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
- 1975
Olivia (Michael Learned) is reunited with her namesake Young Olivia Hill (Deborah White), who is deeply in mourning over the death of her husband Bob. The fact that Bob has left his widow with precious few memories of their short time together serves only to make the healing process harder. It takes a a major crisis involving the Waltons' pet cat Calico to coax Young Olivia out of her shell and back into her life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Lucille Ball stars in this film version of the hit Jerry Herman Broadway musical, which featured an electrifying performance by Angela Lansbury. As Patrick Dennis' plucky and resilient Auntie Mame, Ball's low-pitched, growling moan of a voice (a spine-chilling reminder of the sound of Linda Blair's demon-possession in The Exorcist) and her gaudy and lumbering fashion-horse gait turns Mame into an elderly cross-dresser. In this guise, Mame rehashes the plot from Dennis's novel and the previous non-musical Rosalind Russell film. During the Depression era 1930s, she enrolls her nephew into a liberal private school, tries a turn in show business (with the help of her friend Vera [Beatrice Arthur]), and marries a well-to-do Southern planter (Robert Preston). After her husband's death, Mame concerns herself with her now grown-up nephew, his girlfriend, and the girlfriend's intolerant parents. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucille Ball, Robert Preston, (more)
The made-for-TV movie The Affair (working title: Love Song) marked the return to television of Natalie Wood after an 18-year absence (her last regular small-screen work was on the 1954 sitcom The Pride of the Family). Wood plays a crippled 32-year-old songwriter whose handicap has made her cynical and suspicious of the kindnesses of strangers. Robert Wagner (the real-life husband of Natalie Wood) co-stars as a compassionate lawyer who falls in love with her. By the time she has warmed up to her new beau, she finds that her family opposes the relationship. Written by Barbara Turner, The Affair first aired November 20, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
- PG
A well-meaning American finds himself in the midst of political turmoil in the wake of the Arab-Israeli Six Day War in this drama. David (Bruce Davison), an American student doing graduate work at Tel Aviv University, becomes reacquainted with Raschid (Zeev Revan), a young Arab who was David's roommate while attending Yale. David and Raschid are studying archeology, and in the interest of friendship, David begins acting as a go-between for Arab and Israeli students, unaware that he's aiding an underground terrorist operation in the process. The supporting cast includes Nicol Williamson as Dr. Lang, one of David's professors, and Daria Halprin as Nurit, one of Lang's students (and also his lover). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Davison, Nicol Williamson, (more)
- 1972
- R
One of the best films by often-underrated director Robert Aldrich, this stark, brutal Western is also an effective allegory of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. Set in Arizona during the late 1880s, the film begins with experienced scout McIntosh (Burt Lancaster) and idealistic U.S. Cavalry Lieutenant DeBuin (Bruce Davison) setting out to catch a group of Apache renegades lead by their chieftain, Ulzana (Joaquin Martinez). The story focuses on the opposing views of the two men regarding Ulzana. McIntosh is cold and cynical while DeBuin is morally outraged by supposed Apache atrocities. The film, sharply written by Alan Sharp, poses a set of complex questions about the nature of heroism, racism, and American imperialism, while avoiding moralizing or oversimplification of the issues. Aldrich and Burt Lancaster, who made four films together over the course of their long careers (including this one), later collaborated on the excellent political thriller Twilight's Last Gleaming. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Bruce Davison, (more)
- 1971
- PG
This film is based on the novel Ratman's Notebooks, by Stephen Gilbert. Bruce Davison is Willard Stiles, a 27-year-old mama's boy whose repressions are bottled up inside and come to the fore in his nervous nail-biting. As one character describes Willard, "Willard is basically an extrovert, but it's all inside." Willard and his possessive invalid mother, Henrietta (Elsa Lanchester), live in thrall to Al Martin (Ernest Borgnine), the man who took over a foundry business after the death of Willard's father. Willard inwardly seethes but mostly stays in his run-down mansion with his mother, making friends with the rats that infest the place -- he even names them, Ben and Socrates. However, when Henrietta dies, things change. Al, in a rage, kills one of Willard's pet rats. Not only that, but Al also fires Willard from his job at the foundry. Losing his patience, Willard meets with his rat friends to exact his revenge for a lifetime of humiliation and neurosis. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Davison, Ernest Borgnine, (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
- 1970
- R
This film is based on the James Simon Kunen book about student unrest on the Columbia University campus. Simon (Bruce Davison) joins the campus protest movement to socialize with the various hippie girls. When a violent police assault breaks up the protest, Simon's thoughts quickly turn from female infatuation to more important social causes. He becomes active in protests against the Vietnam War, police brutality, student's rights and the draft. He is branded a Communist and becomes part of the great worldwide social revolution of his times. Music from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Thunderclap Newman, Richard Strauss and John Lennon accurately reflect the turbulent times in which the film was released. Bud Cort, James Coco, and Kim Darby star in this uneven political drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Davison, Kim Darby, (more)
- 1969
- R
Last Summer is a frank coming-of-age tale that refuses to prettify its young characters or their activities. A group of aimless teens get together for sex, drugs and rock-and-roll on Fire Island. Timid, overweight Rhonda (Catherine Burns) is goaded into aberrant behavior by her peers, especially the promiscuous Sandy (Barbara Hershey). Enjoying Rhonda's discomfiture, Sandy encourages the boys in the group to gang-rape the poor girl. It was this scene, the first of its kind in a general-release American picture, that earned Last Summer its initial X rating. The film was later judiciously trimmed to qualify for an R rating without blunting its dramatic impact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Hershey, Richard Thomas, (more)
