Carl Gordon Movies
American character actor Carl Gordon appeared in feature films such as Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976). He was also an active member of the Negro Ensemble Company and appeared in over 30 of their productions. In the early '90s, he appeared on the Fox television network sitcom Roc as Andrew Emerson, the father of the lead character. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1999
With this episode, recurring character "Dr. Dave" Malucci (Erik Palladino) becomes a regular. Elsewhere, John Cullum returns as Greene's (Anthony Edwards) cantankerous father, who arrives in Chicago from San Diego -- and promptly gets lost. As Kovac (Goran Visnjic) and Weaver (Laura Innes) try to save the life of a rape victim, Corday (Alex Kingston) puts her career on the line as she tends to the rapist. Lucy (Kellie Martin) has reasons to be reluctant to release the leader of a choir that has been injured in a bus accident. Finch (Michael Michele) tests teenager Chad Kottmeier (Emile Hirsch) for possible drug abuse. And before exiting the ER, the benighted Gabe Lawrence (Alan Alda) rises to the challenge of an extremely problematic medical emergency. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
This two-part TV miniseries, adapted from Dorothy West's novel The Wedding, takes a look at mid-century issues of race and class in well-to-do black society. On Martha's Vineyard in 1953, debutante Shelby Coles (Halle Berry) stirs discord in her social-climbing family when she chooses to marry impoverished white musician Meade Howell (Eric Thal). At the Shelby family estate, weeks prior to the wedding, Meade informs her parents, Corinne and Clark Coles (Lynn Whitfield, Michael Warren), that his family won't be attending the wedding, and the irony of upper-crust blacks being rejected by poor whites hangs heavy. In a later plot twist, the single black father (Carl Lumbly) of three mixed-race daughters takes a very strong interest in Shelby that quickly turns into an overly persistent pursuit. Filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, the miniseries premiered February 22-23, 1998 on ABC. Also known as Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Halle Berry, Eric Thal, (more)
- 1995
Organizing a neighborhood watch group, Fraser (Paul Gross) and Ray (David Marciano) teach a self-defense course to a group of senior citizens. One of their elderly pupils, a mugging victim named Herb Colling (Carl Gordon), uses what he has learned to become a dangerous one-man vigilante force, complete with baseball bat. Meanwhile, Fraser's pet wolf Diefenbaker has troubles of his own when he is "adopted" by a sweet old lady with a knitting fetish. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Gross, David Marciano, (more)
- 1995
- PG
Alfre Woodard and Charles S. Dutton star as sister and brother in this made-for-television Hallmark Hall of Fame production about an African-American family's struggle to retain their heritage. The drama tells the story of an impoverished black family whose history is told in the carvings on the family piano. Boy Willie (Dutton) wants to sell the piano and use the money to buy farmland, but sister Berniece (Woodard) won't part with it. The film chronicles their struggle to come to terms with their family's past, and its future. The critically acclaimed film was based on August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play and was nominated for numerous Emmy awards. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alfre Woodard, Charles S. Dutton, (more)
High-powered gangsters move this crime drama along at a fast pace. When two cops, Eddie Jillette (Richard Gere) and Joe Collins (Gary Basaraba), hear about a contract out on local crime boss Losado (Jeroen Krabbe), they go undercover posing as hitmen, and the result is murder. Collins and the man who hired them, Paul Deveneux (Terry Kinney) are killed, and Jillette goes looking for the assassin. He ends up in New Orleans where he locates Michel Duval (Kim Basinger), the girlfriend of Deveneux now virtually held a prisoner by Losado. Jillette has his work cut out for him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, (more)
- 1985
- R
This grim exploitation drama follows the cruelty of New York gangsters who prey upon young, naive actresses by inviting them to fancy parties where they are to be viciously raped. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- J.C. Quinn, April Daisy White, (more)
- 1984
- R
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Filmmaker John Sayles' first bonafide box-office success, Brother from Another Planet centers on a black escaped slave from a faraway planet (Joe Morton) who finds himself on the mean streets Harlem. Though the locals are put off by the slave's inability to speak, they are won over by his technical wizardry. He is adopted as a "brother" by his new friends, who protect him from pursuing white aliens played by director Sayles and David Strathairn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Morton, Darryl Edwards, (more)
- 1979
It's Airplane on the rails in the made-for-TV Disaster on the Coastliner. A crazed engineer holds his employers responsible for the deaths of his wife and daughter. He gets even by setting two passenger trains on an irrevocable collision course. Salvation comes from a most unexpected corner in this otherwise thoroughly predictable disaster flick. The requisite all-star cast includes Mike Connors, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Fuller, Pat Hingle, E. G. Marshall, Yvette Mimieux and William Shatner. Disaster on the Coastliner premiered October 28, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
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Based on the novel by William Brasher, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings is set in the segregated south of 1939. African-American baseball pitcher Bingo Long (Billy Dee Williams), tired of being jerked around by the less-than-ethical managers of the Negro League teams, forms his own barnstorming ball club. His partner in this endeavor is black catcher Leon Carter (James Earl Jones). Though boycotted by powerful Negro League manager Sallison Porter (Ted Ross), the Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings flourish, gaining a loyal fandom with every new game and cutting into the League's profits. Finally, Porter offers Long a deal: if the Motor Kings can win one big game with the Negro All-Stars, Long's team will be allowed to join the League. Also appearing in Bingo Long is Richard Pryor as a ballplayer who tries to break through the big-league color line by pretending to be everything from a Hispanic to a Native American named "Chief Tokohama"; if Pryor seems to disappear for long periods during the film, it's because his role was written to accommodate his many nightclub appearances. The producers originally wanted young Steven Spielberg to direct, but -- inspired by the success of Jaws -- he turned this down in favor of doing Close Encounters of the Third Kind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, (more)
- 1973
- R
In this incredibly violent actioner, a soldier returns from the war in Vietnam and finds that his Harlem neighborhood has become a drug-filled war zone of its own. The final straw comes when his wife overdoses. The grief-stricken vet quickly assembles a group of vigilantes to clean up the streets and exact vengeance upon the drug dealers who sold his wife the bad stuff. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
