Ron Silver Movies
Ron Silver was known for his extraordinary stage presence and high-energy portrayals of a variety of offbeat characters in films and on television. A native New Yorker, Silver studied Chinese at State University of New York at Buffalo and drama at the Herbert Berghof Studio and the Actors Studio. After receiving his bachelor's from S.U.N.Y., Silver earned a master's degree in Chinese history at the College of Chinese Culture in Taiwan and then returned to New York to study at the aforementioned acting studios. 1976 was a big year for Silver who debuted as a comedian in feature films (Tunnelvision), television (The Mac Davis Show), and theater (El Grande de Coca-Cola). He was also a regular cast member between 1976 and 1978 on the sitcom Rhoda, and then appeared in several made-for-television movies before appearing in Semi-Tough (1977). His feature film career picked up in the early '80s, but he did not get his first big break until he starred opposite Anne Bancroft in Sidney Lumet's Garbo Talks (1984). Silver earned critical acclaim in 1989 for starring in Philip Saville's Fellow Traveler as a Hollywood screenwriter forced to flee his family and friends to avoid getting blacklisted during the early '50s. That same year, Silver won a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for starring in David Mamet's Speed-The-Plow and scored a second film coup in Paul Mazursky's adaptation of author Isaac Bashevis Singer's Enemies, A Love Story. In the years to follow,, the busy Silver, who juggled his time between the three entertainment forms, became a respected mid-range star who could be counted on to deliver consistently strong, fine performances. As the '90s progressed, he moved into more lead roles playing everything from psychopaths (Blue Steel [1990]), senators (Time Cop [1994]), sleazy lawyers (in the TV medical drama Chicago Hope [1994- ]), and scientists (The Arrival [1996]). Silver died of esophageal cancer in 2009 at the age of 62. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Made for television, A Father's Revenge stars Brian Dennehy as a high school basketball coach. When terrorists pull off a political kidnapping in West Germany, Dennehy's stewardess wife Joanna Cassidy is among the hostages. Fed up with the apparent foot-dragging of the authorities, Dennehy takes personal action in effecting Joanna's rescue. He hires Ron Silver's band of mercenaries, then heads to Germany to bring back his wife himself. Credibility is stretched to the limit at times, but the three stars are at their peak. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Notoriously obsessive director Michael Mann and star Will Smith devoted nearly two years and over 100 million dollars from the coffers of Columbia Pictures and other financiers to creating this biography of boxing great Muhammad Ali, which focuses on the ten-year period of 1964-1974. In that time, the brash, motor-mouthed athlete quickly dominates his sport, meets and marries his first wife (Jada Pinkett-Smith), converts to Islam (changing his name from Cassius Clay), and defies the United States government by refusing to submit to military conscription for duty in Vietnam. His world heavyweight champion title thus stripped from him entirely for political reasons, the champ sets about to win back his crown, culminating in a legendary unification bout against George Foreman (Charles Shufford) in Zaire, dubbed the "Rumble in the Jungle." In his travels, Ali becomes a symbol of power to disenfranchised African-Americans everywhere and meets such luminaries as Malcolm X (Mario Van Peebles), Martin Luther King Jr. (LeVar Burton) and Maya Angelou (Martha Edgerton). Ali features an all-star supporting cast that includes Jon Voight, Giancarlo Esposito, Jamie Foxx, Nona Gaye, Michael Michele, Joe Morton, Paul Rodriguez, Ron Silver, Mykelti Williamson, and Jeffrey Wright. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, (more)
- 1995
Based on the book of the same name by Gwenda Blair, this made-for-cable drama chronicles the life and premature death of NBC anchorwoman Jessica Savitch. Sela Ward was nominated for an Emmy award for her portrayal of Savitch, the ambitious 1980s TV phenomenon, who rose to fame quickly despite her erratic and often out-of-control personal life. It took an on-air incident to bring down the facade hiding her drug and alcohol abuse -- -- and a mysterious car accident to end her life at age 36. Director Peter Werner and the film's producers were also nominated for Emmy awards that year, and Ward received a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Female Actor. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
The real-life drama of the 1994 O.J. Simpson trial is given quasi-fictional treatment in this two-part CBS miniseries, which aired in November 2000. Much of the miniseries' plot focuses on the battle of egos between defense lawyers Johnnie Cochran (Ving Rhames) and Robert Shapiro (Ron Silver) and how the personalities of these men in part shaped the outcome of the trial. Also included in the cast are Bruno Kirby and Christopher Plummer. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ving Rhames, Ron Silver, (more)
We'd rather not speculate over how much of Best Friends is autobiographical. We'll just note that this story of a male-female screenwriting team was written by real-life married scenarists Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin. Lovers as well as collaborators, scriveners Richard Babson (Burt Reynolds) and Paula McCullen (Goldie Hawn) decide to make their union legal. Predictably enough, they discover that their relationship goes straight downhill after they say "I do." The stars are far less interesting than the supporting cast, including Jessica Tandy and Barnard Hughes as Hawn's parents, Audra Lindley and Keenan Wynn as Reynolds' folks, Ron Silver as an avaricious producer (no names, please!), and Richard Libertini as a Mexican justice of the peace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Goldie Hawn, (more)
- 1978
The second TV-movie to bear the title Betrayal stars Lesley Ann Warren and Rip Torn. Warren plays Julie Roy, a sensitive young woman seeking solace through therapy. Torn co-stars as Julie's psychiatrist Dr. Hartogs. It turns out that the far-from-ethical Hartogs has a hidden agenda: while pretending to minister to Julie's needs, he inveigles her into a sexual relationship. First telecast November 13, 1978, Betrayal was based on an actual case and adapted from a book co-written by the real-life Julie Roy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Directed by Jan Egleson, Big Time follows a frustrated model (Mia Sara) through the ups and downs of the hectic and drug-addled late '80s fashion scene. The made-for-television feature also stars Ron Silver, Dennis Boutsikaris, and Adrian Pasdar, and is based on a play written by Keith Reddin. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mia Sara, Dennis Boutsikaris, (more)
Billionaire Boys Club is the two-part TV adaptation of a book by Sue Horton (unpublished at the time of the film's first telecast). In flashback form, the story recounts the murder of Beverly Hills con artist Ron Levin (Ron Silver). The culprit is yuppie Joe Hunt (Judd Nelson), a sharp young commodities trader who has organized an investment firm with several of his prep school buddies, known as the Billionaire Boys Club. Part one, originally telecast November 8, 1987, traces Hunt's meteoric rise to wealth and power, and the means by which Levin worms his way into Hunt's confidence. In part two, shown the next evening, Hunt has already murdered Levin and carefully disposed of the body. The next step of the scheme is take over where Levin left off by conning an Iranian millionaire out of a huge sum of money. Meanwhile, other members of the Club begin to have qualms over Hunt's finagling. Their whistle-blowing leads to Hunt's arrest and convinction for murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judd Nelson, Ron Silver, (more)
The inner workings of the New York hip-hop scene, and the fascination of white observers with rap music and hip-hop culture, set the stage for this drama written and directed by James Toback. Rich Bower (Power) is a mover and shaker in the world of rap music (he's involved with a number of other licit and illicit business ventures as well), and his apartment is a favored meeting place for musicians, hangers-on, and hipsters who want to seem cool, including a clique of white kids who want to be on the inside of whey they consider the coolest scene of the day. Sam (Brooke Shields), a filmmaker, is making a documentary about Rich and his circle, with the help of her husband Terry (Robert Downey Jr.), a closeted homosexual who doesn't feel at home in this milieu. Dean (Allan Houston) is a talented college basketball player and Rich's friend since childhood who is offered a deal by a bookmaker, Mark (Ben Stiller) to throw a few games for a price. Dean takes the money against his better judgment, and he soon realizes how much of a mistake he made when Mark turns out to be a cop hoping to dig up dirt on Rich. Rich in turn discovers that Dean might be forced to tell what he knows to stay out of jail, and he decides that Dean has to be killed; however, rather than murder his friend himself, Rich asks one of the white kids who hangs out with him, who seems especially eager to prove himself, to do it for him. The kid, however, is actually the son of the District Attorney. Also contributing to Black and White's supporting cast are controversial boxing legend Mike Tyson, musician Bijou Phillips, Wu Tang Clan rapper Raekwon, model Claudia Schiffer, and Donald Trump's former spouse Marla Maples. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Caan, Robert Downey, Jr., (more)
Featuring plenty of action and erotic romance, this direct-to-video police drama centers on the relationship that develops between a rookie and his new partner (Gina Gershon), a beautiful, experienced maverick cop, as they embark upon a desperate search for the psycho who, dressed as a police officer, has gone on a terrifying killing spree. The duo arrest several suspects, but each one later turns up dead. When the veteran cop is accused of the crimes, it threatens not only her livelihood but also her newly established personal and professional relationship with her partner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gina Gershon, Alison Eastwood, (more)
A couple returns home from Mexico where they accidentally killed a cop on a highway and proceeded to flee the scene. Before long, however, they are confronted by an intimidating but charismatic man who mysteriously pops up--and who knows all about the incident in Mexico. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Rebecca De Mornay, (more)
Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a rookie cop who witnesses a robbery in progress on her first night on the job. With her more experienced partner using the men's room, Megan decides to take action on her own. She creeps into the supermarket where a man (Tom Sizemore in a small role) is holding the clerk at gunpoint. Megan gets close enough to shoot the gunman, and calls out for him to drop his weapon. He spins the gun toward her, and she unloads her service revolver into his chest. His gun goes flying, and a bystander, Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver), surreptitiously picks it up and takes it home. Megan's superiors, unable to confirm that the man she shot was armed, suspend her. Eugene, a wealthy commodities broker, becomes obsessed with Megan. He sets up an "accidental" meeting between them and begins dating her, romancing her with fancy restaurants and helicopter rides over Manhattan. He also carves her name into the bullets he uses to gun down strangers in the street. A tough homicide detective, Nick Mann (Clancy Brown of The Shawshank Redemption), gets Megan's gun and badge back so she can help him track down the psycho killer. Eventually, Megan realizes that Eugene is the killer, but he uses his money and influence to elude the law, and he starts coming after Megan's friends and family. Megan's determination to bring Eugene to justice quickly becomes a very personal obsession. This intense cop drama, Blue Steel, was director Kathryn Bigelow's major studio follow-up to her well-received indie vampire flick, Near Dark. Bigelow co-wrote both films with Eric Red (The Hitcher). ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver, (more)
- 2005
- Add Broken Promises: The United Nations at 60 to QueueAdd Broken Promises: The United Nations at 60 to top of Queue
As the sixtieth session of the United Nations General Assembly gets underway in with a three day summit focusing on institutional reform, filmmakers use the rare opportunity to address the many failings of the long-running organization and question it's validity in a world that is radically different than it was when the UN was originally founded in 1945. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Vic Cooper (Stephen Baldwin) is an undercover agent with U.S. Customs who is dedicated to his job, but has a bad habit of getting too close to his adversaries for his own good. Back on the force after a suspension, Cooper is assigned to infiltrate a group of nomadic sky-diving enthusiasts led by Red Line (Tom Berenger), who are believed to be smuggling drugs to support their lifestyle. Red Line and the other members of his group call themselves "cut aways" -- people who have cut their ties with conventional society to feed their appetite for the adrenaline rush of sky-diving full time. Cooper impresses Red Line and his second-in-command, Turbo (Dennis Rodman), with his sky-diving skills, and he's soon invited to join the group. But true to form, as Cooper develops a closer friendship with Red Line, he finds it harder to report his wrongdoings, and Cooper doesn't do himself any more favors when he becomes romantically involved with Star (Maxine Bahns), a beautiful female diver. Cutaway also features Casper Van Dien as Red Line's nemesis Delmira. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Stephen Baldwin, (more)
- 1996
- R
In this action drama, an American mining engineer is deceived into returning to a civil-war-torn East African nation and forced into finding a missing plutonium shipment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Zane, Robert Downey, Jr., (more)
- 1996
- R
Starring martial artist Jeff Speakman as Special Operations officer Dutton Hatfield, this highly derivative actioner follows his predictably exciting adventures while on assignment at the U.S. embassy in Israel. His mission is to guard a few American dignitaries as they visit a chemical weapons research center. He doesn't know that the VIPs are really enemy dupes endeavoring to take over the plant and control the deadliest toxin on the planet. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Speakman, Ron Silver, (more)
- 1986
- R
It is best not to suggest to the 500-pound, plaid-suited, humanoid alien Murray the Creature that he eat Italian for dinner because he is sure to take you literally as can soon be seen in this sci-fi parody. Before the film is through, Murray the meat-eater will have consumed 35 Italian residents of New York's little Italy. Investigating their bizarre disappearances is an Irish cop, who discovers their awful fate while waiting for a pizza in an Italian restaurant. Later he tries to get his superiors to believe his story, but of course they don't and the cop is left with no alternative but to try and dispatch Murray by himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Silver, Sharon Schlarth, (more)
Ron Silver stars as Herman, a Holocaust survivor who believes that his wife Tamara (Anjelica Huston) perished in the concentration camps. He marries fellow immigrant Yadwiga (Margaret Sophie Stein), whose family sheltered him from the Nazis, and resettles in the Coney Island area of New York. Not all that devoted to Yadwiga, Herman begins an affair with Masha (Lena Olin), who becomes pregnant by him. Reasoning that, since Yadwiga is a gentile, his marriage is not legal in the eyes of his religion, Herman marries Masha as well. The triangle metamorphoses into a quadrangle when Tamara, who was not killed after all, reappears. Olin and Huston were both nominated for Best Supporting Actress Academy Awards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Silver, Anjelica Huston, (more)
- 2000
A man with an eye for beauty finds himself confronting the face of death in this thriller. Gary Whitford (Ron Silver) is a successful photographer who shoots centerfolds for an upscale men's magazine. Gary's wife died under mysterious circumstances, and he hasn't been able to get her out of his mind. One night, Gary discovers a woman named Elaine near the boathouse at his beachfront home; she's confused and looks badly beaten, and Elaine tells Gary she's been roughed up by her abusive boyfriend. Gary takes her in and gives her a place to stay while she heals. Noticing Elaine's natural beauty, Gary proposes taking some pictures of her, and before long he's transformed Elaine into a glamour girl with an international following. But after Elaine turns up dead, Gary begins to wonder if something is happening to him -- especially after he becomes the prime suspect in her murder. Exposed also stars former Baywatch star Alexandra Paul. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Silver, Alexandra Paul, (more)
- 1989
Filmed in Britain, Fellow Traveller is set during the waning days of Hollywood's Communist "witchhunt". The film begins with the suicide of "unfriendly" movie star Hart Bochner; we then briefly flash back to the friendship between Bochner and his close friend, blacklisted writer Ron Silver. Working pseudonymously in England, Silver seeks out the late Bochner's girl friend Imogen Stubbs, who has not renounced her leftist views. He has an affair with Imogen, and through her regains his commitment to his own political preferences. Incidentally, the TV series for which Silver writes in Fellow Traveller is the popular The Adventures of Robin Hood, which actually did hire blacklistees in the mid-1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Silver, Hart Bochner, (more)
The romance, intrigue, and industry politics of the world's biggest film festival -- which is also the world's biggest film marketplace -- provides the backdrop for this typically understated comedy-drama from director Henry Jaglom. Alice Palmer (Greta Scacchi) is a well-known American actress who has written a screenplay that she'd like to direct, and she arrives a the Cannes Film Festival to look for investors. Alice has her eyes on veteran star Millie Marquand (Anouk Aimee) to play the lead, but while Millie loves the script, she's been offered a better-paying supporting role in an upcoming Tom Hanks project. Meanwhile, Millie's former husband Viktor Kovner (Maximilian Schell) is a director fallen on hard times who is trying to scare up financing for his own film. Producer Rick Yorkin (Ron Silver) wouldn't mind leaving Millie in the lurch if it meant landing Alice for his next project. Kaz (Zack Norman) is a less-than-scrupulous producer hoping to put some sort of package deal together. And Blue (Jenny Gabrielle) is a young woman whose shoestring budget independent film has become an unexpected smash hit. Shot in the midst of the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, Festival In Cannes features cameos from such stars as Jeff Goldblum, Holly Hunter, Faye Dunnaway, and William Shatner. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jenny Gabrielle, Greta Scacchi, (more)
A wise guy turns his own trial upside down by serving as his own lawyer in this comedy drama based on a true story. In 1987, an extensive investigation into the activities of the Lucchese crime family led to charges being filed against most of the key members of the gang, leading to the prosecution of 20 different men, each represented by their own council. That is, except for Giacomo DiNorscio, aka Jackie Dee (Vin Diesel), a longtime Lucchese family "mechanic" implicated in everything from kidnapping to drug dealing. While Jackie Dee is obviously a common criminal and guilty of all he's charged with, he also has a fierce sense of loyalty to his colleagues, despite the fact his cousin Tony Companga (Raul Esparza) previously tried to kill him out of fear he might talk. Sean Kierney (Linus Roache), the prosecutor tackling the Lucchese Family case, tries repeatedly to persuade Jackie Dee to testify against his partners in exchange for leniency, but he stubbornly refuses. Tired of the way things are being handled, Jackie Dee informs family attorney Ben Klandis (Peter Dinklage) that he intends to represent himself in court; this seemingly suicidal move turns into an unexpected success as Jackie Dee's sense of humor and streetwise charm has a remarkable impact on the judge and jury. Find Me Guilty also stars Ron Silver, Alex Rocco, and Annabella Sciorra. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, (more)
- 1990
Forgotten Prisoners: The Amnesty Files stars Ron Silver as a lawyer for Amnesty International. Despite governmental indifference, Silver insists upon investigating human rights violations in Turkey. Appalled by the shocking conditions in Turkish prisons, the lawyer dedicates himself to seeing that justice is truly done. The film steadfastly avoids sentimentalizing the issue, or shying away from the more repellant elements of the story. Critical reaction towards this made-for-cable film was split: some found it profoundly moving, others dismissed it as pretentious and self-congratulatory. Forgotten Prisoners first aired November 19, 1990, over the TNT Cable Network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
