Lawrence Tierney Filmography

Armageddon

Actors: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck, Will Patton

Synopsis: Michael Bay (The Rock) directed this science fiction action thriller in the When Worlds Collide tradition. After astronomy students discover a comet-asteroid collision, an asteroid fragment "the size of the Super Dome" threatens. It's destroyed by a secret USA defense in space, but a large chunk Read More

Southie

Actors: Donnie Wahlberg, Rose McGowan, Anne Meara, James Cummings, Amanda Peet

Synopsis: "Southie" is common usage in Massachusetts for a resident of South Boston. John Shea directed and co-scripted (with James Cummings and Dave McLaughlin) this low-budget crime drama which won the American Independent Award at the 1998 Seattle Film Festival. Out of money and out of luck, Danny Quinn (Donnie Wahlberg Read More

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 116: Business as Usual

Synopsis: Quark's unquenchable thirst for profits has potentially deadly consquences this time around, as Quark's cousin Gaila (John Pais) gets tied up with ruthless arms dealer Hagath (Steven Berkoff), who is selling weapons that could very well bring about the Apocalypse. Never one to turn down a Read More

2 Days in the Valley

Actors: Danny Aiello, Greg Cruttwell, Jeff Daniels, James Spader, Teri Hatcher, Glenne Headly, Charlize Theron

Synopsis: A variety of crooks, losers, and working stiffs living in the shadow of Hollywood find their various personal crises overlapping in this intricately woven melodrama. Lee Woods (James Spader) is a cold-blooded hit man and Dosmo Pizzo (Danny Aiello) a soft-at-heart gangster; they've been sent to Read More

Ben Johnson: Third Cowboy on the Right

Synopsis: Oscar-winning character actor Ben Johnson was never as well known as other stars, and yet for many industry insiders, he was the epitome of cowboy actors. Of Cherokee and Irish heritage, Johnson was born in Oklahoma and became a cowboy at age eleven. He grew up to become the only movie cowboy to Read More

ER: Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Synopsis: Fresh from the recently closed South Side hospital, new ER chief of staff Anspaugh (John Aylward) imperiously asserts his authority by imposing patient quotas on each doctor. Though they resent Anspaugh, the staff is more politely inclined to the other South Side expatriates, doctors Abby Keaton (Glenne Headly Read More

A Kiss Goodnight

Actors: Al Corley, Paula Trickey, Mark Moses, Lawrence Tierney, Sydney Walsh

Synopsis: In the tradition of Fatal Attraction, this thriller follows an obsessive man as he stalks a the woman with whom he had a brief, passionate affair. Matilda, a young advertising executive, had a lot of fun and hot sex with Kurt whom she met in a bar while her boyfriend, Michael, was away working as Read More

Junior

Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Emma Thompson, Frank Langella, Pamela Reed

Synopsis: Ultimate manly man Arnold Schwarzenegger learns what it's like to be an expectant mother in director Ivan Reitman's high-concept comedy. Schwarzenegger plays Dr. Hess, a medical researcher working on a revolutionary drug to help mothers carry endangered infants to term. When government regulations Read More

Fatal Passion

Synopsis: A beautiful and charismatic young artist is the prime suspect in a series of bizarre missing-persons cases in this thriller which proves that some art is worth dying for. A series of men have gone missing from the local nightclub scene, and Detective Wilder (Jim Hanks) is determined to crack the Read More

Eddie Presley

Actors: Duane Whitaker, Roscoe Lee Browne, Clu Gulager, Stacie Bourgeois

Synopsis: Eddie Presley (Duane Whitaker} is a security guard who, like his lifetime hero, is slightly overweight these days. Formerly, he occasionally worked as an Elvis impersonator. Recently he has had rather a rough time, but his spirits have improved on learning that he will have a chance to revive his Read More

Casualties of Love: The "Long Island Lolita" Story

Actors: Alyssa Milano, Jack Scalia, Phyllis Lyons, Lawrence Tierney, Leo Rossi

Synopsis: Based on a true event, this is the account of the Buttafuoco couple, whose names were splattered all over the media in the early '90s after the alleged teen-aged playmate of Mr. B., Amy Fischer (who claimed it was Mr. B's will), shot Mrs. B in the head (though the latter miraculously lived). This Read More

Reservoir Dogs

Actors: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney

Synopsis: In 1992, Reservoir Dogs transformed Quentin Tarantino practically overnight from an obscure, unproduced screenwriter and part-time actor to the most influential new filmmaker of the 1990s. The story looks at what happens before and after (but not during) a botched jewelry store robbery organized Read More

Wizards of the Demon Sword

Actors: Lyle Waggoner, Russ Tamblyn, Blake Bahner, Heidi Paine, Jay Richardson

Synopsis: This low-budget Troma film makes fun of low-budget sword and sorcery movies. The story centers on the battle for the mythical Sword of Aktar and its kidnapped keeper Ulric. But for a few stop-motion prehistoric creatures, the special effects are less than stellar. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

City of Hope

Actors: Vincent Spano, Joe Morton, Tony Lo Bianco, Anthony John Denison, Barbara Williams

Synopsis: A city pulses with racial problems, political corruption, and small-time crime in this ambitious microcosm of urban life, written and directed by John Sayles. Nick Rinaldi (Vincent Spano), a lost soul usually high on drink and drugs, has spent his life in one New Jersey city, getting free rides Read More

The Runestone

Actors: Peter Riegert, Joan Severance, William Hickey, Tim Ryan, Mitchell Laurance

Synopsis: When an archaeologist uncovers an ancient Norse power stone, he returns with it to his New York City home. Too bad for the relic-digger, because it's not long before an evil spirit is projected from the stone into the archaeologist, turning him into a hairy beast. And too bad for the people of Read More

Red

Synopsis: Movie tough-guy Lawrence Tierney stars in this film version of the famous Red Tapes. A young prankster repeatedly telephones a local bar where Red is the bartender. He asks to speak to such non-existent people as "Ben Dover", "Stu Pidd," "Pepe Roney" and others. Instead of just dismissing it, Red Read More

Dillinger

Actors: Mark Harmon, Sherilyn Fenn, Will Patton, Patricia Arquette, Vince Edwards

Synopsis: Dillinger is a messily directed, haphazardly edited TV movie, which takes a revisionist squint at the criminal career of the 1930s' Public Enemy Number One. Mark Harmon captures some of the charisma but little of the ruthlessness of John Dillinger, while Sherilyn Fenn gives an anachronistic Read More

Death Merchant

Synopsis: A murderous psycho steals a potentially devastating micro chip and attempts to sell to the enemy in this nuclear-age thriller. That one little chip is so valuable because it has the potential of launching the Third World War. Fortunately, a young G-man is determined to stop him. ~ Sandra Brennan Read More

Why Me?

Actors: Christopher Lambert, Christopher Lloyd, Kim Greist, J.T. Walsh, Michael J. Pollard

Synopsis: In this comedy, the ancient curse of a priceless ruby, known as the Byzantine Fire, comes into play when it is accidentally stolen by a group of thieves, headed by Gus Cardinale (Christopher Lambert). The crooks soon discover that their heist might have been more trouble than it was worth when Read More

The Horror Show

Actors: Lance Henriksen, Brion James, Rita Taggart, DeDee Pfeiffer, Aaron Eisenberg

Synopsis: This muddled attempt at creating a new supernatural serial killer franchise (in the mode of Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series) features perennial movie thug Brion James as sadistic mass murderer Max Jenke, who hacked up more than 100 victims with a meat cleaver before his Read More

The Naked Gun

Actors: Leslie Nielsen, George Kennedy, Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalban, O.J. Simpson

Synopsis: We know we're in a 1988 film when we're invited to laugh at O.J. Simpson in an opening slapstick sequence. We can also pinpoint the year of production when hard-nosed cop Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), during a scuffle with the world's leading dictators, wipes the wine-colored birthmark off the Read More

Hunter: The Black Dahlia

Synopsis: A pile of human bones found at a construction site reopens one of Los Angeles' most notorious unsolved murders: the "Black Dahlia" case of 1947. Veteran movie tough guy Lawrence Tierney) is cast as Doyle, the original investigating detective on the case. Once Doyle has come out of retirement to Read More

Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Big Good-Bye

Synopsis: The Enterprise's Holodeck malfunctions, trapping Captain Picard in a recreation of 1941 San Francisco. In the tradition of the earlier Star Trek episode A Piece of the Action, Picard finds himself smack-dab in the middle of a film noir-style gangster melodrama, with familiar movie stereotypes Read More

Tough Guys Don't Dance

Actors: Ryan O'Neal, Isabella Rossellini, Debra Sandlund, Wings Hauser, John Bedford Lloyd

Synopsis: Norman Mailer wrote and directed this demented film noir, which takes place in a Provincetown of perpetual twilight. Most of the tale, based on his best-selling novel, is told in flashback as Dougy Madden (Lawrence Tierney) pays a visit to his son Tim (Ryan O'Neal). Dougy, a tough ex-bartender, is Read More

From a Whisper to a Scream

Actors: Vincent Price, Clu Gulager, Terry Kiser, Harry Caesar, Rosalind Cash

Synopsis: This horror anthology is hosted by Vincent Price and features a quartet of chilling stories, all of which took place in a single town that seems to inspire people to do horrendous things to each other. The stories contain scenes of graphic violence and considerable gore. The film is also known as Read More

Murphy's Law

Actors: Charles Bronson, Kathleen Wilhoite, Carrie Snodgress, Robert F. Lyons, Angel Tompkins, Richard Romanus

Synopsis: An officer of the law becomes a wanted man while trailing a killer in this crime drama. Jack Murphy (Charles Bronson) is a police detective who helped to put Joan Freeman (Carrie Snodgress), a psychotic murderer, behind bars ten years ago. However, Joan is now back on the street and determined to Read More

Prizzi's Honor

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Anjelica Huston, William Hickey, Robert Loggia

Synopsis: Richard Condon's delicious black comedy was lovingly translated to the screen by legendary director John Huston in one of his last movies. The Prizzis are a powerful family of mobsters, as devoted to their code of honor as they are to bending laws and breaking skulls. Charley Partanna (Jack Nicholson Read More

Silver Bullet

Actors: Gary Busey, Corey Haim, Megan Follows, Everett McGill, Terry O'Quinn

Synopsis: In this undistinguished Stephen King horror adaptation, the good residents of Tarker's Mill are dense enough to ignore or explain away a series of violent deaths until a little boy is torn to pieces while flying his kite after dark. At that point, the men gang up and go into the fog-shrouded woods Read More

Arthur

Actors: Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jill Eikenberry

Synopsis: The ads for Arthur suggested that this was an obnoxious film about an obnoxious man, an eternally drunken millionaire indulging his every whim. Instead, Arthur (Dudley Moore) is a sweet, somewhat pathetic character whose millions have left him lonely and with no motivation in life. When the film Read More

Midnight

Actors: Lawrence Tierney, Melanie Verlin, John Hall, Charles Jackson, Doris Hackney

Synopsis: In this occult horror film, director John Russo, best known for Night of the Living Dead, has created a few twists on the plot of a heroine escaping one evil, only to encounter another, even worse. Some asides on the nature of racism are thrown in for good measure. After Nancy Johnson (Melanie Verlin Read More

The Prowler

Actors: Vicki Dawson, Christopher Goutman, Cindy Weintraub, Farley Granger, John Seitz

Synopsis: In this gory (the special effects are especially well done) slice-n-dicer, the happiness and the sanity of a W.W.II vet is destroyed when he returns home and finds his girl in the arms of another at the town's annual dance. Outraged, he kills both with a pitchfork and the town does not hold the Read More

Never Pick up a Stranger

Synopsis: In this graphic and gory crime drama, a police officer hits the streets to get revenge upon the one who murdered his prostitute girl friend. On video, this is known as Bloodrage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Kirlian Witness

Actors: Nancy Snyder, Joel Colodner, Nancy Boykin, Lawrence Tierney

Synopsis: In this mystery, a woman is telepathically linked to houseplants. That link comes in handy when a plant witnesses the murder of her sister. The film is most interesting for its photography. Many of the striking auras were created using Kirlian photography, which manifests the auras that seem to Read More

Andy Warhol's Bad

Actors: Carroll Baker, Perry King, Susan Tyrrell, Stefania Casini, Cyrinda Foxe

Synopsis: The final film released under the Andy Warhol moniker (which Warhol executive produced) is a much more polished affair than Flesh, Trash or Heat, but preserves the oddball wit and eccentric flair that made those films so memorable. Directed by Warhol film editor Jed Johnson, Andy Warhol's Bad Read More

Abduction

Actors: Judith-Marie Bergan, David Pendleton, Gregory Rozakis, Leif Erickson, Dorothy Malone

Synopsis: If familiar with the Patty Hearst episode, the viewer will likely believe this is a spin-off because it has most of the elements: wealthy white upper-class gal abducted by terrorists and held for big stakes--this time the ransom is the demand that a wealthy-man's palace (a high-rise condominium) Read More

Such Good Friends

Synopsis: Based upon the novel by Lois Gould and adapted (under the pseudonym Esther Dale) by Elaine May, Such Good Friends focuses on Julie Messinger (played by Dyan Cannon), a woman with intense, often wild emotions that are held in check beneath a rather conventional façade. After her chauvinistic and Read More

Custer of the West

Actors: Robert Shaw, Mary Ure, Jeffrey Hunter, Ty Hardin, Kieron Moore

Synopsis: Opening with a montage depicting its subject's Civil War exploits, Custer of the West carries us across four years of fighting in less than four minutes of screen time. The Civil War ended, George Armstrong Custer (Robert Shaw) longs for action and to hold onto his rank of general, so General Phil Read More

Exorcism at Midnight

Synopsis: A witch doctor is blamed for a series of murders in this thriller. The detective investigating the deaths discovers that the voodoo man is actually a servant who does his devilish work in a deep, dark basement. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

A Child Is Waiting

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Gena Rowlands, Steven Hill, Bruce Ritchey

Synopsis: Produced by Stanley Kramer, A Child is Waiting is set in an institution for the mentally handicapped, with many actual residents playing supporting and bit roles. Doctor Burt Lancaster and instructor Judy Garland often find themselves at odds over teaching methods, with Garland preferring an Read More

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Death of a Cop

Actors: Victor Jory, Peter Brown, Lawrence Tierney, Paul Hartman, John Marley

Synopsis: Victor Jory stars as veteran police officer Paul Reardon, who vows to avenge the murder of his rookie-cop son, Philip (Peter Brown). Although ordered by the higher-ups to lay off, Paul is determined to bring drug kingpin Herbie Lane (Lawrence Tierney), the man responsible for Peter's death in a Read More

Singing in the Dark

Actors: Moishe Oysher, Joey Adams, Phyllis Hill, Lawrence Tierney, Kay Medford

Synopsis: Yiddish Theater favorite Moishe Oysher heads the cast of the English-language Singing in the Dark. Oysher plays Leo, a concentration-camp survivor suffering from amnesia. He manages to ayed by Evelyne Cormand (acting) and Annie Feibermeyer (singing), and so forth. Because director H. W. Kolm-Vetee Read More

The Female Jungle

Actors: Lawrence Tierney, John Carradine, Jayne Mansfield, Burt Kaiser, Kathleen Crowley

Synopsis: Held back from release for nearly a year, The Female Jungle finally received bookings on the strength of its "star", Jayne Mansfield. In fact, Jayne plays the relatively minor role of a trashy nympho; the emphasis is on neurotic police dectective Lawrence Tierney. Circumstantial evidence suggests Read More

The Steel Cage

Actors: Paul Kelly, Maureen O'Sullivan, John Ireland, Lawrence Tierney, Arthur Franz

Synopsis: Like its predecessor Duffy of San Quentin, The Steel Cage is made up of episodes from a never-telecast TV series based on the career of progressive prison warden Clinton T. Duffy. Paul Kelly plays Duffy, while his wife is portrayed by Maureen O'Sullivan. Divided into three separate playlets, the Read More

The Greatest Show on Earth

Actors: Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth is a lavish tribute to circuses, featuring three intertwining plotlines concerning romance and rivalry beneath the big top. DeMille's film includes spectacular action sequences, including a show-stopping train wreck. The Greatest Show on Earth won Read More

The Bushwackers

Actors: John Ireland, Wayne Morris, Lawrence Tierney, Dorothy Malone, Lon Chaney, Jr.

Synopsis: Also known as The Rebel, The Bushwackers was coscripted by director Rodney Amateau and actor Tom Gries (later the director of such big-budgeters as Will Penny). Tired of senseless bloodshed, civil war veteran John Ireland vows never to use a gun again. This proves difficult when Ireland runs afoul Read More

The Hoodlum

Actors: Lawrence Tierney, Allene Roberts, Marjorie Riordan, Lisa Golm, Edward Tierney

Synopsis: The Hoodlum is tailor-made for the roughneck talents of actor Lawrence Tierney. The film details the rise and fall of a habitual criminal, and the havoc he wreaks on the lives of his loved ones. Things really go downhill when the "hero" (Tierney) seduces and abandons his brother's sweetheart (Allene Roberts Read More

Best of the Badmen

Actors: Robert Ryan, Claire Trevor, Jack Buetel, Robert Preston, Walter Brennan

Synopsis: Though RKO Radio Pictures was, in 1951, still faithful to the concept of "B" westerns starring Tim Holt, the studio was more than capable of turning out an "A" oater from time to time. Best of the Badmen stars Robert Ryan as a former Union officer who persuades a fictional vigilante group which Read More

Shakedown

Actors: Howard Duff, Brian Donlevy, Peggy Dow, Lawrence Tierney, Bruce Bennett

Synopsis: Two-bit photographer Howard Duff wins a big newspaper assignment by romancing his lady boss (Peggy Dow). Duff is sent to take a picture of criminal Brian Donlevy, who doesn't like to be captured on celluloid. Donlevy takes a liking to Duff and asks him to frame one of the crook's less cooperative Read More

Kill or Be Killed

Actors: Lawrence Tierney, George Coulouris, Marissa O'Brien, Rudolph Anders

Synopsis: Kill or be Killed is a leisurely crime caper, largely filmed in Mexico. Playing a sympathetic role for a change, Lawrence Tierney stars as Robert Warren, a tough but honest lug who is framed on a murder charge. Hiding out at a jungle plantation, Warren falls in love with Maria (Marissa O'Brien) Read More

Bodyguard

Actors: Lawrence Tierney, Priscilla Lane, Phillip Reed, June Clayworth, Elizabeth Risdon

Synopsis: Granite-jawed Lawrence Tierney is the Bodyguard in this second-echelon noir thriller. Invited to resign from the LA police, short-tempered Mike Carter (Tierney) hires on to protect wealthy dowager Eugenia Dyson (Elizabeth Risdon). Before the film has reached its halfway point, Carter has been Read More

The Devil Thumbs a Ride

Actors: Lawrence Tierney, Ted North, Nan Leslie, Betty Lawford, Andrew Tombes

Synopsis: Not by any means a great film, The Devil Thumbs a Ride nonetheless has an indefinable audience allure that sucks the viewer into its labyrinthine storyline and doesn't let go until the fade-out. Lawrence Tierney plays Steve Morgan, a charming but utterly sociopathic criminal who has just robbed Read More

Born to Kill

Actors: Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor, Walter Slezak, Phillip Terry, Audrey Long

Synopsis: Somehow the titles of the films of hardcase actor Lawrence Tierney seemed to be extensions of the man's personality, as witness such films as The Devil Thumbs a Ride and Born to Kill. In the latter picture, Tierney starts the ball rolling by committing a double murder in a jealous pique. Claire Trevor Read More

Badman's Territory

Actors: Randolph Scott, Ann Richards, George "Gabby" Hayes, Ray Collins, James Warren

Synopsis: In this is '40s western a U.S. marshal chases a band of big-name bandits into no-man's territory (land outside of U.S. government jurisdiction) as he's trying to locate his little brother. He ends up facing off with none other than the James Boys, the Daltons and other notorious fellows. Badman's Read More

San Quentin

Actors: Lawrence Tierney, Barton MacLane, Harry Shannon, Marian Carr, Carol Forman

Synopsis: This prison reform-minded melodrama from B-movie director Gordon Douglas opens with an introduction from Lewis F. Lawes, the real-life prison warden turned author of 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932). Lawrence Tierney stars as Jim Roland, one of the founding members of the Inmate's Welfare League Read More

Step by Step

Actors: Lawrence Tierney, Anne Jeffreys, Lowell Gilmore, George Cleveland, Jason Robards, Sr.

Synopsis: In this espionage drama, a WW II veteran teams up with a government secretary and begins hunting a gang of Nazi agents who are seeking the secret documents carried by the G-man they killed. The two heroes are hindered on their hunt by fellow government agents who believe the two are responsible Read More

Back to Bataan

Actors: John Wayne, Anthony Quinn, Beulah Bondi, Fely Franquelli, Richard Loo

Synopsis: Edward Dmytryk's Back to Bataan stars John Wayne as Colonel Joe Madden. After General MacArthur decides to follow his order and leave the Philippines, Madden agrees to stay behind and organize an underground resistance movement. Anthony Quinn plays Andres Bonifacio, a captain who falls in love Read More

Mama Loves Papa

Actors: Leon Errol, Elizabeth Risdon, Edwin Maxwell, Emory Parnell, Charles Halton

Synopsis: A loose remake of the 1935 Charlie Ruggles-Mary Boland comedy of the same name, Mama Loves Papa stars Elisabeth Risdon in the title role. Thanks to the efforts of his social-climbing wife Jessie (Risdon), furniture store employee Wilbur Todd (Leon Errol) is tossed headfirst into the world of Read More

Those Endearing Young Charms

Actors: Robert Young, Laraine Day, Ann Harding, Marc Cramer, Anne Jeffreys

Synopsis: Robert Young stars as a WW2 pilot named Hank, who accompanies his pal Jerry (Bill Williams, in his film debut) on a furlough. Jerry introduces his girlfriend Helen (Laraine Day) to Hank, a notorious and unrepentent womanizer. In a twinkling, Hank tries to steal Helen away from Jerry-but succeeds Read More

Dillinger

Actors: