Della Reese Movies
Della Reese is one of the few performers to move easily between the religious community and the mainstream entertainment industry. Born in Detroit, MI, Reese started singing in gospel choirs at a very young age. In 1945, she joined a touring choir with legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. As a student at Wayne State University, Reese former her own singing group called the Meditation Singers. After a regular gig at Detroit's Flame Showbar, she went on to sing with Erskine Hawkins & His Orchestra. During the '50s and '60s, she recorded pop vocal albums for Jubilee and RCA Victor, leading to several pop singles on the Billboard charts. She was also nominated for a Grammy award and is remembered as one of the first gospel singers to have a popular stage show in Las Vegas.Her television career started in 1969 as the guest host of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. She then made television history as the first black woman with her own prime-time variety show, Della. After singing on the nightclub circuit and making television guest appearances as herself, she joined the cast of Chico and the Man from 1976 to 1978. Despite her battle with illness in the early '80s, she continued acting steadily throughout the next few decades. Her other TV series appearances include Sanford and Son, It Takes Two, Charlie & Co., and The Royal Family. On the big screen, she played madam Vera in Eddie Murphy's Harlem Nights and Martin Lawrence's mother in A Thin Line Between Love and Hate. Her biggest television achievement is the CBS drama Touched By an Angel, which ran from 1994-2003. For her role of Tess, the wise guiding angel to Monica (Roma Downey), Reese won several Image Awards and Emmy nominations. Her other television work includes leading roles on the TV tearjerkers Miracle in the Woods, The Moving of Sylvia Myles, and Anya's Bell. An ordained minister, Reese helps to run the Los Angeles church association Understanding Foundation for Better Living. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Singer Julius LaRosa, whose greatest fame lies in the fact that he was fired on the air by radio-TV personality Arthur Godfrey, heads the cast of the near-plotless musicfest Let's Rock. LaRosa plays a top recording star who suffers a dip in popularity when rock-n-roll becomes the national craze. With the help of girlfriend Phyllis Newman, LaRosa is able to recapture his audience by adjusting to the "new sound." Forget the plot: this the film in which Danny and the Juniors perform their hit single "At the Hop" and the Royal Teens participate in a production-number version of their smash "Short Shorts". And besides, who couldn't love a film which offers not only Paul Anka and Della Reese, but also the legendary Wink Martindale!!! Let's Rock was later reissued as Keep It Cool. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julius LaRosa, Phyllis Newman, (more)
- 1972
Desi Arnaz Jr. and Michael Evans play the teenaged protagonists of The Voyage of the Yes. The boys take on the challenge of a 2,600-mile sailboat trip from California to Hawaii. While tackling the boundaries created by Mother Nature, Desi and Michael learn to combat their own inbred prejudices. As a bonus for fans of the stars, Arnaz and Evans perform a song "El Condor Pasa." Made for television, THe Voyage of the Yes was first telecast January 16, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
In this comedy, a retired Navy cook lives his dreams. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1975
Lloyd Bridges stars as plainclothes policeman Joe Forrester. When a gang of robber-rapists besiege his old beat, Forrester voluntarily returns to uniform duty. He hopes that his presence will encourage the frightened residents to help bring the gang to justice, but the most immediate results of Joe's return are several attempts on his life. Eddie Egan, the real-life model for The French Connection's Popeye Doyle, appears in a small role. First telecast as a 90-minute installment of Police Story on May 6, 1975, Return of Joe Forrester led to a weekly Joe Forrester series, which ran from September 1975 to August 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
Under normal circumstances, Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) hates politics and politicians. Then why has Fred allowed his house to become campaign headquarters for a local candidate? The answer: The candidate's biggest booster is singer Della Reese (playing herself), whose powers of persuasion prove far too strong for Fred to resist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson, (more)
- 1975
- PG
In this thriller, an innocent man is wrongfully committed to an asylum for the criminally insane. While there he learns how to tap into his psychic powers and to affect the lives of others via astral projection. These skills come in mighty handy after he is released and he heads out for revenge against those who framed him. This movie was originally filmed as The Kirlian Force. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Burke, Jim Hutton, (more)
- 1976
Season Three of the Freddie Prinze sitcom Chico and the Man begins with a two-part episode, as Ed Brown (Jack Albertson), curmudgeonly owner of a barrio garage and the employer of lovable Latino Chico Rodriguez (Prinze, of course), discovers to his dismay that his new landlady is his old enemy Helen Rogers, the woman who'd committed the unforgivable sin of converting Ed's late wife from a Republican to a Democrat. Della Rogers is played by new series regular Della Reese, who'd been seen the previous season as a long-suffering judge in the episode "The Juror". In addition to her landlady duties, Della Rogers also runs a mobile snack wagon, thereby setting up several situations whereby the resourceful Chico tries to cadge a free meal. In another new development, retired letter carrier Louie Wilson (Scatman Crothers) is also working in Ed's garage. Guest stars this season include Dick Van Dyke Show veteran Rose Marie in the episode "Ready When You Are, CB" (the title refers not to DeMille but to the then-current CB radio craze); onetime matinee idol Cesar Romero as Chico's long-lost father in "Chico's Padre"; deadpan comedian George Gobel in "Louie's CanCan"; and perennial western sidekick Pat Buttram in "Gregory Peck is a Rooster." The third-season episode that garnered the fewest audience laughs when it originally aired on NBC was "Champs Ain't Chumps". Not that this episode was any less hilarious than its predecessors, merely that it was first telecast on January 28, 1977--one day after the suicide of 22-year-old Freddie Prinze. This devastating tragedy would have seemed to spell the end of Chico and the Man, but both NBC and producer James Komack were grimly determined to keep the franchise alive--and to that end filmed an episode in which a new and entirely different "Chico" was introduced in the form of 12-year-old newcomer Gabriel Melgar. That episode, however, would not be aired until Chico and the Man returned for its fourth and final season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Albertson, Freddie Prinze, (more)
- 1977
Many viewers were astonished (and some were offended!) when the NBC sitcom Chico and the Man returned in the fall of 1977 for its fourth season. After all, how could the show include the name "Chico" in the title when everybody knew that the young comedian who'd played garage mechanic Chico Rodriguez, Freddie Prinze, had killed himself earlier in the year? But both NBC and producer James Komack were grimly determined that the show would go on--even if it meant shoehorning a new and entirely different "Chico" into the proceedings. Filmed at the tail end of the third season but aired as the opening installment of Season Four, the episode "Who's Been Sleeping in My Car" introduces 12-year-old Gabriel Melgar as 11-year-old Mexican orphan Raul Garcia, who stows away in the car of LA garage owner Ed Brown (Jack Albertson) while Ed and his friend Louie (Scatman Crothers) are on a fishing trip in Mexico. Feeling lonely after the death of his former mechanic Chico Rodriguez, the crotchety-but-softhearted Ed decides to adopt Raul--who, fortuitously enough, insists upon being referred to by his nickname "Chico"! Also welcoming Raul with open arms is Ed's landlady Della Rogers (Della Reese), while in a later episode flamboyant South American entertainer Charo joins the cast as Raul's fun-loving Aunt Charo. For the most part, the Ed-Raul teaming doesn't come off, with audiences feeling uncomfortable watching a TV series that, by rights, should have ended with Freddie Prinze's death. Even so, this season yields one of the series' most memorable and moving episodes, the 2-part "Raul Runs Away", which boldly addresses the issue of Gabriel Melgar's inadequacy as a Prinze substitute by having the tearful youngster run back to Mexico when he feels he can't measure up to the memory of the "original" Chico. The episode was not only the only Chico and the Man installment to be filmed rather than videotaped, but was also the only one to be shot on location in Mexico. Despite this high point, Chico and the Man was doomed to extinction at the end of its fourth season, wrapping things up with a finale which finds Ed Brown anxiously preparing for a visit from President Jimmy Carter (not to give anything away, but Carter doesn't appear). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Albertson, Della Reese, (more)
The phenomenal success of the 1977 ABC miniseries Roots all but demanded a sequel to writer Alex Haley's epic story of his African and African-American forebears. Debuting February 18, 1979, Roots: The Next Generations picked up where its predecessor left off, with Haley's slave ancestors winning their freedom in the aftermath of the Civil War. Even so, life for black Americans was wrought with hardship and oppression thanks to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the staunch refusal of the white power structure to pass anti-lynching laws, and the formation of the dreaded Jim Crow laws which legalized racial segregation in the South (and much of the North). Covering the period from 1882 to the mid-1970s, the miniseries first focuses on blacksmith Tom Harvey (Georg Stanford Brown), great-grandson of Kunta Kinte (the protagonist of the original Roots), and his family. Meanwhile, reacting to the marriage of his son to a black woman, anal-retentive Southern colonel Warner (Henry Fonda) begins setting the legal wheels in motion to deny blacks like Tom the right to vote and to hold "white" jobs. A few decades later, Tom's son-in-law encourages his fellow blacks to stand firm against the KKK's reign of terror. His labors on behalf of his race are rewarded when his daughter Bertha (Irene Cara) becomes the first descendant of Kunta Kinte to receive a college education. It is Bertha Palmer who weds the equally ambitious Simon Haley (Dorian Harewood), who goes on to serve in WWI and to organize farmers and sharecroppers during the Depression. Simon's son Alex (played at various ages by Kristoff St. John, Damon Evans, and finally James Earl Jones) is just as determined to succeed in a white man's world as his father, and to that end becomes a professional writer after his own service stint in the Coast Guard during WWII. At the height of his professional success (largely due to his having ghost-written the autobiography of Muslim activist Malcolm X), Alex Haley pays a visit to his boyhood hometown -- where, almost by accident, he receives the first clue to his heritage, a clue that will lead him on an odyssey of self-discovery, arriving full circle at Kunta Kinte's birthplace in Africa. Although the miniseries' "money scene" was Haley's nervous interview with American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell (Marlon Brando in a superb cameo turn), the climactic episode, in which Haley tearfully embraces the living African descendants of Kunta Kinte, is one of the most unforgettable moments in the history of network television. Running 12 episodes and 14 hours, Roots: The Next Generations concluded on February 25, 1979, playing to huge ratings all along the way and ultimately garnering several Emmy nominations (and one win). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Georg Stanford Brown, Olivia de Havilland, (more)
- 1984
American Gospel music is performed by Della Reese, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Grandpa Jones and many more. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1984
American Gospel music is performed by Della Reese, Tennessee Ernie Ford, the Jordanaires and many more. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1984
American Gospel music is performed by Della Reese, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Miss Micki, and many more. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1985
The henchmen of crooked land developer Phillip Chadway (Ray Wise) make a big mistake when they use strongarm tactics to force the elderly tenants of a Chicago apartment building to vacate the premises. It seems that one of those tenants is a certain Mrs. Barracus (Della Reese)--who happens to be the mother of a certain short-tempered "A-Teamer" by the name of B.A. (Mr. T). As a consequence, B.A.'s fellow Team-mates take it upon themselves to champion the tenants' cause, and to teach Mr. Chadway a valuable (and very painful) lesson! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
The Cosby Show's Tempestt Bledsoe is center of attention in this ABC Afterschool Special. Born into a family of gospel singers, teenager Grace (Bledsoe) is the only member of the clan who can't sing a note. Moving in with her cousin Subaya (Kasi Lemmons), Grace pours out her heart -- and her frustration -- by writing a song about her plight. It turns out that she has musical talent after all, though not in a manner that her family (headed by no less than Della Reese) could ever have anticipated. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tempestt Bledsoe, Della Reese, (more)
- 1989
The irascible Roz (Marsha Warfield) is cowed into silence and subservience by her Aunt Ruth (guest star Della Reese), who has arrived in town on a mission to marry her niece off to a good man. Hoping to keep Aunt Ruth at bay, Roz talks Mac into posing as her fiancée. And in a plot development clearly inspired by a recent legal dust-up involving Zsa Zsa Gabor, a much-married and heavily-accented actress named Sascha Minkoff (Magda Harout) is haulted into the courtroom, where her priceless diamond necklace swallowed by another defendant's dog! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Eddie Murphy, in addition to starring as Quick, the son of 1930s Harlem gambling-house proprietor Sugar Ray (Richard Pryor), also wrote and directed the film. The plotline details the combined efforts of Quick and Sugar Ray to prevent white gangster Bugsy Calhoune (Michael Lerner) from muscling in on their operation. The supporting players include Redd Foxx, Danny Aiello and Jasmine Guy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, (more)
- 198z
Part of the "ABC Afterschool Special" series, this film stars Tempestt Bledsoe as a girl who must learn to accept her weaknesses and focus on her strengths. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1990
This made-for-TV drama--Sammy Davis, Jr.'s last--stars Trent Cameron as a young orphan who must fight against social workers in order to remain with his adoptive father, a widowed jazzman. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
A highly principled African-American independent filmmaker hides his early profession because his films never became popular. This Wonderworks drama chronicles what happens when the former filmmaker's niece finds his old films in a trunk and then begins researching her uncle's contributions. She then helps teach him to become proud of his refusal to make films that exploited his actors. The girl also learns the value of working on a team. The video comes with a handy viewer's guide to promote discussion after the film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Newly promoted from apprentice angel to celestial caseworker, heavenly heroine Monica (Roma Downey) welcomes the challenge as Touched By an Angel launches its first season. No longer an invisible presence, Monica can now be seen and heard by her earthly charges, enabling her to help them make the right decisions in their lives in a more direct and intimate manner. Occasionally, however, Monica gets in over her head, and in those odd moments she requires the considerable aid of her angelic supervisor Tess (Della Reese). Other times, it is clear that Monica's assistance is needed to help her mortal client make an easy and rapid transition from this world to the next, and that is where the third member of the team, Angel of Death Adam (Charles Rocket), comes in. As the season rolls on, Adam will gradually fade away to be replaced by the soft-spoken Andrew (John Dye) for the duration of the series. Monica's first assignment is to help a young boy cope with a family crisis borne of his mother's making. Later on, she urges a self-destructive alcoholic to confront her problem, breaks up a potentially disastrous romantic triangle, compels a wealthy and snobbish doctor to acknowledge his humble upbringing, and forces a man to face the guilt of living a lie -- and seek redemption in the process. Not that Monica has a perfect success record during season one; in fact, for unfairly passing judgment on a homeless person, she herself is forced to do some heavy penance! ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roma Downey, Della Reese, (more)
