Anita Gillette Movies

Twenty years after leaving Lake City, Alabama behind, Bobby Jackson returns to his hometown to bury the baseball coach who turned his life around, and reconnect with the childhood friends who have since drifted apart. Growing up in a largely white, military town, Bobby and his friends were always acutely aware of the fact that they were different. With the help of Coach Billy Adams, however, they found a place to call their own - the baseball diamond. They called themselves the 'Bama Rascals, and they could run the bases like it was nobody's business. But later in life, some members of the gang fared better than others. Now, the Rascals have returned to Lake City to be the pallbearers at Coach Billy's funeral. Will their reunion help to heal the wounds that have festered all these years, or will the sight of those familiar faces simply take the "Bama Rascals back to a place they need to leave behind in order to truly grow. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A serious filmmaker takes on a not-so-serious subject, and finds love along the way in this romantic comedy. Katie (Marianne Hagan) is a struggling documentary filmmaker whose career seems to be going nowhere as her 32nd birthday looms on the horizon. While pitching a project about the life of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to a public television outlet, Katie makes the acquaintance of Arlene (Barbara Gulan), a TV producer who offers her another project -- a series on the ups and down of dating and single life. Katie isn't especially interested, especially since her last relationship has soured her on romance in general, but she's in no position to turn down work; with the help of Spider (Mike Dooly), a cameraman who has known Katie for years (and long had a crush on her), she begins following Jed (Dave Gibbs), a handsome but self-centered single guy. Jed has no clue as to how he should behave around women, and most of the dates Katie films are nothing short of disastrous, but the more time she spends with Jed, the more she likes him, and she starts to wonder if perhaps with a little work he could be groomed into a better grade of boyfriend material. Dinner and a Movie also features actor and filmmaker Paul Bartel in one of his final roles; acclaimed singer/songwriter Dar Williams contributed to the musical score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Niles' fractious lady friend Dr. Mel Karnofsky (Jane Adams) has no qualms about exploiting the long-standing rivalry between Niles (David Hyde Pierce) and Frasier (Kelsey Grammer). In fact, it was Mel's idea to pit brother against brother in a wine-tasting competition -- proof positive that it is high time Niles be told that Mel is definitely not the woman for him. As for the Crane boys' dad, Martin (John Mahoney), he is having trouble making peace with himself after sleeping with the widow (Anita Gillette) of one of his oldest friends. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bill Murray teams up with his biggest co-star to date (with the exception of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man) in this family-oriented comedy. Jack Corcoran (Bill Murray) is a motivational speaker who makes his living advising others how to tie up the loose ends of their lives, but he has plenty of his own left dangling. Jack is emotionally at the mercy of his mother (Anita Gillette) and his fiancée Celeste (Maureen Mueller), while his booking agent Walter (Jeremy Piven) keeps promising him bigger and better things that don't materialize. Jack has grown up believing that his father died before he was born while trying to rescue a drowning child, but he learns that was not the case at all -- Dad spent a long career working as a circus clown, and died only a few weeks ago. However, Dad was kind enough to bequeath Jack a large stack of debts and his only tangible asset, an Indian elephant named Vera (Tia). Jack is in no position to keep a pachyderm at home, and he has two options for getting rid of the animal -- sell Vera to Terry (Linda Fiorentino), a mean spirited animal trainer, or donate her to Mo (Janeane Garofalo), a zoologist who hopes to return her to the wilds. Either way, Jack has to get Vera from the East Coast to California, and in order to make an important speaking engagement, he and the elephant have five days to cross the country. Larger Than Life also features Matthew McConaughey as an excitable truck driver; Keith David, Harve Presnell, and Pat Hingle also highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Thirty years after being convicted on a stabbing-and-rape charge, the accused may be able to get a new trial. This is the result of fresh evidence unearthed by diligent detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Logan (Benjamin Bratt). But the good news for the accused rapist is devastatingly bad news for his alleged victim, Cookie Costello (Anita Gillette), who is terrified that she will again be targeted for assault -- and possibly murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a fight with his wife over the proverbial "other woman," building super Mr. Wicker (Jerry Adler) moves in with Paul and Jamie Buchman (Paul Reiser, Helen Hunt). An additional crisis arises when it develops that Jamie needs glasses -- or would contact lenses go better with her "trapezoidal face?" Best moment: the faux Dickens recital. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When there's a full moon over Brooklyn, anything can happen, and everything happens in the neighborhood where widowed bookkeeper Loretta Castorini (Cher) lives. First, Loretta agrees to marry a man she does not love, Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), simply because he knows how to propose properly. Before the wedding can take place, Cammareri must visit his dying mother in Sicily. In his absence, Loretta is supposed to try to patch up the differences between Johnny and his brother, bakery operator Ronny Cammareri (Nicolas Cage). Having never forgiven Johnny for indirectly causing the accident that crippled him, Ronny flies into a rage whenever his brother's name is mentioned. He does, however, fall for Loretta like a ton of bricks. After a torrid affair, Loretta tries to avoid Ronny out of respect to Johnny, but he's just too fascinating to resist. Meanwhile, Loretta's father (Vincent Gardenia) is fooling around with his mistress Mona (Anita Gillette), while Loretta's mother (Olympia Dukakis) is wooed by a college professor (John Mahoney). These brief flings are forgiven and forgotten, but there's still the delicate situation of Loretta being in love with her future brother-in-law. A now-classic romantic comedy, Moonstruck won Oscars for Cher, Olympia Dukakis, and screenwriter John Patrick Shanley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inasmuch as series star Jack Klugman had been railing about the mediocre script writing which he felt had plagued the past seven seasons of Quincy, M.E., it is little wonder that Klugman himself receives writing credit for several episodes telecast during the series' eighth and final season on NBC. As before, the series' protagonist is Dr. Quincy, hard-driving medical examiner for the L.A. County Coroner's Office. In addition to such familiar series regulars as John S. Ragin, Robert Ito, Val Bisoglio, and Garry Walberg, season eight features a new recurring character, Dr. Emily Hanover, played by Anita Gillette. After years of playing the field romance wise, Quincy decides this season that it is time to settle down, thus he proposes marriage to Emily -- though how he finds the time to do this while solving murders and crusading against a vast array of social ills is anybody's guess! In the season opener "Baby Rattlesnakes," Quincy comes up against a young gang member who would seemingly rather take a murder rap than rat on his friends. The next episode,"A Ghost of a Chance" puts Quincy in the unenviable position of proving that an eminent heart surgeon may be a fraud; and a few weeks later, he must wean a fellow medical examiner (Ina Balin) away from a ruinous alcohol dependency in "Dying for a Drink." In later episodes, Quincy ends up in a small town court where the witnesses in a murder trial have been bullied into committing perjury; he takes the controversial position that punk rock music may have brought about a youngster's death; he goes head to head with the dreaded Japanese underworld organization The Yazuka; he reconstructs the last few days in the life of a young girl who has been found dead on the side of highway; he exposes a faulty school system which allows illiterate students to be promoted without question (his involvement arises from a fatal accident that might have been prevented had the victim known how to read); and in the two-part "Quincy's Wedding," Quincy and his sweetheart, Dr. Emily Hanover, have their nuptial plans ruined by the pressures of Quincy's job (most of them brought on by himself). The series finale, "The Cutting Edge," was originally intended as the pilot for a new weekly hospital drama starring Barry Newman as Dr. Gabriel McCracken. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a four-year relationship, Quincy (Jack Klugman) still cannot summon the courage to propose to his lady friend Lynne (Sharon Acker), and in fact seems to be deliberately neglected her in favor of his work. During a particularly difficult forensic procedure in which he must clean up after an incompetent colleague, Quincy reflects on his current romantic crisis--and flashes back to the events leading up to the death of his late wife Helen. Appearing as the former Mrs. Quincy is Anita Gillette), who ironically later joined the series as Quincy's second wife Emily. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

First seen on October 3, 1976, as a component of the rotating crime anthology series The NBC Mystery Movie, Quincy, M.E. starred Jack Klugman as the title character, a one-time private medical practitioner who, after the death of his wife, gave up his profitable practice to become a medical examiner with the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. Using his vast knowledge of forensic medicine, Quincy (whose first name was never revealed on the series) frequently came up against cases of normal or "accidental" death, or suicide, that he suspected to be murders. Whenever this happened, Quincy went into full detective mode, ruffling the feathers of everyone in any sort of authority, from the police to the D.A.'s office to the medical establishment itself. Contentious and persistent, Quincy never let up until he proved his theories or solved the case at hand, even when facing public censure, the loss of his license or a stiff prison term.

Once the series ceased its sporadic NBC Mystery Movie schedule and became a weekly, one-hour NBC offering in the spring of 1977, Quincy broadened his range of outrage to include suspected cases of child abuse, drug and/or alcohol addiction brought about by flaws in the bureaucracy, governmental red tape, incompetent doctors, corrupt politicians, shifty lawyers, gangland chieftains, and those who would prey on the helpless and infirm in all walks of life. While Quincy's intentions were honorable and his results were often laudatory, he proved to be a major pain in the neck to his superior in the coroner's office, Dr. Robert Astin (John S. Ragin). Originally a pompous, preening obstructionist bureaucrat, Dr. Astin mellowed into an intelligent and avuncular character as the series wore on, and became one of Quincy's closest friends. Another "friendly adversary" was police lieutenant Frank Monahan (Garry Walberg), who frequently found himself both resisting Quincy's intrusions into his territory and welcoming his meticulous detective work and razor sharp deductions. Others in the supporting cast included Robert Ito as Quincy's young and ambitious assistant, Sam Fujiyama; Val Bisoglio as restaurateur Danny Tovo (who owned Quincy's favorite watering hole, Danny's); and Joseph Roman as police sergeant Brill.

Although he lived alone on his personal boat which he kept docked at a marina, Quincy did not want for female companionship. His girlfriend during the series' first two seasons was Lee Potter (Lynnette Mettey); she was followed by a steady stream of lovely ladies, including Dr. Emily Hanover (Anita Gillette), who ended up marrying Quincy after innumerable delays and breakups in the series' final season. Created and produced by Glen A. Larson, Quincy, M.E. remained a popular NBC attraction until its cancellation on September 5, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide