Bruce VilanchFilmography

Occupation:: Actor, Screenwriter
Biography:: With his unmistakable presence -- characterized by an obese figure, oversized red glasses, a shaggy blonde mane, and a scruffy, unkempt beard -- Bruce Vilanch checked in as one of Hollywood's most colorful characters for decades. His effeminate presence and apparel (both of which played up...Read More

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Tru Loved

Actors: Najarra Townsend, Bruce Vilanch, Matthew Thompson, Alec Mapa, Jasmine Guy, Alexandra Paul, Cynda Williams, Jane Lynch, David Kopay

Synopsis: Uprooted from her comfortable San Francisco home and transplanted to a generic Southern California suburb by her two well-meaning moms, open-minded high-school sophomore Tru despairs at being surrounded by close-minded football players and air-headed Paris Hilton wannabes until she gets the idea Read More

10/17/08
You Don't Mess With the Zohan

Actors: Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Nick Swardson, Lainie Kazan

Synopsis: Judd Apatow teams up with his former roommate Adam Sandler to write a star comedy vehicle for the actor in You Don't Mess With the Zohan, the tale of an Israeli commando who fakes his own death so he can follow his dream -- to be a hairstylist in New York City. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Read More

6/6/08
Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon

Synopsis: 1970s-era gay porn icon Jack Wrangler serves as the lusty subject of this biographical documentary tracing his trajectory from scrawny Beverly Hills brat to aspiring star and, ultimately, a brand name with his own exclusive product line. The son of a demanding Hollywood production executive who Read More

2008
Naked Boys Singing!

Crew: Lyricist

Synopsis: On the heels of a successful debut at the Celebration Theater in Los Angeles and an impressive eight year run on the New York stage, the raucous musical showered with accolades by both LA Weekly and Backstage West and featuring show-stopping tunes by Bruce Vilanch, Shelly Markum, Stephen Bates Read More

10/12/07
Laughing Matters...The Men

Synopsis: It's no secret that stand-up comics are a tortured lot, and in this documentary filmmaker Andrea Meyerson pays special tribute to some of the most talented - and tormented - gay comedians around. While some gay comics seek to refute common stereotypes, others thrive on them. From comedy queen Read More

2007
Queer Duck: The Movie

Actors: Jim J. Bullock, Jackie Hoffman, Kevin Michael Richardson, Billy West, Estelle Harris

Synopsis: Born as a series of three-minute chucklers on Icebox.com (and aired later on the Showtime pay-cable network), veteran Simpsons-producer Mike Reiss' giddily irreverent tale of a homosexual duck (voiced by Jim J. Bullock) determined to re-define his sexual orientation comes flaming to life on the Read More

2006
The Aristocrats

Synopsis: "A family walks into a talent agent's office..." So begins "The Aristocrats," a joke kept mostly secret by stand-up comedians for decades. An intentionally "bad" joke, the laughs in The Aristocrats aren't in the punch-line (one of the only elements that's the same every time), but in the set-up Read More

7/29/05
Gay Hollywood

Actors: Dustin Lance Black, Q. Allan Brocka, Robert Laughlin, Micah McCain, Benjamin Morgan

Synopsis: Another presentation of the American Movie Channel's AMC Project anthology, Gay Hollywood follows five openly gay men, all employed (not always gainfully) in show business, as they discuss the ups and downs of their Hollywood careers. The quintet includes two aspiring screenwriters, Lance and Read More

2003
Circuit

Actors: Jonathan Wade Drahos, Kiersten Warren

Synopsis: A man hoping to move out of the closet falls into a trap of drug-fueled hedonism in this cautionary drama. John (Jonathan Wade Drahos) is a police officer from a small town who is forced to leave his career behind when it is discovered that he's gay. Hoping to find more tolerant surroundings, John Read More

2001
Call Me Claus

Actors: Whoopi Goldberg, Nigel Hawthorne, Victor Garber

Synopsis: As a child, Lucy Cullins asked Santa Claus to bring her father home from Vietnam. But when her dad returned in a pine box, the embittered Lucy decided that Christmas -- and every other holiday for that matter -- was a humbug. Now all grown-up (and played by Whoopi Goldberg), Lucy is the Read More

2001
Queen of The Whole Wide World

Actors: Scott Lane, Daryl Roach

Synopsis: Los Angeles' Miss USA 2000 Pageant is a beauty contest with a difference -- while in many ways it seems like a typical pageant, complete with contestants competing in evening gown, swimsuit, and talent categories, and celebrity judges weighing in on their presentations, the participants in Miss Read More

2001
Get Bruce!

Actors: Bruce Vilanch, Bette Midler, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg

Synopsis: This is a documentary portrait of a Hollywood comedy writer cited by many of entertainment's biggest stars as their comedic "secret weapon." Bruce Vilanch is a rotund, hirsute New Jersey native who left a job at a Chicago newspaper in the 1970s to become a gag writer for singer and actress Bette Midler Read More

9/17/99
Jackie's Back

Actors: Jenifer Lewis, Tim Curry, TV Blake, Tangie Ambrose, Whoopi Goldberg

Synopsis: Soul diva Jackie Washington is determined to hit the comeback trail but seems to be having trouble finding the on-ramp in the mock-documentary comedy Jackie's Back. Jackie (played by Jenifer Lewis) was a Rhythm and Blues singer who had a few late '60's and early 70's hits, including "Yield" and Read More

1999
Love Can Be Murder

Actors: Corbin Bernsen, Jaclyn Smith

Synopsis: Corbin Bernsen plays a hard-boiled 1940s private eye operating in the 1990s in the made-for-TV Love Can Be Murder. No, he's not a senior citizen: he's dead. It is the ghost of Bernsen who teams with the very much alive Jaclyn Smith, a contemporary PI. She's trying to solve the decades-old homicide Read More

1992
Fourth Story

Actors: Cliff De Young, Mark Harmon, Mimi Rogers

Synopsis: In this complicated and exciting above-average made-for-cable suspense thriller, a woman searches for her missing husband with surprising results. When Valerie's (Mimi Rogers) husband Darryl (Cliff De Young) leaves for work one morning and never returns, she hires private-eye Shepard (Mark Read More

1990
It Nearly Wasn't Christmas

Actors: Charles Durning

Synopsis: The made-for-TV It Nearly Wasn't Christmas stars Charles Durning as the one and only Santa Claus--a role for which Durning evidently required no padding. The plot would have us believe that Santa is on the verge of cancelling Christmas (didn't know he could do that). The reasons are the usual: the Read More

1989
The Drifter

Actors: Kim Delaney, Timothy Bottoms, Al Shannon, Miles O'Keeffe, Anna Gray Garduno

Synopsis: Julia's (Kim Delaney) nightmare begins when she picks up hitchhiker Trey (Miles O'Keeffe) on a desolate road. Once back in the big city, Julia finds she is being stalked by the persistent Trey. Just why he is so obsessed is revealed in the film's climax. Meanwhile, Julia is also being followed by Read More

2/26/88
The Morning After

Actors: Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges, Raul Julia, Diane Salinger, Richard Foronjy

Synopsis: In this excellent thriller, crisply directed by Sidney Lumet, Alex Sternbergen (Jane Fonda), a washed-up, alcoholic actress who never quite made it, wakes up one morning in an unfamiliar, luxurious loft apartment, only to find the corpse of a stranger next to her in bed. Alex can remember nothing Read More

12/25/86
The Ice Pirates

Actors: Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, Michael D. Roberts, Anjelica Huston, John Matuszak

Synopsis: In this undistinguished parody of the sci fi genre, Robert Urich is Jason who leads a band of pirates in redistributing the wealth of the few to the coffers of the needy. He also joins up with Princess Karina Mary Crosby in searching for her father and a possible source of water in the next Read More

1984
Divine Madness!

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Bette Midler, Irving Sudrow

Synopsis: Bette Midler's wildly funny and theatrical stage show is preserved on the big screen in this concert film shot in California in 1980. Along with her usual raunchy comedy material and over-the-top staging, Midler performs some of her best known songs (including "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "Chapel Read More

1980
The Star Wars Holiday Special

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew

Synopsis: Wookie sidekick Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) races across the galaxy to spend the holidays with his family in this TV movie, which was broadcast after Star Wars became a pop phenomenon but before the release of The Empire Strikes Back. Sometime after the events of the first film, Han Solo (Harrison Ford Read More

1978
Mahogany

Actors: Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Beah Richards, Nina Foch

Synopsis: Directed by Berry Gordy, Jr. as a vehicle for his star Diana Ross, Mahogany traces the life of a poor girl who makes it in the fashion world (first as a model, then designer) and deserts her boyfriend (Billy Dee Williams) in the meantime, hooking up instead with a photographer (Anthony Perkins). Read More

1975