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
In the opening moments of this drama, we see a man brutally murder a woman, and in the story that follows, we look back at the events that led up to this tragedy as the killer awaits trial. Archie Landrum (Frank Whaley) is a brilliant mathematician who is socially inept and doesn't interact well with others. He takes a job as a caretaker at a ranch in New Mexico owned by Katherine Samuel (Blythe Danner). Archie has a good reason for wanting to work for Katherine; her daughter Lucy (Sheryl Lee) is the star of the TV show "Banyon's Band" and has appeared in a series of R-rated sexploitation films; Archie is obsessed with Lucy, and he hopes that working for her mother will bring him closer to her. Sure enough, Lucy comes to New Mexico to pay her mother an extended visit, but familial warmth is less a factor than Lucy's need to dry out from her periodic bouts with alcohol and drug abuse. Archie tries to ingratiate himself with Lucy, hoping that she might develop a romantic or sexual interest in him, but it soon becomes obvious that this is not to be. This does nothing to ease Archie's fascination with her; he begins spying on her and reading her diary, until the inevitable day when his obsession turns violent. Mark Medoff wrote the screenplay, adapted from his own play "The Homage That Follows;" Bruce Davidson appears as the public defender assigned to represent Archie in court. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Blythe Danner, Frank Whaley, (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)
- 1994
- R
A few months after his mother's death, a bereaved Sean Sager is unhappy when his wealthy father, Justin, marries Vivian, a seductive blonde with a 20-year-old son from her previous marriage. And he is even more disturbed that his stepmother may be trying to seduce him as well. Or is that his adolescent imagination? When Justin has a sudden, fatal heart attack, Sean is certain that Vivian is responsible, but all the evidence points to natural causes, and his suspicions are dismissed. He decides to investigate on his own and hires a private detective to help. Though the plot of this erotic mystery is shaky in places, Beverly D'Angelo is beautifully convincing as the wicked femme fatale. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beverly D'Angelo, MacKenzie Astin, (more)
Based on stories by Raymond Carver, Short Cuts follows 22 Los Angeles residents whose lives intersect over the course of a few days. Ann and Howard Finnegan (Andie MacDowell and Bruce Davison) are preparing for their son Casey's birthday party when the boy is injured in an auto accident and falls into a coma. Meanwhile, Andy (Lyle Lovett), a baker, seethes with anger over the birthday cake that wasn't claimed, and Howard's father, Paul (Jack Lemmon), decides that a visit with his ailing grandson is a good time to discuss his infidelities. Lois (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a new mother who watches over her baby when not making money doing phone sex, which bothers her husband, Jerry (Chris Penn), though he knows they need the money. Pilot "Stormy" Weathers (Peter Gallagher) takes a very literal approach to dividing up community property with his ex-wife (Frances McDormand). Doreen (Lily Tomlin) is trying on to hold her marriage with Earl (Tom Waits), who is a good man on the rare occasions that he's sober. Zoe (Lori Singer), a classical musician, is trying to find some way to connect with her mother, Tess (Annie Ross), a jazz singer. Dr. Ralph Wyman (Matthew Modine) and his wife, Marian (Julianne Moore) put their bickering on hold while they have dinner with another couple, Stuart and Claire Kane (Fred Ward and Anne Archer). Stuart and his pals Gordon and Vern (Buck Henry and Huey Lewis) earlier went on a fishing trip where they discovered the body of a drowned woman but decided not to report it until the end of the weekend. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andie MacDowell, 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)
Two socialites find their view of the world changed when a young man takes advantage of their preconceptions in this thoughtful comedy-drama. Flan and Ouisa Kittredge (Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing) are a married couple who have built highly successful careers as art dealers catering to Manhattan's upper crust. The Kittredges are entertaining friends one evening when a young black man named Paul (Will Smith) appears at their door. Paul says that he's a close friend of their children, with whom he attended boarding school, and he's just been mugged and needs to get off the street for a moment. Flan and Ouisa invite him in, and they are immediately taken by Paul's intelligence and charm; he offers to prepare dinner, regales them with stories about his father, Sidney Poitier, and ends up spending the night at their apartment. However, the next morning Flan and Ouisa discover that they've been had; Paul is actually a con artist from the streets who has been pulling the wool over the eyes of many of their friends -- and his actions are beginning to have serious consequences. John Guare adapted the script from his own successful stage play; the supporting cast includes Ian McKellen, Mary Beth Hurt, Bruce Davison, and Heather Graham. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stockard Channing, Will Smith, (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)
Sylvester Stallone gives comedy another try in this farce set in the 1930s. Angelo "Snaps" Provelone (Stallone) is the wealthy and powerful head of the Chicago mob, but his ailing father (Kirk Douglas) doesn't approve of his life in crime, and on his deathbed, Dad makes Snaps promise to go straight. Determined to honor his late father's wishes, Snaps decides to go into banking -- just as his life has fallen into chaos. Anthony Russano (Vincent Spano) informs Snaps that he's hijacked $50,000 of his money and wants to marry his daughter. Snaps discovers that his daughter Lisa (Marisa Tomei) is actually involved with the chauffeur, Oscar (Jim Mulholland), but Anthony's girlfriend Theresa (Elizabeth Barondes) has convinced her beau that Snaps is her father. Snaps hopes to use this misunderstanding as a way of getting his money back, but in the meantime, he has to deal with a wary banking board, rival mob boss Vendetti (Richard Romanus), prissy elocution coach Thornton (Tim Curry), and Snaps' one-time girlfriend Roxanne (Linda Gray). Oscar's stellar supporting cast includes Don Ameche, Chazz Palminteri, Harry Shearer, Eddie Bracken, Yvonne DeCarlo, and Bruce Davison. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvester Stallone, Ornella Muti, (more)
At the time of Longtime Companion's release in 1990, the devastating disease of AIDS was seen as a mysterious and deadly scourge, replete with rumors, lies, and panic. As the first narrative film to examine the AIDS epidemic, screenwriter Craig Lucas and director Norman René place the disease in an historical context, dramatizing the impact of the disease through time in a series of vignettes involving seven gay men. AIDS first made its presence felt surreptitiously, as an article in The New York Times reported on a rare cancer attacking gay men called Karposi's syndrome. Then the Village Voice began a series of in-depth articles concerning a "gay plague" which later became known as AIDS. The film follows the AIDS crisis through the lives of the seven main characters so that they are only aware of AIDS in the historical framework of each episode. The characters include former gay couple Willy (Campbell Scott) and John (Dermot Mulroney), first seen partying at a Fire Island club, who don't pay much attention to the mysterious article in The New York Times but become intimately effected by the disease. There is also Sean (Mark Lamos), a soap opera writer whose mind is slowly deteriorating because of the disease, and his supportive friend David (Bruce Davidson). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Davison, Campbell Scott, (more)
- 1990
- PG13
A husband goes middle-age bonkers and leaves his wife in this comedy. Now she is determined to show him that she doesn't need him anyway. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valerie Harper, Elliott Gould, (more)
- 1990
- R
In this special-effects-laden sci-fi thriller, a classical pianist commits suicide by diving off a building after the five men who gang raped her are released. Fortunately, her brother is a talented scientist who rebuilds her broken body and turns her into a cyborg killer programmed to get revenge in gory and inventive ways. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clare Wren, Bruce Davison, (more)
- 1989
A determined editor fights tooth and nail with an executive to prevent their magazine from being taken over by a powerful publisher. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Lindsay Frost, (more)
- 1989
The sole reason for watching the made-for-TV Lady in a Corner is star Loretta Young, looking as youthful and stunning as ever in the role of a powerful magazine publisher. The plot introduces a British "sleaze lord" based on you-know-who, who inaugurates a hostile takeover of Young's publishing empire. Lindsay Frost, one of Young's most trusted editors, is actually an "inside man" for the British mogul and is undermining Ms. Young at every opportunity. Despite the entreaties of marriage from faithful chief editor Brian Keith, Young digs in her designer heels and fights off the takeover. Lady in a Corner is nothing to write home about, but as the last TV appearance to date of Loretta Young it's worth an hour or so of your time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
The scene is a small town in Idaho where corruption is a way of life. The outraged populace have voted in a "reform" mayor, but he soon dies mysteriously--and when the mayor's father demands an investigation, he too turns up dead. Unfortunately for the villains, Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) happens to be in town on personal business--and wherever Jessica Fletcher shows up, someone is going to end up doing the "perp walk". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
When Ronald Moody (Paul Lieber), the man convicted of killing DeeDee McCall's husband Steve, is paroled, McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) reopens the case on which Steve had been working at the time of his death. She also defies orders and begins tailing Moody, hoping to find a connection between him and the case. With grim inevitability, Moody turns up dead, and McCall is the Number One suspect. It is up to Hunter (Fred Dwyer) to find out who placed the phone call which framed McCall--and who had earlier set up her husband for extermination in the same manner. Franc Luz appears as the late Sgt. Steve McCall in flashbacks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
- Add Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story to QueueAdd Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story to top of Queue
Originally shown in two parts, this massive TV movie adaptation of C. David Heymann's biography stars Farrah Fawcett as Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. With two failed marriages to her credit, 29-year-old Barbara marries film idol Cary Grant (James Read), the first man who loves her for herself and not her millions. This alliance goes the way of all of Barbara's romances; there will be four more marriages, the last when Ms. Hutton is 50-years-old. Shutting herself away in her Tangiers mansion, Barbara begins her long descent into the world of booze and drugs. Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story merely skims the surface of its subject's stormy life, but Farrah Fawcett's performance commands the audience's attention throughout the film's daunting 240 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Farrah Fawcett, James Read, (more)
- 1987
- R
The lonely wife of a struggling tobacco farmer succumbs to temptation and sleeps with a transient harvester in this drama set in Depression-ravaged North Carolina. The drifter offers her more excitement than the bored young mother has felt in years and it is no surprise that she and he begin plotting to murder her hard-working husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lori Singer, Anthony Edwards, (more)
- 1987
- R
A motley group of routine German prisoners (including David Patrick Kelly, Jay Sanders and Bruce Davison) are enlisted by a Nazi colonel (David Carradine). The government, desperate for fighting men, promises them freedom if they can destroy a targeted train on the Russian front. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Carradine, D.W. Moffett, (more)
- 1986
- R
A rare attempt by a female director to attack the issue of rape from a woman's perspective, this drama is sure to cause varied reactions. A sense of the film's perspective can be garnered from paraphrasing its publicity: "Rapists have two problems and the 'Ladies Club' is about to remove them both." Statistics of the time note that a woman was raped every seven minutes while the conviction rate was an incredibly low 2%. A policewoman who was brutally raped and the sister of a rape victim who was incurably traumatized band together for a surgical attack on the offenders, aided by a physician whose own tragedy inspires her to lend her skill with a scalpel to the cause. The encounters with rapists, court hearings, and sneaking through police files to identify the men who got away bring suspense to this crusade for justice. Comic relief crops up now and again to leaven the seriousness of the topic. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karen Austin, Diana Scarwid, (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
Director John Landis helmed this Cold War farce starring Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase as Austin Millbarge and Emmett Fitz-Hume -- two loser misfits who dwell in the lower ranks of the Central Intelligence Agency. Convinced despite much evidence to the contrary that they're prime secret agent material, both men keep taking service exams in an effort to win promotion. Caught cheating on their latest round of tests, Austin and Emmett expect to be fired but are instead made full field agents and ushered into intense training. Little do they know that it's all a ruse and that they're about to be dumped in Pakistan to throw Russian spies off the scent of two real agents with an important clandestine assignment. A spoof of the "road" pictures popularized by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, the film features a cameo by the latter as his golf-playing self. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, (more)
- 1985
Having played to dismal ratings during its first season, the NBC cop drama Hunter increased its viewership dramatically during Season Two, thanks to several corporate and creative decisions. To begin with, the network removed the series from its "suicide" slot opposite CBS' Dallas and into a slightly more appealing Saturday night berth, where its principal competition was the fading The Love Boat. Also, Roy Huggins was brought in as the new producer, whereupon he immediately set about to broaden Hunter's appeal by softening the characters and changing the basic locale. The fact that LAPD homicide detective Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) was the son of a gangster was allowed to fade into obscurity before disappearing completely, while Hunter's previously impervious partner Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) was less the "brass cupcake" she'd been in Season One and more of a sensitive, compassionate human being. It was further hinted that the relationship between Hunter and Dee Dee went far beyond a professional one. Additiionally, Huggins moved the two partners off the mean streets of downtown LA and into a more refined "uptown" setting. Replacing Captain Dolan as Hunter's dyspeptic superior officer this season is Bruce Davison as Captain Wyler, less irascible and vindictive than Dolan but not much more sympathetic to Hunter's unorthodox police methods. Also added to the cast are John Shearin as Lt. Ambrose Finn, whose later death in the line of duty would allow Hunter to demonstrate the more sentimental side of his personality,and Garrett Morris as Arnold "Sporty" James, bombastic street hustler and informant. In the season opener "Case X", directed by onetime Starsky and Hutch star David Soul, Hunter searches for the serial killer of female porn stars. Later episodes include "The Biggest Man in Town", in which Hunter and Dee head to a resort community run by a man who may be a big-time criminal; "Rich Girl", wherein a guilt-ridden Hunter seeks out the actual perpetrator of a crime for which a suicidal young woman was wrongly accused; "Killer in a Halloween Mask", taking place on the set of a Hunter-like TV series for which Hunter and Dee Dee serve as technical advisors; "Fagin 1986", in which our hero mercilessly targets another corruptor of youth; "The Set-Up", bringing Hunter in contact with the "untouchable" international criminal who may have caused the death of his former partner; and "The Return of Typhoon Thompson", clearly inspired by the story of boxer "Hurricane" Carter and starring Isaac Hayes in the title role. The most memorable of the season's offerings is the two-part "Rape and Revenge", with Hunter declaring a vendetta against the South American man who raped Dee Dee, then managed to escape prosecution by declaring diplomatic immunity. Only slightly less fascinating is another two-parter, "The Beautiful and the Dead", in which the murder of a gorgeous girl in a seedy motel plunges Hunter into a complex espionage yarn involving both Federal and Russian secret agents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Dryer, Stephanie Kramer, (more)
