Thomas Gibson Movies
Versatile as well as tall, dark, and handsome, Thomas Gibson has moved easily between TV stardom and a varied movie career working with some of the industry's major names.Born and raised in Charleston, Gibson found his calling as a child, making his acting debut at age ten in children's theater productions. Though he attended the College of Charleston, Gibson relocated when he won a scholarship to New York's prestigious Juilliard School. After earning his B.F.A., Gibson made his professional New York theater debut in 1985. Gibson spent the rest of the 1980s doing theater, as well as branching out into television with two seasons on the daytime drama Another World and the TV movie Gore Vidal's Lincoln (1988).
Gibson made the transition to films in style with a co-starring role opposite Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Ron Howard's glossy Irish-American epic Far and Away (1992). Along with playing a bit part in Martin Scorsese's lush The Age of Innocence (1993), Gibson further distinguished himself that year with larger roles in the critically praised PBS miniseries Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City and French-Canadian director Denys Arcand's first English-language film, the contemporary drama Love and Human Remains (1993).
Gibson subsequently appeared in the second part of Whit Stillman's preppy trilogy, Barcelona (1994), and in the indie Sleep With Me (1994), but he became better-known to TV audiences that year on the CBS hospital drama Chicago Hope. After three seasons on the show, Gibson became an even more prominent TV presence in 1997 when he was cast as the straight-laced husband Greg to Jenna Elfman's hippie Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma and Greg. Though he also appeared in the TV miniseries A Will of Their Own (1998) and Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City (1998) during Dharma's first seasons, Gibson's sitcom fame was such that a few critics wondered what it was about the show that prompted Stanley Kubrick to cast Gibson (and reunite him with Cruise) in Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Gibson continued to balance Hollywood with outside projects during his hiatuses with a small part in the ill-fated sequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, a starring role in Arcand's celebrity culture satire Stardom, and a supporting turn as the slick surfer Kanaka in the campy '60s teen-film parody Psycho Beach Party. Gibson is married and has one son. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- 1995
- PG13
In this made-for-television domestic drama, a young adolescent girl is shocked to discover that the woman she calls "Mother" may not be related to her at all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Veronica Hamel, Richard Kiley, (more)
Seemingly content living the life of a derelict, former mercenary Nick (Dolph Lundgren) agrees -- reluctantly and only after he is offered a large fortune from two mining company executives -- to gather up a unit of fellow soldiers of fortune and fly to the island of Jakarta in order to convince local peasants to give up their land. Once he arrives, Nick sees soldiers burn a peasant village. When he learns that the bloodshed is not for the control of such riches as uranium or jade, but for an ancient deposit of bat guano, he changes his alliance and begins fighting for the natives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolph Lundgren, Charlotte Lewis, (more)
The second film from writer/director Whit Stillman, Barcelona is a smart, urbane comedy of manners set in Spain at the tail end of the Cold War. Taylor Nichols stars as Ted, an American salesman living in Barcelona. Out of the blue, he is visited by his acidic cousin Fred (Chris Eigeman), a U.S. Navy officer sent abroad to work damage control on rising anti-American sentiment. The textbook "Ugly American," Fred travels through the city in full military regalia, impervious to the constant taunts of "Fascist!" Like the similarly self-absorbed Ted, who has become involved with political activist Monsterrat (Tushka Bergen), Fred also finds romance, with a party girl played by Mira Sorvino. A brittle fish-out-of-water comedy, Barcelona is literate and sophisticated, a knowing essay on cultural identity and perception. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Taylor Nichols, Christopher Eigeman, (more)
Six screenwriters, all real-life friends, each wrote one of the sequences in this romantic comedy-drama that unfolds at a half-dozen parties and celebrations. During a cross-country trip, Joe (Eric Stoltz) proposes to his girlfriend Sarah (Meg Tilly) with his best friend Frank (Craig Sheffer) looking on. At the couple's rehearsal dinner, Sarah confesses privately to Frank her attraction to him, but what she doesn't know is that Frank is in love with her. They share a kiss, which leads to an argument between Joe and Frank at their next meeting, a weekly poker game with their buddies. At a video shoot, a dinner party, another poker game, and a few more celebrations, the friendship between the three of them is challenged by the nascent attraction between Frank and Sarah. In the meantime, the all-male poker game is invaded by Athena (Parker Posey) and Lauren (Joey Lauren Adams), and a party guest, Sid (Quentin Tarantino), delivers a memorable treatise on the homoerotic subtext of Top Gun (1986). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Stoltz, Meg Tilly, (more)
- 1993
- R
Based upon a play by screenwriter Brad Fraser, Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, Denys Arcand's dark-humored drama Love and Human Remains follows the lives of a group of young Canadians, with a particular focus on their romantic and sexual experiences. The central characters are two roommates, David and Candy. The cynical, witty David is a former television actor turned waiter, the lonely, dissatisfied Candy a book critic; the two were formerly lovers, before David proclaimed his homosexuality. Candy is also questioning her sexuality, having begun a lesbian affair after wondering if her failures with men indicates she might be happier with a woman; meanwhile, David is becoming acquainted with Kane, a handsome, young busboy of uncertain sexuality who idolizes the older David. The other members of the ensemble are also somehow connected to the roommates, through friendship or romance, including Benita, a young dominatrix and part-time psychic, and Bernie, a boastful but insecure young businessman. The couplings and shifting relationships of these characters are intercut with the rather more severe story of a serial murderer who has been terrorizing the city's women, allowing Arcand to place the film's melodramatic elements in an edgier context. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Gibson, Ruth Marshall, (more)
In Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Edith Wharton's 1920 novel, romance between an upper-class gentleman and an ostracized lady is doomed by 19th century New York society. Shortly after his engagement to blandly genteel May Welland (Winona Ryder), Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) is reacquainted with May's scandalous cousin Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer). As the head of an esteemed family, Archer initially uses his standing to try to rehabilitate Ellen's reputation, but he finds himself increasingly drawn to her disregard for the codes of New York manners. Bound by ingrained society mores and his peers' insinuations, Newland tries to dodge his growing passion by rushing his marriage to May, but he cannot keep himself from confessing his love to Ellen. Recognizing that Newland could never abandon his sense of honor and be happy, Ellen pushes Newland to May and leaves town. The marriage proceeds as dictated, but when Newland unexpectedly sees Ellen again, he yearns for the affair to come to fruition. However, he underestimates not only what May knows but also her ability to uphold the rules of propriety. Sumptuously shot by Michael Ballhaus, the film offers meticulously designed costumes and settings that evoke a culture as seductively beautiful in its surfaces as it is stifling in its rituals. Unspoken emotions are expressed through such details as yellow roses or a clipped cigar, a fade to red or a single camera move. Using Wharton's original prose to comment on the setting's hypocrisies, Joanne Woodward's voiceover narration suggests how much decisive power is buried beneath dainty femininity. The Age of Innocence received five Oscar nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Ryder and Best Screenplay for Scorsese and Jay Cocks, and a win for Best Costumes. Although The Age of Innocence seemed like a departure from Scorsese's prior work, Newland is as much at the mercy of his circle's Byzantine structure (and his own conscience) as are Scorsese's more familiar mobsters; Newland's persecutors just wear white tie and tails. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, (more)
Author Armistead Maupin's serialized tale of sexual infidelity and identity in 1970s San Francisco becomes a sprawling comic melodrama in this much-acclaimed miniseries. Produced by PBS and Britain's Channel 4, Tales of the City covers in its five hours the interlocking stories of more than a dozen main characters, many of whom reside at 28 Barbary Lane, a quaint multi-apartment house overseen by the open-minded but enigmatic Mrs. Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis). Among her stable of residents are the acerbic, unlucky-in-love Mona Ramsey (Chloe Webb) and her occasional roommate Michael Tolliver (Marcus D'Amico), who's her constant companion -- that is, when he's not shacked up with one of an endless series of short-term boyfriends. Mrs. Madrigal's newest charge is the apple-cheeked Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney), a naïve young woman from the Midwest who's come to San Francisco to visit her friend Connie (Parker Posey), but ends up staying, in search of both a career and a husband. It isn't long before she finds the former; unfortunately, along with it comes the unwanted advances of her boss Beauchamp Day (Thomas Gibson), a philandering executive unhappily married to his boss Edgar's daughter, DeDe (Barbara Garrick). Meanwhile, the regal Edgar (Donald Moffat) happens to be conducting an affair of his own with none other than Mrs. Madrigal. Also starring Bill Campbell and Paul Gross, Tales of the City was first aired on Channel 4 in the spring of 1993 and made its PBS premiere in the winter of 1994, when it garnered some of the network's highest ratings ever, amidst vocal protest of the show's risqué content. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laura Linney, Olympia Dukakis, (more)
In this epic Ron Howard film, Joseph Donelly (Tom Cruise) is an impoverished 19th-century Irish tenant farmer who has recently lost both his father and his home to the agents of his unscrupulous landlord. On a mission to avenge his family's injustice at the hands of the ruthless land baron Joseph meets the landlord's daughter and the two run off to America together where the girl expects to claim a piece of land for herself in the Oklahoma Land Rush. After she is robbed on the boat that carries them to America, they arrive with nary a penny and struggle just to keep their heads above water in the slums of Boston. After a series of serious set-backs they do eventually work their way out West, where Joseph must fight to realize his dream and claim a piece of the American Dream for himself -- and where they finally acknowledge their love for each other. Shot in wide-screen Panavision, the movie was filmed on-location in Ireland and Montana. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, (more)
Originally telecast in two parts on March 27 and 28 of 1988, Lincoln was adapted from the bestselling "factual fiction" by Gore Vidal. Sam Waterston stars as Abraham Lincoln, with Mary Tyler Moore frighteningly convincing as the tragic Mary Todd Lincoln. Predictably, Part One of Lincoln deals with the inauguration, the outbreak of War, and the president's tiltings with his cabinet, while Part Two includes the Emancipation Proclamation, the appointment of General Grant (James Gammon), and the assassination. The throughline of the script is the deteriorating mental condition of Mary Lincoln, not to mention her injurious impulsiveness: at one point, Honest Abe must cover up the fact that Mary has stolen a copy of his inaugural speech and sold it. Evidently, the name of Gore Vidal was not considered enough of a drawing card by the NBC publicists, who insisted upon advertising Lincoln as the second coming of Gone With the Wind, adding the teaser tagline "The Untold Story." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
