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
An extortionist threatens to derail the career of a prominent politician by revealing visual proof of his lurid sex life in this sequel to Joel Schumacher's disturbing 1999 hit. In the world of politics David Huxley (Johnathon Schaech) is on the move. A crafty political visionary with lofty goals and an eye towards the future, Huxley's only Achilles heel is the sexual obsession that drives him into some of the city's seediest sex clubs. An unnamed extortionist has captured Huxley and his fiancée Tish (Lori Heuring) in a kinky three-way with an attractive young model (Zita Görög), and the high price he puts on the photographic proof send his target reeling. When the blackmail attempt takes a dark turn and Huxley is kidnapped, his fiancée must come up with $5 million in ransom or risk losing both her future husband, and her life as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnathon Schaech, Lori Heuring, (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
- 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)
- 1985
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is the portmanteau pilot film for the subsequent TV revival of Hitchcock's celebrated anthology series of the 1950s and '60s. Four short tales are presented, each of them remakes of earlier Alfred Hitchcock programs. "Incident in a Small Jail," originally presented in 1961 with John Fiedler in the lead, stars Ned Beatty as a traveling salesman who finds himself sharing a jail cell with an accused rapist -- the target of an angry, indiscriminate lynch mob. "Man from the South," based on an oft-adapted Roald Dahl piece, stars John Huston as a cagey gambler who makes a grisly wager with novice Steven Bauer. The original 1959 Hitchcock version of this tale starred Peter Lorre and Steve McQueen; featured in the cast of the remake are former Hitchcock movie leading ladies Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren, as well as Hedren's daughter Melanie Griffith. "Bang, You're Dead" is a taut, tension-filled tale of a child who wanders around town with a loaded gun. The child is a little girl (Bianca Rose), but in the initial 1961 version the protagonist was a boy, played by Billy Mumy (who appears in this remake in a small role). The final playlet, "The Unlocked Window," is an abbreviated version of a story first shown on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1965. Bruce Davidson is featured in a virtual reprise of that beloved old Hitchcock protagonist Norman Bates. Each of the four stories in Alfred Hitchcock Presents had its own director -- in order of appearance, they are Joel Oliansky, Steve De Jarnatt, Randa Haines, and Fred Walton -- and all were narrated by co-star John Huston. The late Alfred Hitchcock opens and closes each playlet via colorized footage from the original series -- a bizarre touch that "The Master" might have approved of. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 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)
Bryan Singer directed this Brandon Boyce adaptation of Stephen King's novella about teenager Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro), who discovers Nazi war criminal Kurt Dussander (Ian McKellen) living in his California hometown. Fascinated with Dussender's wartime atrocities, Bowden blackmails the former death-camp commandant by promising to keep his identity a secret in exchange for Holocaust horror tales, or, as Todd puts it, "everything they're afraid to show us in school." Dussander complies, and as the weeks pass, their tense confrontations become increasingly malevolent. This is the third film to derive from King's 1982 book of four novellas, Different Season. The others are Stand By Me (1986, from "The Body") and The Shawshank Redemption (1994, from Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, leaving only one remaining unfilmed tale in the book ("The Breathing Method"). Signet felt King's "Apt Pupil" to be so intense and horrifying that editors asked him to leave it out of the 1983 paperback. A 1987 attempt to film "Apt Pupil" (with Rick Schroder and Nicol Williamson) ended when funding ran out. Shown at numerous 1998 film festivals (Venice, Toronto, Chicago, Sitges, Tokyo). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro, (more)
New York architect Amy Benic (Mira Sorvino) meets blind masseur Virgil Adamson (Val Kilmer) and falls in love. As she learns his lifelong blindness may be curable through experimental surgery, she convinces him to undergo the operation. Virgil then learns vision may not quite be what he expected. At First Sight is directed by Irwin Winkler and also stars Bruce Davison, Nathan Lane, and Kelly McGillis. At First Sight is a romance adapted by writer Steve Levitt based upon the story To See and Not See from noted writer Dr. Oliver Sacks' collection, An Anthropologist on Mars. Dr. Sacks' work is also the basis for the Penny Marshall film Awakenings, starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams and the opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Michael Morris with music by Michael Nyman. In his original story, Dr. Sacks tells of receiving a call in October 1991 from a retired minister in the Midwest. His daughter was about to marry a fifty-year old man, Virgil, who had been blind since early childhood. He had thick cataracts and been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a disease which slowly eats away the retinas. As he could still make the distinction between light and dark, it was found he was misdiagnosed and simple cataract extraction could possibly restore his sight. While surgery was a success, Virgil, like his cinematic counterpart, found he would have to learn to use his vision much like an infant would, even though he was adept at relating to the world through touch. In his A New Theory of Vision, written in 1709, George Berkeley concluded there was no necessary connection between a tactile world and a sight world; a connection between them could be established only on the basis of experience. This same story was also adapted into the play Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Mira Sorvino, (more)
- 1971
Richard Farina's late-1960s "alienation" novel Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me was given a belated, and somewhat anachronistic, screen treatment in 1971. Though set in 1958, the original novel spoke most loudly to the post-Beat Generation hippies of the next decade. The film spoke to no one, except perhaps a few ageing hipsters who couldn't shake off the past. Barry Primus plays the central character, a sixties activist in the making on an uptight college campus. Amidst the jive-talk and the scrungy clothing, the film contains a few obligatory sex scenes, indicating perhaps that it was this element of beatnik life that most attracted the filmmakers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
- R
What if General George S. Patton didn't die in a car accident, as history tells us, but at the hands of a paid assassin? That's the premise of Brass Target, another in a series of espionage thrillers, like The Eagle Has Landed, that speculates on the fates of real-life figures from World War II. Robert Vaughn, Ed Bishop, and Edward Herrmann are three Allied officers in occupied Germany who steal Nazi gold with the help of OSS officer Patrick McGoohan. Patton (George Kennedy) personally supervises the investigation of the theft, assisted by Major Joe DeLuca (John Cassavetes). Soon, however, a professional assassin (Max Von Sydow) is on their trail, Patton is killed on the orders of his own staff, and only DeLuca and his lover (Sophia Loren), who is also involved with the assassin, are left alive for the finale. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, John Cassavetes, (more)
Shattered Glass director Billy Ray directs Chris Cooper and Ryan Philippe in this fact-based drama concerning the FBI traitor who carried out what many historians refer to as the most notable national security breach in U.S. history. A key member of the FBI's elite Soviet Analytical Unit, Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper) would, for 15 years beginning in 1985, sell thousands of pages of classified documents to the Soviets. After making roughly 600,000 dollars on his clandestine endeavor and compromising everything from the identities of KGB spies working for the American government to nuclear war contingency plans, Hanssen was eventually transferred to a newly created position at the FBI's Washington headquarters and assigned the task of guarding his country's most sensitive secrets. It was while working in this capacity that a young agent named Eric O'Neill (Phillipe) was assigned the task of keeping tabs on Hanssen by suspicious higher-ups. Later, after being arrested while delivering a cache of secret documents to a "dead drop" spot in a Virginia park, the notorious traitor was arrested and sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, (more)
- 2009
- PG
Disheartened at her inability to find a job and deeply embittered at the onset of the Christmas season, a single woman agrees to help her benevolent neighbor in a clandestine goodwill mission. Ashley (Kari Hawker) is desperate for employment when her neighbor Nick makes her an offer she can't refuse: assist him in helping strangers anonymously and earn a steady income for her efforts. Describing himself as a kind of wealthy Secret Santa, Nick gets satisfaction from helping others, but treasures his privacy. When Ashley meets magazine writer Will, the two form an immediate connection. But as a writer Will is always digging for facts, and in time Ashley entrusts him with Nick's secret. When that secret gets out, Will realizes that his actions have consequences, and attempts to work with Ashley to set things right. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- K.C. Clyde, Kari Hawker, (more)
- 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)
Joanna Crane (Kathleen Turner) is a cold, workaholic sportswear designer, divorced and dedicated only to her job. Once strapped into that role, Joanna looks for an "out" and finds it by donning a wig and hitting the pavement as a $50/trick hooker named China Blue. Explicit scenes show her at work on her night job, including a long S and M segment with a policeman. While making money as China Blue, Joanna runs into a menacing, fanatic preacher (Anthony Perkins) who is out to save her from this life of sin, but in the meantime, he is also busy watching nude girly shows. As China Blue and the sexually ambivalent Reverend heat up their relationship, he becomes difficult to read: is this psycho reverend a killer? While China Blue is plying her trade, Bobby Grady (John Laughlin) has finally realized after 12 years of marriage that his wife Amy (Annie Potts) is frigid and just as he has this remarkably delayed insight, he is assigned by Joanna's boss to find out if she is stealing designs or not. By tracking Joanna, Bobby sees her transformation as China Blue and as might be expected, sex is not far behind. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathleen Turner, Anthony Perkins, (more)
A low-key glimpse into the life and crimes of one of history's most notorious serial killers, Dahmer doesn't concern itself with the gruesome nature of its protagonist's horrific crimes, but rather the troubled mind of the man who committed them. Focusing on the later years in the life of Jeffrey Dahmer (Jeremy Renner), David Jacobson's film follows the troubled killer from department store to gay nightclub as he stalks his prey and battles his inner demons, all the while providing contrast to current events with flashbacks from the days during which madness finally gained an inescapable grip on his already unstable mind. From his days in a Milwaukee chocolate factory to nights spent haunting the streets in search of prey, the viewer peers cautiously over the edge of an abyss so deep and so far-stretching that most minds will never fathom the truly monstrous nature of Dahmer's heretofore unprecedented crime spree. As he befriends and brings home yet another potential victim in the form of an outgoing young man named Rodney (Artel Kayaru), Dahmer is forced to confront his past as the two grow increasingly close over the course of the evening. Will Dahmer have a glimmer of humanity during a night of intimate and revealing conversation, or is it already too late for the unassuming young man who has fallen into the same trap as so many before him? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Renner, Bruce Davison, (more)
- 1978
In this entry from the "Police Story" series of police dramas, bank robbers have taken five hostages in a besieged skyscraper. It is up to the SWAT negotiator to see to their safe release. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Deadman's Curve is a made-for-TV biography concerning "California sound" rock-n-rollers Jan and Dean. Richard Hatch plays Jan Berry, while Bruce Davison is seen as Dean Torrence. The meat of the story is Jan's grueling efforts to fully recover from a disastrous 1966 auto accident. The film's most powerful scene occurs when the still-shaky Jan attempts a concert comeback, only to be booed offstage when the audience realizes that he's lip-synching. First telecast February 3, 1978, Deadman's Curve is seasoned with cameo appearances by Dick Clark, Wolfman Jack, and Beach Boys Mike Love and Bruce Johnson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 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)
- 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)
- 2003
- PG13
Writer/director Enid Zentelis makes her feature-length debut with the coming-of-age drama Evergreen, shot on-location in Seattle, WA. Teenager Henri (Addie Land) and her single mother Kate (Cara Seymour) move in with Henri's grandmother (Lynn Cohen) in a crumbling old house. Kate works at a factory but the working-poor household just barely gets by. Henri goes to a new school and meets Chat Turly (Noah Fleiss), a wealthy boy from an upscale family. Welcomed with open arms, Henri falls in love with the Turly family (Mary Kay Place and Bruce Davidson) and all the material comfort that their lifestyle affords. Envy of this new family causes her to have shame for her own roots. John Stirratt from Wilco and Uncle Tupelo contributes to the musical score with his band the Autumn Defense. Evergreen premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 as part of the dramatic competition. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cara Seymour, Mary Kay Place, (more)
- 1995
- PG
- Add Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog to QueueAdd Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog to top of Queue
In this family adventure story, John and Catherine McCormick (Bruce Davison and Mimi Rogers) relocate from Vancouver to the coast of British Columbia, where sailing enthusiast John teaches his sons Angus (Jesse Bradford) and Silas (Joel Palmer) basic seamanship and outdoor survival skills. Angus has rescued a stray Golden Labrador he calls Yellow and considers his best friend, though his folks aren't so sure he's responsible enough to care for the dog. One day, John takes Angus and Yellow sailing; a sudden gale bursts out, and the boy and his dog are thrown overboard. They wash up on a rugged coastal area, where Angus' abilities to survive in the wild are put to the test. As Angus and Yellow fend off wild animals, build a shelter, and signal for help, John and Catherine work with the Coast Guard in a desperate search for their missing son. Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog was the final film by Canadian director Phillip Borsos, who died of leukemia within a month of its U.S. release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mimi Rogers, Bruce Davison, (more)
- 1978
- R
This intriguing odd-ball melodrama has supernatural overtones and was especially made for drive-in theaters. The strange tale is set in the notorious Storyville red-light district of New Orleans and begins in the early 1900s as it chronicles the life of a young prostitute and her co-workers. The tale is simultaneously paralleled in a modern-day story featuring the reincarnated forms of the same characters, all of whom are somehow connected with a voodoo curse. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virginia Mayo, Lindsay Bloom, (more)
- 1983
In a rare television appearance, Dorothy McGuire plays a farm widow who has been impoverished by the siphoning of her water supply. A nearby big-city aqueduct has priority over water rights, leaving the rural outskirts virtually dry. Attempting to bring her cause to the forefront, McGuire dynamites the reservoir, half-hoping that she'll be "martyred" in the process. When she fails to arouse public support, she targets the local power plant for her next blast (Don't look for this film to be rebroadcast in the light of more recent bombing tragedies). Assistant DA Victoria Racimo, who as an orphaned Indian girl had been virtually raised by McGuire, decides to challenge the water-department bureaucracy on McGuire's behalf. Filmed on location in Utah, Ghost Dancing was a winner of the ABC Theatre Award. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Director Henry Jaglom once again casts his quirky gaze on a common female obsession in this comedy drama. Holly (Victoria Foyt) owns a small and upscale boutique in Santa Monica, and has just learned that her accountant and significant other, Adam (Bruce Davison), has betrayed her -- even worse than cheating on her, he's run off with three month's worth of rent, and she has only a few days to raise the money or lose her space. With Mother's Day approaching, Holly is hoping for a big weekend to save the day, but she has other problems to contend with as she has to patch up a misunderstanding with her mother (Lee Grant), who offers to refer her to a loan shark, and her daughter (Mae Whitman). Meanwhile, with Adam out of the picture, Holly finds herself flirting with Miles (Rob Morrow), the long-suffering boyfriend of one of her customers. And in the midst of the buying frenzy, many of Holly's customers share their feelings about shopping and the role it plays in their lives. Leading lady Victoria Foyt co-authored the screenplay with director Jaglom (who is also her husband). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victoria Foyt, Rob Morrow, (more)
Illeana Douglas delivers a superb performance as Denise Waverly, a fictional singer and songwriter whose life bears more than a passing resemblance to that of real-life pop star Carole King. Edna Buxton, the daughter of a Philadelphia steel tycoon, aspires to a career as a singer, and when against her mother's bidding she sings a sultry version of "Hey There (You With the Stars in Your Eyes)" (instead of Mom's choice, "You'll Never Walk Alone") at a talent contest, she wins a recording contact and moves to New York City. She cuts a record and gains a new stage name, Denise Waverly; however, she soon finds that girl singers are a dime a dozen in the Big Apple and her career as a vocalist goes nowhere. But she has a knack for writing songs, and eccentric producer Joel Milner (John Turturro) asks her to pen some songs for his upcoming projects. Teamed with Howard Caszatt (Eric Stoltz), a hipster songwriter who wants to express his political and social ideals through pop tunes, she finds both a successful collaborator and husband. While her work with Howard gains Denise writing credits on a string of hit records and respect within the industry, their marriage falls apart, and she becomes involved with Jay Phillips (Matt Dillon), the gifted but unstable leader of a popular West Coast surf music combo. Students of pop music history will have a ball with the various characters modeled after real-life rock legends, and the 1960s-style song score includes numbers written by Joni Mitchell and J. Mascis (of the band Dinosaur Jr.), as well as one-time King collaborator Gerry Goffin; a collaboration between Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach, "God Give Me Strength," led to a full album written by the two great tunesmiths. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Illeana Douglas, John Turturro, (more)
