Mercedes Ruehl Filmography

Entourage: Aquamom

Mom at Sixteen

Actors: Mercedes Ruehl, Jane Krakowski, Danielle Panabaker, Tyler Hynes, Bradley Bailey

Synopsis: The new girl in town is 16-year-old Jacey Jeffries (Danielle Panabaker), who lives with her divorced mother, Terry (Mercedes Ruehl), and her two siblings. A popular and highly intelligent student, not to mention a talented athlete, Jacey nonetheless seems to be harboring a private, profound Read More

Bad Apple

Synopsis: When a tough-talking FBI agent goes undercover to infiltrate a mob loan-sharking operation in the Big Apple, a fling with his informant's sister threatens to derail the entire investigation in this dark crime comedy from veteran film and television director Adam Bernstein. A streetwise agent who Read More

Running With the Hitman

Actors: Judd Hirsch, Gil Bellows, Danny Aiello, Mercedes Ruehl, Reagan Pasternak

Spooky House

Actors: Ben Kingsley, Mercedes Ruehl, Matt Weinberg, Jason Fuchs, Ronald Joshua Scott

Synopsis: An old man and a young boy teach one another some lessons about magic and friendship in this adventure-comedy for all ages. Max (Matt Weinberg) is a fourth grader who has been having a tough time lately; his parents have died, and he's become the target of bullies at school. One night, not long Read More

Guilt by Association

Actors: Karen Glave, Elisa Moolecherry, Mercedes Ruehl, Alex Carter, Alberta Watson

Synopsis: Based on a true story, the made-for-cable Guilt by Association was the first "original" movie to be presented by the Court TV network. Mercedes Ruehl stars as Susan Walker, a widowed nurse with two kids and a disreputable boyfriend named Russell (Alex Carter). Unbeknownst to Susan, Russell has Read More

Widows

Actors: Mercedes Ruehl, Rosie Perez, Brooke Shields, N'Bushe Wright, Jay O. Sanders

Synopsis: Adapted by Lynda LaPlante from her own 1983 British miniseries of the same name, the ABC four-parter Widows was set in motion by a bungled art heist, in which three thieves (and a possible fourth) were betrayed and killed. Rather than grieve over their fallen husbands, the three widows of the Read More

The Amati Girls

Actors: Mercedes Ruehl, Paul Sorvino, Cloris Leachman, Sean Young, Dinah Manoff

Synopsis: This family drama by actress and first-time director Anne DeSalvo centers around four adult sisters who are forced to re-evaluate their situations after tragedy strikes. The oldest of the clan, Grace (Mercedes Ruehl), is called upon to be the tower of strength, even though she is widely perceived Read More

What's Cooking?

Actors: Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Ann Weldon, Mercedes Ruehl, Victor Rivers, Kyra Sedgwick, Julianna Margulies, Joan Chen, Kristy Wu, Will Yun Lee

Synopsis: Kenyan-born, London-educated Indian filmmaker Gurinder Chadha follows up on her debut hit Bhaji on the Beach (1994) with this gentle look at multiculturalism in Los Angeles. The film details the lives of four ethnically diverse families -- black, Latino, Jewish, and Asian -- during one frantic Read More

Lost Child

Actors: Mercedes Ruehl, Jamey Sheridan, Irene Bedard, Dinah Manoff, Tantoo Cardinal

Synopsis: This Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation was based on a true story, as set down in the book Looking for Lost Bird by Yvette Melanson and Claire Safran. The heroine, a thirty-something woman named Rebecca, is an adoptee raised by a Jewish family. Though the fact that she was adopted was never in Read More

The Mary Kay Letourneau Story: All-American Girl

Actors: Penelope Ann Miller, Omar Anguiano, Mercedes Ruehl, Rena Owen, Greg Spottiswood

Synopsis: This made-for-cable docudrama stars Penelope Ann Miller as the infamous Mary Kay Letourneau, the married-with-children Seattle schoolteacher who made national headlines when she had an affair with one of her sixth-grade students, 13-year-old Vili Fualaau (Omar Anguiano). Landing in jail on a Read More

The Minus Man

Actors: Owen Wilson, Brian Cox, Mercedes Ruehl, Janeane Garofalo, Dwight Yoakam

Synopsis: Notable as the directorial debut of Blade Runner co-scripter Hampton Fancher, this darkly comic thriller stars affable Owen Wilson as Vann Siegert, a different brand of serial killer: one who actually believes he's doing his deeply depressed victims a service of mercy. Wandering up the West Coast Read More

Out of the Cold

Actors: Keith Carradine, Mia Kirshner, Brian Dennehy, Judd Hirsch, Mercedes Ruehl

Synopsis: In this period drama laced with music and romance, Keith Carradine plays Dan "Magic Legs" Scott, a tap dancer who has enjoyed great success on the vaudeville circuit and the Broadway stage. However, Scott's tremendous ego, coupled with his compulsive skirt-chasing and bottomless thirst for Read More

Gia

Actors: Angelina Jolie, Elizabeth Mitchell, Faye Dunaway, Mercedes Ruehl, Kylie Travis

Synopsis: Novelist Jay McInerney and playwright Michael Cristofer (who also made his feature film directorial debut) collaborated on the script for this bio of doomed supermodel Gia Carangi. In a star-making performance, Angelina Jolie stars as Gia, a gorgeous Philadelphia native who arrives in New York Read More

Subway Stories

Actors: Rosie Perez, Mercedes Ruehl, Lili Taylor

Synopsis: Subways provide the common setting for this modern anthology comprised of distinct vignettes made by ten of Hollywood's top directors and featuring some of Tinseltown's most popular actors. The episodes are based on real stories submitted by scores of subway regulars. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Read More

North Shore Fish

Actors: Tony Danza, Mercedes Ruehl, Peter Riegert, Wendie Malick, Carroll Baker

Synopsis: For most of its existence, a tightly-knit Massachusetts community has earned its living and gained its identity from the fish industry. Indeed, the North Shore frozen fish company is the town's primary source of income. Sal Matilla (Tony Danza) is the plant foreman. With the help of his lifelong Read More

For Roseanna

Actors: Jean Reno, Mercedes Ruehl, Polly Walker, Mark Frankel, Trevor Peacock, Giuseppe Cederna

Synopsis: A man trying to honor the last wish of his beloved wife has to keep an entire city alive in this bittersweet romantic comedy. Marcello (Jean Reno) is the owner of a restaurant in a small village in Italy. His wife Roseanna (Mercedes Ruehl) has received some awful news: she has learned that her Read More

Frasier: It's Hard to Say Goodbye If You Won't Leave

Synopsis: Kate Costas (Mercedes Ruehl), headstrong manager of radio station KACL and erstwhile lover of Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), announces that she is leaving Seattle and moving to Chicago. It is at this point that Frasier realizes just how much he loves her. While waiting for her plane at the Read More

Frasier: Leapin' Lizards

Synopsis: New KACL station manager Kate Costas (Mercedes Ruehl) thinks that encouraging her on-the-air talent to play practical jokes on each other will improve ratings. When Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) falls victim to a nasty prank perpetrated by sports-show host Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe (Dan Butler), he decides Read More

Frasier: Sleeping With the Enemy

Synopsis: In the first episode of a two-part story, new KACL station manager Kate Costas (Mercedes Ruehl) cancels the staff's annual raises. On behalf of his colleagues, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) storms into Kate's office to register a protest. But one thing leads to another (as they often do), and before Read More

Frasier: The Adventures of Bad Boy and Dirty Girl

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a two-part story, former antagonists Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) and Kate Costas (Mercedes Ruehl) are now enmeshed in a torrid romance. In fact, "torrid" hardly covers it: The two can't keep their hands off each other, either in or out of the office. When they end up "doing it" Read More

Frasier: She's the Boss

Synopsis: Oscar-winning actress Mercedes Ruehl makes her first Frasier appearance as KACL's stubborn new station manager Kate Costas, as the series launches its third season. Almost immediately upon her arrival in Seattle, Kate begins tinkering with the format of Frasier Crane's (Kelsey Grammer) radio Read More

Indictment: the McMartin Trial

Actors: James Woods, Mercedes Ruehl, Sada Thompson, Henry Thomas, Lolita Davidovich

Synopsis: Originally broadcast on HBO, Indictment: The McMartin Trial is a docudrama concerning the infamous McMartin child abuse case. In 1984, seven employees of Los Angeles' prestigious McMartin Preschool, including four members of the McMartin family, were arrested and charged with child abuse and Read More

On Hope

Lost in Yonkers

Actors: Richard Dreyfuss, Mercedes Ruehl, Irene Worth, Brad Stoll, Mike Damus, David Strathairn

Synopsis: An adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, semi-autobiographical stage play by popular dramatist Neil Simon, this comedy-drama focuses on the difficulties faced by two young brothers forced to live with a group of eccentric relatives. Arty (Mike Damus) and Jay (Brad Stoll) are young teenagers Read More

Last Action Hero

Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austin O'Brien, F. Murray Abraham, Art Carney, Frank McRae, Anthony Quinn, Charles Dance, Mercedes Ruehl

Synopsis: Arnold Schwarzenegger appears as a pumped-up Shakespearian hero while an announcer bellows, "Something is rotten in Denmark -- and Hamlet is taking out the trash!" This gag sets the stage for the post-modernist action epic The Last Action Hero. The film concerns Danny Madigan (Austin O'Brien), a Read More

The Fisher King

Actors: Adam Bryant, Paul Lombardi, David Hyde Pierce, Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer, Michael Jeter

Synopsis: Terry Gilliam directed this adaptation of Richard LaGravenese's mystical (and mythical) tale of redemption in the hard-time town of New York City. Jeff Bridges is shock radio DJ Jack Lucas, whose low opinion of humanity lends itself well to his radio talk show, where the enmity rubs off on his Read More

Another You

Actors: Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder, Mercedes Ruehl, Stephen Lang

Synopsis: When con man Eddie Dash (Richard Pryor) is released from prison he's told to fulfill the required 100 hours of community service as the bodyguard/escort of a recently released mental patient (Gene Wilder). It's not too long before Wilder figures out a way to make a little dough at the expense of Read More

Crazy People

Actors: Dudley Moore, Daryl Hannah, Paul Reiser, Mercedes Ruehl, J.T. Walsh

Synopsis: Dudley Moore stars as Emory Lesson, an advertising genius whose finds himself committed to an insane asylum in Tony Bill's Crazy People. Emory becomes tired with creating phony ad campaigns and decides to create his own campaigns that tell the brutal truth. Since sex sells, Emory designs an Read More

The Cosby Show: The Moves

Synopsis: Involved in a legal action to prevent a community center from losing its playground, Clair finds out that the opposing attorney is her longtime friend Bernadette Foley (Mercedes Ruehl). At the same time, the Huxtables' novelist neighbor Jeffrey Engels (Wallace Shawn) is undergoing a middle-aged Read More

Slaves of New York

Actors: Bernadette Peters, Nick Corri, Madeleine Potter, Charles McCaughan

Synopsis: Based on the stories by Tama Janowitz, this film follows the relationships and problems of a group of artists struggling to survive in New York City. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Married to the Mob

Actors: Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell, Mercedes Ruehl, Alec Baldwin

Synopsis: Michelle Pfeiffer is Married to the Mob in this comedy. The wife of Mafia hitman Alec Baldwin, Pfeiffer regularly chastizes her husband for his underhanded line of work. Baldwin refuses to entertain any thoughts of quitting the mob-and besides, he's got a good thing going with Nancy Travis, the Read More

Big

Actors: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, John Heard, Jared Rushton, Robert Loggia

Synopsis: More than anything else, 13-year old New Jerseyite Josh (David Moscow) wants to be "big". That's the wish he makes at an odd-looking amusement pier fortunetelling machine. The next morning, Josh wakes up-only to discover that he's grown to manhood overnight! (At this point, the part is taken over Read More

Leader of the Band

Actors: Steve Landesberg, Gailard Sartain, Mercedes Ruehl, Jimmy Martinez, Calvert Deforest

Synopsis: An out-of-work musician (Steve Landesberg) agrees to coach a talentless high-school marching band in this comedy from Nessa Hyams. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

The Secret of My Success

Actors: Michael J. Fox, Helen Slater, Richard Jordan, Margaret Whitton, John Pankow

Synopsis: Released at the height of his popularity on Family Ties and in the wake of Back to the Future and Teen Wolf, Michael J. Fox stars in this "country boy in the big city" comedy, directed by Herbert Ross. After making the move from Kansas to New York City, Brantley Foster (Fox) secures a job in the Read More

84 Charing Cross Road

Actors: Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench, Jean de Baer, Maurice Denham, Mercedes Ruehl

Synopsis: Helene Hanff's book 84 Charing Cross Road had previously been a TV program and a stage play before it was converted into this 1986 film. The scene is New York, 1949: Anne Bancroft plays a struggling writer and passionate bibliophile, who answers an advertisement from a rare-volumes bookshop at 84 Read More

Radio Days

Actors: Mia Farrow, Seth Green, Julie Kavner, Josh Mostel, Michael Tucker

Synopsis: Woody Allen's gentle and nostalgic tribute to the glory days of radio and coming-of-age during World War II plays like Fellini's Amarcord filtered through Neil Simon. The nominal star is Seth Green as Joe, a teenage Jewish boy, growing up with a house full of relatives in Brooklyn. Allen cuts Read More

Heartburn

Actors: Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Jeff Daniels, Maureen Stapleton, Stockard Channing

Synopsis: Though she always played coy about the fact in interviews, Nora Ephron's novel Heartburn is a thinly disguised "a clef" rehash of her marriage to Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein. Meryl Streep plays Rachel, an influential food critic who marries charismatic columnist Mark (Jack Nicholson) Read More

Twisted

Actors: Christian Slater

Synopsis: Based on Jack Horrigan's play Children! Children!, Twisted is a thriller starring Christian Slater as a psychotic young adolescent who torments his new baby-sitter (Losi Smith) with electronics, swords and mind games. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Mom's On Strike

Actors: Mary Kay Place, Stephen Keep, Yeardley Smith, George Gaynes, Jenny Rebecca Dweir

Synopsis: Mary Kay Place stars in this Emmy-winning ABC Afterschool Special, which was based on a true story. Fed up with her lazy husband and her ungrateful children, housewife Ellie Skinner (Mary Kay Place) plants a sign on her front lawn declaring herself to be "on strike." Pitching a tent on the lawn Read More

Four Friends

Actors: Craig Wasson, Jodi Thelen, Jim Metzler, Michael Huddleston, Reed Birney

Synopsis: Also known as Moritorium and Georgia's Friends, Four Friends follows the titular quartet from high school to young adulthood. The film is set during the tumultuous 1960s, an era when everyone's values were turned inside out, shaken around, and reassembled. The central character is Read More

The Warriors

Actors: Michael Beck, James Remar, David Patrick Kelly, Thomas G. Waites, Dorsey Wright, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Mercedes Ruehl

Synopsis: Walter Hill's hip, super-stylized action film unfurls in a dystopian near-future, when various gangs control New York City. Each gang sports a unique moniker ('The Men in Blue,' 'The Baseball Furies,' 'The Rogues'), with a costume underscoring its "theme"; each, in turn, is also responsible for Read More