Tim Dry is a mime artist, writer, songwriter and actor, best known for appearing in ‘Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...

’ and for being half of a duo, Tik and Tok

Tik and Tok

Tik and Tok are the robotic mime and music duo of Tim Dry and Sean Crawford. They began performing together with SHOCK: a rock/mime/burlesque/music troupe in the early 1980s with Barbie Wilde, Robert Pereno, L.A. Richards and Carole Caplin....

, that popularized robotic mime in the UK in the 1980s.

Early years

Tim Dry was born in Redhill, Surrey

Redhill, Surrey

Redhill is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead, Surrey, England and is part of the London commuter belt. Redhill and the adjacent town of Reigate form a single urban area.-History:...

 in 1952. After leaving a Graphic Design Dip AD course at Reigate School of Art and Design in 1972, he moved to Brighton, Sussex to explore other areas of creativity, including painting, fine art and producing, along with other Reigate Art School alumni, ‘The Cosmic Colouring Book’. Which was published to much acclaim in 1973.

In 1976, he relocated to London to train in Mime

Mime

The word mime is used to refer to a mime artist who uses a theatrical medium or performance art involving the acting out of a story through body motions without use of speech.Mime may also refer to:* Mime, an alternative word for lip sync...

 and Physical Theatre with Desmond Jones and Lindsay Kemp

Lindsay Kemp

Lindsay Kemp is a British dancer, actor, teacher, mime artist and choreographer.Born in South Shields on May 3, 1938, Kemp's father, a seaman, was lost at sea in 1940. According to Kemp, he danced from early childhood: "I'd dance on the kitchen table to entertain the neighbours. I mean, it was a...

 (who tutored Kate Bush

Kate Bush

Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...

 and David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

, amongst others).

The eighties

After three years of intensive stage work (both in solo and duo shows, and as a member of Jones’ company ‘Silents’) Tim, alongside fellow mime partner Barbie Wilde

Barbie Wilde

Barbie Wilde is a Canadian actress and writer, perhaps best known for appearing as the Female Cenobite in Hellbound: Hellraiser II - the second of eight Hellraiser films based on Clive Barker's novella, The Hellbound Heart...

, formed SHOCK: a rock/mime/burlesque/music troupe with Robert Pereno, Carole Caplin

Carole Caplin

Carole Caplin was the style adviser to Cherie Blair and a fitness adviser to Tony Blair, when he was the British Prime Minister...

, LA Richards and Sean Crawford. SHOCK performed extensively in the burgeoning New Romantic club scene in London in the early 1980s. The first SHOCK single on RCA Records

RCA Records

RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...

, ‘Angel Face’, (co-produced by Rusty Egan from Visage and Richard James Burgess

Richard James Burgess

Richard James Burgess is a studio drummer, music-computer programmer, recording artist, record producer, composer, author, manager, marketer and inventor. He was the producer for Spandau Ballet's first two albums.-Education:...

 from Landscape

Landscape (band)

Landscape is a British band, best known for the 1981 hits, "Einstein A Go-Go" and "Norman Bates". Formed in 1974, they toured constantly during the mid- to late-1970s, playing rock, punk and jazz venues and releasing two instrumental EPs on their own Event Horizon label...

) was a modest dance floor hit in clubs all over the UK and in New York. SHOCK continued to play at the Blitz Club, The Venue, the Playboy Club, The Embassy Club, The Lyceum, and ‘The People’s Palace’ performance at the Rainbow Theatre. They supported Gary Numan

Gary Numan

Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music...

 for three nights at his ‘Farewell’ concerts at Wembley Arena

Wembley Arena

Wembley Arena is an indoor arena, at Wembley, in the London Borough of Brent. The building is opposite Wembley Stadium.-History:...

 in April 1981. Reduced to a four-piece ensemble after the abrupt departure of Robert and LA in June 1981, SHOCK released a second single, ‘Dynamo Beat’, on RCA, which again was a dance floor hit in UK clubs, but failed to chart nationwide.

Tik and Tok

In early 1982 Tim and Sean left Shock to pursue their own vision of a combination of mime, visual image and music, creating a duo called Tik and Tok

Tik and Tok

Tik and Tok are the robotic mime and music duo of Tim Dry and Sean Crawford. They began performing together with SHOCK: a rock/mime/burlesque/music troupe in the early 1980s with Barbie Wilde, Robert Pereno, L.A. Richards and Carole Caplin....

. Signed to Indie label Survival Records, they released 5 singles and an album ‘Intolerance’ in the UK, Europe and Japan. Their second single ‘Cool Running’ reached No.69 in the UK Top 70 Singles Chart (The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles).

In 1982, Tik and Tok were cast as featured creatures in two roles each in ‘Star Wars Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi’. The same year also saw them appear in the cult Horror/Sci Fi film, ‘Xtro

Xtro

Xtro is a low-budget British science fiction horror film made in 1982 and directed by Harry Bromley Davenport and co-produced by Bob Shaye.-Plot:...

’. Tim played ‘The Alien’ and Sean played ‘The Action Man’.

Tik and Tok supported Duran Duran

Duran Duran

Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...

 on their sell-out UK tour of 1982 and Gary Numan on his comeback UK ‘Warriors’ tour in 1983. They appeared on 23 TV shows, including ‘The Royal Variety Performance’ in front of HRH Queen Elizabeth II and the cult music program, ‘The Tube

The Tube (TV series)

The Tube was an innovative United Kingdom pop/rock music television programme, which ran for five seasons, from 5 November 1982 until 1987...

’, hosted by Jools Holland

Jools Holland

Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour and Bono.Holland is a...

 and Paula Yates

Paula Yates

Paula Elizabeth Yates was a British television presenter and writer, best known for her work on two television programmes, The Tube and The Big Breakfast.-Early life:...

.

Tik & Tok reformed briefly in 2005, creating a new album, ‘Dream Orphans’, in which Tim wrote, played and produced all the songs. Tim and Sean appear regularly at ‘Star Wars’ autograph conventions worldwide.

Photographic work

Tim is an award-winning photographic artist, whose subjects have included Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger

Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....

, Steven Berkoff

Steven Berkoff

Steven Berkoff is an English actor, writer and director. Best known for his performance as General Orlov in the James Bond film Octopussy, he is typically cast in villanous roles, such as Lt...

, composer Georg Kajanus, The Mediaeval Baebes, writer Rupert Thomson

Rupert Thomson

-Biography:Following the sudden death of his mother, Rupert Thomson was educated as a boarder at Christ's Hospital School. At seventeen, he was awarded a scholarship to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he studied Medieval History and Political Thought. He worked for four years as a...

 and Joan Collins

Joan Collins

Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...

.

His work has been commissioned as CD covers, illustrative articles and book jackets for clients including Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

, Cosmopolitan magazine, Black Lace Publishing, Simon and Schuster, Virgin Records

Virgin Records

Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...

, WEA Records and Hot Shoe magazine.

His photographic collages have been exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Photographic Society, The Association of Photographers Gallery in London and in Bath, Hamburg, and Berlin, as well as at the Christmas 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 shows at the prestigious Gallery 286 in West London. In March 2009 he showed one portrait at an exhibition at The Arts Club in London.

Acting

Tim acted in more than 90 TV Commercials in the UK and Europe. He had featured roles in the US-UK co-production of the TV series ‘The 10th Kingdom

The 10th Kingdom

The 10th Kingdom is an American epic fantasy miniseries written by Simon Moore and produced by Britain's Carnival Films, Germany's Babelsberg Film und Fernsehen, and the USA's Hallmark Entertainment...

’, in films such as ‘Soup’, ‘Death Wish III’, ‘Revolution

Revolution (1985 film)

Revolution is a 1985 film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Robert Dillon and starring Al Pacino, Helen Porter, Donald Sutherland, Nastassja Kinski, Joan Plowright, Dave King, Annie Lennox, Danny Turner, Steven Berkoff, Graham Greene, and Robbie Coltrane....

’ and ‘Decadence

Decadence (film)

Decadence is a 1994 British film starring Joan Collins and Stephen Berkoff, written and directed by Berkoff and based on his play of the same name....

’, and UK TV shows including ‘The Bill

The Bill

The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...

’, ‘Eastenders

EastEnders

EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

’, ‘Casualty

Casualty (TV series)

Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...

’, ‘Dempsey & Makepeace

Dempsey & Makepeace

Dempsey & Makepeace is a British television crime drama made by London Weekend Television for ITV, created and produced by Ranald Graham...

’, ‘Goodbye Mr Steadman’ and ‘Father Ted

Father Ted

Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...

’. On stage he played the lead in Steven Berkoff’s ‘Harry’s Christmas’ and Molière’s ‘School For Wives’.

In October 2010 Tim starred in the titular role in the short horror/comedy movie "SON Of Nosferatu". Written and directed by David Rose, it will be ready for release in 2011.

Noir

In 1996, alongside singer-songwriter Georg Kajanus

Georg Kajanus

Georg Kajanus is a Norwegian composer and pop musician, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of the British pop group, Sailor.-Early years:...

 from the band Sailor

Sailor (band)

Sailor are a British pop group, best known in the 1970s for their hit singles "Glass of Champagne" and "Girls Girls Girls", written by the group's lead singer and 12-string guitar player, Georg Kajanus.-In the 1970s:...

, he co-created the poetic/techno music duo called NOIR. Their song ‘Walking’ was used as a motif in four episodes of the Channel 4 food and drink series ‘FEAST’ in 1997, which was directed by David Pritchard (of Rick Stein

Rick Stein

Christopher Richard "Rick" Stein OBE is an English chef, restaurateur and television presenter. He is currently the head chef and co-owner of "Rick Stein at Bannisters" at Mollymook, New South Wales, Australia, owns four restaurants in Padstow, a fish and chip shop in Falmouth, Cornwall and has...

 and Keith Floyd

Keith Floyd

Keith Floyd was a British celebrity chef, television personality and restaurateur, who hosted cooking shows for the BBC and published many books combining cookery and travel...

 fame) and also starred TV chef Jean-Christophe Novelli

Jean-Christophe Novelli

-Life:Born in Arras, Northern France, in 1961, in a family with Italian roots, Jean-Christophe Novelli left school at age 14 and worked in a bakery before, at the age of 20, becoming a personal chef to the Rothschild family....

. Noir also presented ‘Feast’ and wrote the theme tune. The video for the ‘Walking’ single, released on Koch Records in the UK, was shown on ‘Top Of The Pops

Top of the Pops

Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...

 2’ and ‘Live and Kicking’. Their self-produced album, ‘Strange Desire’, was re-released by Angel Air Records

Angel Air Records

Angel Air Records is an English independent record label established in February 1997, specialising in reissues of classic pop and rock albums originally issued in the 1960s and 70s and latterly new albums from known artists up to the 21st century, formed by Peter and Shirley Purnell...

 in 2007.

Writer and songwriter

In 2005, Tim published his autobiography, ‘FALLING UPWARDS – Scenes From A Life’, through Exposure Publishing. Tim has recently completed his second book, ‘CONTINUUM – The Star Wars Phenomenon As Experienced From The Inside’ – a recounting of the filming of his roles in ‘Jedi’, and of his subsequent appearances worldwide at ’Star Wars’ autograph conventions. He is currently writing the authorized biography of film producer Robert Watts

Robert Watts

Robert Watts is a British film producer who is best known for his involvement with the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film series. His half brother is Jeremy Bulloch, who played Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy.-Chichester University Visit:...

 (the first ‘Star Wars’ trilogy and the first ‘Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones

Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...

’ trilogy), as well as his first novel ‘Ricochet’.

Tim is currently collaborating with guitarist Mo Blackford (LIGOTAGE and NASA) under the name TIMANDMO, creating music that can best be described as ‘Organic Electronica’.

Discography

SHOCK
Singles:

• ‘Angel Face’. b/w ‘R.E.R.B’. RCA Records 1980.
• ‘Dynamo Beat’. b/w ‘Dream Games’. RCA Records 1981.

TIK AND TOK
Singles:

• ‘Summer In The City’. b/w ‘Crisis’. Survival Records 1982.
• ‘Cool Running’. b/w ‘Vile Bodies’. Survival Records 1983.
• ‘Screen Me, I’m Yours’. b/w ‘Dangerous and Unafraid’. Survival Records 1984.
• ‘Everything Will Change’. b/w ‘Cracking Up’. Survival Records 1984.
• ‘Higher Ground’. b/w ‘Down From The Sky’. Survival Records 1984.

Albums:

• ‘Intolerance’. Survival Records 1984.
• ‘Dream Orphans’. Self-Released 2007.

EPs:

• Tik & Tok EP (2004) Rephlex label.
• ‘Slightly Deranged’ EP (2006) Independent.
• ‘Intolerance Xtras’ EP (2006) Independent.
• ‘Vintage Lo-Fi ‘EP (2006) Independent.

COMPILATIONS:

• Survival Dance Report SUR LP 007. ‘Summer In The City’ and ‘Cool Running’. 1983
• The Art Of Survival LP SUR LP OO9 ‘Screen Me, I’m Yours’ and ‘Higher Ground’. 1984.
• Jet Set – Sounds Of Lust & Luxury CD 0927 454422. ‘Crisis’. 2002
• DJ-Kicks: Chicken Lips CD K7155CD. ‘Crisis’. 2003
• Intergalactic Sunrise (XL Version) PR-009. ‘Cool Running’. 2006

THE WANG BROTHERS
Single:

• ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ (George Harrison) b/w ‘Wango!’ (co-writer). Communiqué Records 1985.

BEKI BONDAGE (co-writer)
Singles:

• ‘Don’t Turn Away’ b/w ‘Hard To Get’. Communiqué Records 1985.
• ‘Out Of The Darkness’. b/w ‘You Got It Made’. Communiqué Records 1985.

NASA (co-writer)
Album:‘Insha – Allah’. Sire Records 1990.

• ‘Burning Gold’.

NOIR
Single:

• ‘Walking’. Koch Records 1997.

Album:

• ‘Strange Desire’. Angel Air Records 2007.

TIMANDMO:
Digital album:
'Happy Accidents' 2011.
Download from:http://timandmo.bandcamp.com/album/happy-accidents-debut-album

External links