19 thoughts on “Top Five Fathers in Historical Costume Movies & TV

  1. Huzzah for dads! I love Henry Jones Sr. (Cuz Indie’s name isn’t really Indiana), and cynical Mr. Bennett (who, Austen says, chose a pretty but silly wife).

  2. I’ve always liked Mr. Bennet in the 1995 P&P version. But you missed the line in the novel that explains EXACTLY why he married dingbat Mrs. B:

    In an aside early in Chapter 42, Jane Austen tells the reader that he fell for a pretty face: “…captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour…”

    At least he was smart enough to cherish the most sensible and perceptive of his daughters, so I forgive his otherwise bad parenting and patronizing attitude toward the rest of the family, including his wife.

  3. Mr Bennet is number one????
    (It’s been a while since I’ve seen the 1995 series, so they might have changed his character from canon for all I remember, so I’ll mostly talk about his book self, since everyone always talks about how accurate the 90s version is)
    He had over 20 years to start saving money for his daughters, but he apparently thought he could just hand over the burden of caring for his daughters to a hypothetical son (who would have his own family, and would prioritise dowries for his own daughters, not his sisters). Even after it was clear that he should start saving for his daughters (about the the time Lydia was 5, so that would have given him 10 years) he didn’t.
    (I have to post the next part in a separate comment, because the posting button disappears when the post is longer)

  4. He thought his wife silly, but let her do all the child rearing without help of a governess, he thought his children silly (no wonder, if you let your silly wife raise them alone!), but didn’t bother trying to help them out.
    He makes fun of his wife and children, even in public.
    And when Lydia ran away with Wickham he didn’t even bother to search for her longer than his anger lasted. How could a father just abandon a girl (because Lydia was a girl, no matter what she herself would like to think) to her fate? How could a father not try everything he could to avoid his child ending up somewhere like Madam Quigley’s?
    Sure he was an average father to Jane and Elizabeth, but he was negligent and mocking father to his 3 youngest.

    My favourite father in a period drama has to Jean Valjean (any adaption tbh)

    1. (Reply to both parts) I totally agree, I find Mr Bennet awful and neglecting as a father, actually, he is a far worse parent than Mrs Bennet, “silly” or not. I think, too, that this was a point Austen actually wanted to make: that Mr Bennet seems to be the reasonable part of the family (alongside Jane and Elizabeth), but as it turns out, he is a disappointment (when I remember correctly, this is the impression Elizabeth got during the elopement affair). He was definitely not a good father in the standard of the era.

  5. Off the top of my head? Joss Ackland as D’Artagnan’s father, giving his son one last lesson in swordplay before sending him off to the perils of Paris, in The Three Musketeers (1973).

  6. What about Clifton Webb in Cheaper by the Dozen? It’s based on a real family and both he and his wife were motion study engineers or something like that – science/math is not my forte- And this was in the 1920s.

  7. Yeahhhhhhh Mr Bennet is no where near number one in my books. Mrs Bennet may be silly but she at least has her priorities straight – if they don’t find suitable husbands for at least some of their children, when he dies they will be penniless. That thought alone would make anyone a bit highly strung. But what does Mr Bennet do? Does he get the girls a decent education? No. Jane and lizzie could potentially support themselves as governesses but the others haven’t been given enough education to at least do that if the worst passes. If he was a good father he would have ensured his children were educated and would’ve been making connections and husband hunting for them for long before the book starts. But no, as far as I can tell, he avoids putting in any parenting effort, is happy to leave them to the streets when he dies and presumably spends all his time smoking pot in his study. Mr Bennet is an irresponsible father at best.

  8. Captain Von Trapp?! So the man who is so cold and repressed that he raised his motherless children like a military unit is a good father. He threatened to fire Maria for encouraging the children to play and be creative. He treated the Baroness dreadfully. Instead of manning up and saying this was a financial arrangement and I have decided to marry elsewhere. You can really see why Christopher Plummer did not want to play this role and had to be forced into it contractually.
    At Least Michael Landon as Charles Ingalls was and engaged and loving father. He loved and respected his wife, encouraged his children, opened his home to those in need even when he was not wealthy, and had no problem fighting for what he believed in.

  9. Sorry, Atticus Finch will always be my perfect father. While not a costume movie, it qualifies for historical drama doesn’t it?

    I always loved Von Trapp/Christopher Plummer because he was so HOT, not because he was a wonderful Dad :)

  10. I absolutely LOVE Mr. Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. So sweet and warm; everything you expect from a father. I’m glad he’s number 1.

    I think I’ll count Dido’s father from Belle. Her actual father Sir John Lindsay, who made sure she was provided for. And her great-uncle William Murray for taking her in despite the attitudes and social pressures of the time.

  11. Dr Gibson, Who also like Mr Bennett marries unwisely but he does so in part at least for Molly’s sake.”Lover verses father, Lover wins”. And my other favourite fictional Dad is Mr Hale played to perfection by Tim Piggott-Smith. Mr Tulliver in Mill on the Floss is also worthy of a mention. Not too many good Dads in fiction however that I can think of. Atticus Finch of course is perhaps one of the best.

  12. Well i do understand why some would argue that Mr. Bennet isnt a very good father, but what really shines for me is when lets Elizabeth to decline Mr. Collins proposal and advises her in the end of the book not to marry a man she cannot respect even when Darcy is outrageously rich. Mr and Mrs Bennet were both true parents in their own ways.

  13. I love James Dunn in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. He is hopeless and a drunk of course and his wife is the strong one, but he is the one who recognizes that the little neighbor girl who is dying has a new dress – nobody else sees that or realizes what it means to her. It is one of the great father-daughter films of all time. I’m always in floods of tears when I watch it.

  14. Honestly, I really think rhett should have been the first. I’ve seen the movie and read the books (there is a continuation to what happens after the ending of the movie) and if you read the books you will realize so. And regardless even if it is only based on the movie, I never saw anyone as loving, in none of the other movies, but that is only my opinion. And continuing it, the books truly show Rhett’s depth of love for Bonnie.

Comments are closed.