Ray Sharkey Filmography

The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom

Actors: Holly Hunter, Beau Bridges, Swoosie Kurtz

Synopsis: A Texas housewife plots hire a hit man to kill the girl who beat out her daughter for a place on the cheerleading squad in this made-for-cable satire based on a true story. Holly Hunter stars as Wanda Holloway, a twice-married Baptist mother of two who becomes obsessed when her daughter, Shanna (Frankie Ingrassia Read More

Zebrahead

Actors: Lois Bendler, Michael Rapaport, N'Bushe Wright, Paul Butler, DeShonn Castle, Candy Ann Brown, Dan Ziskie, Kevin Corrigan

Synopsis: An interracial romance sparks social upheaval in this indie drama from first-time writer/director Anthony Drazan. Jewish high school student Zack Glass (Michael Rapaport) lives with his widowed, womanizing father (Ray Sharkey) in one of the nicer areas of Detroit. His pop and grandfather own a Read More

Caged Fear

Synopsis: Because of her thieving new husband, a young woman is thrown into jail where she is harassed by fellow prisoners and by the warden. Before long, hubby gets a chance to take on the identity of a guard so he can help her escape. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Chrome Soldiers

Actors: Gary Busey, Ray Sharkey, William Atherton, Yaphet Kotto, Norm Skaggs

Synopsis: In this made-for-cable actioner a quintet of Vietnam vets team up and hop on their Harleys to round up a no-good gang of drug dealers from their tiny home town. They also take on the town's crooked politicians. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Round Trip to Heaven

Actors: Ray Sharkey

Synopsis: The man with the granite mug (Ray Sharkey) appears as Stoneface, a crook who has stashed his ill-gotten loot in the trunk of a Rolls-Royce which two unsuspecting guys have "borrowed" from one of their uncles. The fellows, of course, are unaware that there is loot in their car trunk; they're on Read More

In the Line of Duty: Street War

Actors: Mario Van Peebles

Synopsis: After his partner is killed, a police officer's vow of vengeance threatens to expose a cocaine dynasty. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Dead On: Relentless 2

Actors: Meg Foster, Miles O'Keeffe, Leo Rossi, Ray Sharkey

Synopsis: Not to be confused with the 1994 exchange-of-murders melodrama Dead On, this 1991 film was originally shipped out under the title Relentless 2: Dead On. You may recall that in the first Relentless in 1989, Judd Nelson starred as a serial killer. Nelson isn't around for the sequel, though two of Read More

Hotel Oklahoma

Actors: David Keith, Deborah May, Ray Sharkey, Karen Black

Synopsis: Certain fans of cheesy women-in-prison movies may be somewhat disappointed in this feature, as there is no nudity throughout the picture. In this story, Kristen Bell (Kristen Cloke) has taken the rap for her boyfriend's theft of an expensive ring and has been sentenced to prison. She finds herself Read More

Seeds of Tragedy

Synopsis: Sarah Pillsbury and Midge Sanford, the producing team responsible for the theatrical-movie "sleeper" The River's Edge, were the mentors of the made-for-TV Seeds of Tragedy. Filmed in semi-documentary fashion, the story involves a single cache of cocaine, from creation to consumption. The coca Read More

The Grifters

Actors: John Cusack, Anjelica Huston, Annette Bening, Pat Hingle, J.T. Walsh

Synopsis: Director Stephen Frears' tense adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel The Grifters was one of a number of revival film noirs in the first half of the '90s. Updating the setting to contemporary Los Angeles, the film follows a trio of con artists who are intent on out-foxing each other. Roy Dillon (John Cusack Read More

The Rain Killer

Actors: Ray Sharkey, David Beecroft, Tania Coleridge, Michael Chiklis, Bill LaVallee

Synopsis: Ray Sharkey plays Detective Vince Capra of the LAPD whose job it is to discover the identity of a serial killer who has been murdering rich single ladies when the rain falls. He's saddled with an FBI agent who's supposed to assist him in solving the crime, but tends to get in his way. There are Read More

The Take

Actors: Ray Sharkey

Synopsis: In Miami, Ray Sharkey plays a recovering alcoholic-ex-cop/ex-con and possibly a soon-to-be-ex-husband. Upon release from the pen, he tries to go straight, but is confronted once again by the very thing that landed him inside: a Cuban drug cartel. This thriller was made for cable. ~ Kristie Hassen Read More

Good Cops, Bad Cops

Actors: Ed Asner, Ray Sharkey, George Kennedy

Synopsis: One of the largest crimes in history was the 1980 robbery of the Boston Depositors Trust by a group of policemen as related in this true story. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

After Midnight

Actors: Jillian McWhirter, Pamela Segall, Nadine Van Der Velde, Marc McClure

Synopsis: In this horror/suspense anthology picture, a group of co-ed college students meet at their demented psychology professor's house for some extracurricular pointers. The professor gets his kicks in class from scaring his students half to death. Each co-ed has to tell a story which is frightening or Read More

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills

Actors: Jacqueline Bisset, Ray Sharkey, Robert Beltran, Mary Woronov, Ed Begley, Jr.

Synopsis: In this satirical skewering of the lifestyles of the rich and famous, a divorced Beverly Hills gal ends up on the doorstep of her next-door neighbor, an out-of-work TV sitcom actress who happens to have a socially eclectic group of friends and a deceased husband who can't accept the fact that he Read More

The Neon Empire

Synopsis: Novelist/journalist Pete Hammill was responsible for the screenplay of the two-part TV movie The Neon Empire. Ray Sharkey stars as a Bugsy Siegel-like New York gangster. It is Sharkey's dream to turn the sleepy Nevada town of Las Vegas into the gambling capital of the world. Part One, running 105 Read More

Sweet Bird of Youth

Actors: Cheryl Paris, Elizabeth Taylor, Mark Harmon

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1962 with Geraldine Page and Paul Newman in the leads, Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth was restaged for television in 1989 by Nicolas Roeg. Elizabeth Taylor stars as Alexandre Del Lago, a fading, alcoholic, drug-dependent movie star. Mark Harmon co-stars as Chance Read More

Wired

Actors: Michael Chiklis, Ray Sharkey, J.T. Walsh, Patti D'Arbanville, Lucinda Jenney

Synopsis: This film, loosely-based on the book by Bob Woodward, follows the career of comedian John Belushi (Michael Chiklis) as his spirit is guided through the past by the Angel Velasquez (Ray Sharkey). ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Act of Piracy

Actors: Gary Busey, Belinda Bauer, Ray Sharkey, Nancy Mulford, Arnold Vosloo

Synopsis: Ray Sharkey makes one of his last film appearances in 1989's Act of Piracy. Sharkey plays a contemporary buccaneer whose cutthroat gang swipes contractor Gary Busey's technologically advanced yacht. The pirates also inadvertently abduct Busey's children, who remained hidden during the siege. With Read More

Capone

Synopsis: This made-for-television crime drama centers on the attempts of a determined FBI agent to see that the imprisoned gangster Al Capone is permanently prevented from running his operations from behind bars. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Dudes

Actors: Jon Cryer, Daniel Roebuck, Flea, Lee Ving, Catherine Stewart

Synopsis: Penelope Spheeris, director of the infamous documentary The Decline of Western Civilization may well have given the world its first punk-rock Western in the form of Dudes, a sort of Suburbia meets High Noon meets Deliverance. Three East Coast punks (Jon Cryer, Daniel Roebuck, and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers Read More

Dragnet

Actors: Dan Aykroyd, Tom Hanks, Christopher Plummer, Harry Morgan, Alexandra Paul

Synopsis: Dan Aykroyd must have practiced for months to perfect his Jack Webb inflections for Dragnet. Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz's directorial debut (also written by Mankiewicz, along with Aykroyd, and Alan Zweibel) is a gentle spoof of the legendary '50s television police drama -- pitting '50s Read More

P.I. Private Investigations

Synopsis: When newspaper editor Charles Bradley (Anthony Zerbe) makes a call uncovering corrupt Los Angeles cops selling drugs, his phone is tapped and his architect son Joey (Clayton Rohner) is endangered. A detective is killed in Joey's apartment and detective Ryan (Ray Sharkey) is assigned to protect Read More

No Mercy

Actors: Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, Jeroen Krabbé, George Dzundza, Gary Basaraba

Synopsis: High-powered gangsters move this crime drama along at a fast pace. When two cops, Eddie Jillette (Richard Gere) and Joe Collins (Gary Basaraba), hear about a contract out on local crime boss Losado (Jeroen Krabbe), they go undercover posing as hitmen, and the result is murder. Collins and the man Read More

Short Circuit

Actors: Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton, G.W. Bailey, Tim Blaney

Synopsis: Struck by lightning, an endearing little robot known only as "Number 5" escapes from an experimental electronics firm. Technician Steve Guttenberg and his indecipherable East Indian assistant Fisher Stevens set out to locate Number 5 before the military can go through with its plans to destroy the Read More

Wise Guys

Actors: Danny DeVito, Joe Piscopo, Harvey Keitel, Ray Sharkey, Dan Hedaya

Synopsis: The "wise guys" referred to in the title, Harry Valentini (Danny DeVito) and Moe Dickstein (Joe Piscopo), turn out to be not so wise after all in this crime-oriented comedy. Harry and Moe run the risk of certain death when they steal money from a Mafia don (Dan Hedaya) and then try to multiply Read More

Murphy's Romance

Actors: Sally Field, James Garner, Brian Kerwin, Corey Haim, Dennis Burkley, Georgann Johnson

Synopsis: Newly divorced Emma Moriarty (Sally Field) moves herself and her young son to a small Arizona town, hoping to establish a horse farm. Town pharmacist Murphy Jones (James Garner), the town's most eligible bachelor, develops a platonic friendship with Emma, but he decides to keep his distance when Read More

Behind Enemy Lines

Actors: Hal Holbrook, Ray Sharkey, Maryam D'Abo, Lucy Hornak, Alun Lewis

Synopsis: Hal Holbrook stars in this TV pilot film as Colonel Calvin Turner, a special operative for the OSS during World War II. Working in cooperation with British intelligence, Turner's mission is to uncover atomic weapon secrets at a Nazi plant in occupied Norway. The task permits him time for a bit of Read More

Hellhole

Actors: Ray Sharkey, Judy Landers, Mary Woronov, Marjoe Gortner, Edy Williams

Synopsis: It's hard to be critical of an exploitation film that revels so gleefully in its awfulness. To begin with, we're presented with dazed, glassy-eyed heroine Judy Landers, whose condition is readily explained by a bout with amnesia brought on by the brutal murder of her mother at the hands of a Read More

Dubeat-E-O

Actors: Ray Sharkey, Joan Jett, Derf Scratch, Nora Gaye, Len Lesser

Synopsis: In 1979, The Runaways were scheduled to star in a low-budget comedy about an all-female rock band called "We're All Crazy Now." The group broke up before shooting began, but guitarist and singer Joan Jett agreed to star in the film, with three actresses standing in for her departed bandmates. The Read More

Body Rock

Actors: Lorenzo Lamas, Vicki Frederick, Ray Sharkey, Michelle Nicastro

Synopsis: Meant to cash in on the breakdancing mania of the early 1980s, this run-of-the-mill teen movie is undercut by casting Lorenzo Lamas in the role of Chilly D, a breakdancing king, while Magick (La Ron A. Smith) who teaches Chilly the fine art of the acrobatic moves is a real pro. Once Chilly has Read More

Faerie Tale Theatre: Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp

Synopsis: Robert Carradine portrays Aladdin, the foolish boy who finds himself at odds with an evil magician (Leonard Nimoy), in love with a princess (Valerie Bertinelli), and in luck with the discovery of a mysterious lamp. James Earl Jones portrays the daunting genie in the lamp. This installment of Read More

Best Defense

Actors: Dudley Moore, Eddie Murphy, Kate Capshaw, Helen Shaver, George Dzundza

Synopsis: Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy try but fail to bring this flat comedy to life, while the story itself is hampered by intercutting between the years of 1982 in Los Angeles (Moore) and 1984 in Kuwait (Murphy), with no explanation of how these two disparate people and locations are related. Wylie (Moore Read More

Regina

Synopsis: Ava Gardner made her last theatrical film appearance in the German-Italian Regina. Gardner is cast as the Smothering Mom to end them all, determined to keep her middle-aged son Ray Sharkey tightly bound to her emotional umbilical cord. Gardner's husband Anthony Quinn bemoans her treatment of Read More

WarGames

Actors: Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, Ally Sheedy, Barry Corbin

Synopsis: Once more, a wise-guy teenager tries to prove he's smarter than any adult-and nearly destroys the whole world in the process-in WarGames. Computer-game aficionado Matthew Broderick inadverently taps into a hush-hush Pentagon computer, then proceeds to inaugurate his favorite game, "Global Read More

Blue Thunder

Actors: Roy Scheider, Malcolm McDowell, Warren Oates, Candy Clark, Daniel Stern

Synopsis: Ex-Vietnam chopper pilot Roy Scheider is now in charge of Blue Thunder, a high-tech copter designed to quell possible terrorism during the 1984 LA Olympics. His onetime comrade-in-arms Malcolm McDowell, now his bitter enemy, will stop at nothing to neutralize Blue Thunder and expedite an armed Read More

Some Kind of Hero

Actors: Richard Pryor, Margot Kidder, Ray Sharkey, Ronny Cox, Lynne Moody

Synopsis: Richard Pryor gives a compelling performance in Some Kind of Hero, playing a Vietnam veteran who tries to readjust to civilian life. Pryor plays Eddie Keller, who has just spent five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp. Most of the time there, Eddie was able to hold his own against Read More

Love and Money

Actors: Ray Sharkey, Ornella Muti, Klaus Kinski, Armand Assante, King Vidor

Synopsis: James Toback wrote and directed this typically intense and idiosyncratic satiric thriller. Byron Levin (Ray Sharkey) is an investment planner who has grown tired of his job and is bored by his relationship with his girlfriend Vicky (Susan Heldfond). When Frederick Stockheinz (Klaus Kinski), an Read More

The Ordeal of Bill Carney

Actors: Ana Alicia, David Faustino, Jeremy Licht, Ray Sharkey, Richard Crenna

Synopsis: The Ordeal of Bill Carney is a TV movie inspired by a landmark court decision. Ray Sharkey plays Carney, an Army reservist whose spine is damaged in a jeep accident. Left a quadriplegic, Carney loses custody of his two children to ex-wife Betty Buckley. Despite the concerted efforts of the Read More

Saturday Night Live: Ray Sharkey

Actors: Ray Sharkey, Jack Bruce and Friends

Synopsis: This 1981 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Ray Sharkey and features musical guest Jack Bruce and Friends. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide Read More

The Idolmaker

Actors: Ray Sharkey, Paul Land, Olympia Dukakis, Peter Gallagher, Joe Pantoliano, Tovah Feldshuh

Synopsis: The story of Philadelphia-based rock 'n' roll starmaker Bob Marcucci is given a pointed a clef treatment in The Idolmaker. Ray Sharkey plays Vincent Vacarri, who takes a couple of raw young kids (Peter Gallagher and Paul Land) and molds them into teen idols. If Gallagher and Land seem at Read More

Willie and Phil

Actors: Michael Ontkean, Margot Kidder, Ray Sharkey, Jan Miner, Jerry Hall, Natalie Wood

Synopsis: Director Paul Mazursky's follow-up to his 1978 hit An Unmarried Woman found this filmmaker creating a feature-length homage to the François Truffaut classic Jules and Jim. Willie and Phil begins with Jewish intellectual schoolteacher Willie (Michael Ontkean) meeting gregarious Italian-American Read More

Heart Beat

Actors: Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, John Heard, Ray Sharkey, Anne Dusenberry

Synopsis: John Byrum wrote and directed this loosely based biographical tale of Beat author Jack Kerouac and Neal and Carolyn Cassady. John Heard stars as Jack Kerouac, and the film chronicles the Beat lifestyle that shaped the literary and social forces brewing and overflowing in Kerouac's imagination Read More

Who'll Stop the Rain?

Actors: Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, Michael Moriarty, Anthony Zerbe, Richard Masur

Synopsis: Thoroughly disillusioned by the Vietnam War, John, a journalist (Michael Moriarty), turns to heroin smuggling. Acting as John's go-between is the equally burnt-out Ray (Nick Nolte), who delivers the narcotics stateside to the journalist's wife, Marge (Tuesday Weld). Soon, however, Ray and Marge Read More

Paradise Alley

Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Kevin Conway, Anne Archer, Armand Assante, Joe Spinell, Lee Canalito

Synopsis: Film auteur Sylvester Stallone wrote, directed, and stars in this re-working of Rocky to fit an old-fashioned Hollywood formula, depicting three brothers from New York's Hell's Kitchen of the 1940s who want to claw their way out of poverty. Lee Canalito is the muscle-brained iceman Victor, and Armand Assante Read More

The Streets of San Francisco: Time Out

Synopsis: Cliff Gorman, the star of such Broadway hits as "Boys in the Band" and "Lenny", guests in this episode as San Quentin guard Earl Mack. Out of sympathy for four model prisoners, Sgt. Mack generously affords them a "time-out" period in the city of San Francisco. The cons return the favor by Read More

Hot Tomorrows

Actors: Ken Lerner, Ray Sharkey, Herve Villechaize, Victor Argo, George Memmoli

Synopsis: Martin Brest was a student filmmaker when he made Hot Tomorrows for $33,000 -- practically nothing even by the standards of 1977. He went on to produce major Hollywood movies, including Beverly Hills Cop. In this film, Michael (Ken Lerner) is a young New York writer who has moved to L.A. and who Read More

Stunts

Actors: Robert Forster, Fiona Lewis, Joanna Cassidy, Darrell Fetty, Bruce Glover

Synopsis: Robert Forster delivers a well-turned performance as a professional stuntman in this Hawksian murder mystery. Forster is Glen Wilson, an ace stuntman who travels from movie set to movie set, performing dangerous professional work. Fiona Lewis is B.J. Parswell, a journalist whose presence creates Read More

Trackdown

Actors: James Mitchum, Karen Lamm, Anne Archer, Erik Estrada, Cathy Lee Crosby

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a runaway girl from rural Montana heads for LA and ends up trapped within its darkest underbelly surrounded by crime, drugs, and sleazy people. Fortunately, her brother, a tough cowboy, comes to rescue her. But first he must find her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Jeffersons: Tennis, Anyone?

Actors: Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, Roxie Roker, Franklin Cover, Ned Wertimer

Synopsis: George (Sherman Hemsley) is honored when he is invited to join an exclusive (and previously all-white) racquet club by a prominent judge (Keene Curtis). Little does he realize that he is merely a "token" member, accepted into the club to avoid legal tangles. The truth comes crashing down upon poor Read More

Kojak: Nursemaid

Synopsis: Broadway favorite Kay Medford (Bye Bye Birdie et. al.) guest stars as Mrs. Bernice M. Sandler, a middle-aged bookkeeper. Inasmuch as Mrs. Sandler is the only person who can identify the two people suspected of murdering her boss, the salty-tongued lady finds herself in the protective custody of Read More

The Lords of Flatbush

Actors: Armand Assante, Perry King, Sylvester Stallone, Henry Winkler, Paul Mace, Susan Blakely

Synopsis: This low-budget independent film by novice directors Stephen F. Verona and Martin Davidson is a slice-of-life elegy from the leather-jacket, bobby-soxer era of 1957, set in a Brooklyn high school. The film stands out for the appearance of up-and-coming actors (circa 1974) Sylvester Stallone, Henry Winkler Read More