Music biopics have been a box office – and awards season – smash in recent years, from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Elton John‘s Rocketman, to Bob Dylan’s A Complete Unknown. So it’s not unusual to hear that award–winning actor Matthew Rhys is interested in getting involved in the genre with a Sir Tom Jones film.
Matthew – who won an Emmy for his work on The Americans and appears in the new Apple TV+ series Widow’s Bay – is from Cardiff, Wales, several miles south of where Tom was born and raised in Pontypridd, and he tells HELLO! that he is keen to work with the musician, who was knighted by the late Queen Elizabeth in 2006.
“I’d like to play Tom Jones in a biopic of his life,” says Matthew, 51, a proud Welshman who is raising his son to speak Welsh as he grows up in New York City.”I’m just putting it out to the ether in the hope that he’ll go, ‘Yeah, of course I’ll work with you.'”
“The title is: It’s Not Unusual,” he also quipped.
© Variety via Getty ImagesThere would be a wealth of eras from across Tom’s life for a biopic to cover: the 85-year-old is an iconic Welsh singer who has been performing for six decades and has a detailed and colorful private life.
He began performing in the 1960s with hits such as “It’s Not Unusual,” “What’s New Pussycat,” and “Delilah” and won the 1966 Grammys Award for Best New Artist.
© Getty ImagesHis music spanned genres from pop, R&B, and country, and he also starred in an internationally successful television variety show titled This Is Tom Jones.
He went on to enjoy a career resurgence in his late 50s with the release of the chart-topper “Sex Bomb” in 1999, and again a decade later when he was a judge on the UK version of The Voice for 13 of the 14 seasons; he was the first coach to mentor three winners.
Tom married his childhood sweetheart Linda at the age of 16 when she fell pregnant, but famously once said he had sex with up to 250 groupies a year at his peak of fame, as well as enjoying public affairs with singer Mary Wilson, actress Cassandra Peterson, presenter Charlotte Laws, and former Miss World Marjorie Wallace.
© Getty ImagesYet despite his many infidelities, Tom and Linda remained married from 1967 until her death in 2016 after a cancer diagnosis.
They raised their son Mark in Los Angeles, California.
© Bettmann ArchiveTom also became friends with his childhood icon, Elvis Presley, when they met in 1965, and the pair remained close until Elvis’ passing in 1977.
In 2017, speculation began to circulate that Tom was dating Elvis’ widow Priscilla Presley, but in 2021, he insisted they were just good friends who enjoyed dinner together.
“We’re not dating, but we do go out to dinner,” Tom said. “A friend of mine, Jeff Franklin, is a TV producer, and he’s got a big house up in LA. We’ll go up there and have sing-alongs and things like that. She’s a very dear friend of mine, Priscilla. I mean, I met her in the 1960s, and she’s been a friend of mine ever since. But there is nothing romantic, no.”
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