Kevin Anderson Movies
A dependable, self-assured actor who has successfully parlayed his stage success to the silver screen, Kevin Anderson has slowly built an impressive catalog of credits following his feature debut as one of Tom Cruise's onscreen buddies in Risky Business. A Gurnee, IL, native, Anderson was the last of five children, and his interest in acting became readily apparent when he became the founder and president of the drama club at Viking Junior High. After advancing to high school, Anderson joined the forensics team, specializing in oral interpretation and soon realizing that he did indeed have the talent to make it as a career actor. Higher education found Anderson enrolling in the acclaimed Goodman School of Drama, and shortly after his graduation in 1981, the burgeoning actor joined the ranks of Chicago's renowned Steppenwolf Theatre. It was while working with the respected troupe that Anderson's interpretation of wallflower Phillip in Orphans (a role he would later repeat in the 1987 film of the same name) found the actor standing out from an impressive cast to make a name for himself on-stage.Following his film debut in Risky Business with the little-seen romantic teen comedy Pink Nights, roles in Miles from Home (1988) and In Country (1989) proved worthy precursors to a powerhouse performance in the early-'90s made-for-television feature Orpheus Descending. His stage roots increasingly obvious, a role in the 1990 effort A Little Night Music gave Anderson the chance to show off his vocal talents, and a supporting part in the following year's Sleeping With the Enemy found the up-and-coming actor sharing the screen with Hollywood beauty Julia Roberts. Though his screen appearances in the remainder of the 1990s lost a bit of momentum, roles in the short-lived television series Nothing Sacred (for which he received a Golden Globe nomination) and Tim Blake Nelson's indie thriller Eye of God (1997) offered increased recognition and a few solid dramatic roles for Anderson. Drama Desk and Outer Critic's Circle Awards, as well as a Tony nomination for his extensive stage work in 1999 only helped to increase Anderson's reputation as an established dramatic presence.
The millennial turnover found Anderson receiving critical kudos for his role in The Doe Boy before once again stretching his vocal chords opposite Angela Bassett in Ruby's Bucket of Blood (both 2001), and the following year he would impress as sports personality Frank Gifford in the made-for-television drama Monday Night Mayhem. A turn as John F. Kennedy in Power and Beauty and a top-billed role in the series Skin confirmed that Anderson's star appears to shine brighter and more intensely on the small screen, though a high-profile role in the 2003 feature Carry Me Home proved without a doubt that Anderson's feature aspirations were still well in place. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
E.B. White's classic children's story comes to the screen in this live-action adaptation with an all-star voice cast. Fern Arable (Dakota Fanning) is a young girl growing up on her family's farm. When a sow gives birth to some piglets, Fern's father (Kevin Anderson) intends to do away with the runt of litter, but Fern has become attached to the little pig and persuades her father to let him live. The pig, named Wilbur (voice of Dominic Scott Kay), becomes Fern's pet, but when he grows larger, he's put in the care of Homer Zuckerman (Gary Basaraba), a farmer down the road. Fern is still able to visit Wilbur regularly, and it soon occurs to both of them that pigs tend to have a limited life expectancy on a farm, and that unless something unusual happens, Wilbur will eventually becomes someone's dinner. Charlotte, a friendly spider, hatches a plan to make Wilbur seem special enough to save by weaving messages about the "terrific" pig into her web, and she soon persuades her barnyard friends to join in her plan. Charlotte is voiced by Julia Roberts, while the other actors who provide the voices of the animals on Zuckerman's farm include Robert Redford, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Buscemi, Kathy Bates, Cedric the Entertainer. Thomas Haden Church, and André Benjamin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Roberts, Steve Buscemi, (more)
Television director Jace Alexander directs the feature-length Showtime childhood drama Carry Me Home. Set on a rural farm in upstate New York after WWII, the film follows young Carrie (Ashley Rose Orr) as she attempts to deal with her father's death. She refuses to get along with her mourning mother Harriet (Penelope Ann Miller) and she rejects the advances of neighborhood boy Zeke (Nicholas Braun). Things get worse when cultured local man Bernard (David Alan Basche) starts showing up with intentions of marrying Harriet. The conclusion finds Carrie growing from a traumatic experience involving the mentally disabled farm hand Charlie (Kevin Anderson). Carry Me Home was shown at the 2003 Nantucket Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Penelope Ann Miller, Kevin Anderson, (more)
- 2003
Romeo and Juliet was updated to contemporary Beverly Hills in this typically stylish Jerry Bruckheimer TV series. This time around, Juliet was Jewel Goldman (Olivia Wilde), the stunning teenage daughter of Larry Goldman (Ron Silver), a successful producer of steamy adult films. As for Romeo, he was Adam Roane (D.J. Cotrona), the hot-hunk son of district attorney Michael Roame (Kevin Anderson), a staunch anti-porn crusader. Yes, the elder Goldman and Roame were longtime enemies. Yes, both men forbade their children from seeing one another. And yes, Jewel and Adam managed to sneak in a few torrid balcony scenes -- though not always on the balcony. Created by Jim Leonard, Skin made its FOX network bow on October 20, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Silver, Kevin Anderson, (more)
Just as Jon Voight's on-target portrayal of controversial sportscaster Howard Cosell) in the 2002 biopic Ali was making the theatrical rounds, actor John Turturro offered his own spin on "Humble Howard" in the made-for-cable movie Monday Night Mayhem. Based on the book by Bill Carter and Marc Gunther, the film chronicles the creation of ABC Television's Monday Night Football telecast in 1970, then continues with the weekly telecast's rapid ascent to the top of the ratings. Reasoning that such a momentous undertaking needed a spectacular "star" lineup in the announcing booth, ABC's aggressive sports director Roone Arledge (John Heard) teams the highly opinionated, irritatingly erudite Cosell with not one but two charismatic ex-athletes, "Dandy Don" Meredith (Brad Beyer) and Frank Gifford (Kevin Anderson). The film makes much of Cosell's open disdain towards his "intellectually inferior" co-anchors and of Meredith and Gifford's reaction to their booth-mate's jibes, and also recreates many of Monday Night Football's highlights, notably Cosell's announcement in the middle of an important game that John Lennon has just been murdered. Monday Night Mayhem originally aired on January 14, 2002, not on ABC (surprise, surprise!) but as part of the TNT cable network's prime time lineup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Turturro, John Heard, (more)
Beauty and Power tells the sordid tale of Judith Exner (Natasha Henstridge), who claimed to have dated Frank Sinatra (John Ralston) and to have been the mistress of Jack Kennedy (Kevin Anderson, who played also Bobby Kennedy in Hoffa). The story is told in flashback, from Exner's point of view. In voice-overs, Exner breaks her life down into three critical mistakes -- the three major romantic relationships in her life. The first, she explains, was marrying Billy Campbell (Grant Nickalls), who was more concerned with his acting career than with their marriage, and who cheated on her frequently. Her friendship with an L.A.-based mobster leads to an affair with Sinatra, which she breaks off after he tries to involve her in a ménage a trios. She remains friends with Sinatra, and then meets Kennedy while he's just beginning his primary campaign for the presidency, and she soon falls in love with him. At around the same time, she meets Chicago gangster Sam Giancana (Peter Friedman), who falls in love with her and is jealous of her romance with Kennedy. Eventually she becomes a liaison between the presidential candidate and the mob, carrying briefcases of Kennedy money to Giancana for his help with the election. Kennedy professes his love for her and tells her that his marriage is just for show, and that he'll get a divorce if he doesn't win the presidency. Of course, things don't work out the way Exner might have hoped. The FBI begins harassing her, and she grows frustrated with her arrangement with the president. Beauty and Power debuted on Showtime in July 2002. It was directed by Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan). ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natasha Henstridge, Kevin Anderson, (more)
Hank Kirk (Kevin Anderson) is a Caucasian man who objects to his half-Cherokee son Hunter's (James Duval) tendency to believe the stories of his Native American grandfather. Hunter is a hemophiliac, which makes it difficult (and dangerous) for him to take part in the same outdoor activities that dominate his father's life, especially as his mother, Maggie (Jeri Arredondo), worries about her son and tries to keep him away from danger. As Hunter grows older, he feels the need to prove himself to his father despite his medical condition, but his father objects to the Cherokee method of hunting and insists that the boy hunt like a white man, by sitting by the side of the road with a gun and waiting for game to appear. When Hunter goes deer hunting with Hank for the first time, he mistakenly bags a doe instead of a buck -- a tremendous embarrassment for both Hunter and Hank, because the animal has no antlers to show off and thus is not considered a great catch. Humiliated, Hunter seeks the advice of his grandfather, Marvin Fishinghawk (Gordon Tootoosis), and finds love for the first time with a girl his age. The Doe Boy was the first feature film from writer and director Randy Redroad, which was based on his own experiences growing up in a Native American family; the film was shown in competition at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Duval, Kevin Anderson, (more)
Angela Bassett stars in this powerful drama set in the Deep South in the early '60s. Ruby Delacroix (Bassett) operates a rough-and-tumble night spot in Louisiana. Between running her business, raising a teenage daughter, and trying to keep tabs on her unfaithful husband, Ruby's life hardly needs any more excitement. However, temptation presents itself in the form of Billy (Kevin Anderson), a white singer who is booked into the club. Ruby and Billy fall into a passionate affair, which proves to be a dangerous thing in the desegregated South. Produced for the Showtime premium cable network, Ruby's Bucket of Blood also features Glenn Plummer, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Jurnee Smollett. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Bassett, Kevin Anderson, (more)
A woman is placed in a dangerous position after a chance meeting with a stranger in this suspense drama. A drifter wanders into a quiet diner off a highway, and the woman who manages the place takes pity on him and gives him breakfast on the house since he doesn't have any money. The stranger looks like he's been injured recently, and when three men come in for something to eat, he warns the manager that the new customers are not to be trusted -- he has information that they want, and they would be willing to hurt her as badly as they hurt him in order to get it. Whom should she believe? And what will happen if the drifter happens to be right? Produced under the title Shearer's Breakfast, When Strangers Appear stars Barry Watson, Radha Mitchell, and Josh Lucas; though set in the United States, the film was actually shot in New Zealand. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Radha Mitchell, Barry Watson, (more)
- 1999
Based on a true story, The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer concerns the notorious Ira Einhorn, a political activist turned murder suspect who eluded Philadelphia police for nearly 20 years. In 1968, Texas-born Holly Maddux (Naomi Watts) left home to attend Bryn Mawr College, and two years later she made the acquaintance of Einhorn (Kevin Anderson), a community organizer and activist well known for leading peaceful crusades and as the key figure in Philadelphia's radical community. Holly and Ira became romantically involved, but, despite his public image, behind closed doors Einhorn was often abusive and manipulative, though Holly, for her own reasons, accepted his poor treatment and infidelity. In 1977, Holly had reached the end of her rope and told friends she was leaving Ira, intending to return to their apartment only to collect her belongings. She was not seen again for several months, until her corpse was found stuffed in a trunk in Ira's apartment. Einhorn was arrested in connection with the crime, but was released on bail, only to flee the country, surfacing in France four years later. Convicted 'in absentia' for Holly's murder in 1993, Einhorn was extradited to the United States in 1997 under the condition he receive a new trial. The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer was produced for NBC Television, and was first aired as a two-part miniseries in May 1999. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Anderson, Tom Skerritt, (more)
- 1998
- NR
Gregory Underwood is an idealistic teacher whose head is full of the columns of the liberal magazines he religiously reads. He feels he is a citizen of the world, but he does most of his living inside his head. Voluptuous music teacher Belle is crazy about him and determined to engage him in an adult relationship. But Gregory is infatuated with one of his brighter students, Frances. Inspired by Gregory's teaching, Frances gets involved in a campaign against global injustice and in particular against a suspected arms dealer and local businessman, Fraser Rowan. When she tries to get Gregory involved, his moral pomposity is put to the test. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Gordon Sinclair, Carly McKinnon, (more)
- 1997
- R
A woman is torn by both romantic and maternal love in this period romantic drama set in the 1830s. Elisabeth (Sophie Marceau), a Swiss governess, is the beautiful daughter of a once-prosperous landowner who has fallen deeply into debt. Charles Godwin (Stephen Dillane) is a prominent British aristocrat whose wife has suffered a crippling accident; doomed to spend the rest of her life in a semi-comatose state, she cannot bear Charles the child he so desperately needs. So Charles strikes an agreement with Elisabeth; she will conceive a child with him and hand it over after it is born in exchange for him paying off her father's debts. Elisabeth and Charles set aside three nights to make a baby, and while the matter is supposed to be purely functional and not romantic, Elisabeth finds it difficult to feel that way at the end of the third evening. She is heartbroken when she has to give up the child, and her obsession with the daughter she gave away is reflected in her journals and sketchbooks. Seven years later, Elisabeth discovers the whereabouts of Charles and their daughter, Louisa (Dominique Belcourt); when she learns they need a governess, she is hired for the position by Charles's sister-in-law Constance (Lia Williams), who is unaware that Elisabeth is Louisa's birth mother. When Charles discovers that Elisabeth is the new governess, he is furious, but he eventually takes pity on her and allows her to stay with the child for one month. However, before long, Elisabeth's attraction to Charles resurfaces, and their clandestine romance forces a number difficult questions. Firelight marked the directorial debut of noted screenwriter William Nicholson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophie Marceau, Stephen Dillane, (more)
A feminist farm belt version of William Shakespeare's King Lear, this film is based on Jane Smiley's novel about an aging farmer and his three daughters. The Lear-like farmer, Larry Cook (Jason Robards), decides to divide up his thousand-acre farm among his three daughters, but he disinherits his youngest, Caroline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), an attorney, when she expresses hesitancy. The other sisters, Ginny (Jessica Lange) and Rose (Michelle Pfeiffer), take up the offer, even though they were sexually abused by their father as children. They also take up romantically with the hippie son of a neighboring farmer, Jess Clark (Colin Firth), after their own drunken, demented father moves out to live with Clark's father Harold (Pat Hingle). When Rose's husband Peter (Kevin Anderson) learns of her betrayal, he gets drunk, crashes his truck, and dies. Ginny's husband Ty (Keith Carradine) enlists Caroline's help and sues Ginny and Rose on behalf of their father, whom he feels has been treated badly by the daughters. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange, (more)
Ainsley Dupree (Martha Plimpton) is a short-order cook at a diner in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, a country town in the middle of nowhere. Lonely and bored, Ainsley becomes pen pals with Jack Stillings (Kevin Anderson), who is currently serving time in prison. When Jack is released, he immediately asks Ainsley to marry him, and she impulsively agrees. Jack embraced Christianity while behind bars, and he encourages his wife to attend church with him each Sunday. However, Jack's requests soon become demands, and before long, she's forbidden to leave the house while he's at work pumping gas. Ainsley quietly rebuffs Jack's demands, slipping into town to a convenience store while he's away, but she soon learns, after Jack's parole officer pays a visit to their home, that his crime was more serious than she imagined; he beat a woman so brutally that she nearly died. Meanwhile, Sheriff Sam Rogers (Hal Holbrook) finds a 14-year-old boy, Tom Spencer (Nick Stahl), wandering dazed in ragged and bloody clothes along a lonely road. Tom leads Sam to the scene of a violent crime he has just witnessed, while telling him of the traumatic events in his family that led to an act of shocking brutality. Writer and director Tim Blake Nelson adapted Eye of God from his own stage play. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martha Plimpton, Kevin Anderson, (more)
- 1993
- R
Two people fall in love without meeting -- and discover a wealth of complications when they try to get together -- in this romantic comedy. Even though he's about to be married, Brian McVeigh (Kevin Anderson) doesn't want to give up his old apartment, where he can swill beer, scarf pizza, and be as much of a slob as he wants. He decides to hold onto his flat as a weekend clubhouse, but he rents it out to other people during the week. Brian's new tenants, sharing the place on alternating days, are Sam (Matthew Broderick), an aspiring gourmet chef who's just been dumped by his spacey girlfriend Pastel (Jeanne Tripplehorn), and Ellen (Annabella Sciorra), who is stuck in an unhappy marriage and wants a place to work on her art. Ellen mistakenly assumes that Brian is the guy who leaves her gourmet snacks and admiring notes about how much he likes her paintings, and when she sets up a liaison with Brian, she wonders how the seemingly perfect man could be such a loser in person. The Night We Never Met also features Justine Bateman as Brian's fiancée and Christine Baranski as Ellen's best friend. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Broderick, Annabella Sciorra, (more)
- 1993
In the made-for-cable thriller The Wrong Man, an American sailor (Kevin Anderson) is framed for the murder of a Mexican smuggler. The sailor escapes the police by hooking up with a weird couple (John Lithgow and Rosanna Arquette), who drag him into a series of sordid, dangerous affairs. Eventually, the wife falls for the sailor, which leads to even more danger for the fugitive. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosanna Arquette, Kevin Anderson, (more)
When Michael Crichton wrote his best-selling thriller Rising Sun, he wrote the character of hero John Connor with Sean Connery in mind. For Philip Kaufman's film version of the novel, Sean Connery, needless to say, fits seamlessly into the role of a legendary police detective who is an expert in Japanese culture. The story takes place in the towering office building of the Japanese Nakamoto Corporation in Los Angeles, who are negotiating a deal with Microcon, an American electronics firm. During a gala held one night in the Nakamoto offices, the body of a woman, Cheryl Lynn Austin (Tatjana Patitz) is found murdered in the main conference room. Arriving quickly on the scene is high-amped police lieutenant Tom Graham (Harvey Keitel), who oozes hatred for anything Japanese from every pore. When he has trouble getting cooperation from the Nakatomo executives, Graham calls in Web Smith (Wesley Snipes), a Special Services liaison, and John Connor (Connery), a man well-versed in Japanese culture and traditions. Together they form a team as they investigate the crime. Connor questions computer video expert Jingo (Tia Carrere), who works on a security system computer disc that captures the killer's identity. The only problem is that the image of the killer on the disc has been altered to conceal the murderer's face. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, (more)
The life of powerful union leader Jimmy Hoffa is the subject of this biographical drama. The focus is strongly on Hoffa's public and political life, from his early days as a labor organizer to his later conflicts with the Federal government -- and, eventually, his mysterious disappearance. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, (more)
Hot off her success in Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts starred in this thriller about a battered wife stalked by her abusive husband. Roberts plays Laura Burney, the wife of a rich investment counselor, Martin (Patrick Bergin). Martin appreciates his wife as a trophy, but at home he abuses her for not keeping the house as clean as he would like it. The verbal abuse descends into physical violence --so much so that Laura decides to disappear rather than live a life under Martin as a brutalized slave. Laura fakes her own death by drowning, and relocates to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she changes her name to Sara Waters. She starts a relationship with her friendly Iowa neighbor Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson), but her happiness is short-lived. Martin has discovered that Laura has staged her drowning and is coming to Iowa to reclaim his possession. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin, (more)
- 1991
This made-for-cable adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play documents the romance between a lonely Southern belle (Vanessa Redgrave) and a young drifter (Kevin Anderson). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Liebestraum is a moody, stylish suspense thriller written and directed by British director Mike Figgis. Nick (Kevin Anderson) is an architectural writer who goes home to be with his dying mother, Mrs. Anderssen (Kim Novak) from whom he was separated as a baby. There he meets an old friend and has an affair with the friend's wife, who was herself adopted after her mother went insane. Through a series of coincidences and a good deal of investigation Nick learns some terrible truths concerning everyone. The film, while beautiful to look at, and with a wonderful score composed by Figgis, is more interested in style and emotion rather than cogent explanations for the actions of the characters, however, taken for what it is, a mood piece, Liebestraum succeeds beautifully. Figgis has beautiful technique and is greatly aided by Juan Ruiz-Anchia's stark and evocative images. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Anderson, Pam Gidley, (more)
Norman Jewison directed this subdued character study of the effect of the Vietnam War on a small-town Kentucky family -- based on the novel by Bobbi Ann Mason. The film centers upon 17-year-old Samantha (Emily Lloyd) who lives in Hopewell, Kentucky with her Uncle Emmett (Bruce Willis), a quiet, laid-back veteran of Vietnam suffering from post-traumatic stress. Samantha's father was killed in Vietnam when he was 19-years-old (almost her age now), and her mother Irene (Joan Allen) has remarried. Samantha finds some old photographs of her father, and she becomes obsessed with finding out more about him. Irene, who has moved to Lexington with her second husband, wants Samantha to move in with them and go to college. But Samantha would rather stay with Uncle Emmett and try to find out more about her father. Her mother is no help, as she tells Samantha, "Honey, I married him four weeks before he left for the war. He was 19. I hardly even remember him." Finally Samantha, Emmett and her grandmother (Peggy Rea) go to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Finding her father's name in the memorial releases cathartic emotions in Samantha and her family. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Emily Lloyd, (more)
- 1988
- R
Two brothers (Richard Gere, Kevin Anderson) have inherited a large farm (once voted "Farm of the Year") from their father, but cannot keep it afloat. When the farm goes bankrupt, the pair decide to torch the place and take off across the Midwest, fleeing the law to become folk heroes for many rural farmers in the area. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Gere, Kevin Anderson, (more)
- 1987
The last name "Silver" appears in both the producer and director credits of the bottom-budget Walk on the Moon, suggesting either a vanity production, or at the very least a benign case of nepotism. Kevin Anderson plays a Peace Corps volunteer, bubbling o'er with idealism. To his surging delight, he learns he has been assigned to a remote, backward Colombian village. When Anderson arrives, he is confused by the cynical attitude of his predecessor (Terry Kinney). Even more confusing--though it won't be for long--is that the villagers greet the ebullient Anderson's arrival with silent, sullen indifference. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Anderson, Terry Kinney, (more)
- 1987
- R
Two brothers kidnap a boozy gangster and try to hold him for ransom in this psychological thriller. Harold (Albert Finney) is lured from a saloon by Treat (Matthew Modine) to their squalid tenement. He and his reclusive and agoraphobic brother, Phillip (Kevin Anderson), have no idea Harold is a mobster, only that he looks prosperous. Harold is reminded of his impoverished youth when he sees how the brothers live, and he offers to help the aspiring young thugs. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Albert Finney, Matthew Modine, (more)
