Len Wayland Movies
Getting his career underway in such popular Broadway productions as A Streetcar Named Desire and A Man for All Seasons, veteran character actor Len Wayland was a longtime fixture of film and television, where he would appear in everything ranging from Gunsmoke to The A-Team.A native of Texas, Wayland moved to Hollywood in the early '50s, soon finding frequent work in television. Eventually gaining over 350 TV credits through his many appearances, Wayland played in such made-for-television thrillers as Michael Crichton's Pursuit (1972) before landing a regular role on Sam, a series created by Jack Webb (Wayland had previously made appearances in Webb's other television mainstay, Dragnet).
Retiring from the business around 1980, Wayland, an avid golfer, spent much of his time putting around the green with close friends. Following a massive stroke, Len Wayland died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, at the age of 80. True to form, those close to Wayland found it fitting to pay tribute to their friend with a memorial service at the place he loved most, on a golf course in Los Angeles.
~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1983
Congregating at a French restaurant, the A-Team is reunited with Lin Duk Coo (Mako), formerly the cook at the Vietnamese POW camp where they'd been imprisoned during the war. Naturally, Lin is in desperate need of the team's help, thanks to the villainous machinations of the prison camp's sadistic former commandant General Chow (John Fujioka), who, in league with traitorous ex-soldier Tom Anderson (Marjoe Gortner), is currently smuggling heroin into the country. Disguising himself as a golf caddy, Hannibal (George Peppard) is able to figure out that the drugs are being hidden in bread produced at the Angel Bakery--thereby setting up the climax in which a modified bakery truck functions as a tank! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
Hiding out in the small Lobster Bay hospital where B.A. (Mr. T) is recovering from a leg injury, the A-Team befriends Shana Mayer (Tracy Scoggins), whose father Cal ($Len Wayland) is among the local fishermen being victimized by a nasty extortionist named Garber (John Quade). Naturally, the Team agrees to help Shana and her friends and family wrest themselves free from Garber's villainous grasp. And just as naturally, this operation requires a variety of clever disguises--the best of which finds Face (Dirk Benedict) posing as a magician doing a daring underwater-escape act! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
Amy Medford (Jenny Agutter) is a dutiful housewife of the early 1900s. But when her husband objects to a wife with a career, Amy leaves her husband and comfortable lifestyle. She goes on to devote her life to teaching sight-and-hearing-impaired students at a tradition-bound special school. This film betrays its Disney-studio origins with an audience-rousing action climax, in which Amy's students take on a team of "normal" kids at a football game. Amy was produced by onetime Hollywood leading man Jerome Courtland. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jenny Agutter, Barry Newman, (more)
- 1981
Freed from a Japanese POW camp and safely returned to Walton's Mountain, Ben intends to enter the postwar working world as a professional engineer. His dad John (Ralph Waite), however, wants Ben to give up his plans and become a full partner at the family lumber mill. The situation changes dramatically for both father and son when word comes that Olivia Walton's health has taken a turn for the worse. This episode marks the final series appearance of Ralph Waite. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
In the conclusion of a two-part story, Rev. Alden (Dabbs Greer) finds a foster home for the orphaned Cooper children. Charles (Michael Landon) has a bad feeling about this setup -- a feeling that is borne out when it is revealed that the children's new guardians merely want to use them as cheap labor. The kids run away, whereupon Charles finds them -- agreeing to adopt them if it is humanly possible. Jason Bateman and Missy Francis join the regular cast as James and Cassandra in this, the final episode of Little House on the Prairie's seventh season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, (more)
- 1978
TV personality Ruth Beetson-White (played by futureNewhart costar Mary Frann) is determined to frame Morry Hawthorne (Ken McMillan), the manager of boxer Jesus Hernandez (Rocky Echevarria), on a trumped-up federal charge. Since Jim (James Garner) owns a percentage of Hernandez, Hawthorne's plight is of special interest to him. It later develops that several of Jim's fellow investors have been scammed by Hawthorne, but this doesn't make Ruth right; in fact, her involvement in the case may make her dead wrong. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Captains Courageous is Rudyard Kipling's story of a wealthy, spoiled teenager who matures into responsible manhood during an enforced voyage on a fishing schooner. The 1937 MGM version of the Kipling tale lowered the age of the protagonist to accommodate juvenile star Freddie Bartholomew, and re-shaped the plot so that the Portuguese fisherman Manuel, played by Spencer Tracy, would be the leading role. This 1977 TV-movie version wisely restores the full age of Harvey Cheyne (Jonathan Kahn), reiterating Kipling's point that it's never too late to steer a young man on the right path. The 1977 version also relegates Manuel (Ricardo Montalban) to the secondary position he held in the novel, strengthening the growing friendship and mutual respect between young Harvey and wise old captain Danko (Karl Malden). Filmed on location off the Maine coast, The TV version of Captains Courageous originally aired December 4, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Scandalizing historians with its blithe disregard for the historical record, this American Civil War docudrama poses the theory that President Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edward Stanton, was behind a plot to kill him at Ford's Theater. His motive was his opposition to Lincoln's adamant refusal to allow the North to punish the South for its actions. The "official" assassination goes awry when another would-be assassin, the second-rate actor John Wilkes Booth, learns of the plot and decides to beat the government to the punch, for reasons of his own. In the movie, it is Stanton's assassin who is mistakenly captured and killed, rather than Booth. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1976
- Add Eleanor and Franklin: The Early Years to QueueAdd Eleanor and Franklin: The Early Years to top of Queue
The winner of 11 Emmy awards, the made-for-TV Eleanor and Franklin stars Edward Herrmann as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Jane Alexander as Eleanor Roosevelt. The film traces the first four decades of the lives of cousins Franklin and Eleanor, beginning with their marriage in 1905. Conflicts loom in the form of FDR's domineering mother (Rosemary Murphy) and Eleanor's discovery of an affair between her husband and artist Lucy Mercer (Linda Kelsey). After Franklin is stricken by polio in 1921, Eleanor emerges as a formidable and influential public figure. James Costigan wrote the teleplay for Eleanor and Franklin, which first aired as a two-parter on January 11 and 12, 1976. The film was followed several months later by a multipart sequel, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Herrmann, Jane Alexander, (more)
- 1975
Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and his wife Jean go out on a dinner date with Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and his girlfriend Judy (Aneta Corsaut). Unfortunately, this pleasureable outing nearly ends before it begins when the Reeds witness a holdup. Further messing up the evening is an incident involving three escaped bulls, to say nothing of a nasty bar fight. Taking over from Mikki Jamison as Jean Reed in this episode is Kristin Nelson--who happens to be the niece of the episode's director, former Ozzie and Harriet costar David Nelson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Assigned temporary fill-in duty at Los Angeles International Airport, Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) are kept hopping with a variety of major crimes and minor misdemeanors. In the course of their shift, the two cops collar some parking-lot thieves, and stop a frequent-flying dope smuggler in his tracks. They also recover a runaway kid who is trying to stow away on an airliner. The supporting cast includes former My Three Sons costar Tina Cole. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
This final episode of Adam-12's sixth season is actually the pilot for a proposed spinoff series titled Fraud. After they find a dead man with an oscillator belt tied around his waist, Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) discover that the victim died of diabetic shock--and that he was the patient of a quack doctor. Enter Deputy DA Abe Stayhorn (Ed Nelson) of the " Major Fraud" division, and Strayhorn's elite team of scam-busters, including chief investigator Gino Bardi (Frank Sinatra Jr.) and policewoman Lynn Carmichael (Sharon Gless), who work in concert with Jim and Pete to get the goods on the crooked medico. Advertised as a "special", this episode was seen outside the usual Adam-12 Tuesday-night timeslot, and afforded a rare Thursday-evening telecast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Scheduled to give evidence in a Federal trial, Chief Ironside (Raymond Burr) is all too aware that there are those who hope to silence him before he can appear in court. In fact, the Chief gets word from the grapevine that a professional assassin has been hired to shut him up permanently. What makes this episode unique is that the coldblooded, super-efficient contract killer (James Olson) is depicted in his "off-hours" as a warm and loving family man (whose wife, incidentally, is played by future Happy Days costar Marion Ross). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
The Feds are hot on the trail of Arthur Blaisdell (Frank Hotchkiss) and Timothy Gage (Solomon Sturges), a pair of gunruners who break into a National Guard armory and steal several M1 rifles. The criminals' next move is to sell the weapons to a gang of extremists--but for what ultimate purpose? Featured prominently in the supporting cast is a decidedly pre-Annie Hall Diane Keaton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Photographer Christopher George is mistaken for an assassination target by paid killers. Since the actual victim-to-be is now safe, George cannot count on the protection of the authorities, so he takes it on the lam. He is sheltered by former girlfriend Judy Carne, who is kidnapped and threatened with death for her troubles. George decides to take matters in his own hands when it becomes impossible for him to separate the good guys from the bad. Made for television, Dead Men Tell No Tales would dearly love to be a Hitchcock film; it falls short of this goal, but is diverting fun all the same. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
"A computer can only give back what the human mind has put into it." So explained screenwriter James D. Buchanan when discussing the made-for-TV melodrama Paper Man. A group of five bright college students decide to take advantage of a computer glitch. Partly as a social experiment, partly as a prank, but mostly out of sheer boredom, the students feed phony data into the faulty computer, creating a human being who doesn't exist--complete with biographical background and credit-card history. Unfortunately, the computer spews forth the embodiment of Pure Evil--and by the end of the film, three of the five pranksters lie dead. An early example of the technothriller genre, Paper Man originally aired on October 12, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
John McIntire is cast as Michael "Doc" Lacy, a lifelong criminal whose career stretches back to the Dillinger era. Having never truly succeeded in his chosen profession, Lacy escapes from prison in hopes of pulling off one last "dream" robbery. Inasmuch as the old man's target is a huge military payroll, the FBI takes a more than passing interest in his movements. Appearing as Lacy's wife Helen is John McIntire's real-life spouse Jeanette Nolan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Ironside's associates Ed (Don Galloway) and Eve (Barbara Anderson) are dispatched to Mexico, there to interrogate onetime murder suspect Lonnie Burnett (Scott Glenn) as a part of an investigation of a strikingly similar killing. In the course of events, the two detectives are persuaded that Burnett is innocent. As a result, when Burnett escapes police custody, the hostile local authorities accuse Ed and Eve of acting as the man's accomplices! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) and Colby (William Reynolds) go undercover as dockworkers during a bitter fisherman's strike. It is obvious that the Mob is stirring up all the trouble, the better to take over the fisherman's union. A key player in the intrigue is ruthless labor leader Big Julio, played by veteran movie heavy Joseph Wiseman (Dr. No). Much of this episode was filmed on location at Inyo Habor near Fort Bragg, California. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Once again pulling holiday duty at Christmastime, mobile officers Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Jim Reed (Kent McCord) have a great deal of difficulty locating any sort of Yuletide cheer on the streets of LA. For starters, the two cops are summoned to a robbery scene, where they find that the victim is an old duffer in a Santa Claus suit (resulting in the arrest of another ersatz Santa). Elsewhere, Pete and Jim conduct an extensive search for a small East Indian boy (Tom Nasheboo) who has vanished--a crisis that bears a marked resemblance to one of the most famous Christmas episodes of Adam-12's "sister" series Dragnet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) spearheads a search for mentally disturbed Walker Oborn (Don Stroud), who has already committed one murder while eluding the Feds. Now Oborn has kidnapped Emily Willis (Darlene Carr), the 18-year-girl he has long worshiped from afar, and has headed into the Sierra Mountains with his terrified captive. The climax of this nailbiting episode was filmed on location along the Montery-Carmel coast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
Season Thee of Ironside begins as wheelchair-bound detective Robert T. Ironside (Raymond Burr) and his team set their sighs on prolific con artist Raymond Otis Baker (Joseph Campanella), who specializes in bilking little old ladies out of their life savings. Unfortunately for Baker--or, as he is now calling himself, Mr. Braithwaite--his most recent victim was the aunt (Beah Richards) of Ironside's bodyguard Mark (Don Mitchell). In order to trap the elusive "R.O.B.", Ed (Don Galloway) and Eve (Barbara Anderson) pose as a wealthy couple, ripe for plucking. But the plan goes awry when one of the villain's accomplices recognizes Ed from an earlier sting operation! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) and Rhodes (Stephen Brooks) head to the Florida Keys, where Gloria Burnett is hiding in an abandoned house. Gloria is the only person who can identify her husband Charles (James Franciscus) and his accomplice Allen Cole (Hunt Powers) as the masterminds behind a thwarted kidnap attempt, and Charles is not about to let her tell anyone what she knows. Ratcheting up the melodrama is an oncoming hurricane that threatens to wipe out all of the principal characters in one fell swoop. Glen Campbell shows up as a philosophical guitar player. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Now posing as "Ed Sanders", Kimble (David Janssen) shows up at an electronics demonstration being held in a shopping mall, where he witnesses security guard Pete Dawes (Howard Da Silva) gunning down a teenage thief. Now Kimble must save an innocent man from being accused of the shooting--but he dares not make a move out of the mall for fear of being arrested. Caught in the middle of this dilemma is camera-store employee Marcia (Lois Nettleton), who has offered to provide Kimble a safe harbor from the authorities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
No relation to the 1977 Barbra Streisand vehicle of the same name, the independent 1966 film For Pete's Sake top-bills none other than evangelist Billy Graham. This well-intentioned effort concerns a gas-station attendant (Robert Sampson), his wife (Pippa Scott) and son (Johnny Jensen). Barely eking out a living, the attendant must endure harassment from a local motorcycle gang. After attending a Billy Graham revival meeting, the attendant and his family decide to apply their new found religiosity in dealing with the nasty cyclists. A remarkably stellar cast -- including Sam Groom, Al Freeman Jr. and Terri Garr -- do their best to lend credibility to this farfetched fable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
