Jack GilfordFilmography

Arthur 2: On the Rocks

Actors: Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Paul Benedict

Synopsis: In this sequel to the 1981 hit comedy Arthur, the story picks up where it left off with the bibulous millionaire hero (Dudley Moore) marrying poverty-stricken Linda Marolla (Liza Minnelli) instead of going through with a prearranged wealthy marriage. The vengeful father (Stephen Elliott) of the Read More

Cocoon: The Return

Actors: Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Jack Gilford, Steve Guttenberg, Maureen Stapleton

Synopsis: Cocoon 2: The Return, like most sequels, relies a bit too heavily on one's familiarity with the first film. Without dwelling too long on Cocoon #1, we can observe that it ended with a group of senior citizens heading for the distant planet of Antarea, hoping to find a new, rewarding and elongated Read More

Reading Rainbow: Purple Coat

Actors: LeVar Burton

Synopsis: The Purple Coat, written by Amy Hest and read by Jack Gilford, tells the story of Gabby, who tires of the new blue coat made by her grandfather every fall. For once, she wants a different color. With clothing in mind, host LeVar Burton goes to the Fashion Institute of Technology and the garment Read More

Young Again

Night Court: An Old Flame

Synopsis: Jack Gilford) guest stars as Marty Ratner, an old flame of caustic, chain-smoking court matron Selma (Selma Diamond). Marty wants to make up for lost time and whisk Selma off to Florida, but she's heard that song before. Meanwhile, in Harry's absence, the courtroom is presided over by Judge Arnold Read More

Hostage Flight

Synopsis: Made for television, Hostage Flight fomented a well-publicized controversy when first aired by NBC on November 17, 1985. On a domestic flight headed for Detroit, 65 passengers are held hostage by four international terrorists. The demands of the hijackers are simple: Release their imprisoned Read More

Cocoon

Actors: Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Jack Gilford, Steve Guttenberg, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Gwen Verdon

Synopsis: Cocoon is a warm-hearted science-fiction fable that avoids becoming overly corny thanks to the performances of its mostly senior cast. Wilford Brimley, Don Ameche, and Hume Cronyn are three old-timers who sneak out of their retirement home a few days a week to swim in the large pool on an Read More

Anna to the Infinite Power

Actors: Martha Byrne, Dina Merrill, Jack Gilford, Mark Patton, Jack Ryland, Donna Mitchell, Loretta Devine

Synopsis: A bratty but brilliant preteen girl discovers that she's the clone of a long-dead scientist in this story of self-discovery and adventure, which appeared on HBO in the early '80s. Anna Hart (Martha Byrne) gets top grades at her elite private school, but she lies, steals, and bad-mouths her Read More

Happy

Actors: Jack Gilford

Synopsis: Roger Hanover (Dom DeLuise) once enjoyed TV stardom as "Happy the Clown." Now, however, Roger is a has-been, reduced to private parties and store openings. Even so, he remains a hero in the eyes of his adoring son Roger Jr. (played, appropriately enough, by David DeLuise). To prove his true worth Read More

Hotel

Actors: Bette Davis, Morgan Fairchild, Shirley Jones, Erin Moran, Mel Tormé

Synopsis: Arthur Hailey's novel Hotel had already served as the inspiration for a 1967 theatrical film when this TV pilot came along on September 21, 1983. Bette Davis stars as Laura Trent, the entrenched owner of the Hotel St. Gregory (moved from the novel's New Orleans to San Francisco, to allow for Read More

Taxi: Like Father, Like Son

Synopsis: Jack Gilford returns in the role of Joe Rieger, estranged father of cab driver Alex (Judd Hirsch). Much against his better judgment, Alex agrees to meet Joe for lunch at Mario's (the cabbie's favorite hangout), whereupon dear old dad tries to push his son into a date with a stranger named Karen (Barbara Babcock Read More

Goldie and the Boxer Go to Hollywood

Actors: Sheila MacRae, Jack Gilford, Stubby Kaye, O.J. Simpson, Melissa Michaelsen, Roger Bowen

Synopsis: This 1981 sequel to the 1979 made-for-TVer Goldie and the Boxer once again stars O.J. Simpson and Melissa Michaelsen as, respectively, boxer Joe Gallegher and Joe's 10-year-old manager Goldie Kellog. When Joe incurs the wrath of an evil promoter, he and Goldie high-tail it to Hollywood. They take Read More

Caveman

Actors: Ringo Starr, Dennis Quaid, Shelley Long, Jack Gilford, John Matuszak

Synopsis: Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr plays a prehistoric, social outcast who, along with other misfits, forms his own tribe and finds various comic adventures. This spoof is mostly without dialogue besides the expected neanthropic grunt. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Cheaper to Keep Her

Actors: Mac Davis, Tovah Feldshuh, Art Metrano, Ian McShane, Priscilla Lopez

Synopsis: Marred by prejudice and derogatory stereoptypes of gays and Hispanics, this subpar drama by Ken Annakin does not treat women or men well either. Bill (Mac Davis) is a detective who has just been hired by a tough lawyer, K.D. Locke (Tovah Feldshuh) to check up on some deadbeat ex-spouses who are Read More

Wholly Moses!

Actors: Dudley Moore, Laraine Newman, James Coco, Paul Sand, Jack Gilford

Synopsis: A broadly farcical comedy that attempts to ape the wickedly funny, Bible-spoofing humor of the previous year's Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), this all-star rib-tickler top-lines Dudley Moore as Herschel, a historical also-ran whose life so closely parallels that of Moses that Herschel begins Read More

Max

Synopsis: As an aspiring actress practices for her role in a Broadway play, she is told by a night watchman that she would be better off marrying a doctor. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Taxi: Honor Thy Father

Actors: Jack Gilford, Joan Hackett, Ian Wolfe, Richard Beauchamp, Margaret Ladd

Synopsis: Alex (Judd Hirsch) is surprisingly unaffected when his sister Charlotte (Joan Hackett) shows up with the news that their father, Joe, has suffered a near-fatal heart attack. It soon develops that Alex has never forgiven Joe for running out on his family years earlier. But when he shows up in the Read More

Tubby the Tuba

Synopsis: A corpulent wind instrument finds excitement in this animated adaptation of a beloved children's story. The tale features the voices of Dick Van Dyke, Pearl Bailey, Jack Gilford and Hermoine Gingold. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

All in the Family: Archie Finds a Friend

Actors: Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Jack Gilford

Synopsis: Jack Gilford delivers a poignant performance as Bernard Bernstein, an elderly Jewish watchmaker who has spent a lifetime vainly chasing rainbows. Archie befriends Bernstein in hopes of making vast quantities of money from the little watchmaker's latest "sure-fire" invention. It isn't until Archie Read More

Harry and Walter Go to New York

Actors: James Caan, Elliott Gould, Michael Caine, Diane Keaton, Charles Durning, Lesley Ann Warren

Synopsis: Harry and Walter Go to New York was born of the theory that, the more stars and money that you throw into a film, the better the film will be. The theory has seldom been proven true, and it certainly wasn't in this case. Harry (James Caan) and Walter (Elliot Gould) are a third-rate vaudeville Read More

Save the Tiger

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman, Norman Burton, Patricia Smith

Synopsis: Star Jack Lemmon was so eager to see Save the Tiger make it to the big screen that he waived his salary rather than have the film exceed its tiny budget. Lemmon portrays "the great American tragedy" as upwardly mobile garment manufacturer Harry Stoner, whose underhanded business tactics are Read More

They Might Be Giants

Actors: Staats Cotsworth, George C. Scott, Joanne Woodward, Jack Gilford, Lester Rawlins, Rue McClanahan

Synopsis: George C. Scott stars as Justin Playfair, a retired, widowed judge who labors under the delusion that he's Sherlock Holmes. Feigning concern, Playfair's greedy brother Blevins (Lester Rawlins) hires psychologist Dr. Mildred Watson (Joanne Woodward) to certify that Justin is insane--and in so doing Read More

Catch-22

Actors: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkel, Jack Gilford, Jon Voight

Synopsis: Director Mike Nichols and writer-actor Buck Henry followed their enormous hit The Graduate (1967) with this timely adaptation of Joseph Heller's satiric antiwar novel. Haunted by the death of a young gunner, all-too-sane Capt. Yossarian (Alan Arkin) wants out of the rest of his WW II bombing Read More

The Fixer

Actors: Alan Bates, Dirk Bogarde, Georgia Brown, Hugh Griffith, Elizabeth Hartman

Synopsis: John Frankenheimer directed this intense film adaptation of the Bernard Malamud novel. During the days of Czarist Russia, a poor but educated Jew, Yakov Bok (Alan Bates) is abandoned by his wife Raisl (Carol White). Yakov decides to leave his small village and travel to Kiev. Since it is the time Read More

Who's Minding the Mint?

Actors: Jim Hutton, Dorothy Provine, Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, Walter Brennan

Synopsis: Harry Lucas (Jim Hutton) is a U.S. Mint employee who scrambles to recover $50,000 he accidentally destroyed in this underrated comedy of errors. After he mistakenly throws the money down the garbage disposal, a frantic Harry recruits retired mint employee Pop Gillis (Walter Brennan) to cook up a Read More

Enter Laughing

Actors: José Ferrer, Reni Santoni, Shelley Winters, Elaine May, Jack Gilford

Synopsis: Carl Reiner's semi-autobiographical novel Enter Laughing makes a largely successful transition to the screen. Reni Santoni plays the Reiner character, here named David Kolowitz. A machinist's apprentice in Depression-era New York, David dreams of becoming the new Ronald Colman. Defying the wishes Read More

The Incident

Actors: Tony Musante, Martin Sheen, Beau Bridges, Jack Gilford, Ed McMahon, Thelma Ritter

Synopsis: Martin Sheen may be the Grey Eminence of movies nowadays, but back in 1967 he often as not played switchblade-wielding punks. This he does, in the company of Tony Musante, in The Incident. After mugging a helpless old man, Sheen and Musante take over a subway car, terrorizing its occupants. In Stagecoach Read More

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Actors: Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton, Jack Gilford, Michael Crawford

Synopsis: Director Richard Lester uses the Burt Shevelove/Larry Gelbart/Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical hit as a launching pad for some of his wildest slapstick gaggery. Zero Mostel repeats his stage role as Pseudolus, the cunning Roman slave who'll do anything to win his freedom. The plot hinges on three Read More

Mister Buddwing

Actors: James Garner, Jean Simmons, Suzanne Pleshette, Katharine Ross, Angela Lansbury

Synopsis: James Garner plays a man who awakens in Central Park with no memories at all. This drama chronicles his search for his identity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Daydreamer

Actors: Cyril Ritchard, Paul O'Keefe, Jack Gilford, Ray Bolger, Margaret Hamilton, Hayley Mills, Burl Ives, Terry-Thomas, Victor Borge, Ed Wynn, Boris Karloff, Sessue Hayakawa

Synopsis: Four stories from Hans Christian Andersen appear in The Daydreamer, a feature using the Animagic process that uses live action combined with stop-motion puppets. Included are "The Little Mermaid," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "Thumbelina," and "The Garden Of Paradise." Songs and dances compliment Read More

Summer in New York

Synopsis: New York City is celebrated in this comedy special featuring sketches, songs and dance numbers by Broadway star Carol Haney along with a cameo appearance by the cast of Silvers' Sgt. Bilko series. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

All Star Revue [TV Series]

Synopsis: A comedy variety show with a rotating roster of hosts and celebrity guests. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Reckless Age

Actors: Gloria Jean, Henry Stephenson, Kathleen Howard, Franklin Pangborn, Andrew Tombes

Synopsis: Reckless Age is a by-the-numbers Universal musical, elevated by the presence of perky songstress Gloria Jean. The star plays Linda Wadsworth, the granddaughter of fabulously wealthy department-store magnate J. H. Wadsworth (Henry Stephenson). Rebelling against Wadsworth's close-minded tyranny Read More

Hey, Rookie

Actors: Ann Miller, Larry Parks, Joe Sawyer, Jimmy Little

Synopsis: Musical star Ann Miller plays a Broadway leading lady coaxed into reteaming with Larry Parks, her former producer. Parks is now a lowly Army G.I., anxious to produce a show for the troops--with a 200 dollar budget! This being a wartime musical, Ann Miller succumbs to Patriotism and stars in Parks' Read More