Eileen HeckartFilmography

Breathing Lessons

Synopsis: In this drama based on Anne Tyler's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the long marriage of a couple en route to a funeral is seen from the viewpoint of those they encounter during the trip. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Ultimate Betrayal

Actors: Marlo Thomas, Mel Harris, Ally Sheedy, Eileen Heckart, Kathryn Dowling

Synopsis: A family is torn apart when two adult sisters decide to take their father to court for sexually abusing them as children. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

A Doll's House

Synopsis: Based on the famous play by Henrik Ibsen, this 1989 adaptation is one of several filmed versions of the classic tale. Claire Bloom stars as Nora Helmer, a housewife who long-ago saved the life of her ailing husband Torvald (Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins) by forging her father's signature on a loan. Read More

Stuck With Each Other

Actors: Tyne Daly, Michael J. Pollard, Bubba Smith, Richard Crenna

Synopsis: The made for TV Stuck With Each Other stars Richard Crenna and Tyne Daly as two luckless New Yorkers, a salesman and a secretary respectively. One morning they come to the office to find that their boss has dropped dead--leaving behind an open safe containing $964,000 he's not supposed to have. Read More

The Cosby Show: Autumn Gifts

Synopsis: Eileen Heckart guests stars as the Huxtables' elderly and somewhat bull-headed neighbor Mrs. Hickson. While sharing tea with the lady, Rudy (Keshia Knight Pulliam) discovers that Mrs. Hickson has been neglecting to take her diabetes medication--and in fact has gone to extreme lengths to hide her Read More

Heartbreak Ridge

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Marsha Mason, Everett McGill, Moses Gunn, Eileen Heckart

Synopsis: Having spent much of his directorial career emulating Don Siegel and John Ford, Clint Eastwood borrows a page from the catalogue of Sam Fuller in Heartbreak Ridge. Eastwood casts himself as an old-fashioned Marine Corps sergeant who is out of step with the new-fashioned military. He returns to his Read More

Seize the Day

Actors: Robin Williams, Jerry Stiller, Joseph Wiseman, Glenne Headly, William Hickey

Synopsis: The PBS series Great Performances first presented the made-for-TV feature Seize the Day. The time is the success-driven '50s; Robin Williams plays Tommy Wilhelm, a middle-ager who has just lost his salesman's job. Margaret, his wife (Katherine Borowitz), is on the verge of divorce and fully Read More

Highway to Heaven: An Investment in Caring

Synopsis: A strong cast of veteran stage and screen actors distinguish this episode, in which a neighborhood largely comprised of senior citizens is in danger of obliteration. A soulless band of businessman intends to seize the neighborhood in a hostile corporate takeover for their own selfish purposes. If Read More

Table Settings

Synopsis: Stockard Channing, Eileen Heckart, Robert Klein, and Dinah Manoff perform in this comedic tale of a three-generation Jewish family. This is a taped performance of James Lapine's work of the same title. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Games Mother Never Taught You

Actors: Loretta Swit, Edward Grover, Eileen Heckart

Synopsis: Loretta Swit was still appearing on a weekly basis in MASH when she starred in the made-for-TV Games Mother Never Taught You. She plays Laura Bentells, the first female executive in a traditionally "good ole boy" office. Refusing to be patronized or disregarded, Laura quickly learns the ropes of Read More

The Big Trade

Synopsis: Between January 1981 and August 1983, actor/producer Robert Blake tried three times to launch a new TV detective series titled Joe Dancer--and struck out on all three occasions. The third unsold Dancer pilot was Murder 1, Dancer 0, later syndicated as The Big Trade. This time around, the Read More

The Big Black Pill

Actors: Robert Blake

Synopsis: Actor/producer Robert Blake tried and failed three times to launch a TV detective weekly titled Joe Dancer. The first such attempt was the feature-length pilot The Big Black Pill. As Joe Dancer, Blake struts and frets his way around Beverly Hills in search of a killer. Blake's then-wife Sondra Read More

White Mama

Actors: Bette Davis, Ernest Harden Jr.

Synopsis: Bette Davis is White Mama in this custom-made TV movie. Ms. Davis plays a poverty-stricken widow who is too proud to go on welfare. Aware that she can receive a steady income if she takes in a foster child, Davis becomes surrogate mother to tough black teenager Ernest Harden Jr. The relationship Read More

F.D.R. The Last Year

Actors: Eileen Heckart, Kim Hunter

Synopsis: Jason Robards stars as the ailing, 62-year-old President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in F.D.R.: The Last Year. Though visibly frail and weary, Roosevelt runs for a precedent-setting fourth term. He also oversees plans for the D-Day Invasion and engages in tempestuous summit meetings with his wartime Read More

Little House on the Prairie: Dance With Me

Actors: Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson, Matthew Laborteaux

Synopsis: Ray Bolger guest stars in this special 90-minute episode as Toby Noe, a hard-drinking drifter whom the Ingalls befriended while living in Winoka. Shambling into Walnut Grove just before a much-anticipated community dance, Toby immediately sets his cap for prudish spinster Amanda Jane Cooper (Eileen Heckart Read More

Backstairs at the White House

Actors: Leslie Uggams, Olivia Cole, Louis Gossett, Jr., Robert Hooks, Leslie Nielsen

Synopsis: Based on the best-selling memoirs of Lillian Rogers Parks, the NBC miniseries Backstairs at the White House traces over five decades of American political history as witnessed from the vantage point of the servants' quarters. Played by Tania Johnson as a teenager and by Leslie Uggams as an adult, Lillian Rogers Parks Read More

Sorrows of Gin

Synopsis: Based on a short story by John Cheever, this is a movie about an eight-year-old girl in a dysfunctional family situation which leads to her becoming a runaway. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Suddenly, Love

Actors: Joan Bennett

Synopsis: Suddenly, Love is a tried and true "class conscious" TV movie set in the Manhattan of the 1960s. Cindy Williams stars as a Brooklyn girl who cuts the family strings at age 16 to head for the Big Apple. While studying to be an architect, Williams falls in love with a wealthy Yale law school Read More

Sunshine Christmas

Synopsis: In this drama, a widower takes his adopted daughter for an old-fashioned Texas-style Christmas at his parent's house. While back home, the father meets his childhood love and romance ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Alice: Mother-in-Law, Part 1

Synopsis: In the first episode of a two-part story, Eileen Heckart guest stars as Rose, the opinionated, overbearing mother-in-law of widow Alice Hyatt (Linda Lavin). Having always regarded Rose's visits as a cause for alarm, Alice is prepared to spend a miserable weekend with her contentious in-law. But Read More

Alice: Mother-in-Law, Part 2

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a two-part story, Alice (Linda Lavin) despairs over the likelihood that her overbearing mother-in-law Rose (Eileen Heckart) will move to Phoenix permanently. The only way out of this devastating dilemma is to patch up the differences between Rose and her estranged husband Read More

Burnt Offerings

Actors: Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith, Eileen Heckart, Lee Montgomery, Bette Davis

Synopsis: Dan Curtis, director of TV's Dark Shadows series, directed this eerie haunted-house thriller about a house which draws energy from its inhabitants and selects its own "keeper" from the family of Ben and Marian Rolf (Oliver Reed & Karen Black), who rent the strangely-affordable house one fateful Read More

The Hiding Place

Actors: Julie Harris, Eileen Heckart, Arthur O'Connell, Jeanette Clift, Robert Rietty

Synopsis: Produced by Billy Graham's Evangelistic Association and based on an autobiographical novel by Corrie Ten Boom, The Hiding Place is an account of a Dutch family who risk their lives by offering a safe haven for Jews during World War II. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

The F.B.I. Story - The FBI Versus Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number

Actors: Harris Yulin

Synopsis: This somewhat clunkily titled TV movie was an offshoot of producer Quinn Martin's series The FBI. Robert Foxworth plays Depression-era desperado Alvin Karpis, who for nearly five years eluded capture while committing bank robberies, kidnappings and murders. Karpis finally comes acropper when the Read More

Zandy's Bride

Actors: Gene Hackman, Liv Ullmann, Eileen Heckart, Susan Tyrrell, Samuel Bottoms

Synopsis: Based on Lillian Bos Ross' novel The Stranger and adapted by screenwriter Marc Norman 25 years before he would win the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award for 1999's Shakespeare in Love (along with Tom Stoppard), Zandy's Bride is a romantic Western starring (Gene Hackman) as gruff rural rancher Read More

Butterflies Are Free

Actors: Paul Michael Glaser, Goldie Hawn, Edward Albert, Eileen Heckart, Mike Warren

Synopsis: Leonard Gershe based his play Butterflies are Free on a real-life blind attorney. The film version stars Edward Albert as Don Baker, a self-reliant, sightless young man who becomes the object of affection for kooky Jill (Goldie Hawn). Spending most of the film in nothing but her underwear, Jill Read More

The Streets of San Francisco: The Thirty-Year Pin

Synopsis: The premiere episode of Streets of San Francisco follows veteran SFPD detective lieutenant Mike Stone (Karl Malden) in his grim search for the killer of his old friend Officer Gus Charnovski (Edmond O'Brien), who was shot three days before his retirement after 30 years on the force. Stone's Read More

The Victim

Synopsis: In this suspenseful drama, a terrible storm strands a young woman in a spooky old house where she is unwittingly stalked by a mysterious killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

All the Way Home

The Tree

Actors: Jordan Christopher, Eileen Heckart, George Rose, James Broderick, Ruth Ford

Synopsis: Bucky (Jordan Christopher) is the local psychotic who kidnaps his niece and hides out for days with the dead body of his father's mistress Sally (Eileen Heckart). Bucky hates his mother, seemingly a prerequisite for all mental abnormality of the psycho-sexual variety. He rapes his sister after Read More

No Way to Treat a Lady

Actors: Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, George Segal, Eileen Heckart, Murray Hamilton

Synopsis: New York detective Moe Brummell (George Segal) is assigned to track down a serial killer who has been preying on lonely middle-aged ladies. Each of the bodies is discovered with a lipstick kiss drawn on the forehead. We know (but Brummell doesn't) that the murderer is Christopher Gill (Rod Read More

Up the Down Staircase

Actors: Sandy Dennis, Patrick Bedford, Eileen Heckart, Ruth White, Jean Stapleton

Synopsis: A serious social drama film of the type that flourished in the 1960's, Up the Down Staircase seems somewhat dated and preachy when viewed by modern audiences. The subject matter is laudable, of course: an ambitious, spirited and concerned young teacher determined to make a difference in a troubled Read More

The Fugitive: The Breaking of the Habit

Synopsis: In the series' first and only "sequel" episode, Eileen Heckert returns as free-spirited nun Sister Veronica, a character she'd previously introduced in the Season One episode "Angels Travel on Lonely Wounds". Wounded in his last skirmish with the law, fugitive Richard Kimble (David Janssen) seeks Read More

The F.B.I.: The Insolents

Synopsis: When a wealthy man is found shot to death on a luxury liner, the ship's captain places Roger York (Skip Young), the victim's millionaire stepson, under arrest. But despite his suspicious behavior, is York the guilty party--and indeed, has a murder actually been committed? Investigating the case Read More

My Six Loves

Actors: Debbie Reynolds, Cliff Robertson, Eileen Heckart, David Janssen, Hans Conried

Synopsis: This was the first film directed by dancer and choreographer Gower Champion, already experienced at directing television and theatrical productions by the early '60s. The routine romantic comedy, somewhat bogged down by the children it features, is centered on overwrought actress Janice Courtney (Debbie Reynolds Read More

The Fugitive: Angels Travel on Lonely Roads: Part 2

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a two-part story, Kimble (David Janssen) continues his westward journey to California in the company of the redoubtable Sister Veronica (Eileen Heckart). Along the way, the mismatched pair runs afoul of some motorcycle punks, and have another run-in with crooked Chuck Mathis Read More

The Fugitive: Angels Travel on Lonely Roads: Part 1

Synopsis: In the first episode of a two-part story, Kimble (David Janssen) is forced to go on the lam again when he is recognized in a Nevada gambling emporium. En route to California, Kimble makes the acquaintance of feisty nun Sister Veronica (Eileen Heckart), who agrees to provide him safe passage Read More

Naked City: Hold for Gloria Christmas

Actors: Burgess Meredith, Herschel Bernardi, Sanford Meisner, Eileen Heckart, Alan Alda

Synopsis: Greenwich Village poet Duncan Kleist (Burgess Meredith) goes on a violent rampage early one morning, accosting people he meets for money and for help in mailing a parcel he's carrying. This leads to a confrontation with Stanley Dorkner (Herschel Bernardi). The two argue and fight, and Kleist is Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Coming, Mama

Synopsis: Lucy Baldwin (Eileen Heckart) hopes to escape her domineering invalid mother (Madge Kennedy) by marrying her new beau, Arthur (Don DeFore). Assuming that Arthur is just a fortune hunter, Lucy's mom refuses to allow the marriage, prompting Lucy to commit murder. Ultimately, Lucy and Arthur are Read More

Heller in Pink Tights

Actors: Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn, Eileen Heckart, Ramon Novarro, Margaret O'Brien, Steve Forrest

Synopsis: The talents of the cast and director George Cukor (A Star Is Born, My Fair Lady), combine to bring off this otherwise routine Western based on a Louis L'Amour novel. Sophia Loren is Angela Rossini, a woman who seems to create the situations she gets into, and Anthony Quinn is the strong, silent Read More

A Doll's House

Synopsis: A Doll's House is a 90-minute TV adaptation of the 1879 play by Henrik Ibsen. Julie Harris stars as Nora Helmer, the dutiful wife of Torvald Helmer (Christopher Plummer). Though Torvald loves his wife, he considers her a child and a possession. What he doesn't know is that, years earlier, Nora Read More

Hot Spell

Actors: Shirley Booth, Anthony Quinn, Shirley MacLaine, Earl Holliman, Eileen Heckart, Valerie Allen

Synopsis: Anthony Quinn and Shirley Booth play a married couple who cling and claw like cats in a bathtub in this sudsy melodrama set in steamy New Orleans. Booth does most of the clinging as a neglected wife struggling to reassemble her battered marriage to Quinn who plays a faithless husband in love with Read More

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Actors: Paul Newman, Anna Maria Pier Angeli, Everett Sloane, Eileen Heckart, Sal Mineo

Synopsis: Once you get past the fact that handsome Paul Newman could never pass for plug-ugly boxer Rocky Graziano in real life, you will be able to accept Somebody Up Their Likes Me as one of the more accomplished movie biopics of the 1950s. Based on Graziano's autobiography (co-written with Rowland Read More

The Bad Seed

Actors: Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones, Eileen Heckart, Evelyn Varden

Synopsis: Can evil be inherited? That's the question posed by Maxwell Anderson in his stage play The Bad Seed. This 1956 film adaptation stars many actors from the Broadway version, including Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones and Eileen Heckart. Young McCormack plays Rhoda, a too-good-to-be-true Read More

Miracle in the Rain

Actors: Jane Wyman, Van Johnson, Eileen Heckart, Fred Clark, Peggie Castle

Synopsis: The fate that brings lovers together can easily tear them apart as can be seen in this sentimental tragedy that centers on an ordinary-looking secretary's (Jane Wyman) lonely life. Other than working and spending some free time with a spinster (Eileen Heckart), who is her best friend, the woman Read More

Hallmark Hall of Fame: The Little Foxes

Synopsis: Hollywood's archetypal "good woman" Greer Garson pulls off an astonishing about-face as the wicked, scheming Regina Giddens in this 90-minute Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptation of Lillian Hellman's 1939 stage drama The Little Foxes. Set in the post-Civil War South, the plot involves the underhanded Read More

Bus Stop

Actors: Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart

Synopsis: In this cinemadaptation of William Inge's Broadway comedy Bus Stop, Marilyn Monroe is cast as Cherie, a fifth-rate nightclub chanteuse who captures the heart of Montana rodeo champ Bo (Don Murray). He, in turn, kidnaps Cherie and bundles her off to the roadside bus stop of the title. Gradually Read More

Goodyear TV Playhouse: Christmas 'til Closing

Synopsis: This live Goodyear TV Playhouse presentation was a 60-minute extension of The Marriage, a short-lived TV series which starred Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. It is 23 days until Christmas, and Liz and Ben Marriott (Tandy and Cronyn) are nearly broke. To help pay the bills and finance their upcoming Read More

Philco Television Playhouse: "Segment"

Philco Television Playhouse: January 27, 1952