G.W. Bailey Movies
Though he would return to higher education nearly three decades later, Texas native G.W. Bailey left college and spent the mid-'60s working at local theater companies. Determined to establish an acting career for himself, a young Bailey moved to California in the 1970s and worked in a variety of settings. From appearances on television's Starsky and Hutch and Charlie's Angels to stage... (read more) productions of Shakespearian classics, Bailey, despite his lack of professional experience, proved a surprisingly versatile actor. He did not, however, attain significant mainstream recognition until 1981, when he was cast as pool-hall con artist Private Rizzo in CBS's long-running series M*A*S*H. The exposure led to five large supporting roles on a variety of feature-length television dramas, and ultimately, a very different type of performance all together: that of the imposing yet incompetent Lieutenant Harris in the lowbrow cop comedy Police Academy (1984). His Police Academy role was reprised as sequels were churned out in rapid succession, and he was cast as a similarly inept authority figure in 1987's Mannequin.
Though the 1980s found Bailey immersed in fairly unmemorable film roles (mainly comedies and dark thrillers), he was able to forge a more than respectable resumé in the realm of television movies, including the popular Murder in Texas (NBC, 1981), On Our Way (CBS, 1985), Spy Games (ABC, 1991), and Dead Before Dawn (ABC, 1993). His television roles offered a G.W. Bailey quite unlike Lieutenant Harris, and he was able to develop a following and a steady reputation as a supporting actor. Eventually, he was able to add "college graduate" to his list of accomplishments, as his mid-'90s stint at Southwest Texas State University proved successful as well. In 2004, Bailey lent his vocal chords to Disney's animated musical Western Home on the Range.
He was cast as Lt. Provenza on The Closer, a show that would be for a time the highest rated scripted program on basic cable, and he would stay on the show for its entire run. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
The Closer: Season 06
2010
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The Closer: Season 04
2008
The crime drama's fourth season continues to track detective Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) as she utilizes her sly interrogation techniques to close L.A.-area crimes...
The Closer: Season 03
2007
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The Closer: Season 02
2006
Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick), head of the LAPD's Priority Homicide Division, continues to cope with high-profile murders, higher-profile suspects, and the downright hostility...
The Closer: Season 01
2005
No sooner has transplanted Atlantan Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) arrived in Los Angeles to assume her duties as deputy police chief of the LAPD's Priority Homicide Division...
The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story
PG13 2004
On December 24, 2002, a woman named Laci Peterson, eight months pregnant at the time, was reported missing to police in a suburban California community. Laci's husband,...
Home on the Range
PG 2004
Disney presents the animated musical Western Home on the Range, featuring an original musical score by Alan Menken. The Little Piece of Heaven family farm is about to...
The Thin Blue Lie
R 2000
Rob Morrow stars as investigating journalist Jonathan Neumann in this drama about police corruption in 1970s Philadelphia. When Neumann takes over the court beat for the...
Jesus
2000
He was a poor carpenter who never traveled further than 50 miles from his home and died at the age of 33, but his teachings changed the world and he's still followed by hundreds...
Seduction in a Small Town
1997
Small-town housewife Sarah Jenks (Melissa Gilbert) would hardly qualify as the most popular woman in her community: She constantly speaks her mind, contemptuously disdains...
The Siege at Ruby Ridge
1996
The tragic story of the Ruby Ridge "massacre" has been so thoroughly covered and disseminated by the mainstream press that to add anything here would be pointless. Suffice to say...
Murder, She Wrote: Big Easy Murder
1995
While researching a novel, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) pays a return visit to New Orleans. Before long, she is enmeshed in a murder investigation, this one stemming from the...
Police Academy: Mission to Moscow
PG 1994
In a major stumbling block toward better international relations, America's most laughable police officers are sent to Russia to fight crime in this comedy. In Moscow, master...
Dead Before Dawn
1993
In the tradition of such woman-in-jeopardy nail-biters as Extremities and Sleeping With the Enemy comes the ABC made-for-television pic Dead Before Dawn, starring...
No Child of Mine
1993
In this made-for-television drama a young mother finds herself unable to cope with her daughter's handicap and so puts her up for adoption. When her mother finds out, she launches...
An American Story
1992
This fact-based drama centers on a sextet of WW II soldiers who are hailed as heroes upon their return to their hometown in Texas. Trouble follows when the vets unite to overthrow...
Bed of Lies
1992
When a poor waitress shoots her abusive husband, she is forced to battle the courts for custody of her children while waiting for a verdict on her trial for murder of her husband....
Double-Crossed
1991
Based on the true-life adventures of the late Drug Enforcement Agency spy Barry Seal, this exciting espionage adventure chronicles the events that lead up to his death in 1984....
Held Hostage: The Sis and Jerry Levin Story
1991
Marlo Thomas stars as Lucille "Sis" Levin, whose husband Jerry (David Dukes) is an American TV journalist assigned to Beirut in 1984. Jerry is kidnapped by Muslim...
Write to Kill
R 1991
In this thriller, Jamie Sanford (Chris Mulkey) is murdered by a group of counterfeiters when he attempts to expose them in order to secure an early parole. However, when...