Bruce Davison Movies
Bruce Davison is a highly respected actor who has received major awards and nominations for his work on the stage and screen since his auspicious debut in Frank Perry's disturbing coming-of-age tale Last Summer in 1969. Since then, Davison has become known for taking on difficult roles, and he specializes in sensitive, idealistic, and offbeat characters.A native of the Philadelphia area, where he was born June 28, 1946, Davison attended Penn State, where he studied art before switching to theater. He received his training at N.Y.U.'s School of the Arts, and, at the age of 21, he launched a successful Broadway career in a production of Tiger at the Gate. A versatile stage actor, Davison went on to perform in everything from Shakespeare to contemporary dramas. Over the course of his theatrical career, he has been awarded three Dramalogue Awards, one of which he earned for his portrayal of John Merrick in the Broadway version of The Elephant Man.
In 1972, Davison gained national recognition for playing the title role of a nebbish, rat-loving mama's boy in the creepy horror outing Willard. Other notable films from the '70s include the chilling, realistic Short Eyes (1977), in which the actor played a convicted child molester struggling to survive in prison, and Robert Aldrich's Ulzana's Raid (1972), a Western that cast him as a lieutenant dispatched to catch a group of renegade Apaches.
Also during the '70s, Davison began appearing in such television movies as the moving holiday favorite, The Gathering (1977). In 1978, he earned an Emmy nomination for playing an escaped German POW who befriends an innocent young girl in Summer of My German Soldier. The actor continued to appear on television throughout the '80s and '90s, doing particularly strong work in the dramas Ghost Eyes (1983) and Someone Else's Child (1994).
Although Davison has been active in films since the early '70s, he has remained a solid character actor rather than becoming a major star. He had one of his greatest critical successes in 1990, when he received an Oscar nomination (as well as several other honors) for his poignant portrayal of a man who loses his lover, many friends, and eventually his own life to AIDS in Longtime Companion. He also did particularly notable work in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), which cast him as the father of a gravely ill boy; The Crucible (1996), in which he played a brimstone-breathing Reverend; and Grace of My Heart (1996), which featured him as a married journalist who has an affair with the film's protagonist (Illeana Douglas).
In 2000, Davison was hard at work on a number of screen projects. Included among them were X-Men, Bryan Singer's highly anticipated adaptation of the celebrated comic series, and The King Is Alive, one of the latest Dogme 95 offerings that tells the story of a group of travelers who decide to stage a production of King Lear after their bus breaks down in an abandoned African town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 2008
Based on the 1980's series starring David Hasselhoff, Knight Rider follows the adventures of Mike Traceur (Justin Bruening), the estranged son of the original series' main character Michael Knight. After inadvertently becoming involved in the top secret work of his father - whom he never knew - Mike finds that his tremendous expertise as a soldier just happens to make him the perfect candidate to become the new Knight Rider: the driver of a super enhanced car with tremendous intelligence known as KITT (voiced by Val Kilmer). Now, tasked with tracking down mercenaries, busting top secret drug rings, and tracking down powerful people, Mike finds himself behind the wheel of a life he never even knew existed though his biggest challenge might be reigning in his cowboy attitude. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Justin Bruening, Deanna Russo, (more)
A quiet community reveals an ugly underside in the wake of a horrible crime in this independent drama. Robbie Levinson (Seth Peterson) and Trey McCoy (Brian J. Smith) are a gay couple who've been together for six years; they've been sharing a comfortable home in suburban Dallas most of that time, and are planning to get married once the legalities work themselves. Robbie and Trey are good neighbors who get along well with the other folks in the community until Chris Boyd (Chad Donella) moves in next door. Chris is a youth pastor at a church run by his father (Bruce Davison), a fundamentalist Christian who preaches often and with great vehemence about the evils of homosexuality. Chris doesn't keep his feelings about gays to himself, and when Trey is found dead in a nearby park, the victim of a sadistic beating with a baseball bat, Robbie believes Chris may be involved. However, Chris' father and mother provide an alibi for him, and the police hand the case from Detective Fisher (Farah White), who investigates hate crimes, to Sgt. Esposito (Giancarlo Esposito) in the homicide department. Robbie is appalled to discover he's now the leading suspect in the murder, and begins making his own investigation into Trey's death. Hate Crime was the first feature film from writer and director Tommy Stovall. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Seth Peterson, Chad E. Donella, (more)
When a series of cargo ships vanish into the open waters of the Bermuda Triangle, a team of determined specialists attempt to uncover the mystery of the planet's most perplexing phenomenon in Storm of the Century and Rose Red director Craig R. Baxley's spooky sci-fi miniseries. Billionaire Eric Benirall's (Sam Neill) ships have gone missing at an alarming rate, and it's high time to find out if there's a human factor behind the strange disappearances. With each surprising revelation the plot surrounding the Bermuda Triangle only seems to deepen, though, and as the bizarre stories about the cursed waters slowly begin adding up to a bigger picture, Benirall and his fearless crew are about to discover that the truth is most certainly always stranger than any work of fiction. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Stoltz, Sam Neill, (more)
- 2002
Stressed to the max by her burned-out husband (Bruce Davison) and her slacker daughter (Terra Vnesa), teacher Susan Freeman (Kathy Baker) takes comfort in the fact that her 15-year-old son Matt (Paul Franklin Dano) is an honor student with an advanced sense of responsibility and a strong work ethic. But even the smartest of kids can make the dumbest of mistakes: While tutoring fellow student Francesca (Katie Stuart), Matt recklessly has sex with the girl -- getting her pregnant the first time out. At the risk of his future (and possibly his sanity), Matt not only takes upon himself the burdens and responsibilities of unwed parenthood, but also fights Francesca's efforts to give up the baby for adoption. Too Young to Be a Dad first aired June 10, 2002 on the Lifetime cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Franklin Dano, Kathy Baker, (more)
Four female business owners pledge to abstain from any interaction with the opposite sex for 100 days in this battle of the sexes comedy featuring Jeremy Sisto, Bruce Davison, and Lin Shaye. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lala Sloatman, Jeremy Sisto, (more)
In this made-for-cable comedy-drama, a ten-year-old boy (Rory Culkin), who is still coming to terms with the death of his parents, is sent to spend the summer with his aunt (Sherilyn Fenn), who works as a lounge singer at a Florida resort hotel that's seen better days. While living at the hotel, the boy makes the acquaintance of Sam (Hume Cronyn), an elderly man who is enjoying an extended vacation in the Sunshine State. As the boy becomes friendly with Sam, he begins to wonder if the older, bearded man might actually be Santa Claus looking to get away from the North Pole prior to the year's toy-building season. Off Season was directed by veteran actor Bruce Davison, who also appears in a supporting role. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rory Culkin, Hume Cronyn, (more)
- 2001
First seen over the Showtime cable network on June 29, 2001, On the Edge is a compendium of three short science-fiction films, each with a decidedly feminist slant. The first segment, directed by Helen Mirren, is "Happy Birthday," in which a straight-A student (Sidney Tamilia Poitier) seeks recourse after she is "quota'd out" of graduate school. Next up is "The Other Side," directed by Mary Stuart Masterson, wherein a scientific genius (Anthony LaPaglia) clones himself upon learning that he has inoperable cancer -- only to find himself and his clone as two points in a romantic triangle. Closing out the program is writer/director Anne Heche's "Reaching Normal," the tale of a bored housewife (Andie McDowell) and her "telepathic twin," an eccentric college professor (Paul Rudd). The best of the batch is "Happy Birthday"; the other two stories are distressingly predictable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andie MacDowell, Paul Rudd, (more)
- 1999
Jane Seymour stars in this made-for-TV drama as Rebecca Blake, a bookstore employee who lives contently in San Pedro, California with her construction-worker husband Joe (A Martinez). A chance meeting with a woman named Lynn Wyman (Cathy Lee Crosby), coupled with her recent nightmares and searing headaches (one of which has prompted a spectacular collapse at her local grocery store), lead Lynn to the inescapable conclusion that she is an amnesiac--and that she might be Abbie Stewart, who has another family in Fillmore County. Journeying to Abbie's hometown to learn the truth, our heroine is put off somewhat by the curiously mixed reaction of the man who might be her "other" husband, school principal Chase Stewart (Bruce Davison). The key to mystery may not be the surrealistic dreams experienced by Rebecca/Abbie, but instead that painful-looking gash in her head. Produced for the CBS network, A Memory in My Heart initially aired on March 2, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
Made-for-television and based on a true story, this drama recounts the bizarre case of a mentally unstable woman who believes that someone is trying to kill her. When police hear Catherine's story of how a strange man has threatened her with notes and phone calls they take her seriously and launch a surveillance and investigation. It doesn't take them much time to discover that there is something strange about the case: the woman is somehow threatening herself without realizing it. The police suggest a psychiatrist, and Catherine agrees to go, thereby beginning a harrowing odyssey into the darkest realms of her long-buried memories and twisted soul. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mare Winningham, Bruce Davison, (more)
Haunted by the painful memories of the past, a married woman attempting to lead a normal life finds her quest for peace violently shattered by the appearance of an obsessive stalker. Catherine Begley (Mare Winningham) is a woman looking to lay her troubled history to rest. Though things begin to look up when Catherine weds a gentle and loving man (Bruce Davidson), she soon finds the past and present on a tragic collision course when a dangerously disturbed man begins tracking her every movement. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1998
Having long since renounced his Jewish faith, Jake Weiss (Bruce Davison) has degenerated into a flint-hearted slumlord. Arrested for housing-code violations and ordered to spend two weeks in one of his own squalid tenements, Jake feigns an epiphany in order to escape his sentence, claiming that he must be given time off to celebrate Passover with his mother and son. Posing as a ode-enforcement officer, Monica (Roma Downey) gives Jake a break, hoping he means what he says--but it takes a serious medical crisis to teach Jake the true meaning of Passover, and awaken him to his real purpose in life. Series regular Della Reese) (Tess) sings "Go Down, Moses". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
In this thought-provoking courtroom drama, the husband of a woman who was killed during a carjacking learns that justice can be hard to find when media hype and political agendas are added to the mix. The youths are captured and a trial date set. The quartet of carjackers are represented by Public Defender Sam Lind (Judd Hirsch). The Manhattan District Attorney Jim Sullivan (F. Murray Abraham) promises to prosecute them, but he must break this promise when community-activist Reverend Ed Walton shows up to turn the case into a racial issue, something which only increases community tension. The media gets involved and matters get worse. Fed-up with the rigamarole, the husband risks his life and freedom to get his own kind of justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Davison, F. Murray Abraham, (more)
- 1997
Kramer (Michael Richards) has a too-close encounter with the Van Buren Boys -- a life-threatening moment that Peterman (John O'Hurley) offers to purchase for his autobiography, which is being ghostwritten by Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) falls for a girl named Ellen (Christine Taylor), whom no one else warms up to. And George (Jason Alexander) may need a whole lot of aid and comfort after a contretemps involving the Susan Ross Foundation's first scholarship. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
A series of unusual dreams turn out to be a precursor for far more sinister things in this episode of the popular sci-fi series Star Trek: Voyager. Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson) begins having powerfully vivid dreams in which she is an Enaran woman who has fallen in love against the wishes of her father. Chakotay (Robert Beltran) wonders what this might have to do with the fact the Voyager has been escorting a group of Enarans back to their planet, and the Doctor (Robert Picardo) discovers Torres is not having ordinary dreams, but visions that have been deliberately implanted into her mind. Star Trek: Voyager: Remember first aired on October 9, 1996. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roxann Dawson
- 1996
George (Jason Alexander) is worried that the lawyer for the Susan Ross Foundation thinks he murdered Susan; and later, George has trouble with a "faulty" tape recorder. Kramer (Michael Richards) consults Newman (Wayne Knight) when he falls in love with Jerry's (Jerry Seinfeld) new girlfriend, Pam (Kim Myers). And when Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) announces she doesn't want to become a mother, she starts the ball rolling for a series of planned vasectomies, beginning with her boyfriend and ending with...Newman? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
George (Jason Alexander) is willing to get over the death of his fiancée, Susan, but her parents have other ideas as Seinfeld begins its eighth season. Also, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) renews his acquaintance with the "woman whose name rhymes with a body part." Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is left in charge of the office when Peterman (John O'Hurley) goes to Burma. And Kramer (Michael Richards) becomes a truly "towering" figure when he learns karate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
In this drama, an opportunistic and dangerous ex-convict uses the untimely death of a neighbor to help him get close to the kindly businessman he hopes to destroy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Thomas, Bruce Davison, (more)
- 1994
In this made-for-television drama a woman bears a son in a hospital and is confident that the babe in arms she returns home with is her own. Later, she learns she was mistaken and launches a custody battle not only for the child she raised, but also for the one she should have. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lisa Hartman, Bruce Davison, (more)
- 1993
Horrified and angered when she learns that the boy who brutally raped her daughter is free to do it again thanks to ineffectual laws and courtroom rigamarole, a mother vows to get her own kind of justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lesley Ann Warren, Bruce Davison, (more)
- 1993
Ten years earlier, George's mother (Genvieve Bujold) ran over his younger brother in the family driveway and killed him. Since then, she's been permanently out to lunch, and he has many responsibilities around the house. He's a teenager now, with the usual insecurities that go along with that, but he also hasn't reconciled the tragedy of his childhood. His difficulties are compounded when his schoolmate Christian (Alan Boyce) shows up on his doorstep asking for him to hide him; it turns out the boy has killed one of their classmates. George (Steven Dorff) is not willing to turn him in without taking some thought about it, and hides him for a while. Meanwhile, he acts as a go-between for Christian and his girlfriend Denise (Anne Heche), whom he develops feelings for. Eventually, the question of what is really real becomes an important one to find answers to. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Dorff, Geneviève Bujold, (more)
- 1992
On the eve of his televised execution, a serial killer (Bruce Davison) takes a TV newswoman (Joanna Cassidy) hostage. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Davison, Joanna Cassidy, (more)
- 1992
When his daughter Renee Witherspoon is stricken with leukemia, father Bruce Davison hopes to find a bone-marrow transplant within his own family. The most likely candidate is Renee's half-brother Joe Mazzello. But Joe's natural mother (and Renee's stepmother) Joanna Kerns, fearful that her son might endanger his own life, refuses permission for the operation. This being a TV movie rather than a weekly series, there are no easy answers to the dilemma, either morally or legally. Desperate Choices: To Save My Child was first telecast October 5, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joanna Kerns, Bruce Davison, (more)
