Melinda DillonFilmography

Adam & Steve

Actors: Melinda Dillon, Julie Hagerty, Sally Kirkland, Paul Sand, Craig Chester, Malcolm Gets, Parker Posey, Chris Kattan

Synopsis: A forgotten one-night-stand from the 1980s sets the stage for romance fifteen years removed in director Craig Chester's urban romantic comedy starring Parker Posey, Craig Chester, Malcolm Gets, and Chris Kattan. Despite the fact that neither Adam (Chester) nor Steve (Gets) recall the Read More

Debating Robert Lee

Actors: Daniel Letterle, Beau Bridges, Kaley Cuoco, Dale Midkiff

Synopsis: A group of typical high-school students finds their foundations shaken and their beliefs challenged by a newly arrived debate teacher who makes it his mission to explore their innermost feelings on the subject of life and death. The setting is Palos Verdes, CA, and the teacher is Robert Lee (Dale Midkiff Read More

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Blood

Synopsis: Despite overwhelming evidence, elderly Jenny Rogers (Melinda Dillon)--whom the SVU team suspects of dealing in illegal painkillers--insists that her son Kevin (Matt Schulze) is not physically abusing her. Even after Jenny's daughter-in-law Carol (Christine Elise) turns up murdered, the old woman Read More

A Painted House

Actors: Logan Lerman, Scott Glenn, Robert Sean Leonard, Arija Bareikis, Melinda Dillon

Synopsis: Based on John Grisham's semi-autobiographical novel (which he regarded as his favorite because it "contains no lawyers"), A Painted House is set in the rural community of Oak Park, AR, in 1952. The story is told through the eyes of ten-year-old Luke Chandler (Logan Lerman), who lives and works on Read More

Cowboy Up

Actors: Pete Postlethwaite, Molly Ringwald, Marcus Thomas, Kiefer Sutherland, Daryl Hannah

Synopsis: The exciting and dangerous world of professional bull riding provides the backdrop for this drama about the pull between romantic love and a brother's loyalty. Ely Braxton (Marcus Thomas) dreams of being a star on the professional rodeo circuit, and even though he's learned from experience that Read More

Magnolia

Actors: Jason Robards, Jr., Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy

Synopsis: Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson followed his critical and commercial breakthrough Boogie Nights with this wildly ambitious story of lives intertwining on a single day in California's San Fernando Valley. Earl Partridge (Jason Robards), a successful producer of television game shows, left his Read More

The Effects of Magic

Actors: Jacobo Morales, Kathy Bates, Melinda Dillon

Synopsis: In this family oriented fantasy drama, a boy discovers his long-lost father is actually a gifted magician. After father and son are reunited, they discover a notorious criminal is on the magician's trail, determined to wrestle away his secret powers. The Effects of Magic stars brothers David Read More

Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story

Actors: Moira Kelly, Martin Sheen, Boyd Kestner, Lenny Von Dohlen

Synopsis: This biographical drama was based on the true story of Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic who devoted much of her life to working with the poor and homeless on New York City's Lower East Side. Born in an Episcopalian household in 1897, Day (played by Moira Kelly) was a free-thinking agnostic in her Read More

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

Actors: Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo, Stockard Channing, Blythe Danner

Synopsis: Patrick Swayze plays Vida Boheme, a classy and long-reigning drag queen. With his understudy Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes), Vida wins a New York drag stage contest and an all-expenses-paid trip to Hollywood. But when Miss Chi Chi Rodriguez (John Leguizamo) cries at having lost the contest Read More

How to Make an American Quilt

Actors: Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft, Maya Angelou, Ellen Burstyn, Kate Nelligan, Jean Simmons

Synopsis: A young woman at a crossroads in her life finds herself receiving plenty of advice from her older and wiser counterparts in this drama. Finn Dodd (Winona Ryder) is a graduate student trying to finish up her doctoral thesis on women's folk art while deciding if she should marry her fiancé Sam (Dermot Mulroney Read More

Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge

Actors: Ashley Judd, Kathleen York

Synopsis: The struggle of country music's mother-daughter duo The Judds is told in this made-for-television drama. Kathleen York stars as Naomi Judd (then known as Diana Judd) a single mother of two daughters, who turned to music as way to help positively influence her increasingly belligerent and Read More

State of Emergency

Actors: Joe Mantegna, Lynn Whitfield, Melinda Dillon

Synopsis: Set in a busy inner-city emergency room, this made-for-cable television drama follows the struggles of a world-weary surgeon who takes on the hospital administrators whose budget-cutting is affecting his ability to adequately care for his patients. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Confessions: Two Faces of Evil

Actors: Jason Bateman, James Earl Jones, James Wilder

Synopsis: Confessions: Two Faces of Evil is a "ripped from today's headlines" TV movie. Jason Bateman and James Wilder play a couple of mixed-up youths, both of whom confess to killing a cop. Investigator James Earl Jones is assigned to separate fact from fancy. Commendably, the film avoids concentrating on Read More

Sioux City

Actors: Lou Diamond Phillips, Ralph Waite, Melinda Dillon, Salli Richardson, Adam Roarke

Synopsis: A young Lakota Sioux, adopted by a wealthy Jewish couple in Beverly Hills, gets in touch with his cultural roots and solves a mystery in this thriller. Because of his upbringing, Jesse Rainfeather Goldman knows almost nothing of Native American traditions. He is doing his internship when he Read More

Demolition Man

Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, Benjamin Bratt

Synopsis: The plot of this action film begins in 1996, with Los Angeles in a violence-crazed conflagration. One of the LAPD's most notorious cops, John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), known as "the demolition man," is in hot pursuit of blonde-haired psychopath Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), who is so nasty he Read More

Judgment Day: The John List Story

Actors: Robert Blake, Beverly D'Angelo, Carroll Baker, Alice Krige, Melinda Dillon

Synopsis: This fact-based made-for-television drama chronicles a 17-year-long police investigation of John List, a New Jersey accountant who became a mass murderer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Captain America

Actors: Matt Salinger, Melinda Dillon, Ronny Cox, Ned Beatty, Darren McGavin, Michael Nouri

Synopsis: After a scientist creates superhuman warrior Red Skull for the Nazis during WW II, she defects and does the same for the U.S.-- injecting a polio victim to transform him into the titular heroic beefcake. Forty years after a confrontation which left Captain America frozen in Alaska, he is found and Read More

The Prince of Tides

Actors: Nick Nolte, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner, Kate Nelligan, Jeroen Krabbé

Synopsis: Barbra Streisand directed and stars in this love story about two people of dissimilar backgrounds who form a connection based on their unhappy experiences. Adapted from the novel by Pat Conroy, the story concerns Tom Wingo (Nick Nolte), a rudderless, unemployed football coach. Stuck in a loveless Read More

Spontaneous Combustion

Synopsis: In this horror outing, a secret government experiment produces a man capable of using his mental powers to start fires. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Staying Together

Actors: Sean Astin, Stockard Channing, Melinda Dillon, Jim Haynie, Levon Helm

Synopsis: After winning an Academy Award for their documentary Down and Out in America (1986), actress-director Lee Grant and her producer-husband Joseph Feury filmed this comedy-drama based on an original script by playwright Monte Merrick. In a small Southern town, the McDermott family has owned and Read More

Nightbreaker

Actors: Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Lea Thompson, Melinda Dillon, Joe Pantoliano

Synopsis: Father-and-son actors Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez star in the made-for-TV movie Nightbreaker. The film was first telecast March 9, 1989, two months after the debut of another TNT Cable Service "original", Finish Line. The earlier film also starred a father and son, James and Josh Brolin; but Read More

Shattered Innocence

Synopsis: This provocative drama based on the tragic life of Shauna Grant, chronicles the events that lead up to her untimely death and her change from All-American teen-ager to drug-addicted porno star. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Harry and the Hendersons

Actors: John Lithgow, Melinda Dillon, Margaret Langrick, Joshua Rudoy, Kevin Peter Hall

Synopsis: While vacationing in the Pacific Northwest, the Henderson clan's dad George (John Lithgow), mom Nancy (Melinda Dillon), daughter Sarah (Margaret Langrick) and son Ernie (Joshua Rudroy) accidently run over a strange animal with their car, and when they get out to see what it is, they find the Read More

Shattered Spirits

Actors: Martin Sheen, Melinda Dillon, Matthew Laborteaux

Synopsis: A father's descent into alcoholism is chronicled in this powerful made-for-TV drama. Much of the story centers on the devastating effects that his drinking has on his family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Juggler of Notre Dame

Synopsis: Produced for the Disney Channel cable service, The Juggler of Notre Dame is based on the classic fable by Anatole France. Carl Carlsson plays the title role, an itinerant juggler who can't make a go of it in any "practical" line of work. On Christmas Eve, it is customary for the townspeople to Read More

Songwriter

Actors: Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Melinda Dillon, Rip Torn, Lesley Ann Warren

Synopsis: A good ol' boy comedy-drama, Songwriter flashes enough substance between the songs and the hijinks to qualify as a sometimes astute look into the darker areas of the music business. Willie Nelson plays Doc Jenkins, the title character, who conspires with longtime pal Blackie Buck (Kris Kristofferson Read More

A Christmas Story

Actors: Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Peter Billingsley, Ian Petrella, Scott Schwartz

Synopsis: Nine years after the Yuletide slasher flick Black Christmas, Porky's director Bob Clark once again took on the holiday genre, switching from gasps to laughs with A Christmas Story. Adapted from a memoir by humorist Jean Shepherd (who narrates), the film centers on Ralphie Parker (Peter Read More

Right of Way

Actors: Bette Davis, James Stewart, Melinda Dillon, Priscilla Morrill, John Harkins

Synopsis: This story about an elderly couple who start a large controversy when everyone learns they plan on committing suicide stars James Stewart as the retired Teddy Dwyer, and Betty Davis is his wife Mini Dwyer. When Mini learns she is terminally ill with a blood disease, the couple decide to end their Read More

Absence of Malice

Actors: Paul Newman, Sally Field, Bob Balaban, Melinda Dillon, Luther Adler, Wilford Brimley

Synopsis: In this legal drama from director Sydney Pollack, Sally Field stars as Megan, an ambitious newpaper reporter who, based on information from FBI investigator Rosen, played by Bob Balaban, writes a scathing article that implicates Gallagher, a reclusive business-owner played by Paul Newman, in the Read More

Fallen Angel

Actors: Dana Hill, Richard Masur

Synopsis: Once seen, the made-for-TV Fallen Angel can never be forgotten. Dana Hill is nothing short of brilliant as Jennifer, a 13-year-old runaway girl who is slowly but inexorably seduced into the world of child pornography. Adding depth to Lew Hunter's screenplay is the fact that the older man Read More

Hellinger's Law

Synopsis: In his first major TV project since Kojak, Telly Savalas stars as maverick Philadelphia criminal lawyer Nick Hellinger. He heads to Houston to defend a syndicate accountant accused of murder. The government seems inordinately interested in the case, as well it should be: The accountant is actually Read More

The Shadow Box

Synopsis: Advertised as "Paul Newman's First Film for Television," Shadow Box was more specifically the first TV movie to be directed by Newman. Moving in a slow, deliberate fashion, the film concerns three terminally ill people. Their stories intertwine as the unfortunate spend their last days with their Read More

Marriage Is Alive and Well

Synopsis: In this made-for-TV movie, a wedding photographer learns the secrets of marriage while working at several ceremonies. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Captain America

Synopsis: Television film featuring the Marvel Comics hero doing battle with a mad industrialist who wields a neutron bomb. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide Read More

Transplant

Synopsis: In this drama, an ambitious executive must decide whether or not to have a much needed heart transplant. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

F.I.S.T.

Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Rod Steiger, Peter Boyle, Melinda Dillon, David Huffman

Synopsis: F.I.S.T. is author Norman Jewison's chronicle of an innocent and idealistic young man corrupted by power and success as seen through the rise of the United States labor movement. Sylvester Stallone plays a Jimmy Hoffa-inspired figure who rises through the union ranks during turbulent labor times. Read More

The Critical List

Actors: Barbara Parkins

Synopsis: Critical List divides its four-hour running time between a big city hospital and a courtroom where the hospital heads are battling numerous malpractice suits. Medical director Lloyd Bridges is obliged to juggle the travails at the hospital with his own deteriorating marriage. Prosecutor Buddy Ebsen Read More

Slap Shot

Actors: Paul Newman, Strother Martin, Michael Ontkean, Jennifer Warren, Lindsay Crouse

Synopsis: Paul Newman plays Reggie Dunlop, the coach of a pathetic minor-league American hockey team. His career at a standstill and his marriage in tatters, Dunlop has nothing to lose by taking on a new group of players who are one evolutionary step above Neanderthals. Only when the team begins winning Read More

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Actors: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Cary Guffey, Bob Balaban

Synopsis: Steven Spielberg followed Jaws (1975), his first major box-office success, with this epic science fiction adventure about a disparate group of people who attempt to contact alien intelligence. Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is an electrical lineman who, while sent out on emergency repairs, witnesses Read More

Bound for Glory

Actors: David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland, John Lehne

Synopsis: Adapted by Robert Getchell from Woody Guthrie's autobiography, Hal Ashby's biopic portrays a few pivotal years in the life of the celebrated folk singer and social activist. In the Depression 1930s, Midwesterner Guthrie (David Carradine) plays music locally but cannot make enough as a sign painter Read More

Territorial Women

Synopsis: In this western, a schoolteacher tries to help out two unhappy mothers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Jeffersons: Harry and Daphne

Actors: Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, Ned Wertimer, Zara Cully

Synopsis: The Jeffersons' neighbor Harry Bentley (Paul Benedict) is convinced that his girlfriend, Daphne (Melinda Dillon), wants to propose marriage. He spends the rest of the episode hatching schemes to wriggle out of his predicament. Meanwhile, George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley) has his own problems in Read More

Bonanza: A Lawman's Lot is Not a Happy One

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, David Canary, Tom Bosley

Synopsis: While Sheriff Coffee testifies at a trial in San Francisco, Hoss Cartwright serves as temporary sheriff of Virginia City. Before long, Hoss has outraged and astonished the townsfolk by locking up millionaire Paul Forbes (Robert Emhardt) and his valet Fairfax (Jay Novello), for reasons which remain Read More

The April Fools

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Catherine Deneuve, Peter Lawford, Jack Weston, Myrna Loy

Synopsis: Virtually the first third of The April Fools takes place at a trendy party held by sharkish executive Ted Gunther (Peter Lawford). It is here that Howard Brubaker (Jack Lemmon), one of Gunther's employees, makes the acquaintance of the boss' lovely young trophy wife Catherine (Catherine Deneuve). Read More