Annabeth Gish Movies
Though actress Annabeth Gish is not, as has frequently been reported, related to silent-film legend Lillian Gish (she is decidedly not the never-married Lillian's granddaughter!), Annabeth does have one thing in common with her famous namesake: she began acting at a very early age, and achieved film stardom before she was 20. Born in Albuquerque, Annabeth moved to Cedar Falls, Iowa, when her college-professor dad accepted a position there. From age eight onward, Gish was active in local community and children's theatre; by the time she was 11, she was a professional model. Her first film appearance was in 1986's Desert Bloom, in which, as a troubled preteen plagued by family squabbles and nuclear testing, she all but stole the show. Gish's career went into Drive when she starred in the cult favorite Mystic Pizza, though when the film is now shown on television, the supporting appearance of Julia Roberts is the focus of ad-campaign attention. A most attractive young lady, Gish scored as one of four beautiful vacationing teens in 1988's Shag (her screen chums were Phoebe Cates, Bridget Fonda and Paige Hannah). In 1993, Annabeth Gish briefly interrupted her film career to earn a BA in English; within a year, she was back at work in the theatrical film Wyatt Earp and the made-for-TV Scarlet. In 1997, Gish appeared alongside Angelina Jolie and Dana Delaney for a starring role in the TV movie True Women; however, she would find more significant success on the small screen in 2001, when she joined the cast of The X-Files to play feisty FBI Agent Monica Reyes. Gish and Robert Patrick effectively became the lead characters during the show's 8th and 9th seasons, though ratings indicated that their onscreen chemistry couldn't compete with that of Duchnovy and Anderson, who had become beloved as the characters of Mulder and Scully. In 2006, Gish took on the starring role of Eileen Caffee in Brotherhood, a drama from Showtime, and joined the cast of A&E's TV miniseries Stephen King's Bag of Bones in 2011, and played a therapist with demons of her own in ABC's Pretty Little Liars the same year. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi- 1986
Even without observing the opening credits, or noting that the film was first shown on The Disney Sunday Movie, the casual viewer could tell in a minute that Hero in the Family was a Disney production. Cliff De Young plays an American astronaut who, through a freakish occurrence in space, finds that his brain has been transferred to his flight companion, and vice versa. Said companion happens to be a monkey, who is as funny as any monkey has ever been on a Disney TV show (take that as you will). DeYoung's teenage son Christopher Collet endeavors to correct the brain-switch, while attempting to treat both dad and monkey as "normal" characters. You'll laugh till you stop. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Set in 1950, this is a convincing, well-acted drama about a young girl's growing up in Las Vegas amidst poverty and a turbulent home life. The 13-year-old Rose (Annabeth Gish) lives with her mother (JoBeth Williams), stepfather (Jon Voight), and two sisters in a working-class home. Trouble is brewing on several fronts: her stepfather is his usual abusive self but is dipping into the bottle more frequently, her glitzy Aunt Starr (Ellen Barkin) arrives for a six-week stay and causes an upheaval in the marriage, and an above-ground nuclear bomb is about to be exploded at the government test site (only 65 miles away). If Rose can survive all this with her health, her sanity, and her clear intelligence intact, it will not be due to her supportive environment. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jon Voight, JoBeth Williams, (more)
Hiding Out, a surprisingly entertaining and engaging action comedy, directed by Bob Giraldi, takes the implausible idea that an adult man could enroll in high school and pass as a student and makes it real. Andrew (Jon Cryer) is a stockbroker hunted by a professional killer. He flees to stay with his sister and her teenage son Patrick (Keith Coogan). Andrew shaves off his beard, cuts his hair, and enrolls in Patrick's high school, pretending to be 17 years old. Cryer does a great job of convincingly playing both ages, and Coogan shines as the teenage son. Director Giraldi has great visual style and gives the film an energy that makes it both enjoyable and believable. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jon Cryer, Keith Coogan, (more)
Three teenagers learn a lot about life and love one summer in this romantic comedy-drama. Kat (Annabeth Gish), Daisy (Julia Roberts), and Jojo (Lili Taylor) are three working-class women just out of high school who have jobs at the same pizza parlor in the resort community of Mystic, Connecticut. Kat wants to study astronomy at Yale; when she starts baby-sitting for Tim (William R. Moses), a wealthy Yale graduate summering in Mystic, she finds herself falling in love with him, even though he's married and nearly twice her age. Daisy, who isn't sure what she wants from life, starts going with Charlie (Adam Storke), a recent law school dropout, though she starts to think that it may be more to rebel against her family than out of genuine affection. And Jojo is attracted to Bill (Vincent D'Onofrio), but she doesn't want to get married (she's already left him at the altar once); when Bill announces that he's no longer willing to have sex without marriage, she has to decide if his affections are worth a lifetime commitment. Conchata Ferrell appears in a supporting role as Leona, the proprietor of the pizza parlor, who zealously guards the secret formula of her sauce. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, (more)
Shag is a beach flick set in 1963. The years have passed, but the old Where the Boys Are formula holds firm: four attractive young lasses head for the surf and sand of Myrtle Beach, SC, looking for guys. Carson McBride (Phoebe Cates) is about to be married, so her three pals seek out a final affaire d'amour on her behalf before she is lost to the world forever. The cast is fascinating for its family ties: Bridget Fonda is the daughter of Peter Fonda, Page Hannah the sister of Daryl Hannah, and Tyrone Power Jr. is the son of you-know-who. Filmed in 1988, Shag was released that year in Europe, then offered to American audiences one year later. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Phoebe Cates, Scott Coffey, (more)
- 1989
Made for television, When He's Not a Stranger stars Annabeth Gish as a college freshman who is sexually assaulted by football jock John Terlesky. Ashamed by the incident-especially since she regarded Terlesky as a friend-Annabeth at first tells no one. But after a session with the school's counselor, the girls feel emboldened enough to file a complaint against her attacker, which leads to an avalanche of hostility from her peers. With nowhere else to turn, Annabeth takes her complaint to court. This stark dramatization of the "acquaintance rape" dilemma was first broadcast October 17, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1990
- PG13
Three rebellious bickersome brothers reunite to drive their father's title car from their Detroit homes to Florida. The auto is to be a gift to celebrate their mother's birthday party. Along the way, their adventures are punctuated by pop tunes from 1963 that include "Louie, Louie," a song that inspires a hilarious debate as the three attempt to fathom the song's meaning. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Dempsey, Arye Gross, (more)
- 1991
Tyne Daly ages and ages (courtesy of a sympathetic makeup staff) as the matriarch of an upper-class Connecticut family. This TV movie traces the progress of that family--mother, father, three kids--from 1962 through 1984. We watch the children go through all the joys and heartache of maturity, and we see Ms. Daly's husband (Terry O'Quinn) stray from the fold in the company of another woman. The one unifying factor throughout the years is the family's well-appointed suburban house. The title The Last to Go refers to Tyne Daly, who is the final person out of the house when it is finally put up for sale. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1992
A private detective becomes involved in a new cast when her partner's guardian is murdered. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Crystal Bernard, Annabeth Gish, (more)
- 1994
- PG13
This much-ballyhooed TV miniseries sequel to Gone with the Wind finds former Agent 007 Timothy Dalton reprising the tough-to-fill shoes of Clark Gable's Rhett Butler, and former Val Kilmer spouse Joanne Whalley-Kilmer beating out thousands of hopefuls to play what was once Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara role. Loosely based on Alexandra Ripley's sequel novel, the film finds our heroine traversing the country to win back Rhett but inadvertently becoming pregnant with Rhett's baby and absconding to Ireland to raise the tyke. There, she becomes indoctrinated into a royal clan. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joanne Whalley, Timothy Dalton, (more)
Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, this epic version of the legendary western sheriff-gunslinger's life story stars Kevin Costner as Earp, who lived from 1848 to 1929. Growing up on a farm in Iowa, Earp tries to run away to join the Union Army in the Civil War, but he is turned away because of his youth. Instead, he studies law and marries Urilla Sutherland (Annabeth Gish). But Urilla dies of typhoid fever before they can have children. Earp grows despondent and descends into drinking and petty thievery, but his father Nicholas (Gene Hackman) finds him, sobers him up, and sets him straight. Earp becomes a buffalo hunter and a close companion of Bat Masterson (Tom Sizemore) and his brother Ed (Bill Pullman). With his brothers, Virgil (Michael Madsen) and Morgan (Linden Ashby), Earp sets out to clean up the violence-plagued towns of the old West -- by using his own guns to settle scores. Earp takes up with Mattie Blaylock (Mare Winningham), a drug addict and prostitute, then discards her for actress Josie Marcus (Joanna Going). In Tombstone, Arizona, the Earp brothers and their comrade Doc Holliday (Dennis Quaid), who is plagued by tuberculosis and a compulsion for gambling, meet their match in a ruthless gang led by Ike Clanton (Jeff Fahey). ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, (more)
Oliver Stone, the most outspokenly political American filmmaker of the 1980s and '90s, directs this epic-length biography of Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the U.S., who was re-elected by a landslide in 1972, only to resign in disgrace two years later. Taking a non-linear approach, Nixon jumps back and forth between many different periods and events, from Nixon's strict upbringing at the hands of his Quaker mother, through the many peaks and valleys of his political career, to his downfall in the wake of the Watergate scandal. The facts of his life are blended with supposition and speculation to create a portrait that is often critical of the man's policies but displays an unexpected compassion toward his failings as a human being. Anthony Hopkins stars as Nixon, Joan Allen plays his long-suffering wife Pat, Mary Steenburgen portrays his mother Hannah, Bob Hoskins is cast as J. Edgar Hoover, Powers Boothe plays Alexander Haig, Paul Sorvino portrays Henry Kisinger, and Ed Harris plays E. Howard Hunt. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, (more)
If you met Adolph Hitler when he was just a struggling cartoonist, wouldn't you have done the world a big favor by murdering him? That philosophical question provides the linchpin of this black comedy. Jude (Cameron Diaz), Pete (Ron Eldard), Paulie (Annabeth Gish), Marc (Jonathan Penner), and Luke (Courtney B. Vance) are five graduate students who are confirmed members of the political left, participate in small-scale activism, and share a house together. One night, Pete is stuck in the middle of nowhere, and Zack (Bill Paxton), a truck driver, gives him a lift home. The housemates are just about to sit down to dinner, so to show his gratitude, Pete asks Zack to join them. However, it soon becomes obvious that Zack doesn't share the group's political views, and when he states that he thinks Hitler had the right idea, the argument turns into a fight, with Zack brandishing a knife. The trucker is accidentally killed in the scuffle, and rather than report the death to the police, his body is buried in the backyard vegetable garden. However, the event prompts much discussion among the housemates -- if Zack was a hateful bigot, isn't the world better off without him? And wouldn't killing other ignorant hatemongers improve society all the more? Before long, the group is having a weekly dinner party in which they invite a special guest -- including an anti-environmental activist (Jason Alexander), a right-wing religious leader (Charles Durning), a sexist who doesn't believe there's such a thing as rape (Mark Harmon), and a teenager campaigning against sex education in schools (Erin Bryn) -- and serve them some wine, which happens to be laced with arsenic. While the group's attempt at community improvement does wonders for their tomato plants, the recent disappearances eventually attract the attention of the local sheriff (Nora Dunn). The Last Supper was the first feature for director Stacy Title, who won an Academy Award for her short subject Down on the Waterfront; screenwriter Dan Rosen appears in a supporting role as a police deputy. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cameron Diaz, Ron Eldard, (more)
A drug addict gets more than a quick fix in this made-for-cable thriller. Eric Stoltz stars as Jesse Parish, a musician and druggie who leads a mobster to his old stomping grounds after stealing a case of cash and going on the lam. Oscar-winner Billy Bob Thorton co-stars and co-wrote the script. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eric Stoltz, John Corbett, (more)
A high-school reunion in a snowy New England town brings together a diverse band of former classmates. They include NYC pianist Willie Timothy Hutton who has found only small success playing night clubs and is considering taking a job as a supply salesman. While in town, Willie, who is having relationship problems with his girlfriend, finds himself becoming friends with 13 year-old Marty Natalie Portman. Then there's Tommy Matt Dillon, the aging jock who though seriously involved with Sharon Mira Sorvino, cannot resist the occasional walk down memory lane by sleeping with the former prom-queen Darian Lauren Holly, who is married but believes that her husband won't find out. Paul Michael Rapaport is dumped by his waitress girlfriend Jan Martha Plimpton, in part because of the swimsuit-clad supermodels plastered all over his walls. Paul then becomes attracted to Andera Uma Thurman, who is visiting her cousin Stinky Pruitt Taylor Vince, a local tavern owner. Also among the group -- Gina Rosie O'Donnell, who fancies herself a feminist counselor and who, in one of the film's highlights, delivers a poignant rant against how magazines present unrealistic images of women. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- Starring:
- Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, (more)
- 1996
This made-for-TV drama covers fifteen years, from WW2 to the mid-1950s, in the lives of farm couple Gordon and Jean Holly (Richard Thomas, Annabeth Gish). A daughter of privilege, Jean had married Gordon much against her parents' wishes, whereupon the couple took charge of a ranch in California, where they raised their children. Throughout their marriage, the Hollys not only faced the disdain of their loved ones, but also the prejudices and misunderstandings of their neighbor. And why? Because both Gordon and Jean Holly were totally blind, and thus regarded by the standards of their era to be "unworthy" of parenthood and self-reliance. Based on the novel by Susan Vreeland, What Loves Sees first aired September 22, 1996, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1997
- PG13
Low-rent, poorly-lit superhero action is the order of the day in this film from television director Kenneth Johnson -- who makes several references to his series Alien Nation throughout the course of the movie. NBA basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal stars as John Henry Irons, a weapons designer and metallurgical genius who is developing a new sonic weapon for the military with the help of Sparks (Annabeth Gish), a computer whiz. When an accident caused by unscrupulous superior Nathaniel Burke (Judd Nelson) leaves Sparks paralyzed, Irons quits his job in disgust. It turns out later that Burke has begun mass-producing the weapon and selling it to terrorists and L.A. street gangs, so Irons and Sparks team up with Uncle Joe (Richard Roundtree), a junkyard artist, to create a suit of armor and a gadget-packed sledgehammer. Irons dons the suit and becomes known as the superhero Steel, who kicks criminal posterior all over the city with his impenetrable get-up and high-tech gizmos. Before long, Burke's comeuppance is in the offing. Although specific references to it were excised between the source material and script, the original DC Comics version of Steel was a spin-off of the Superman comics series. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Shaquille O'Neal, Annabeth Gish, (more)
Based on a true story, this Civil War-era epic centers on the exploits of Sarah Ashby McClure (Dana Delany) and her sister Euphemia (Annabeth Gish) as they try to make their way on the male-dominated West Texas plains. When their home is threatened by Mexican forces and Native American warriors, the sisters lead their family and friends to safety. Based on the book by Janice Woods Windle, True Women also co-stars Rachael Leigh Cook, Angelina Jolie, and Tina Majorino. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dana Delany, Annabeth Gish, (more)
- 1998
A woman overcomes a tragedy in her own life by helping a teenage girl with a tragic family background in this made-for-TV drama. A disturbed woman who is unhappy with what she perceives to be the eccentric behavior of her daughter keeps her child a prisoner in her home for 16 years. A social worker who is still putting her life back together after the death of her own daughter gets wind of the case and is brought back into the world as she fights for the girl's freedom. To Live Again stars Bonnie Bedelia, Frances Sternhagen, and Annabeth Gish. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bonnie Bedelia, Annabeth Gish, (more)
In this thriller, Ashley Judd plays Elizabeth Parsons, who is convicted of murdering her husband and sentenced to a long stretch in prison. After Elizabeth has spent six years behind bars, it turns out that her husband is still alive: he faked his own death as part of an insurance scam, and Elizabeth is soon released. However, Elizabeth's feelings for her husband can hardly be described as warm, and she wants custody of her son. Elizabeth's parole officer (Tommy Lee Jones) wonders if she might try to make his murder a real thing after all, especially since the law states a person cannot be convicted of the same crime twice. Double Jeopardy was directed by Bruce Beresford, from a screenplay by Douglas S. Cook and David Weisberg. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Ashley Judd, (more)
What's it like being the only punk rockers in the biggest Mormon community in the world? Stevo (Matthew Lillard) and Heroin Bob (Michael Goorjian) provide the answer to this and other questions in SLC Punk. Stevo and Bob (whose name is actually an ironic reference to his fear of needles) are two friends fresh out of college who sport mohawks and blue hair, listen to hardcore and try to live up to their own anarchist ideals while figuring out what to do with their lives. Which wouldn't make them unusual in New York or Los Angeles, but they're fish out of water in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they drink beer, chase women and pick fights with "rednecks" along side a mixed bag of metalheads, hippies, hicks and posers who are fellow outcasts in the most clean-cut community in America. In the midst of all this, Stevo's dad hopes his son will follow in his footsteps and study law at Harvard; while Stevo surprisingly has the grades, he's not sure if he wants to go. Featuring a soundtrack of mid-80's punk from The Ramones, Minor Threat, The Dead Kennedys and others, SLC Punk was chosen as the opening-night feature at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Matthew Lillard, Michael A. Goorjian, (more)
Based on a true story, the made-for-TV God's New Plan essentially begins at the end, as Ellen Young (Katey Sagal) prepares to die from cancer. While Ellen is more or less resigned to her fate, she worries about what will happen afterward to her husband Brian (Tom Irwin) and her children. Luckily, Ellen has become close to Claire Hutton (Annabeth Gish), the nurse hired to care for Ellen's premature infant. Even from the grave, Ellen seems to be pulling the strings of the situation, as Claire slowly, cautiously falls in love with the grieving Tom, and vice versa. Ultimately it falls to the children to stage-manage the happy ending. Blessed with a marvelously feeling of time and place, not to mention the superlative performances by the principal players, God's New Plan debuted February 16, 1999, and has since become a fixture of cable TV under the title No Higher Love. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1999
20 years ago, a car crash left Hope Goodell (Annabeth Gish) with permanent brain damage. Hope's ultra-perfectionist mother Amanda (Lynn Redgrave) has since responded to the girl's handicap by virtually rejecting her, lavishing all her affection on Amanda's "normal" sister. Refusing to follow her mother's lead, the adult Hope intends to raise her own, healthy daughter with the unconditional love that has always been part and parcel of her personality. Made for cable, Different was first seen over the Lifetime channel on May 10, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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