Bill DukeFilmography

Born:: February 26, 1943 in Poughkeepsie, NY
Occupation:: Actor, Director
Biography:: Although many would likely recognize Bill Duke from his roles in such high-profile releases as Predator, Menace II Society, and Red Dragon, perhaps only a few connect the face in front of the camera with the name of the man who also directed such features as A Rage in Harlem and Hoodlum. A native...Read More

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Not Easily Broken

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Morris Chestnut, Taraji P. Henson, Maeve Quinlan, Jenifer Lewis, Kevin Hart, Wood Harris, Eddie Cibrian

Synopsis: Director Bill Duke steps behind the camera for this adaptation of the T.D. Jakes novel concerning a newly married couple that finds their union threatened by pressures involving faith, family, and finances. As the couple exchanges their vows, the minister lays a cord around them while uttering the Read More

1/9/09
The Go-Getter

Actors: Lou Taylor Pucci, Zooey Deschanel, Jena Malone, William Lee Scott, Nick Offerman

Synopsis: For the follow-up to his feature debut, 1999's The Big Split, filmmaker Martin Hynes took on this bittersweet road movie about a teenager responding to the untimely death of his mother. Overcome with grief that he's unequipped to deal with, Mercer (Lou Taylor Pucci) decides to steal a car and hit Read More

6/6/08
Cover

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Louis Gossett, Jr., Vivica A. Fox, Aunjanue Ellis, Razaaq Adoti

Synopsis: A woman accused could be either a killer or a victim in this psychological drama from director Bill Duke. Valerie Maas (Aunjanue Ellis) is a God-fearing housewife and artist who one day finds herself in a situation she never imaged possible -- being questioned on murder charges by no-nonsense Read More

2/22/08
Yellow

Actors: Roselyn Sanchez, D.B. Sweeney, Bill Duke, Manny Perez, Jaime Tirelli

Synopsis: The follow-up to his feature debut, director Alfred De Villa's Yellow is drama starring Roselyn Sanchez as Amaryllis, an aspiring dancer trying to make it in New York City. After her father unexpectedly commits suicide, Amaryllis leaves her native Puerto Rico for the Big Apple with dreams of Read More

6/22/07
X-Men: The Last Stand

Actors: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin

Synopsis: The explosive X-Men motion picture trilogy officially draws to a close with this release that finds Rush Hour director Brett Ratner stepping in for Bryan Singer to tell the tale of a newly discovered mutant "cure," and the polarizing effect it has on mutant/man relations. With the pressure on Read More

5/24/06
The Pact

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Dr. Sampson Davis, Dr. George Jenkins, Dr. Rameck Hunt

Synopsis: Andrea Kalin's documentary The Pact relays the inspiring account of three young African American men from the inner-city projects - Rameck Hunt, George Jenkins and Sampson Davis - who vowed to collectively resist the crime, poverty and drug trade that claimed the lives of so many in the Read More

2006
Battlestar Galactica: Black Market

Synopsis: Lee is appointed to investigate a black-market operation within the fleet after the Pegasus commander is found murdered in his quarters with a cache of cigarettes, liquor and jewelry. ~ Michael Chant, All Movie Guide Read More

2006
Prince Among Slaves

Crew: Director

Actors: Mos Def

2006
Payback: Straight Up

Actors: Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, Deborah Kara Unger, David Paymer

Synopsis: Seven years after seeing his original vision butchered under studio interference as well as his star's, director Brian Helgeland finally was given the chance to piece together his director's cut under the name Payback: Straight Up. Along with reinstating the original third act, this version Read More

2006
Get Rich or Die Tryin'

Actors: Marc John Jefferies, Viola Davis, Joy Bryant, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson

Synopsis: Hip-hop star 50 Cent makes his movie debut in this hard-edged urban drama inspired by the rapper's own life. Marcus (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, aka 50 Cent) grew up in a tough New York neighborhood and was left to fend for himself after the death of his mother when he was a kid. Marcus fell in with Read More

11/9/05
Miracle's Boys

Crew: Director

Actors: Sean Nelson, Pooch Hall, Julito McCullum

Synopsis: Miracle's Boys tells the tale of African-American brothers who must survive many daily stresses by trusting, relying on, and loving each other. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide Read More

2005
National Security

Actors: Martin Lawrence, Steve Zahn, Colm Feore, Bill Duke, Eric Roberts, Timothy Busfield, Robinne Lee, Joe Flaherty

Synopsis: Adversaries become wary allies in this free-wheeling action comedy. Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) is a Los Angeles Police Department officer who finds himself out of a job after he becomes involved in a violent altercation with police academy flunk-out Earl Montgomery (Martin Lawrence), escalating Read More

1/17/03
American Experience: Partners of the Heart

Crew: Director

Actors: Beau James, Chris Haley, Jane Leuders, Morgan Freeman, Courtney Vance

Synopsis: This 60-minute entry in the PBS American Experience anthology chronicles the unorthodox medical partnership between Alfred Blalock, chief of surgery at Johns Hopkins, and Vivien Thomas, a black man with little more than a high school education. When Thomas applied for a janitorial post at Johns Read More

2003
Deacons for Defense

Crew: Director

Actors: Forest Whitaker, Jonathan Silverman, Ossie Davis, Paul Benjamin

Synopsis: Inspired by a true story, this made-for-cable drama is set in 1965, not long after passage of the Civil Rights Act. To the African-American citizens of Bogalusa, LA, however, it is "business as usual"; they are still treated like third-class citizens, their fundamental rights as human beings Read More

2003
Paper Chasers

Synopsis: A film crew sets out on a journey across the country to discover how money is made in the world of hip-hop. Director Maxie Collier takes us inside the process as he selects his Paperchasers crew and travels across the United States, interviewing people making a living off hip-hop, from street Read More

2003
Karen Sisco [TV Series]

Actors: Carla Gugino, Robert Forster, Bill Duke, Patrick Dempsey, Benito Martinez

Synopsis: The ABC cop series Karen Sisco was based on characters created by novelist Elmore Leonard, as visualized in Steven Soderbergh's 1998 theatrical feature Out of Sight. In the role originated on film by Jennifer Lopez, Carla Gugino starred as Karen Sisco, one of the toughest (and certainly the Read More

2003
Red Dragon

Actors: Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Synopsis: Following the phenomenal success of The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, Anthony Hopkins returns as brilliant madman Hannibal Lecter in this thriller based on the novel in which author Thomas Harris introduced the character. Will Graham (Edward Norton) is an FBI agent with a rare gift for Read More

10/4/02
Never Again

Actors: Jeffrey Tambor, Jill Clayburgh, Michael McKean, Caroline Aaron, Sandy Duncan

Synopsis: Two singles in their early fifties who are convinced love has passed them by find each other -- and then try to figure out what to do next -- in this romantic comedy. Grace Minor (Jill Clayburgh) is a social worker whose personal life has hit the skids. Prompted by her friends Natasha (Sandy Duncan Read More

7/12/02
Book of Love

Actors: Eric K. George, Salli Richardson, Anthony "Treach" Criss, Mari Morrow, Richard T. Jones

Synopsis: Subtitled "The Definitive Reason Why Men Are Dogs", Book of Love is a mockumentary following the lives of three L.A. bachelors (Eric K. George, Anthony "Treach" Criss, and (Richard T. Jones) as they recover from a series of unhealthy relationships. The team of average Joes are no match for their Read More

2002
Exit Wounds

Actors: Steven Seagal, DMX, Isaiah Washington, Anthony Anderson, Michael Jai White, Jill Hennessy

Synopsis: Returning to his action feature terrain after a short hiatus, Steven Seagal plays Orin Boyd, a maverick Detroit detective with an unconventional way of taking down foes. After a failed intervention in a terrorist kidnapping case that humiliates his superiors, Boyd -- who is hailed as a top-drawer Read More

3/16/01
Fever

Actors: Henry Thomas, David Patrick O'Hara, Bill Duke, Teri Hatcher, Sandor Tecsy

Synopsis: An alienated young man begins to question his own sanity in the wake of a horrible crime in the psychological thriller Fever. Nick Parker (Henry Thomas) is an aspiring artist who spends his evenings working on paintings and teaches art at the local YMCA to make ends meet. Nick has an apartment in Read More

2/2/01
Echo of Murder

Actors: James Belushi, Gregory Hines

Synopsis: Between 1979 and 1981, 29 African-American children were murdered in Atlanta, GA, leading to a statewide manhunt to find the killer and a considerable outcry from a frightened public. Authorities eventually pinned the child killings on one Wayne Williams, who had been charged with two related Read More

2000
Nero Wolfe: The Golden Spiders

Crew: Director

Actors: Timothy Hutton, Maury Chaykin, Bill Smitrovich, Saul Rubinek, Mimi Kuzyk

Synopsis: Nero Wolfe (Maury Chaykin) is the world's greatest detective, and like any genius, he has his share of idiosyncrasies -- he loves orchids with an unnatural passion, he weighs a seventh of a ton, and--oh yeah--he never leaves his New York brownstone. Instead, he is aided by an army of foot soldiers Read More

2000
The Limey

Actors: Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzman, Barry Newman, Nicky Katt

Synopsis: Two actors best known for their work in the late 1960s, Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda, star in The Limey, a drama in which a recently released felon contemplates the gulf between aging criminals like himself and their modern counterparts. Wilson (Stamp) is a British career criminal who has been Read More

10/8/99
Payback

Actors: James Coburn, Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, Deborah Kara Unger, David Paymer

Synopsis: Porter (Mel Gibson) is pulled into a heist by his old friend, Val (Brian De Palma regular, Gregg Henry). As they're stealing $130,000 in laundered drug money from Chinese Triads, no one is going to call the police. Everything goes smoothly until Porter's wife, Lynn (Deborah Kara Unger), shoots Read More

2/5/99
Foolish

Actors: Eddie Griffin, Master P, Amy Petersen, Frank Sivero, Daphnee Lynn Duplaix

Synopsis: Rap music star and No Limit Records boss Master P, after a series of successful straight-to-video features and one theatrical release, I Got The Hook-Up, made a bid for wider big-screen success with Foolish, which teamed him with comedian Eddie Griffin. "Fifty Dollah" Waise (Master P) is involved Read More

1999
Always Outnumbered

Actors: Laurence Fishburne, Bill Cobbs, Natalie Cole, Bill Duke, Laurie Metcalf

Synopsis: Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist) directed this Walter Mosley script adaptation of Mosley's short story collection, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. Ex-con Socrates Fortlow (Laurence Fishburne) returns to L.A., looks for work, becomes friends with Right Burke (Bill Cobbs), is told he's too Read More

1998
Biography: Nat King Cole - Loved in Return

Synopsis: Part of the Biography television series from A&E, this documentary reviews the career and personal life of singer Nat King Cole. Nat took to the piano and could play anything from Bach to Rachmaninoff by the time he was a teenager. In 1937, he debuted his soon-to-be-famous breathy singing style. Read More

1997
Hoodlum

Crew: Director, Executive Producer

Actors: Laurence Fishburne, Tim Roth, Vanessa Williams, Andy Garcia, Cicely Tyson

Synopsis: The white-run Mafia and the black-run numbers game meet head on with explosive impact in this period crime thriller. Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) is an African-American ex-con who, after a stay in prison, returns to Harlem at the height of its renaissance before World War II. Read More

1997
The Cemetery Club

Crew: Director

Actors: Ellen Burstyn, Olympia Dukakis, Danny Aiello, Diane Ladd, Lainie Kazan

Synopsis: Based on the play by Ivan Menchell, this drama concerns three friends, Doris (Olympia Dukakis), Lucille (Diane Ladd), and Esther (Ellen Burstyn). All three live in the same Jewish community in Pittsburgh, are in their mid-to-late 50s, and have become widows within the past few months. Once a week Read More

1993
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit

Crew: Director

Actors: Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimy, Barnard Hughes, Mary Wickes, James Coburn, Michael Jeter

Synopsis: In the sequel to the hit comedy Sister Act, Whoopie Goldberg reprises her role of Deloris Van Cartier, a Las Vegas entertainer who hid out with in a convent of nuns to avoid a nasty bunch of gangsters. In Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Deloris is persuaded to return to the convent by the Mother Read More

1993
Menace II Society

Actors: Tyrin Turner, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vonte Sweet, Larenz Tate

Synopsis: This debut offering from twin brothers Albert and Allen Hughes was one of the most critically-acclaimed urban crime films to appear in the wake of John Singleton's influential Boyz N the Hood. Set in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, the film is narrated by 18-year-old Caine (Tyrin Turner) Read More

1993
Deep Cover

Crew: Director

Actors: Laurence Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, Victoria Dillard, Charles Martin Smith, Gregory Sierra

Synopsis: Laurence Fishburne plays no-nonsense LAPD narc Russell Stevens, Jr., who has worked all his life to expunge the memory of his dope-addict father, whom he saw die in a liquor-store robbery. DEA agent Jerry Carver (Charles Martin Smith) orders Stevens to work as an undercover operative on a major Read More

4/15/92
A Rage in Harlem

Crew: Director

Actors: Forest Whitaker, Gregory Hines, Robin Givens, Zakes Mokae, Danny Glover

Synopsis: Bill Duke directs this quirky film adaptation of Chester Himes' crime novel -- a heavily plotted gangster tale with a sweet love story hidden underneath. The film begins in Natchez, Mississippi in 1956. During a police shoot-out with the mob leader Slim's (Badja Djola) gang, Slim's moll Imabelle (Robin Givens Read More

5/3/91
Bird on a Wire

Actors: Mel Gibson, Goldie Hawn, David Carradine, Jeff Corey, Bill Duke, Stephen Tobolowsky

Synopsis: The can't-miss teaming of Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn is squandered on a clumsy, illogical romantic melodrama. Running across her old boyfriend Gibson at a Wisconsin gas station, Hawn is astounded that he seems not to recognize her. How could she have known that Gibson was put into the Witness Read More

5/18/90
Street of No Return

Actors: Keith Carradine, Valentina Vargas, Bill Duke, Andréa Ferréol, Bernard Fresson

Synopsis: Sam Fuller's last film as a director, made during his self-imposed European exile, stars Keith Carradine as once glamorous pop singer Michael, who has been reduced to a grizzled street bum scavenging for booze and food. The cause of his downfall was his affair with the beautiful Celia (Valentina Vargas Read More

1989
A Raisin in the Sun

Crew: Director

Actors: Esther Rolle, Danny Glover

Synopsis: Raisin in the Sun is a 1989 TV adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 Broadway play (previously filmed in 1962). An African-American family hopes to use a $10,000 legacy left them by the family's late father to move out of the Chicago projects and into a white neighborhood. Spearheading the move Read More

1989
Action Jackson

Actors: Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone, Thomas F. Wilson

Synopsis: Ex-football player Carl Weathers stars in this violent action film as Detroit policeman Jericho Jackson. The dedicated but brutal cop is plunged into nefarious doings concerning a crooked industrialist (Craig T. Nelson) and his drug-addicted girlfriend (pop-singer Vanity), breaking many people's Read More

2/12/88
No Man's Land

Actors: Charlie Sheen, D.B. Sweeney, Randy Quaid, Lara Harris, Bill Duke

Synopsis: Benjy Taylor (D.B. Sweeney) is a rookie cop who goes undercover to nab a gang of car thieves in this routine crime drama. Taylor salivates over the lifestyle and money enjoyed by Ted Varrick (Charlie Sheen), the smooth operator who leads the Porsche pilferers, and he reports back to Lieutenant Read More

10/23/87
Predator

Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carrillo, Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura

Synopsis: Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has a code of honor which he will not violate, even when his life depends on it. Paradoxically, his code of honor gives him the backbone to survive as a military special forces operative when he is sent on a covert mission to rescue another group which was sent in to Read More

6/12/87
Dallas: The Early Years

Actors: Molly Hagan, Dale Midkiff

Synopsis: Inspired by guess what television series, this made-for-TV movie traces the follies and fortunes of the Ewings and the Barneses all the way back to the 1930s. The familiar Dallas characters are played by unfamiliar (albeit very able) younger players: Miss Ellie, for example, isn't Barbara Bel Geddes Read More

1986
Johnnie May Gibson: F.B.I.

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Bill Duke directed this fact-based tale of a poor Southern black woman who rose from poverty to become an FBI agent. Retitled Johnnie Gibson F.B.I. for home video. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

1986
Flag

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The 90-minute TV movie Flag was meant to be a joint spoof of the nighttime serials Dallas and Knots Landing. In this instance, it was "bite the hand that feeds you time": Flag was produced by David Jacobs, creator of both Dallas and Knots, and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures, which also Read More

1986
The Killing Floor

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Don't pass up The Killing Floor on the mistaken notion that the film is a western shoot-em-up or cop drama. The title refers to that special area in the Chicago stockyards where the cattle are slaughtered (yes, we know: yeccch. But it happens). The story relates the true-life attempts to set up an Read More

1985
Commando

Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong, Dan Hedaya, Vernon Wells, David Patrick Kelly

Synopsis: Shortly after The Terminator wrote his name in bold neon lights across box-office grosses, this action thriller took advantage of the hitherto (almost) unexploited comic side of star Arnold Schwarzenegger and paired him with Rae Dawn Chong. Colonel Matrix (Schwarzenegger) is retired and living Read More

1985
Hunter: The Hot Grounder

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Police Commissioner Larry Crenshaw (William Windom) is the primary suspect when his wife Connie (Rosemary Thomas) is murdered. This places Hunter (Fred Dryer) and McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) in a ticklish situation: they are ordered to investigate the one man who most desires to see them thrown off Read More

1984
Palmerstown, USA

Synopsis: A strong, but at times tempestuous interracial friendship between two Southern boys during the '30s is chronicled in this drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1980
American Gigolo

Actors: Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Hector Elizondo, Nina Van Pallandt, Bill Duke

Synopsis: A slick Los Angeles callboy finds love and redemption in Paul Schrader's ultra-stylish drama. High-living prostitute Julian Kay (Richard Gere, stepping in for John Travolta) has it all: the Mercedes, the clothes, access to Beverly Hills' swankiest establishments, and a stable of rich, older female Read More

1979
Good Times: Cousin Raymond

Crew: Teleplay By

Synopsis: The Evans family is showered with expensive gifts when their cousin Raymond (Calvin Lockhart) pays a visit. The most lavish present is offered to Florida (Esther Rolle): a new, luxurious apartment. But when Florida learns that Raymond's wealth has come from gambling, she wants no part of his Read More

1979
Love is Not Enough

Synopsis: Made for television, Love is Not Enough stars Bernie Casey as Mike Harris, the widowed father of five children, ages ranging from 5 to 18. Deducing that a large African-American family has a slim chance of financial survival in Detroit, where he has just been laid of his assembly-line job, Harris Read More

1978
Kojak: Bad Dude

Synopsis: This Kojak episode is the first of two pilots for a projected spinoff series starring Rosey Grier) as hard-nosed California bounty hunter Salathiel Harris. Arriving in New York, Harris begins his search for a bail-jumping racketeer, while home-grown police lieutenant Kojak (Telly Savalas) embarks Read More

1976
Car Wash

Actors: Franklyn Ajaye, Sully Boyar, Richard Brestoff, George Carlin, Irwin Corey

Synopsis: Michael Schultz directed this kinetic, hyperventilating comedy (scripted by Joel Schumacher) concerning the crazed events that go on within a single 10-hour period at a Los Angeles car wash. The cast of colorful car-wash employees includes Lonnie (Ivan Dixon), an ex-con; Duane (Bill Duke), a Read More

1976
Santiago's Ark

Actors: Ruben Figueroa, Marcus Ticotin, Bill Duke, Alex Colon, Carmen Maya

Synopsis: Filmed on location in New York City, this ABC Afterschool Special presentation is the story of Santiago (Ruben Figueroa), a young Puerto Rican boy with a vivid imagination and a boundless supply of perseverance. Santiago is determined to build a sailing ship on the roof of his tenement building Read More

1972

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