Richard Lawson Filmography

Touched by an Angel: The Sign of the Dove

Synopsis: Angel of Death Andrew (John Dye) is unhappy about his latest assignment, which requires him to "collect" young Ben Mason, the last member of a venerable Virginia family, on Ben's wedding day. As his Heavenly predecessor Adam (former series regular Charles Rocket) listens sympathetically, Andrew Read More

How Stella Got Her Groove Back

Actors: Angela Bassett, Taye Diggs, Regina King, Whoopi Goldberg, Suzzanne Douglas

Synopsis: Terry McMillan and Ron Bass wrote this screenplay based on McMillan's semi-autobiographical best-selling novel (over 2,000,000 copies in print before the release of this film). San Francisco stockbroker Stella (Angela Bassett), a 40-year-old divorcee, has a nice Marin County home and an Read More

The Cosby Show: Pam Applies to College

Synopsis: Despite her less than stellar performance in high school, Pam (Erika Alexander) is determined to go to college. Both her friend Charmaine (Karen Malina White) and her guidance counselor Mr. Bostic (Richard Lawson) gently try to persuade Pam that her chances of being accepted by the same college Read More

Double Your Pleasure

Actors: Jackée, Dan Hedaya, Richard Lawson

Synopsis: Comic actress Jackee serves double duty in this made-for-TV comedy. A top female FBI agent is injured in the midst of an important assignment, and a look-alike replacement is needed in short order, so her superiors are forced to enlist her identical twin sister for the job. Unfortunately, she Read More

The Reluctant Agent

The Forgotten

Actors: Stacy Keach, Keith Carradine, Steve Railsback

Synopsis: The Forgotten deserves at least a small niche in TV history as the first-ever TV movie made especially for the USA cable network. Based on a story by Vietnam veteran Paul Staples, the film concerns six American Green Berets, held for 17 years in a Vietnamese POW camp. They are finally released in Read More

Under the Influence

Actors: Andy Griffith

Synopsis: Under the Influence is a TV movie about an alcoholic, scripted by recovered alcoholic Joyce Rebeta-Burdett. Andy Griffith plays the head of an outwardly respectable New England family. Griffith drinks heavily, but the rest of the family sweeps his addiction under the rug. When Griffith lands in Read More

Johnnie May Gibson: F.B.I.

Synopsis: Bill Duke directed this fact-based tale of a poor Southern black woman who rose from poverty to become an FBI agent. Retitled Johnnie Gibson F.B.I. for home video. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Stick

Actors: Dar Robinson, Burt Reynolds, Candice Bergen, George Segal, Charles Durning, Jose Perez

Synopsis: Burt Reynolds directed and starred in this actioner from an Elmore Leonard novel about an ex-con living dangerously close to the drug traffickers in Miami. When Stick (Reynolds) arrives in Miami just out of prison, an old buddy of his is murdered, sending Stick on a wild and complex journey to Read More

Magnum, P.I.: Under World

Synopsis: Ever on the lookout for a quick buck, T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) agrees to deliver a mysterious briefcase to Oahu. En route, T.C.'s chopper plunges into the ocean, and he ends up in the hospital in a comatose state. Flying in the face of convential wisdom, Magnum (Tom Selleck) is certain that the Read More

Streets of Fire

Actors: Michael Paré, Diane Lane, Rick Moranis, Amy Madigan, Willem Dafoe

Synopsis: More like a series of MTV sequences than a long-term narration, this super-thin story line focuses on a kidnapped singer (Diane Lane) and her ex-boyfriend (Michael Pare) who goes forth to save her through rainy streets, the roar of elevated subways, several alleys, and the usual warehouses. Each Read More

V

Actors: Jane Badler, Marc Singer, Peter Nelson, Faye Grant

Synopsis: In this sprawling television miniseries, originally aired in May 1983 on NBC, a race of seemingly human-like aliens arrive en masse on Earth. These "Visitors" promise cooperation and friendship -- then launch a clandestine takeover of the planet by accusing the entire scientific and medical Read More

Poltergeist

Actors: Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Beatrice Straight, Dominique Dunne, Oliver Robins

Synopsis: With Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hopper, Steven Spielberg had his first great success as a producer. Released around the same time as Spielberg's E.T., the film presents the dark side of Spielberg's California suburban track homes. The film centers on the Freeling family, a typical middle class Read More

The Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story

Synopsis: Some sort of Bad Timing Award must surely be bestowed upon the otherwise worthwhile Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story. David Keith stars as American athlete Wayne Robinson, whose main goal in life is to win the Olympic Decathlon. His dream is compromised when he falls in love with Soviet Read More

Fist

Synopsis: In this actioner, a pugnacious aspiring pugilist pummels his way out of the slums to become a professional prizefighter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Charleston

Actors: Delta Burke, Lynne Moody, Patricia Pearcy, Martha Scott

Synopsis: Charleston is a brazen rip-off of Gone with the Wind which premiered over NBC on January 15, 1979--one month before CBS' planned telecast of Wind. Delta Burke, who was an unknown in 1979, very nearly remained that way in the role of post-Civil War Southern belle Stella. As Stella fiddle-dee-dees Read More

The Main Event

Actors: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Paul Sand, Patti D'Arbanville, Whitman Mayo, Rory Calhoun

Synopsis: Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal attempt to recapture the screwball spark of What's Up, Doc? in the labored farce The Main Event. Streisand plays Hillary Kramer, a bankrupt perfume executive who discovers that one of her tax write-offs from more prosperous times was the ownership of prizefighter Read More

The Jericho Mile

Actors: Peter Strauss

Synopsis: Director Michael Mann co-wrote the teleplay for The Jericho Mile with Patrick J. Nolan. Peter Strauss stars as "Rain" Murphy, serving a life sentence in Folsom Prison for first-degree murder. To break up the boredom of prison life, Murphy begins running laps around the prison recreation track. Read More

Coming Home

Actors: Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern, Robert Ginty, Penelope Milford

Synopsis: Hal Ashby's 1978 melodrama examines the impact of the Vietnam War on the "war at home" among the men who fought it and the women in their lives. Left alone in Los Angeles when her gung-ho Marine husband Bob (Bruce Dern) heads to Vietnam in 1968, proper wife Sally Hyde (Jane Fonda) decides to Read More

Good Times: I Had a Dream

Synopsis: Good Times moved from Wednesday to Monday evening with this episode, in which J.J. (Jimmy Carter) loses out on a job promotion. Another employee at the ad agency intimates that J.J. would have gotten the move-up had he been a different color. The result: J.J. has a dream in which he has turned Read More

Audrey Rose

Actors: Marsha Mason, Anthony Hopkins, John Beck, Susan Swift, Norman Lloyd

Synopsis: Audrey Rose is a "thinking man's" horror film, which in a way is unfortunate, since it tended to be ignored amidst the many spell-it-all-out scarefests of the late '70s. Marsha Mason and John Beck play Janice and Bill Templeton, a happily married couple, the parents of well-adjusted preteen Ivy (Susan Swift Read More

All in the Family: Mike the Pacifist

Actors: Carroll O'Connor, Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers, Wynn Irwin, Nita Talbot

Synopsis: Much against his will, Mike accompanies Archie and Gloria on a subway ride. In the course of events, he is forced to slug a wife-abusing passenger (Wynn Irwin), who tried to assault Gloria. As the passenger threatens legal action, peace-loving Mike broods over the fact that he was pushed into Read More

Black Fist

Synopsis: Black Fist, a tedious "blaxploitation" film made in 1976, concerns a young man -- Leroy Fist (Richard Lawson) -- who becomes involved in the mob. When he attempts to change his life, the mobsters kills his wife and Leroy goes out to seek his bloody revenge. The film contains much action but Read More

The Streets of San Francisco: Endgame

Synopsis: When Steve Keller (Michael Douglas) is seriously injured in a fight with a mobster, his partner Mike Stone (Karl Malden) is boiling mad. He gets madder still when it seems that the police investigation of the fight has been put on the back burner. Accordingly, Stone takes it upon himself to bring Read More

Crossfire

Synopsis: Crossfire stars James Franciscus as police officer Rossi, who is thrown off the force for possession of narcotics. Disgraced in the eyes of everyone, including his own partner, Rossi descends into a life of crime. But--and this will come as a shock to anyone who's never seen a Humphrey Bogart Read More

Sugar Hill

Actors: Albert J. Baker, Thomas C. Carroll, Judy Hanson, Peter Harrell III, Larry D. Johnson, Charles Krohn, Walter Price, Ray Simpson, Marki Bey, Robert Quarry, Don Pedro Colley

Synopsis: In this blaxploitation horror movie, a young woman enlists the aide of a voodoo priest to help her get revenge upon the gangsters who killed her lover. With a few incantations and magical spells, the priest raises an army of zombies. Later the film was cut and shown on TV as The Zombies of Sugar Read More

Foxstyle

Synopsis: When a black man and his foster brother find a fortune in oil on their Texas land, he must struggle to come to terms with his poor country past and his new existence as an oil tycoon. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Kojak: One for the Morgue

Synopsis: After a "hit" on mob boss Mike Tomasso (Art Metrano) fails, Kojak (Telly Savalas) begins receiving anonymous tips that Tomasso's chief rival Serafin (Anthony Charnota) ordered the killing. But as the case progresses, Kojak can't help suspecting that those tips are leading him down the proverbial Read More

Willie Dynamite

Actors: Roscoe Orman, Diana Sands

Synopsis: Willie Dynamite (Roscoe Orman) is a Manhattan pimp whose life and career are documented in this blaxploitation flick. Willie makes it to the top of his precarious profession, only to hit rock bottom again in record time. In her last movie role, Diana Sands plays an ex-hooker who becomes a social Read More

Scream, Blacula, Scream!

Actors: James Kingsley, Dan Roth, William Marshall, Pam Grier

Synopsis: In this horror sequel from the director of Count Yorga, Vampire, a member of an American voodoo cult revives the fanged Prince Manuwalde (William Marshall), only to become his slave. Manuwalde then puts the bite on various victims, but finds himself fixating on pretty Lisa (Pam Grier), a voodoo Read More

Dirty Harry

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, John Vernon, Andy Robinson, John Larch

Synopsis: "You've got to ask yourself a question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" Dirty Harry provoked a critical uproar in 1971 for its "fascist" message about the power of one, as it also elevated Clint Eastwood to superstar status through his most enduring screen persona. Harry Callahan (Eastwood Read More