Blair Underwood Movies
Handsome actor Blair Underwood was born into a military family and studied at Carnegie-Mellon University before moving to New York to pursue his career. Guest-starring work on The Cosby Show earned him a part on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, followed by a reoccurring role on the short-lived series Downtown. In 1985 he made his film debut as a record producer in the rap comedy Krush Groove. This was followed by the successful TV docudramas Heat Wave and Murder in Mississippi. His breakthrough finally came about on L.A. Law, playing attorney Jonathan Rollins from 1987 to 1994. Supporting roles followed, as an accused rapist in Just Cause, a well-to-do love interest in Set It Off, and baseball legend Jackie Robinson in the HBO original movie Soul of the Game. Also during the '90s, he tried his hand at screenwriting and producing with the short film Second Coming, a contemporary take on Christ's second coming starring himself as a dread-locked Jesus accused of insanity. In 2000, he starred in the CBS medical drama City of Angels, followed by supporting roles in the military courtroom drama Rules of Engagement, as well as Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal, and the teen movie Malibu's Most Wanted. He and wife Desiree DaCosta (two-time executive assistant to Eddie Murphy) have three children. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
The sophomore film effort from music video director F. Gary Gray, Set It Off is a crime thriller about four women bank robbers from a housing project in L.A. Ever since her parents' death, Stony (Jada Pinkett Smith) has had to act as a parent to her little brother Stevie (Chaz Lamar Shepard). She works in various capacities to make a future for him at U.C.L.A. Cleo (Queen Latifah) is a butch lesbian who wants nothing more than to customize her classic car. Tisean (Kimberly Elise) is a painfully shy single mother to her son Jajuan, struggling to make ends meet. Frankie (Vivica A. Fox) is the stylish bank teller who gets fired in the opening scene and ends up working with the other three at a janitorial service owned by irritating boss Luther (Thomas Jefferson Byrd). With Frankie upset from her unjust firing, Stony angry from the wrongful killing of her brother, and Tisean losing her baby to the child protective services, the four friends are motivated to rob a bank themselves. Looking for thrills, Cleo gets some guns from Black Sam (Dr. Dre in a cameo role), and they pull off their first job without a hitch. Their success starts a trend and they rob other banks in the area, all the while being investigated by Detective Strode (John C. McGinley). In a romantic subplot, Stony finds romance with wealthy Harvard-educated Keith (Blair Underwood) before the violent chase-scene ending. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, (more)
This original HBO production documents, in dramatic form, the rivalry between Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson to see who would be the first African-American to play Major League Baseball. Paige (played by Delroy Lindo) and Gibson (Mykelti Williamson) are more aggressive about seizing the opportunity that arose in the mid-'40s with the death of baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who had publicly avowed that the color line in baseball would never be broken. Branch Rickey (Edward Herrmann), the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is the first to seize that opportunity, sending his scouts to check out all the stars of the Negro Leagues. He narrows his choice down to Robinson, in part because of Paige's age (he was around 40) and Gibson's health (he behaved erratically in public, though it rarely affected his game). Rickey was looking for a player with the talent to compete in the big leagues and the character not to allow the inevitable harassment that would come his way to get to him. Robinson was signed in October 1945 and made his big-league debut in April 1947. Paige made it to the big leagues in 1948; Gibson died at the age of 36 in 1947 of a brain tumor. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Delroy Lindo, Mykelti Williamson, (more)
The novel by John Katzenbach becomes this legal thriller starring Sean Connery as Harvard Law School professor Paul Armstrong. A legal expert whose days of trying cases are long behind him, Armstrong is moved by a plea he receives from a Florida death row inmate, Bobby Earl (Blair Underwood). It seems that the educated, upstanding Earl has been railroaded by an overeager sheriff (Laurence Fishburne) zealously trying to solve the kidnapping and murder of a little girl. Once Armstrong arrives in Florida, he is able to locate the murder weapon and cast doubt on Earl's innocence, even identifying a much more likely culprit in the homicidal genius Blair Sullivan (Ed Harris). All is not as it seems in the case of Bobby Earl, however, and Armstrong is going to end up regretting his interest in the case. Ruby Dee, Kate Capshaw, and Ned Beatty costar in this film from producer-turned-director Arne Glimcher. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, Laurence Fishburne, (more)
Originally made for television, this prison drama centers on a hard-core convict who for the past decade has been the king of the other prisoners. Just before he is to be paroled, a young inmate challenges him. This creates considerable tension until he learns that he and the youth are related by more than mere circumstance. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Writer, director, and star Mario Van Peebles tried to correct historical misconceptions about African-Americans on the frontier with this action-packed western that's also an homage to spaghetti Westerns. During the Spanish-American War, a squadron of black soldiers led by Jesse Lee (Van Peebles) is assigned a dangerous mission behind enemy lines in Cuba by evil Colonel Graham (Billy Zane). Joined by a white gambler, Little J (Stephen Baldwin), the troupe is to recover a chest of gold. Realizing that Graham will slaughter them once they've relinquished the booty, Lee and his men retrieve the chest, wound Graham, and head for home. Ambushed by Graham in New Orleans, the "posse" heads for Lee's hometown of Freemanville, a frontier settlement of ex-slaves. Years ago, Lee's minister father (Robert Hooks) was murdered there by Klansmen, and the gunslinger wants revenge. There's new trouble brewing in Freemanville, however. Sheriff Bates (Richard Jordan), top lawman in neighboring Cutterville, plans to wipe out Freemanville's citizens and sell their lucrative property to a railroad. Then there's Graham, still on Lee's trail. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mario Van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin, (more)
- 1991
Dwayne (Kadeem Hardison) is unpleasantly surprised when his friend Zellmer (Blair Underwood), an Army reservist, is called to active duty in the Persian Gulf. Nonetheless, Dwayne organizes a "guy's only" farewell party for his pal--which is memorably crashed by Whitley (Jasmine Guy), Jaleesa (Dawnn Lewis), and Kim (Charnele Brown), who perform "The Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy From Company B". Meanwhile, Freddie (Cree Summer) can barely say a word to Zellmer due to her opposition of the US' intervention in the Gulf. This episode was cowritten by series regulars Jasmine Guy and Dominic Hoffman (Julian Day). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Just released from a long prison stay, a man is thrown into fatherhood when he regains custody of the son he's never met. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Set during the Watts riots of the mid-'60s, the made-for-cable Heat Wave follows the story of Los Angeles Times reporter Robert Richardson (Blair Underwood), who was the only journalist on staff able to cover the story, since White reporters were unable to gain access to the area and the rioters. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Blair Underwood, Cicely Tyson, (more)
Made for television, Murder in Mississippi covers the same historical ground that was fictionalized in the theatrical film Mississippi Burning (89). The film recounts the murders by the Ku Klux Klan of three civil rights workers in 1964. Rather than detail the subsequent FBI investigation, the plotline follows the life of one of the white murder victims, Mickey Schwerner (Tom Hulce), who gave up a comfortable lifestyle in the North to struggle alongside African-American freedom fighters in the South. Jennifer Grey portrays Schwerner's wife, while Josh Charles and Blair Underwood portray the other two martyred activists, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney. Filmed in Georgia, Murder in Mississippi was produced by David L. Wolper of Roots fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Hulce, Blair Underwood, (more)
- 1989
Julia Duffy is the cover girl and Dinah Manoff the cop in this made-for-TV contrivance. When dim-witted model Duffy witnesses a murder, short-fused officer Manhoff is assigned to protect her. Would you be shocked if we informed you that the ladies drive each other crazy? But never fear: they forget their differences long enough to jointly nab the killer at the end. Filmed on location in Washington DC, Cover Girl and the Cop trounced in the ratings by the vastly superior The Ryan White Story when it first aired on January 16, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Denise (Lisa Bonet) and her friend Suzanne (played by Robin Givens in her pre-superstardom phase) use the Huxtable family as the subject of their school sociology project. Much to Denise's dismay, her brother Theo (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) falls in love with "older woman" Suzanne. Perhaps inevitably, Theo's heart is broken, whereupon Cliff (Bill Cosby) tries to cure his lovesick son--a noble effort that yields unexpected results. In addition to Robin Givens, this episode affords viewers a glimpse of a young Blair Underwood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In-between rappin' numbers by groups like Run-DMC and The Fat Boys, an almost unnoticeable plot unfolds as manager Russell (Blair Underwood) desperately looks for funding to press more records for Run-DMC's first hit. This gets him into deep water when he borrows from the wrong man and then is left behind after his performers hit the charts and are off on a better life. But all is not lost, after more rap and rock by everyone, the clan returns with salvation at hand. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Blair Underwood, Joseph Simmons, (more)
