Linda Hamilton Movies
The stepdaughter of the fire chief of Salisbury, MD, Linda Hamilton began her acting career with local children's theater groups. After college training and dramatic lessons conducted by former director Nicholas Ray, Hamilton was cast in a handful of inexpensive film programs. She briefly costarred in the prime-time TV soap opera Secrets of Midland Heights (1980) which led to an equally short stint on the weekly series King's Crossing (1982). Hamilton's stock in the film industry rose substantially when she was cast as Sarah Connor, the target for the homicidal intentions of futuristic android Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator (1984). No shivering ingenue, the agile and athletic Hamilton proved a formidable foe for the forces of evil in both The Terminator and its sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, where at times she came off tougher than the "kinder, gentler" Arnold. From 1987-1989, Hamilton starred as Catherine Chandler on the cult TV fantasy series Beauty and the Beast. She was involved with director James Cameron, with whom she had a son. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1980
The landmark 1978 courtroom prosecution which determined that a married man can by law be brought up on charges of raping his wife, was meticulously--and tastefully--detailed in this made-for-TV movie. Linda Hamilton stars as Oregon housewife Greta Rideout, who after years of abuse at the hands her husband John (Mickey Rourke) (it is the sort of marriage described by one observer as "usually [winding] up as suicide or homicide") finally takes him to court, accusing him of forcing her to have sex against her will. Among those involved in the case are feminist activists Helen (Conchata Ferrell) and Jean (Gail Strickland) and opposing attorneys Gary Gortmaker (Eugene Roche) and Charles Burt (Rip Torn). Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case originally aired October 30, 1980 on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Hamilton, Mickey Rourke, (more)
- 1982
In this musical drama a famed country singer and her newest competitor, a rising star, compete to become female vocalist of the year. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1982
- PG
Students at a college with obviously low graduation requirements spend their time and energy playing a game that involves mock assassinations with rubber-tipped darts fired from plastic guns. If you are shot, you are assassinated and out of the game and whoever remains alone at the end wins. When Gersh (Bruce Abbott), the odds-on favorite is about to do one of his opponents in, the hapless victim drops his dart gun, it misfires, and bonks a dart at Gersh - who is pushed over the edge, pulls out a real gun and kills his unfortunate opponent. Gersh drags the body to his room and stuffs it in his closet. Having killed once, the blood-thirsty student goes on a rampage, killing as many of these players as he can and stuffing them all in his closet. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Carradine, Linda Hamilton, (more)
- 1983
In this drama, a mother and daughter become rivals for a single man's affections. The mother is a widowed movie star and the daughter is recently divorced. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
In this tightly-wound, perceptive film, a young farm boy kills his older brother when a shotgun accidentally goes off then retreats into a shell of silence as his family seems to react against him. Arnold (Jason Presson) and his brother get up at the crack of dawn to go duck hunting, but their happy plans take a tragic turn when Arnold's shotgun gets caught in a barbed wire fence and accidentally goes off, killing his older brother. Arnold is in shock, he sits by his brother's side, he irrationally wanders in a pea patch, slowly picking the vegetables. When he finally goes home and manages to articulate what happened, his parents ignore him in their own grief. His father Joe (Robert Duvall) thinks Arnold does not have a clue about what he did because he just stands there, not speaking or communicating anything at all -- like a stone. Arnold's mother may not understand his behavior -- this is a Montana farming couple, not a pair of psychologists -- but she is not as judgmental as her husband. The family's grief causes some aberrant behavior, making the life of Arnold's next-door Aunt Lu miserable (her philandering husband is taking off after the dead boy's girlfriend), and Arnold senses a kindred spirit in the woman. But his grandfather is the only one who understands that the family should not mistreat Arnold, that he is suffering so intensely he simply cannot express it. When Arnold runs away, escaping to the city of Reno, there is some hope that the boy will find a much-needed emotional release. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Duvall, Jason Presson, (more)
Endlessly imitated, The Terminator made the reputation of cowriter/director James Cameron -- who would go on to make 1997's titanic Titanic -- and solidified the stardom of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The movie begins in a post-apocalyptic 2029, when Los Angeles has been largely reduced to rubble and is under the thumb of all-powerful ruling machines. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), a member of the human resistance movement, is teleported back to 1984. His purpose: to rescue Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of the man who will lead the 21st-century rebels against the tyrannical machines, from being assassinated before she can give birth. Likewise thrust back to 1984 is The Terminator (Schwarzenegger), a grim, well-armed, virtually indestructable cyborg who has been programmed to eliminate Sarah Connor. After killing two "Sarah Connors" who turn out to be the wrong women, he finally aims his gunsights at the genuine article. This is the film in which Schwarzenegger declared "I'll be baaaack" -- and back he was, in "kinder and gentler" form, in the even more successful Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, (more)
Narrator Job (Robby Kiger) relates the tale of Gatlin, NE, where one day the children, led by a boy preacher named Isaac (John Franklin), rose up and slaughtered all the grown-ups. A few years later, Job and his sister, Sarah (Ammemarie McEvoy), help their friend, Joseph (Jonas Marlowe), try to escape through the cornfields of Gatlin. Meanwhile, Burt Stanton (Peter Horton), a commitment-phobic young doctor, and Vicky Baxter (Linda Hamilton), his frustrated girlfriend, travel through the cornfield-lined roads of Nebraska on their way to Burt's new internship in Omaha. Their car hits Joseph, who appears out of nowhere, but upon examining him, Burt realizes the child's throat was slit before he ever wandered out from the corn. Attempting to locate help, Burt and Vicky turn to gas-station owner Diehl (R.G. Armstrong), who urges the couple to go anywhere but nearby Gatlin to report the murder. Several contradictory street signs later, they arrive in Gatlin anyway, and, befriending Sarah and Joseph, attempt to uncover the mystery behind Isaac's cult and its mysterious deity, known only as He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Stephen King cash-ins flooded the market between the successes of Brian DePalma's Carrie (1976) and Rob Reiner's Misery (1990), many of them, like Children of the Corn, based only loosely on the author's fiction. The original short story appeared in the collection Night Shift. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, (more)
In this exploitation film, the KGB trains a sexy young spy-trainee to become an "all-American" temptress capable of seducing the secrets out of many US officials and businessmen. She will then use the resulting information to blackmail these men into serving her government. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1986
In Boston, Jessica agrees to serve as honorary chairperson at a charity tennis tournament where her former student Carol (Linda Hamilton) is one of the players. It so happens that Carol is the girlfriend of a much-hated tennis star, who ends up being blown to bits by a bomb planted in Carol's car. At first, it appears that Carol was the intended target of the bombing, but when a second murder occurs, she ends up accused of both crimes--and as everybody knows by now, no relative of Jessica Fletcher can ever be guilty of anything, least of all murder! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
This romantic made-for-TV movie chronicles episodes from the varied lives of visitors to the popular Mexican seaside resort. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Scalia, Linda Hamilton, (more)
Pandering über-producer Dino De Laurentiis followed his unnecessary 1976 remake of King Kong with this even more pointless sequel ten years later. Though the colossal ape Kong took a half-gainer off the World Trade Center for Jessica Lange at the previous film's climax, we are told at the sequel's outset that Kong survived and is being kept alive through artificial means by a secret scientific team (headed by Linda Hamilton in her pre-action-heroine days) dedicated to designing a synthetic replacement heart. When the hilariously huge device is deemed ready for implant, the scientists seek out the only known donor for the requisite blood transfusion: a female Kong, recently captured in Borneo by adventurer Brian Kerwin. Kong's luck turns out to be twofold: not only is the implant a success, the big lug now has a potential mate who's more his type. After Kong rescues his fellow captive, the amorous behemoths eventually thunder off to the mountains to make a great big baby. Director John Guillermin (who helmed the previous film) plays the unbelievably silly premise absolutely straight, including a hilarious heart-transplant scene featuring surgical tools the size of freeway signs, leading viewers to believe that the joke's on them for sitting through this inane exercise. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Kerwin, Peter Anthony Elliott, (more)
A John Carpenter story served as the launching pad for Black Moon Rising. Veteran thief Quint (Tommy Lee Jones) is hired by the FBI to steal some politically volatile computer tapes. The owners of the tapes are displeased, and begin chasing Quint all over the countryside. Just when he's about to surrender his booty, Quint's car -- wherein the tapes are stored -- is stolen by Nina (Linda Hamilton). She delivers the car to her corporate-villain boyfriend Ryland (Robert Vaughn), who runs a hot auto ring. Nina then has second thoughts and decides to throw in with Quint...and round and round we go. The "Black Moon" of the title is the name Quint's high-tech, low-slung vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Hamilton, (more)
- 1987
This made-for-television movie was the pilot for the series Beauty and the Beast. An attorney (Linda Hamilton) in New York City has her life saved by a huge, deformed but gentle man-beast named Vincent (Ron Perlman). Vincent, not wishing to live among "normal" people, lives in the underground tunnels beneath the city. Against their better judgment, the two start falling in love with each other. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1987
- Add Beauty and the Beast: Season 01 to QueueAdd Beauty and the Beast: Season 01 to top of Queue
The Beauty and the Beast TV show was a fantasy series about a man-beast (Vincent) and his love for a beautiful assistant district attorney (Catherine Chandler). Vincent lived in an underground world beneath New York City where his gruesome looks were less important to his peers than were his caring and benevolent personality. Together, Vincent and Catherine had many adventures both above and below ground level and their love for each other continued to grow.
Based on the autobiographical book by Chris Oyler, the made-for-TV Go Toward the Light is a sometimes wrenching, ofttimes inspirational AIDS drama. Claire and Greg Madison (Linda Hamilton and Richard Thomas) discover to their horror that their hemophiliac son Ben (Joshua Harris) has contracted the deadly virus through a tainted transfusion. Faced with the likelihood that Ben will not live out the year, the grief-stricken Madisons vow to make every day of that year count and to see to it that their son will not have to endure his agony alone. The excellence of the performances are matched by the script (by Susan Nanus and Beth Polson) and direction (Mike Robe). Go Toward the Light debuted November 1, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Hamilton, Richard Thomas, (more)
