Richard Grieco Movies
American actor Richard Grieco has played leading and supporting roles on television and in features. TV fans will quickly remember him from the sibling '80s police series 21 Jump Street and Booker, in which Grieco played bad-boy detective Dennis Booker. Born in Watertown, NY, the darkly handsome actor's interest in performing began in high school where he was also active in sports, such as lacrosse, hockey, and football. He was so good at the latter sport that he was recruited to play for Central Connecticut University as a linebacker and fullback. Grieco left the school after two years and by the mid-'80s had established himself as a male model for the Elite Agency in New York. After modeling for such major clients as Calvin Klein, Chanel, and Armani for a while, Grieco spent two years studying acting with Alice Spieack, Warren Robertson, and Wally Strauss. He landed the role of Rick Gardner on the ABC daytime soap One Life to Live in 1985 and remained with the show through 1987, the year he moved to Los Angeles and began working as a guest star on such television shows as Who's the Boss? and The Bronx Zoo. In 1988, after a successful guest appearance, Grieco joined the cast of the Fox Network's 21 Jump Street. A year later, he starred in the spin-off, Booker, which ran until 1990. Though the series didn't last long on network television, it had success in syndication. Grieco made his feature-film debut playing Bugsy Siegel in Mobsters (1991), and in If Looks Could Kill. Since then, Grieco has built a solid career appearing in features ranging from Tomcat: Dangerous Desires (1993) to The Demolitionist (1995). In 1995, Grieco also worked in another short-lived television series, Marker. In addition to acting, Grieco has found success as a singer, a side career he launched in 1994. He started out with the Dunmore Band, and after gaining a large following among Los Angeles club hoppers, signed a record contract with a German label and released the CD Waiting for the Sky to Fall, which became a smash hit in Europe. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1996
Here's something new in the annals of made-for-cable movies: a dysfunctional family of three in outer space. Coming across a derelict spaceship, Foster Carver (Corbin Bernsen), his wife, Katrina (Lara Harris), and their daughter, Amy (Brittany Ashton Holmes), rescue the vessel's sole survivor, a handsome fellow named Adam (Richard Grieco). It soon develops that everyone else on the derelict ship has been murdered, and that Adam is an android who has been programmed without morals or conscience -- as proven when Adam brazenly sets about to seduce Katrina and wipe out the rest of her family. An extraterrestrial variation on the old theatrical feature Dead Calm, Inhumanoid originally aired July 23, 1996, as part of the Showtime channel's "Roger Corman Presents" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Grieco, Lara Harris, (more)
- 1995
After a car wreck claims the life of her beloved husband, socialite Rachel Waring finds solace in the arms of a handsome free-lance photographer. Warmed by his apparent sensitivity, Rachel falls in love and marries him. Unfortunately, they are no sooner on their honeymoon, when things start going awry, beginning with his seemingly innocent request that she pose for a few bondage photos. The poor acquiescent bride has no idea that these photos will constitute an elaborate scam to extort money from her wealthy father. When Rachel learns the truth, the situation becomes deadly. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1995
When her daughter's lover begins exhibiting signs of becoming a dangerous abuser, a mother attempts to intervene. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Grieco, Ann Jillian, (more)
- 1995
- R
Set in a future American metropolis, Metro City, this sci-fi-thriller features a policewoman heroine who like the hero in Robocop was brought back from the dead and turned into a super-human fighter. Unlike the aforementioned robot-man, however, she is brought back not with hardware, but with special drugs and a heavy duty training program. The woman dislikes the drugs because of the nightmares they create, but she is dedicated and so completes her regimen so successfully that she is called the Demolitionist and sent out to clean up the city's crime-fouled streets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicole Eggert, Richard Grieco, (more)
21 Jump Street heartthrob Richard Grieco stars in the 1994 motorcycle movie Bolt, released on DVD as Rebel Run. A tough New Jersey biker named Bolt (Grieco) travels across the country heading west. He encounters old gang rival Billy Niles (Michael Ironside). Bolt fights to protect his Indian girlfriend Patty Deerheart (Sean Young) from land-stealing bad guys. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- 1994
A mother's happiness is shattered when she learns an awful truth about the man she married shortly after she had been brutally raped and left pregnant by a stranger. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cynthia Gibb, Richard Grieco, (more)
- 1993
- R
This direct-to-video item puts an interesting sci-fi/horror spin on the "erotic thriller" genre. Richard Grieco plays Tom, a man suffering from a rare DNA disorder, who becomes the subject of a bizarre experiment by repressed geneticist Jacki ($Maryam D'Abo). Injected with a serum containing the genetic traits of a cat, Tom is restored to health and transformed into a sinewy hunk with superhuman agility and a decidedly feline demeanor -- complete with a savage, murderous sex drive. Though this added trait makes him doubly attractive to his doctor, it also compels him to destroy every woman with whom he mates. Though the majority of the film's tension is of the sexual kind (and quite steamy at that), the more horrific plot elements are well-driven by Grieco's manic intensity -- until the disappointing climax, which shows the earmarks of a writer in over his head. Also known as Dangerous Desires. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
In this fictionalized account based on true figures, a foursome of young thugs decides to team up and take control of New York's east side from the aging bosses who control it. Bugsy Siegel (Richard Grieco) and Frank Costello (Costas Mandylor) control the physical elements of the operation, while Lucky Luciano (Christian Slater) and Meyer Lansky (Patrick Dempsey) bring up the business end. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Slater, Patrick Dempsey, (more)
- 1991
- PG13
Television flavor-of-the-month Richard Grieco made his feature-film debut in this juvenile spoof of James Bond films. He plays a high-school senior named Michael Corben who has flunked out of his French class, but has the chance to make up his grade on the French Club's summer trip to Europe. On the airplane booked to transport the French Club to France is another man by the name of Michael Corben, and this man happens to be a super-spy. When he is killed, the hapless high-school senior is mistaken for the real spy by British intelligence. He becomes involved in a mad plot by Augustus Steranko (Roger Rees) in which Steranko and his evil assistant Ilsa Grunt (Linda Hunt) plan to dominate the European continent by converting the gold standard to coins that will bear Steranko's likeness. Corben goes along with it when he is provided with a red sports car, a tuxedo, and some high-tech weapons. Along with all the spy accouterments, he latches onto a sexy helper -- Mariska (Gabrielle Anwar). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Grieco, Linda Hunt, (more)
Johnny Depp and the rest of the familiar cast of regulars report for duty as 21 Jump Street enters its third season. As before, Depp plays Officer Tom Hanson, one of a team of youthful LAPD undercover cops who pose as teenagers in order to bust adult wrongdoers. Newcomers to the series include Yvette Nipar as Tom's girlfriend, Jackie Garrett, who works in the DA's office; and Dennis Booker as Tom's new partner, Officer Dennis Booker (not surprisingly, Tom and Dennis don't get along at first, especially since Tom suspects Dennis -- wrongly, as it turns out -- of being a serial rapist). Other recurring characters during season three include Clavo (Tony Dakota), the orphaned nephew of Tom's co-worker Doug Penhall (Peter DeLuise); Doug's live-in girlfriend, Dorothy (Gina Nemo), who dumps him mid-season; and Blowfish (Sal Jenco), Jump Street's clumsy maintenance worker. Guest stars this season include Dom DeLuise, father of series regular Peter DeLuise; Mario Van Peebles, cast as an aspiring dancer; and Bridget Fonda, playing a homeless teen. Season three of 21 Jump Street concludes with the two-parter "Loc'd Out," in which an outraged Tom Hanson seeks personal vengeance against the punks who seriously wounded his fellow officer Ioki (Dustin Nguyen). ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Depp, Peter DeLuise, (more)
- 1987
Premiering April 12, 1987, 21 Jump Street was the Fox Network's first attempt at an action-adventure series. Essentially an updated Mod Squad, the series concerned the exploits of a group of young-looking cops, working undercover as high school students. In the 2-hour opening episode, officer Tom Hanson expresses discomfort at having to be a teenager again; evidently his earlier life was none too pleasant. Jeff Yagher played Hanson in the premiere; he was replaced in all subsequent episodes by star-in-the-making Johnny Depp. Other regulars include Holly Robinson as Judy Hoff, Dustin Nguyen as Ioki, and Peter DeLuise (Dom's son) as Penhall. Frederic Forrest is also on hand as the obligatory authority figure-himself an unreconstructed flower child. 21 Jump Street remained a Fox network fixture until September 17, 1990; an addition season's worth of episodes were filmed in Vancouver for first-run syndication. Trivia note: the series' original title was Jump Street Chapel, but this was changed lest viewers mistaken the program for a religious weekly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
