Ken Howard Movies
Actor Ken Howard was 6'5" when he was a junior at Manhasset High School (he would later peak at 6'6"), and it was this physical fact, coupled with his remarkable athletic prowess, that assured him a position in Manhasset's "starting five." Offered several athletic scholarships, Howard turned them all down in favor of a liberal arts education at Amherst College, where he developed a taste for theatre. After two years' graduate work at the Yale School of Drama, he dropped out to accept a small role in the Broadway musical Promises Promises. In 1969, Howard graduated to stage stardom as Thomas Jefferson in the popular musical 1776, a role he would repeat in the 1972 film version. He went on to win a Tony Award for his performance in Child's Play, and to spend his summers essaying his two favorite roles, Billy Bigelow in Carousel and Chance Wayne in Sweet Bird of Youth. His first film was the 1970 Otto Preminger production Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon. In 1973, Howard and his frequent co-star Blythe Danner were cast in the series-TV version of the Tracy-Hepburn picture Adam's Rib (both stars had previously turned down MacMillan and Wife). Neither this series nor Howard's subsequent Manhunter (1974) clicked with the public. He was far more successful as high school basketball coach Ken Hughes on The White Shadow, which ran from 1976 to 1981 (and which, coincidentally, was produced by Blythe Danner's husband Bruce Paltrow). Howard's later TV projects included the title character in the 1984 American Playhouse production of Mark Twain's "Pudd'nhead Wilson;" the recurring role of Garret Boydston on both Dynasty and The Colbys (1985-86); his hosting chores on the syndicated 1986 talent show Dream Girl USA; and another hosting stint on the NBC documentary weekly What Happened? (1992). In recent years, Howard has taught college acting classes and worked as a drama coach when not busy elsewhere. He would go on to appear on shows like Crossing Jordan, Cane, and 30 Rock, as well as movies like The Beacon. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Acclaimed actor Leonardo DiCaprio stars in Academy Award-winning director Clint Eastwood's richly detailed biopic exploring the life and career of controversial FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. For nearly 50 years, Hoover (DiCaprio) fought crime as one of the most powerful law enforcers in America. During Hoover's extended stint as Director of the FBI, however, his penchant for bending the law in the name of seeking justice and using the secrets of high profile leaders to gain personal leverage won him just as many supporters as detractors. Little did many other than his loyal colleague Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer) and faithful secretary Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts) know, however, that Hoover himself was a man with many secrets to hide. Josh Lucas, Judi Dench, and Stephen Root co-star in film written by Oscar-winning Milk scribe Dustin Lance Black. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, (more)
Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange headline this fact-based drama centered on the two eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy-Onassis who served as the subject of David and Albert Maysles' similarly-titled 1975 documentary. Directed, produced, and co-written (along with Patricia Rozema) by Michael Sucsy, Grey Gardens tells the story of Big Edie (Lange) and Little Edie (Barrymore), the aunt and cousin of Kennedy-Onassis respectively. The reclusive socialites made headlines across the country when the health department threatened to raid their sprawling, flea-and-raccoon-infested twenty-eight room East Hampton, NY mansion in the early-1970s, prompting Kennedy-Onassis herself to intervene in an attempt to save the family name. Jane Tripplehorn stars as former first lady Kennedy-Onassis in a film also featuring Daniel Baldwin, Ken Howard, Malcolm Gets, and Ayre Gross. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Drew Barrymore, Jessica Lange, (more)
When a group of missionary aid workers in Myanmar disappear into the vast green inferno, vigilante Vietnam War veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) leaves his job as a Salween River boatman behind to accompany a group of mercenaries on a daring rescue mission. It's been 20 years since Rambo helped mujahedeen rebels fend off Soviet invaders in Afghanistan, and these days the former soldier lives a simple life in northern Thailand. Meanwhile, the world's longest-running civil war rages into its 60th year on the nearby Thai-Burma border. One day, human rights missionaries Sarah Miller (Julie Benz) and Michael Burnett (Paul Schulze) show up asking Rambo to guide them up the Salween so they can get some much-needed food and medical supplies to the desperate Karen tribe. According to Sarah and Michael, the Burmese military has planted land mines all along the roads leading into the tribe's village, making it virtually impossible to reach the tribe via land. Two weeks after Rambo drops the group off in dangerous territory, pastor Arthur Marsh (Ken Howard) arrives with a chilling message: the aid workers never returned from their mission into the jungle, and the embassies refuse to help Marsh and his fellow missionaries find their missing friends. Now, despite the fact that Rambo has long since sworn off all forms of violence, the knowledge that innocent missionaries are being used as pawns in a brutal war leaves him with no other choice than to venture behind enemy lines on his most dangerous mission to date. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, (more)
When an everyday thirtysomething is fired from his job, his unemployment woes are soon compounded as the ticking of his wife's maternal clock reaches a deafening pitch, and his overbearing mother announces plans to move in with the struggling couple. Dax Shepard, Liv Tyler, and Diane Keaton star in a film directed by Vince Di Meglio, co-scripted by Di Meglio and Tim Rasmussen, and produced by Rasmussen, Bill Johnson, and Jay Roach. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Dax Shepard, (more)
- 2008
As conceived, written, directed, and produced by Fred Ashman, this unabashedly patriotic, flag-waving film celebrates Americana and the elements of the United States that make it a unique and dynamic country -- from its ethnic, religious, and ideological tolerance to its peerless emphasis on educational opportunity. In addition to featuring picturesque American scenery and patriotic music on the soundtrack, the film interweaves five dramatic vignettes, each relaying the story of an extraordinary American citizen. The cast includes Marc McClure (Superman: The Movie), James B. Sikking (Made of Honor), Ken Howard (In Her Shoes), and Yakov Smirnoff (Brewster's Millions). ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Michael Clayton (George Clooney) handles all of the dirty work for a major New York law firm, arranging top-flight legal services and skirting through loopholes for ethically questionable clients. But when a fellow "fixer" decides to turn on the very firm they were hired to clean up for, Clayton finds himself at the center of a conspiratorial maelstrom. Once an ambitious D.A., Clayton is now a shell of his former dynamic self, thanks to a divorce, an unfortunate business venture, and astronomical debt. Though he longs to leave the cutthroat, ethically dubious world of corporate law behind, Clayton's poor financial situation and devotion to firm head Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack) leave him little choice but to remain on the job and tough it out. Meanwhile, litigator Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) finds her entire company's future hinging on the outcome of a multi-billion-dollar settlement overseen by Clayton's friend, star lawyer Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson). When Edens snaps and decides to blow the whistle on the questionable case, sabotaging the defense, Clayton must decide between his loyalty and his conscience. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, (more)
- 2005
- PG
- Add Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story to Queue Add Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story to top of Queue
A man and his young daughter face almost impossible odds as they struggle to help an injured horse return to the racetrack in this family-friendly drama. Ben Crane (Kurt Russell) is a horse trainer whose career has gone into a bit of a slump, and after years as his own boss, he's signed on to work for Palmer (David Morse), a breeder whose wealth and success has given him a certain degree of arrogance. While Ben has learned to keep his mouth shut around his boss, he forgets himself when one of his favorite horses, Sonador, breaks its leg during an important race. Palmer insists that the horse should be put down on the spot, but Ben doesn't have the heart to kill the animal, especially since his young daughter, Cale (Dakota Fanning), is in the stands watching. Ben and Palmer have harsh words with one another, and Ben is fired, but is allowed to take Sonador with him when he leaves. Ben has a hard time convincing anyone that the injured horse has any potential, especially his father, Pop (Kris Kristofferson), a fellow trainer who rarely sees eye to eye with his son. But Cale loves the horse, and Ben believes that Sonador can make a comeback with the right care, and together with stable men Balon (Luis Guzman) and Manolin (Freddy Rodriguez), he sets out to put the filly on the road to recovery. As its subtitle suggests, Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story was based on the story of Mariah's Storm, a filly who broke a leg during a race in 1993, but a year later came back to win the Arlington Heights Oaks, and in 1995 won the Turfway Breeder's Cup. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, (more)
Curtis Hanson's adaptation of Jennifer Weiner's novel In Her Shoes stars Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz as a pair of very close but very different sisters. Free-wheeling irresponsible Maggie Feller (Diaz) gets through her life thanks to her remarkable looks and her lack of scruples. She constantly goes to her straight-laced, plain-Jane successful lawyer sister Rose (Collette) for financial help. The two sisters have been very close to each other in part because their troubled mother died when they were girls. Right about the same time that Maggie discovers hidden letters that reveal she and Rose have a grandmother, Maggie does something to betray Rose's trust. Maggie sets off for Florida to find the grandmother. A failed workplace romance forces Rose to rethink her career, a career that has been the center of her life. As Rose tentatively begins a new relationship and Maggie gets to know her grandmother (played by Shirley MacLaine), the two learn a dark family secret that helps smooth the path toward reconciliation. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, (more)
- 2004
During rehearsals with David Schwimmer for The Producers, Larry (Larry David) finds out that Schwimmer's father runs the Health-Glo mixed nut company. Larry has some ideas for the company, but Schwimmer advises him to "stay in your element." Later, Larry goes out to get some snacks with Steve (Patrick Bristow), the choreographer, and comes across some Health-Glo cashew-raisin packages that are pretty skimpy with the cashews. Naturally, he has to say something to Schwimmer about it. When Larry describes an attractive woman as "fierce," Jeff (Jeff Garlin) suggests that Larry has been spending so much time working on the show that he's turned into Steve, the gay choreographer. Larry's dirty locker, his mistaking a Norwegian club employee, Sven (Erik Stolhanske) for a Swede, and some truly questionable behavior at Leo Funkhouser's funeral combine to get him and Jeff ousted from their country club. Larry and Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) pretend to be right-wing Republican WASPs in order to get into a new country club, with Larry claiming that his hobbies are sailing and polo. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
Jeannie Epper and Zoe Bell are two women who get hurt for a living -- they're Hollywood stuntwomen, who take the falls and dodge the punches while taking the place of glamorous stars. Epper's big break came when she was hired to stand in for Lynda Carter on the Wonder Woman television series in the 1970s, while Bell made a name for herself doing Lucy Lawless' stunt work for Xena: Warrior Princess. Double Dare is a documentary which looks at the lives and careers of these two women, as well as their friendship. Epper, in her early sixties, finds herself dealing with ageism in the entertainment industry, just as she's dealt with sexism much of her life, as she struggles to stay in the game, while Bell learns from her older friend not only the nuts and bolts of stunt work but the trails Epper and her compatriots had to blaze to be respected in their profession. Double Dare also features appearances by Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeannie Epper, Zoe Bell, (more)
This made-for-TV miniseries recounts the muddled criminal investigation of the JonBenet Ramsey murder -- one of the most luridly publicized crimes in recent memory. As the crime unfolds, the Boulder police squad grow increasingly swamped by the elusive details of the crime and the unprecedented media attention. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kris Kristofferson, Marg Helgenberger, (more)
- 1999
After Justice Joseph Crouch (Mason Adams) steps down from the Supreme Court, President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) questions his first choice to replace him, Peyton Cabot Harrison III (Ken Howard), when an old brief reveals he does not share the administration's position on privacy rights. Bartlett turns to controversial minority candidate Judge Roberto Mendoza (Edward James Olmos). As if this were not enough for the staff to deal with, a publicity-hound Congressman claims that one-third of the White House staff is on drugs, forcing the senior staff to consider instituting drug tests. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
New York architect Amy Benic (Mira Sorvino) meets blind masseur Virgil Adamson (Val Kilmer) and falls in love. As she learns his lifelong blindness may be curable through experimental surgery, she convinces him to undergo the operation. Virgil then learns vision may not quite be what he expected. At First Sight is directed by Irwin Winkler and also stars Bruce Davison, Nathan Lane, and Kelly McGillis. At First Sight is a romance adapted by writer Steve Levitt based upon the story To See and Not See from noted writer Dr. Oliver Sacks' collection, An Anthropologist on Mars. Dr. Sacks' work is also the basis for the Penny Marshall film Awakenings, starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams and the opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Michael Morris with music by Michael Nyman. In his original story, Dr. Sacks tells of receiving a call in October 1991 from a retired minister in the Midwest. His daughter was about to marry a fifty-year old man, Virgil, who had been blind since early childhood. He had thick cataracts and been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a disease which slowly eats away the retinas. As he could still make the distinction between light and dark, it was found he was misdiagnosed and simple cataract extraction could possibly restore his sight. While surgery was a success, Virgil, like his cinematic counterpart, found he would have to learn to use his vision much like an infant would, even though he was adept at relating to the world through touch. In his A New Theory of Vision, written in 1709, George Berkeley concluded there was no necessary connection between a tactile world and a sight world; a connection between them could be established only on the basis of experience. This same story was also adapted into the play Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel. ~ Ron Wells, Rovi
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Mira Sorvino, (more)
In this high-flying action thriller, an expert Air Force flyer finds himself forced to use every trick he has ever learned to stop a murderous, insane former colleague and friend from exacting deadly revenge upon him. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Robert Patrick, (more)
- 1997
Just before all three of them are to be wed to the men of their dreams, longtime friends Monique (Connie Sellecca, Eve (Twiggy) and Teri (Shawnee Smith) flying off to Australia for a pre-nuptual photo shoot. To fully appreciate the episodic events that follow, it should be noted that Monique is a magazine editor engaged to a control freak; Eve is a model whose trail is being dogged by a psychotic ex-suitor; and Teri is a bewitching lass who has not told her fiancé everything he should know about his past. Amidst a sea of romance-on-the-rebound, tense melodrama and deep dark secrets, the audience is afford a few islands of relief vis-à-vis the performance of Dina Merrill as Monique's ailing "old-money" mom. Adapted from the novel by Jillian Karr and Karen Katz,the made-for-TV Something Borrowed, Something Blue made its initial CBS network appearance on March 11, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Irwin Winkler's paranoid thriller focuses on a high-tech nightmare, as a computer programmer finds herself on the run from an unknown enemy dedicated to ruining her life by digital means. Sandra Bullock stars as Angela Bennett, a programmer who unwittingly comes into possession of software that allows access to secret government information. At first, she thinks little of it, heading off to Mexico on vacation. However, thanks to a series of odd events that culminates with the death of a close friend, Angela starts to suspect she may be in danger. This fear is confirmed when she returns to America to find that her identity has been erased, with police computers showing her as a wanted criminal. She soon realizes that a group of evil conspirators are after the program, and she sets out to clear her name and keep the program from falling into the wrong hands. The central concept later inspired a cable TV series. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam, (more)
- 1995
Kellie Martin stars as a teen wrongly accused of setting a deadly arson fire in this made-for-television drama. Martin plays Billie Calhoun, a girl who has been held in a juvenile detention facility since being accused of killing her mother and sister in a fire. Up for a possible early release on her 18th birthday, Billie is again denied her freedom. Steadfastly denying any involvement and determined to find out the truth on her own, Billie escapes from the center. Out on her own, she disguises herself and befriends a young cop named Matt Samoni (Antonio Sabato Jr), and together they set out to uncover the truth. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- 1995
Another Tom Clancy political thriller is put to film with this made-for-television movie. Harry Hamlin stars as Paul Hood, the new director of an obsolete government crisis management center. Hood is assigned to downsize the center, but during first day on the job some nuclear warheads are hijacked by terrorists. Hood has to rise to the occasion and prove himself as a leader in unfamiliar territory. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Harry Hamlin, Deidre Hall, (more)
- 1994
In Hawaii, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is the guest of Matt Kinkaid (Ken Howard), patriarch of a powerful and influential island family. At present, Kinkaid is supervising the political campaign of his son Jeff (Ted W. Henning) in an upcoming senatorial election. The younger Kinkaid's opponent obviously revels in "playing dirty"--and he's harboring a secret that threatens to tear the Kinkaid clan apart. Needless to say, murder is the logical extension of politics in this case. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
This is the third film based on Tom Clancy's high-tech espionage potboilers starring CIA deputy director Jack Ryan. Harrison Ford, returning to the Ryan role after his first go-round in 1992's Patriot Games, is assigned to a delicate anti-drug investigation after a close friend of the President (a Reaganesque Donald Moffat) is murdered by a Colombian drug cartel. When Ryan discovers that the President's wealthy friend was in league with the cartel, the President's devious national security adviser (Harris Yulin) and an ambitious CIA deputy director (Henry Czerny) send a secret paramilitary force into Colombia to wipe out the drug lords. The force is captured and then abandoned by the President's lackeys. It falls to Ryan to enter Colombia and rescue them, aided only by a renegade operative named Clark (Willem Dafoe), with both his life and career on the line. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, (more)
- 1993
Stefanie Powers and Robert Wagner return as the Harts, married private eyes who in this made-for-TV movie interrupt their carefree lives to investigate a group of corrupt government contractors. Lionel Stander also returns as their sidekick Max, with Mike Connors and Ken Howard as guest stars. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
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