Frank WhaleyFilmography

Aftermath

'Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris

Actors: Jackie Paris, Jeanie Paris, Anne Marie Moss, Joan Paris, Stacey Paris

Synopsis: In the 1950s and '60s, Jackie Paris was one of the most celebrated jazz vocalists of his generation; he collaborated with such giants as Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Dizzy Gillespie, he was a favorite of leading music critics, and recorded for such top jazz labels as Impulse and East-West. Read More

Crazy Eights

Actors: Traci Lords, Dina Meyer, George Newbern, Gabrielle Anwar, Dan DeLuca

Synopsis: Frank Whaley, Traci Lords, Gabrielle Anwar, and Dina Meyer star in director James Koya Jones' tale of six childhood friends who band together to confront a lingering secret from the past. A man has died, and now the six friends who knew him best have returned home to pay their final respects. Read More

Vacancy

Actors: Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry, Scott Anderson

Synopsis: A vacationing couple makes a terrifying discovery about the motel room they have just checked into in this thriller scripted by Mark L. Smith and directed by Nimród Antal (Kontroll). Their car broken down and their prospects for finding a tow-truck driver at such a late hour slim to none, David (Luke Wilson Read More

New York City Serenade

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Chris Klein, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Sebastian Roche, Heather Bucha

Synopsis: Two lifelong pals living in New York City discover that sometimes the only way to remain friends is to grow apart in this semi-autobiographical drama from screenwriter/director Frank Whaley. Owen (Freddie Prinze, Jr. is an aspiring filmmaker who frequently spends the early hours of the evening Read More

World Trade Center

Actors: Nicolas Cage, Michael Peña, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Stephen Dorff

Synopsis: Director Oliver Stone once again offers a powerful and provocative story based on real-life events in this drama. Sergeant John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and William J. Jimeno (Michael Peña) were two officers assigned to New York City's Port Authority who were working their beats on a quiet day in Read More

Ruffian

Actors: Sam Shepard, Frank Whaley, Nicholas Pryor, Christine Belford

Synopsis: Prolific French filmmaker Yves Simoneau directs Sam Shepard and Frank Whaley in a sports drama detailing the remarkable racing career of the horse many believe to be the finest thoroughbred filly ever to run the tracks. In her first ten runs Ruffian was unbeaten, and continued to break Read More

Where There's a Will

Actors: Marion Ross, Frank Whaley, Christine Elise, Paul Michael, Keith Carradine

Cherry Crush

Actors: Jonathan Tucker, Nikki Reed, Julie Gonzalo, Frank Whaley, Michael O'Keefe, Haviland Morris, Dennis Boutsikaris

Synopsis: Nicholas DiBella's thriller Cherry Crush stars Jonathan Tucker as Jordan Wells, the privileged son of a successful man who gets kicked out of an exclusive prep school after his interesting photography and girls leads him to taking nude snapshots of classmates. Soon he meets a poor but attractive Read More

Mrs. Harris

Actors: Frances Fisher, Annette Bening, Ben Kingsley

Synopsis: The sensationalistic murder of diet guru Dr. Herman Tarnower is explored in this stylized take on the tabloid cover story from first-time director Phyllis Nagy. As the inventor of the popular "Scarsdale Diet," Dr. Herman Tarnower (Ben Kingsley) became an overnight success during the peak of the Read More

Pursuit of Happiness

Actors: Frank Whaley, Annabeth Gish, Amy Jo Johnson, Patrick Van Horn, Cress Williams

Synopsis: A man with little passion for either his job or his wife gets a wake-up call in this independently produced romantic comedy. Frank Whaley plays Alan, an L.A.-based advertising executive currently being wooed by a tech firm in Seattle. He's about to move himself and his significant other (Dawn Eason Read More

The Dead Zone: The Storm

Actors: John L. Adams, Nicole deBoer, Chris Bruno, Kristen Dalton

Synopsis: Still recovering from the death of a close friend, Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) goes on a vacation with the Bannermans and Bruce (John L. Adams). Before long, Johnny experiences another of his disturbing psychic visions -- this one of a tornado that bids fair to be the storm of the century. Read More

A Good Night to Die

Actors: Michael Rapaport, Gary Stretch, Robin Givens, Ally Sheedy, Ralph Macchio

Synopsis: This crime comedy from director Craig Singer is the filmmaker's third independent feature and his second outing with screenwriter Robert Dean Klein and star Gary Stretch, who had contributed to 2001's Dead Dogs Lie, Singer's sophomore effort. Stretch plays Ronnie, a hitman who, three years prior Read More

The Dead Zone: Visions

Actors: John L. Adams, Nicole deBoer, Chris Bruno, Kristen Dalton

Synopsis: Who is the facially scarred "man in black" who has been stalking Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) throughout the past few episodes? It turns out that the mystery man, Christopher Wey (Frank Whaley), has an important message from the future -- one that will profoundly alter the future of humanity. But Read More

The Dead Zone: The Combination

Actors: John L. Adams, Nicole deBoer, Chris Bruno, Kristen Dalton

Synopsis: Envisioning the death of his prizefighter friend Danny Avila (Greg Serano) during an upcoming heavyweight title bout, Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) goes public with his psychic premonitions. Alas, Johnny's announcement does not cancel the match as he had hoped; instead, the value of the fight has Read More

The Dead Zone: The Mountain

Actors: Nicole deBoer, Chris Bruno, Kristen Dalton, David Ogden Stiers

Synopsis: While on a camping trip with the Bannermans, Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) has a vision of a crashed plane with two million dollars on board. Sure enough, that amount has recently been stolen, and Johnny is invited to join a search party headed by mountain ranger Randy Truman (Scott William Read More

The Jimmy Show

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Frank Whaley, Carla Gugino, Ethan Hawke, Lynn Cohen, Jillian Stacom

Synopsis: Following up on his directorial debut, Joe the King, actor-turned-sometimes director Frank Whaley made this gritty character study of a man consumed by anger. Working as a clerk at a supermarket, Jimmy (Whaley) makes it a practice to steal anything and everything he can get away with, usually Read More

Chelsea Walls

Actors: Kevin Corrigan, Rosario Dawson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kris Kristofferson, Robert Sean Leonard

Synopsis: Actor Ethan Hawke takes the director's chair for a test drive with this independent feature, based on a play by Nicole Burdette, in which a number of creative types living in New York's famed bohemian enclave the Chelsea Hotel struggle with their muses as well as their personal concerns. Read More

Law & Order: Access Nation

Synopsis: The murder of a psychologist reveals evidence that the killer had access to secret information possessed by the victim. Investigating, the detectives end up at the door of a computer company which sells information about its clients. The D.A.'s office must prove that such transactions are Read More

Went to Coney Island On a Mission From God...Be Back By Five

Actors: Jon Cryer, Rick Stear, Rafael Baez, Ione Skye, Frank Whaley

Synopsis: Richard Schenkman, who debuted with the disappointing The Pompatus of Love (1996), returned with this comedy-drama, set on the streets of Brooklyn. When young Richie (Rafael Baez) vanishes, rumor has it that he went insane at Coney Island, so pizza guy Stan (Rick Stear) and pawnshop clerk Daniel (Jon Cryer Read More

Joe the King

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Noah Fleiss, Val Kilmer, Karen Young, Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo

Synopsis: Actor Frank Whaley makes his directorial debut with Joe the King, a downbeat drama about a 14-year-old boy coming of age in an abusive and uncaring environment. When he was nine, Joe Henry (Noah Fleiss) lied to his friends about his father's job because he was ashamed that his father was the Read More

Shake, Rattle & Roll

Actors: Bonnie Somerville, Samaria Graham, Travis Fine

Synopsis: In this two-part miniseries, the formative days of rock & roll are relived through the experiences of a fictional musical quartet called the Heartaches. The group is led by the handsome Tyler (Brad Hawkins), whose heart belongs to Lyne (Bonnie Somerville), the female member of the band. Along the Read More

When Trumpets Fade

Actors: Ron Eldard, Zak Orth, Frank Whaley, Dylan Bruno, Martin Donovan

Synopsis: John Irvin directed this gripping and effective WWII drama set amid the carnage and slaughter of the Hurtgen Forest battle when the Allies moved on toward Germany in the fall of 1944. Private Manning (Ron Eldard) hopes for a Section 8 switch away from the frontline combat, but when he's the only Read More

Glam

Actors: William McNamara, Frank Whaley, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Valérie Kaprisky, Tony Danza

Synopsis: Josh Evans wrote and directed this cynical glimpse at power players and hustlers working the shadowy side of the film industry. After his mother's death, talented eccentric Sonny Daye (William McNamara) arrives on the Hollywood scene. His brother, Franky Syde (Frank Whaley), confident of Sonny's Read More

Bombshell

Actors: Henry Thomas, Mädchen Amick, Frank Whaley

Synopsis: This sci-fi thriller is set in Los Angeles. The year is 2010 and the mega-corporation Nanolabs is feverishly preparing to market its latest medical marvel: a microscopic "engine" that can regenerate organic tissue at a cellular level and thereby provide the first real cure for cancer. Read More

Retroactive

Actors: James Belushi, Kylie Travis, Shannon Whirry, Frank Whaley, M. Emmet Walsh

Synopsis: Science fiction crime thriller from Louis Morneau, genre director and graduate of the Roger Corman school of filmmaking. Kylie Travis stars as Karen, a psychiatrist and former hostage negotiator with the Chicago Police Department. After a negotiation gone lethally wrong, Karen has quit and Read More

The Grave

Actors: Craig Sheffer, Gabrielle Anwar, Eric Roberts, Josh Charles, Anthony Michael Hall

Synopsis: This little chiller unfolds like a late-night campfire ghost story as it tells the strange tale of treasure hunters and a prison break from a North Carolina prison farm. It begins when a man approaches two inmates at the prison farm and tells them about a fabulous treasure buried in the coffin of Read More

Broken Arrow

Actors: John Travolta, Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, Delroy Lindo, Bob Gunton

Synopsis: Hong Kong director John Woo's second U.S. film (his first was Hard Target) delivers a number of exciting action sequences but is let down by a credibility-straining plot. John Travolta plays Vic Deakins, an Air Force pilot on what is supposed to be a routine night flight mission with his co-pilot Read More

The Winner

Actors: Vincent D'Onofrio, Rebecca De Mornay, Delroy Lindo, Frank Whaley, Michael Madsen

Synopsis: After director Alex Cox alienated the powers that be in Hollywood with Straight to Hell and Walker, his anarchic follow-ups to Repo Man and Sid and Nancy, it would be nearly a decade before he made a film in the United States again. After making the critically acclaimed, underseen Highway Patrolman Read More

Homage

Actors: Blythe Danner, Frank Whaley, Sheryl Lee, Danny Nucci, Bruce Davison

Synopsis: In the opening moments of this drama, we see a man brutally murder a woman, and in the story that follows, we look back at the events that led up to this tragedy as the killer awaits trial. Archie Landrum (Frank Whaley) is a brilliant mathematician who is socially inept and doesn't interact well Read More

Cafe Society

Actors: Frank Whaley, Peter Gallagher, Lara Flynn Boyle, John Spencer

Synopsis: This urban drama examines the diverse lives of the patrons of a fictional bar for the rich and famous, El Casbah. Among them are the playboy heir to a margarine fortune, Mickey Jelke, and Jack Cale, a handsome actor who has become a new client and works hard to ingratiate himself to others. Using Read More

I.Q.

Actors: Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, Walter Matthau, Lou Jacobi, Gene Saks

Synopsis: Legendary scientist Albert Einstein (played here by Walter Matthau) takes a break from theoretical physics to try to set up his intellectual niece with a handsome auto mechanic in this romantic comedy. The movie's central conceit is that Einstein's brilliance extends to matters of the heart Read More

To Dance with the White Dog

Synopsis: When an elderly woman dies, she decides to take possession of a stray dog's body so as to keep an eye on her widowed husband in this wonderful tale based on the novel by Terry Kay. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Pulp Fiction

Actors: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Bruce Willis

Synopsis: Outrageously violent, time-twisting, and in love with language, Pulp Fiction was widely considered the most influential American movie of the 1990s. Director and co-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino synthesized such seemingly disparate traditions as the syncopated language of David Mamet; the serious Read More

The Desperate Trail

Actors: Sam Elliott, Linda Fiorentino, Craig Sheffer, Frank Whaley

Synopsis: In this western, which combines Old West authenticity with a modern outlook and neo-feminist perspective, Sarah O'Rourke (Linda Fiorentino) is a tough-minded woman who made the mistake of marrying a violent, abusive man. Sarah decides that she can take no more and kills her husband. It's Sarah's Read More

Swimming With Sharks

Actors: Kevin Spacey, Frank Whaley, Michelle Forbes, Benicio Del Toro, Jerry Levine

Synopsis: Originally screened at Telluride as The Buddy Factor, Swimming With Sharks is an uneven but engrossing picture, and a possible warning to anyone with plans to break into the motion-picture business. When Guy (Frank Whaley), a recent film-school graduate with big ideas, takes a job as assistant to Read More

Swing Kids

Actors: Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale, Frank Whaley, Barbara Hershey, Kenneth Branagh

Synopsis: In 1939 Hamburg, Germany, a group of teenagers express their rebellion against Adolph Hitler's Nazi regime through their affection for American swing music, British fashion, and Harlem slang. American and British big-band jazz records are among those banned by the Fuhrer, but the young men Read More

Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald

Actors: Helena Bonham Carter, Frank Whaley, Robert Picardo, Bill Bolender, Brandon Smith

Synopsis: In this drama, the wife of alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald offers her viewpoint on the day of the deadly shooting of President John F. Kennedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Hoffa

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Armand Assante, J.T. Walsh, John C. Reilly

Synopsis: Danny DeVito tries hard to give his biopic Hoffa an epic scope, yet he just misses the mark. Starring Jack Nicholson as Jimmy Hoffa, the film traces the life, career and mysterious disappearance of the labor leader. Hoffa follows the rise of the controversial figure through his early work during Read More

A Midnight Clear

Actors: Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, Arye Gross, Ethan Hawke, Gary Sinise

Synopsis: Based on a novel by William Wharton, A Midnight Clear is set in the Adriennes Forest in December of 1944. A group of American GIs, all of whom have been together a bit too long, cling to the vestiges of their peacetime interests to remain sane. None are brilliant soldiers, though Will Knot Ethan Hawke Read More

Back in the USSR

Actors: Frank Whaley, Natalya Negoda, Roman Polanski, Andrew Divoff, Dey Young

Synopsis: In this first American film to be shot entirely in Moscow, young vacationing American Archer Sloan (Frank Whaley) gets involved in the theft of a rare religious icon. The "hot-potatoed" icon lands in Sloan's possession and one of the underworld bad guys involved in the theft is murdered. Sloan Read More

JFK

Actors: Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman

Synopsis: The November 22, 1963, assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy shocked the nation and the world. The brisk investigation of that murder conducted under the guidance of Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren distressed many observers, even though subsequent careful investigations have been Read More

Career Opportunities

Actors: Frank Whaley, Jennifer Connelly, Dermot Mulroney, Kieran Mulroney, John M. Jackson, Barry Corbin

Synopsis: John Hughes strip-mines familiar terrain -- in this case his own past successes -- in this comedy that Hughes produced and scripted, directed by Bryan Gordon. Frank Whaley stars as Jim Dodge, a 21-year-old con-man who goes from job to job but likes to put on a facade of success. As Career Read More

The Doors

Actors: Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan, Frank Whaley, Kevin Dillon

Synopsis: Val Kilmer delivers what was considered one of 1991's best performances as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's hallucinatory bio-pic of the seminal 1960s rock group The Doors. Stone cuts a jagged swath through Morrison's life, starting with a childhood memory where Morrison sees an elderly Indian dying Read More

The Freshman

Actors: Matthew Broderick, Marlon Brando, Bruno Kirby, Penelope Ann Miller, Frank Whaley, Paul Benedict

Synopsis: In this farcical comedy, Matthew Broderick plays Clark Kellogg, an aspiring director who arrives in New York City to attend film school. However, moments after he arrives in the city, he's robbed by Victor Ray (Bruno Kirby), leaving him no money for the $700 in books required by his instructor Read More

Flying Blind

Born on the Fourth of July

Actors: Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava, Kyra Sedgwick, Brian Larkin, Willem Dafoe

Synopsis: The second of three films by co-writer/director Oliver Stone to explore the effects of the Vietnam War (Platoon and Heaven and Earth are the others), Born On The Fourth Of July tells the true story of Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise), a patriotic, All-American small town athlete who shocks his family by Read More

Little Monsters

Actors: Fred Savage, Howie Mandel, Rick Ducommun, Daniel Stern, Margaret Whitton

Synopsis: This comic fantasy stars Howie Mandell as a monster who lives under a little boy's bed. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Field of Dreams

Actors: Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Burt Lancaster

Synopsis: "If you build it, he will come." That's the ethereal message that inspires Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) to construct a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. At first, "he" seems to be the ghost of disgraced ballplayer Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), who materializes on Read More

Cold Dog Soup

Actors: Randy Quaid, Frank Whaley, Christine Harnos, Sheree North, Nancy Kwan

Synopsis: In this black comedy starring Randy Quaid, a dead dog, a red-hot date, and a Zen-quoting cabbie with strange connections provide the ingredients for the most frustrating night in poor Michael Latchmer's heretofore dull life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Unconquered

Synopsis: This biopic follows physically challenged Richmond Flowers Jr. as he overcomes his difficulties and the conflicts caused by his father's activism in the civil rights movement, and becomes a famous college athlete. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Ironweed

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Carroll Baker, Michael O'Keefe, Diane Venora

Synopsis: Based on the William Kennedy novel of the same name Ironweed is set in the waning years of the Depression. Jack Nicholson plays Francis Phelan, a washed-up ballplayer (a onetime infielder for the Washington Senators) who deserted his family back in the 1910s when he accidentally killed his infant Read More