Sada Thompson Filmography

Any Mother's Son

Synopsis: One of the most controversial (and widely-reported) stories of the early 1990s is vividly dramatized in this made-for-cable movie. In 1992, Allen Schindler, a navy sailor serving on the USS Belleau Wood, is savagely beaten to death while on leave in Japan. Allen's grieving mother Dorothy 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

Law & Order: Jeopardy

Synopsis: The office of a limited-circulation magazine is the scene of three murders. One of the victims, the magazine's editor, had been locked in a power struggle with his brother Peter Nichodos (Peter Frechette). As he prosecutes the cast, Assistant D.A. McCoy runs up against two formidable opponents Read More

Queen

Actors: Halle Berry, Tim Daly, Danny Glover, Ann-Margret, Jasmine Guy, Ossie Davis

Synopsis: In 1977, Alex Haley's groundbreaking mini-series Roots became one of the most watched programs in television history, telling the story of seven generations of the author's mother's family, from their capture in Africa and enslavement in the United States to their eventual emancipation more than a Read More

Cheers: Honor Thy Mother

Synopsis: Carla (Rhea Perlman) is dead set against honoring her dying mother's last request. After all, would you want to name one of your children after Benito Mussolini? Elsewhere, affable Woody (Woody Harrelson) inadvertently incurs the wrath of Rebecca (Kirstie Alley) when he arranges for Cheers to Read More

Andre's Mother

Actors: Sada Thompson, Richard Thomas, Sylvia Sidney, Haviland Morris

Synopsis: After her son dies of AIDS, a woman must come to terms with his abbreviated life. Sada Thompson stars as the mother in this Emmy award-winning movie that aired on PBS. Thompson is joined in her grief by her dead son's lover played by Richard Thomas. As they learn to cope with their losses, the two Read More

Fear Stalk

Actors: Jill Clayburgh

Synopsis: Alexandra Maynard's (Jill Clayburgh) nightmare begins when her wallet is stolen by a psycho. In possession of Alexandra's identification and credit cards, her tormentor is able to follow her all over town, anticipating her every move. Adding to Alexandra's agony are those mocking phone calls from Read More

Home Fires Burning

Synopsis: In this drama, set in a small town in Georgia, a curmudgeonly, strongly opinionated local editor is upset by the changes wrought by the end of WW II. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Reading Rainbow: Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie

Actors: LeVar Burton

Synopsis: The Reading Rainbow series explores the pleasures of reading for youngsters from preschool ages through fourth grade. In this episode, young viewers learn about the importance of lighthouses as they hear the true story of a girl who kept the lights bright, guiding ships as a furious storm Read More

Fatal Confession: A Father Dowling Mystery

Actors: Tom Bosley, Tracy Nelson

Synopsis: This TV pilot film was based on the "Father Dowling" character created (in the tradition of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown) by Ralph McInery. Tom Bosley plays the good Father, who whiles away his off-hours by reading mystery novels. When a young millionaire entrepreneur turns up dead, the official Read More

My Two Loves

Synopsis: Mariette Hartley stars in this groundbreaking TV movie as Gail Springer, a widowed mother on the horns of an outwardly familiar romantic dilemma. Equally in love with two different people, Gail has the devil's own time choosing between them. What made this film unique (at least when it initially Read More

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Actors: Sam Williams, Patrick Day, Frederic Forrest

Synopsis: 1985's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the only filmed version of the Mark Twain classic to cover every episode in the original novel and not merely such familiar vignettes as the "King and the Duke" business. Presented in four parts, Finn opens in 1844, with young Huck (Patrick Day) Read More

The Skin of Our Teeth

Synopsis: The cast of the Old Globe Theater's acclaimed early-'80s revival of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic reunited to re-create their roles for this made-for-TV production, taped for PBS's anthology series American Playhouse. The Skin of Our Teeth follows the often funny and Read More

Princess Daisy

Actors: Lindsay Wagner, Paul Michael Glaser, Robert Urich, Claudia Cardinale

Synopsis: This melodrama is the second of a two part story based on a novel by Judith Krantz. In this episode, Daisy, the daughter of a Russian prince and an American movie star, must leave college and begin looking for a job in New York so that she can pay her sister's enormous medical bills. ~ Sandra Read More

Portrait of an Artist: Frida Kahlo

Synopsis: Known as much for her personal suffering as for her art, Frida Kahlo painted her passions. Her moving and self-reflective work is documented in this one-hour program. Kahlo was plagued her whole life with illness, including polio as a child, a horrific accident in her teens that broke her back Read More

Marco Polo

Actors: Ken Marshall, Denholm Elliott, Tony Vogel, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud

Synopsis: Thirteen months and ten million dollars were lavished upon this ten-hour, four-part TV miniseries about legendary globetrotter Marco Polo. Newcomer Ken Marshall played the title character, a 14th century Venetian explorer who, among other accomplishments, firmly established the "silk route" Read More

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Synopsis: Huckleberry Finn joins Tom Sawyer and Jim, a runaway slave, as they escape down the Mississippi River on a raft. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Our Town

Actors: Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox, Sada Thompson, John Houseman, Hal Holbrook, Glynnis O'Connor, Robby Benson, Barbara Bel Geddes

Synopsis: This videotaped version of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-winning play Our Town stars Hal Holbrook as the Stage Manager. Acting as narrator and assuming several different interlocutory roles throughout the production, Holbrook shows us life in Grovers Corners, New Hampshire, in the first few years of Read More

Family [TV Series]

Actors: Sada Thompson, James Broderick, Kristy McNichol, Gary Frank

The Entertainer

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Ray Bolger, Sada Thompson, Tyne Daly, Michael Cristofer

Synopsis: This Americanized remake of John Osborne's play changes the locale from a seedy British amusement pier to an equally seedy burlesque house in Santa Cruz, California. Jack Lemmon assumes the Laurence Olivier role as Archie Rice, a third-rate entertainer who's a failure but won't admit it. Selfishly Read More

Desperate Characters

Actors: L.J. Davis, Gonzalee Ford, Shanueille Ryder

Synopsis: Frank D. Gilroy's adaptation of Paula Fox's novel Desperate Characters stars Shirley MacLaine as Sophie, a freelance book translator who leads a comfortable life in Brooklyn with her lawyer husband Otto (Kenneth Mars). Because of their crumbling marriage and the threatening presence of urban Read More

The Pursuit of Happiness

Actors: Barbara Hershey, Michael Sarrazin, Ruth White

Synopsis: William Popper (Michael Sarrazin) is the son of a stockbroker and is thoroughly disenchanted with "the system." So much so that even though he can prove that he ran over a woman in his car entirely by accident, he accepts a sentence for manslaughter. His participation in some prison violence Read More