Simon Oakland Filmography

Quincy, M.E.: Give Me Your Weak

Synopsis: In this followup to the Season Six episode "Who Speaks for the Children", Quincy (Jack Klugman) continues his crusade to push forward the stalled "Orphan Drug Act" in congress, creating funding to develop curative drugs for rare diseases. The big problem is money, or lack of it: the major Read More

The Rockford Files: Just a Coupla Guys

Synopsis: No sooner has Jim (James Garner) arrived in Newark than he is robbed of his watch, wallet, luggage, and return plane ticket. The culprits are a couple of minor-league crooks who hope to break into the Big Time through the auspices of Jim's friend, reformed mobster Beppy Conigliaro (Simon Oakland). Read More

Drive, Lady, Drive

Synopsis: In this episode of the "CHiPs" television series the patrolmen arrive in a small community to take over for the striking officers. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Rockford Files: Nice Guys Finish Dead

Synopsis: It's a veritable Old Home Week on The Rockford Files, with return visits from Jim's fellow P.I. Vern St. Cloud (Simon Oakland), nerdish detective-wannabe Freddie Beamer (James Whitmore Jr.), and last but not least, the impossibly handsome and insufferably lucky private detective Lance White (Tom Read More

The Rockford Files: The House on Willis Avenue, Part 2

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a two-part story, Jim Rockford (James Garner) and rookie private eye Richie Brockelman (Dennis Dugan) continue to investigate the suspicious death of their mutual mentor Joe Tooley. When the trail of clues leads to crooked computer-company CEO Garth McGregor (Jackie Cooper) Read More

The Rockford Files: The House on Willis Avenue, Part 1

Synopsis: In the first half of a two-part story, Jim (James Garner) investigates the mysterious death of his mentor Joe Tooley (Paul Fix) on the Ventura Freeway. Assisting Jim--in a manner of speaking--is greenhorn detective Richie Brockelman (Dennis Dugan), who likewise suspects that Tooley's demise was no Read More

Evening in Byzantium

Synopsis: A piece of made-for-television hack work that suddenly became sort of topical 23 years later, with the attacks on the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Evening in Byzantium was a two-part made-for-TV feature based very loosely on Irwin Shaw's best-seller. The book Read More

Quincy, M.E.: Passing

Synopsis: Quincy (Jack Klugman) and Sam (Robert Ito) come across a human skull while travelling through the desert. With the help of forensic artist Lynn Peters (Zohra Lampert), Quincy concludes that the skull is that of a controversial labor leader who had mysteriously vanished a few years back (guess Read More

Quincy, M.E.: Speed Trap

Synopsis: After Grand Prix driver and self-avowed "health nut" Kevin Bannon dies in car crash, Quincy (Jack Klugman) performs an autopsy and discovers that the victim's body was riddled with amphetamines. Having been assured by car mechanic Chick Thomas ({$Simon Oakland]) that Kevin never took a drug in his Read More

Young Joe, The Forgotten Kennedy

The Rockford Files: Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones, But Waterbury Will Bury You

Synopsis: When three of his fellow private eyes lose their licenses, Jim (James Garner) risks his own to help them. It turns out that the P.I.'s have been victimized by a "mystery woman" (Katherine Charles) working for a huge detective agency which is determined to eliminate all competition--even if means Read More

Black Sheep Squadron

Synopsis: Black Sheep Squadron is the 2-hour pilot film for the TV adventure series Baa Baa Black Sheep. Robert Conrad stars as real-life World War II ace Gregory "Pappy" Boyington. Ever at odds with his superiors, the highly decorated Boyington quits the Flying Tigers, finagles a major's commission, and Read More

Flying Misfits

Synopsis: This film relates the efforts of World War II flying ace "Pappy" Boyington to control his highly decorated and unmanageable Pacific theater squadron. The film also acted as the pilot for the television series Baa Baa Black Sheep. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Kojak: Dead Again

Synopsis: Kojak (Telly Savalas) is one of several authority figures who dismiss the claims of Julie Winston (Brooke Adams), a young and friendless newcomer to the Big Apple, when she insists that she has been threatened by a "dead" man. According to Julie, her tormenter was a known felon who had previously Read More

S.W.A.T.: Sole Survivor

Actors: Steve Forrest, Rod Perry, Robert Urich, Mark Shera, James Coleman

Synopsis: Simon Oakland guest stars as ex-parole officer Frank Hunter, who hatches a diabolically ingenious scheme to enrich himself and get even with his former employers. Assembling a gang of industrious ex-convicts, Hunter instructs them to carefully study the modus operandi of Hondo's (Steve Forrest Read More

The Best of All the Safecrackers

Synopsis: Best of the Safecrackers is an ersatz movie made up of a two-part installment from the Toma TV series. Tony Musante stars as Dave Toma, a real-life Newark police detective. Toma is a master of disguise, and this time around he poses as a bank robber. He joins the gang of ace safecracker William Daniels Read More

Crackle of Death

Synopsis: Crackle of Death is a hybrid feature film comprised of two episodes from the 1974 TV series Night Stalker. Series regulars Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland head the cast, playing, respectively, reporter Carl Kolchak and editor Tony Vincenzo. It was Kolchak's weekly habit on the series to run Read More

Kolchak: The Night Stalker [TV Series]

Actors: Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, Ruth McDevitt, Jack Grinnage

Synopsis: Debuting Friday, September 13, 1974 on ABC, the weekly, hour-long sci-fi/fantasy series Kolchak: The Night Stalker was spun off from two well-received feature length entries from the same network's Movie of the Week: The Night Stalker (1971) and The Night Strangler (1973). Starring in both these Read More

The Night Strangler

Actors: John Carradine, Darren McGavin

Synopsis: The Night Strangler is the sequel to the enormously successful 1972 TV movie The Night Stalker. Darren McGavin returns as seedy reporter Carl Kolchak, who previously ran into conflict when Las Vegas authorities refused to acknowledge Kolchak's uncovering of a modern-day vampire. Now he's in Read More

Run, Stranger, Run

Actors: Ron Howard

Synopsis: In this star-studded Canadian feature, young Johnny (Ron Howard) returns to his home to find out more about his early childhood, and who his father is. He runs headlong into the rivalry between his mother (Cloris Leachman) and her sister (Patricia Neal). What he cannot know is that his inquiries Read More

Ironside: Love Me in December

Synopsis: Ironside (Raymond Burr) heads to a farming community at the request of Vickie Dunhill (Kathy Cannon), the 18-year-old fiancee of wealthy middle-aged rancher Aaron Clark (Steve Forrest). It seems that a murder has occurred, and that the local citizens, resentful over the fact that Clark has Read More

Toma

Synopsis: The made-for-TV Toma was inspired by the real-life career of New Jersey plainclothes detective Dave Toma. Tony Musante stars as the detective, whose penchant for impenetrable disguises makes him indispensable to the undercover division of the Newark police department. Toma's fierce independence Read More

Emperor of the North

Actors: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Keith Carradine, Charles Tyner, Malcolm Atterbury

Synopsis: In this gritty and violent period drama set in the depths of the Great Depression, Lee Marvin stars as "A No. 1", the acknowledged King of the Hoboes. A No. 1 is famous among his fellow tramps for his ability to catch a ride on any train, no matter how risky the hop or dangerous the guards. He Read More

The Night Stalker

Actors: Darren McGavin, Carol Lynley, Simon Oakland, Ralph Meeker, Claude Akins

Synopsis: Seedy newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) is assigned the Las Vegas police beat by his boss Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland). A series of murders has been plaguing the Glitter Capital; the victims, all beautiful showgirls, have had the blood drained from their bodies. Kolchak can't Read More

Toma: The Safecracker

Key West

Synopsis: Wanna bet that Key West was a TV pilot film? You win! Stephen Boyd plays ex-CIA agent Steve Cutler, now happily running a boat service in-where else?--Key West. Cutler is forced to go back into action when he is marked for extermination by vengeful tycoon Ford Rainey. He is also kept busy trying Read More

Safecracker

Ironside: A Lesson in Terror

Synopsis: Attorney Theodore Berringer (Simon Oakland) is none too fond of his current clients, a band of scofflaw anarchists. When the gang escapes from prison, they take Berringer's son Ted (Brad David) hostage to ensure the elder Berringer's cooperation. As it turns out, however, Ted is a willing Read More

The Hunting Party

Actors: Eugenio Escudero Garcia, Rafael Escudero Garcia, Emilio Rodriques Guiar, Christine Larroude, Stephanie Pieritz, Lilibeth Solison, Bud Strait, Marisa Tovar, Oliver Reed, Candice Bergen, Gene Hackman, Simon Oakland, Mitchell Ryan

Synopsis: This infamously violent British Western stars Gene Hackman as Brandt Ruger, a wealthy rancher who goes away on a hunting trip with a group of friends. While he's gone, a thug named Frank Calder (Oliver Reed) kidnaps Melissa (Candice Bergen), Brandt's wife, under the mistaken impression that she's Read More

Cross Current

Actors: Robert Hooks, Simon Oakland, Jeremy Slate, Robert Wagner

Synopsis: Also known as Cross Current, The Cable Car Murder emulates the 1971 theatrical feature Tick, Tick, Tick by teaming a black homicide lieutenant (Robert Hooks) with a white partner (Jeremy Slate). Simon Oakland costars as the team's apoplectic superior (is there any other kind?) Set in San Read More

Chato's Land

Actors: Sally Adez, Sonia Rangan, Rudy Ugland, Rebecca Wilson, Charles Bronson, Jack Palance, Richard Basehart, James Whitmore, Simon Oakland

Synopsis: Charles Bronson stars in this revisionist western directed by Michael Winner. The film concerns an Apache half-breed, Pardon Chato (Charles Bronson), who finds himself pursued by a relentless posse, headed by Joshua Everette (Jack Palance), after Chato has killed a white sheriff. But when members Read More

Scandalous John

Actors: Freddie Hernandez, Brian Keith

Synopsis: The Old West is just not the same, what with so few cattle being run, and law-abiding folk running around like they own everything. In this family comedy drama, it's too much for John McCanless (Brian Keith). He is a cranky old rancher and former gunslinger who has no intention of selling his Read More

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

Actors: Barbra Streisand, Yves Montand, Bob Newhart, Larry Blyden, Simon Oakland

Synopsis: Vincente Minnelli directed, and Alan Jay Lerner adapted the stage musical he had written with Burton Lane, for this this feature film version. Barbra Streisand stars as Daisy Gamble, a chain smoker who, at the urging of her uptight fiance Warren (Larry Blyden), seeks help in kicking the habit from Read More

Bonanza: The Clarion

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Phyllis Thaxter, Simon Oakland

Synopsis: Phyllis Thaxter guest-stars as widowed newspaper publisher Ruth Manning, yet another old friend of Ben Cartwright. Ben comes to Ruth's assistance when her newspaper is targeted for extinction by ruthless town boss Judge Seth Tabor (Simon Oakland). Featured in the cast are William Jordan as Leek Read More

The Revolutionary

Synopsis: Actor Jon Voight and director Paul Williams, who'd previously collaborated on the campus-angst comedy Out of It (69), were reunited for The Revolutionary. Hans Konigsberger adapted his novel for this filmization of the life of a contemporary revolutionary (Jon Voight), known only as "A." He begins Read More

Ironside: Puzzlelock

Synopsis: Former cop turned assistant DA Mel Grayson (Simon Oakland) uses his experitise in the realm of "circumstantial evidence" to sinister advantage. Murdering his wife, Grayson arranges the evidence to make it seem as though the woman has been killed by a burglar. By the time Ironside (Raymond Burr) Read More

The F.B.I.: The Maze

Synopsis: A fugitive from the FBI, Frank Welles (Steve Ihnat) has also been marked for death by a Mafia hitman. Despite the danger involved, Welles makes a stopover in San Diego, intending to wreak vengeance against the man whom he holds responsible for the death of his best friend's daughter. Thus Read More

Chubasco

Actors: Richard Egan, Christopher Jones, Susan Strasberg, Simon Oakland

Synopsis: Chubasco (Christopher Jones) is a wayward youth who is given a choice by the presiding judge. His choices are go to jail or take an honest job on a fishing boat. He chooses to set sail, leaving behind his girl Bunny (Susan Strasberg) and her father Sebastian (Richard Egan), who obviously has it Read More

Bullitt

Actors: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon, Robert Duvall

Synopsis: Robert L. Pike's crime novel Mute Witness makes the transition to the big screen in this film from director Peter Yates. In one of his most famous roles, Steve McQueen stars as tough-guy police detective Frank Bullitt. The story begins with Bullitt assigned to a seemingly routine detail Read More

Tony Rome

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Jill St. John, Richard Conte, Gena Rowlands, Simon Oakland

Synopsis: Frank Sinatra brings a sneering Rat Pack ethos to his first hard-boiled detective role in Tony Rome. Tony is an ex-cop who lives on a houseboat off Miami, accepting fees for private-eye work. His former partner, Ralph Turpin (Robert J. Wilke), asks Tony for help in locating Diana Pines (Sue Lyon) Read More

Bonanza: Justice Deferred

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Simon Oakland

Synopsis: Hoss Cartwright is among the jurors who votes to hang Frank Scott (Claude Akins) for murder. Only after the sentence is carried out does Hoss discover he may have erred, and that the genuine killer was probably Frank's lookalike Mel Burns (also Claude Akins). Unfortunately, none of the other Read More

Mission: Impossible: The Frame

Actors: Steven Hill, Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus

Synopsis: The IMF agents pose as caterers to prevent mob boss Jack Wellman (Simon Oakland) from infiltrating the government of an unnamed state government. While Briggs, Rollin and Willy prepare a lavish dinner for Wellman and his cronies, Barney undertakes a delicate safecracking operation--while Cinnamon Read More

The Plainsman

Synopsis: The Plainsman was a Technicolor remake of the 1936 Cecil B. DeMille film, all about the fictional romantic triangle of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill. DeMille had the advantage of a topnotch cast: Gary Cooper as Hickok, Jean Arthur as Calamity (complete with a Wally Westmore Read More

The Sand Pebbles

Actors: Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna, Candice Bergen, Marayat Andriane

Synopsis: Steve McQueen received his only Academy Award nomination for his performance in this epic-scale war drama, based on the novel by Richard McKenna. In 1926, as China teeters on the edge of political revolution in the midst of a civil war, the USS San Pablo, is ordered to patrol the Yangtze Read More

Combat!: The Old Men

Synopsis: Saunders (Vic Morrow) is more dispirited than usual over the latest crop of replacements. One of the newcomers has been wounded in battle and walks with a limp; another is wallowing in homesickness; a third is a former politician who has never seen combat; and all three of them are rapidly Read More

The Satan Bug

Actors: George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis, Dana Andrews, Ed Asner

Synopsis: Adapted from an Alistair MacLean novel, The Satan Bug is one of the best efforts in the "deadly virus at large" genre. Insane scientist Dr. Hoffman (Richard Basehart) steals several vials containing a lethal germ culture from a government lab. Hoffman has been unhinged by the notion of the Read More

Ready for the People

Actors: Simon Oakland, Everett Sloane, Anne Helm, Karl Held

Synopsis: Murray Brock (Simon Oakland) is a crusading New York district attorney out to prove that young Eddie Dickenson (Richard Jordan) is innocent of murder in this uneven crime drama. With the help of legal assistant Dave Ryan (Karl Held), he tries to keep Eddie from being convicted and sentenced to Read More

The Outer Limits: Second Chance

Synopsis: In Volume 23 of a collection culled from the 1963-1965 science fiction anthology television series, a collection of humans is kidnapped by an alien to help prevent an asteroid from striking his home world. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

The Untouchables: The Jazz Man

Synopsis: Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) goes undercover again, this time motivated not so much by a sense of duty as by loyalty to his old friend Captain Johnson (Robert Bice). The captain's own son has been picked up in a drug raid, and Ness vows to track down the supplier of the illegal narcotics, a Read More

Combat!: The Long Way Home, Part 2

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a two-part story, Sgt. Saunders (Vic Morrow) and several other American soldiers are still being held prisoner by sadistic SS officer Capt. Steiner (Richard Basehart). Though a mass escape attempt by Saunders fails, one of his men, Pvt. Billy Nelson (Tom Lowell) manages to Read More

Combat!: The Long Way Home, Part 1

Synopsis: In the first episode of a two-part story, Saunders (Vic Morrow) and his men attempt to cross over a hill festooned with German soldiers. They have only advanced a few yards when they are captured by Captain Steiner (Richard Basehart), a sadistic SS officer. Herded into Steiner's headquarters Read More

My Favorite Martian: My Favorite Martian (Pilot)

Synopsis: Season One of My Favorite Martian literally begins with a bang as young reporter Tim O'Hara (Bill Bixby) witnesses the crash-landing of a UFO. Surveying the wreckage, Tim is startled to find a somewhat surly and imperious Martian (Ray Walton), who claims to be 450 years old (but doesn't look a day Read More

Bonanza: Thunder Man

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Simon Oakland

Synopsis: The "Thunder Man" is explosives expert William Poole (Simon Oakland), who in addition to his demolition skills, happens to be a serial killer. No sooner has the episode gotten under way than Poole has murdered Joe Cartwright's girlfriend Ann. The sole witness is Ann's father, who has suffered a Read More

The Twilight Zone: The Thirty-Fathom Grave

Actors: Mike Kellin, Simon Oakland, David Sheiner, John Considine, Bill Bixby

Synopsis: Written by Rod Serling, this 60-minute Twilight Zone episode gets under way when a U.S. Navy destroyer begins picking up unusual sounds on its sonar. Investigating, a frogman finds the remains of a sunken submarine -- and hears the sound of clanking from within. This information has a profound Read More

Wall of Noise

Actors: Suzanne Pleshette, Ty Hardin, Dorothy Provine, Simon Oakland

Synopsis: This film about characters who hang around a horseracing focuses on the darker side rather than the limelight of the winner's circle. Joey (Ty Hardin) is an ambitious horse trainer who is sleeping with the boss' wife Laura (Susan Pleshette). When husband Matt (Ralph Meeker) discovers the affair Read More

The Raiders

Synopsis: In this western, an ex-officer for the confederate Army becomes a Texas cattle rancher. He and his fellow ranchers are dismayed when they learn that the coming railroad intends on bypassing their ranches. The rancher then leaves his land to begin fighting the railroad. Meanwhile the railroad Read More

The Untouchables: Downfall

Synopsis: This episode is set in the late 1920s, explaining why Federal agent Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) appears to still be a bachelor. Bootlegger Pete "The Persuader" Kalminski has been encountering a lot of trouble getting his shipments past Ness and the Untouchables. Enter Joey December (Steven Hill), a Read More

Adventures of a Young Man

Actors: Richard Beymer, Diane Baker, Corinne Calvet, Paul Newman, Ricardo Montalban, Fred Clark, Dan Dailey

Synopsis: The "official" title of this film is Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man; its screenplay is adapted from semi-autobiographical "Nick Adams" stories written by Ernest Hemingway. Played by Richard Beymer (West Side Story), Nick Adams is a young Michigan boy who sets out in the early 1900s to learn Read More

The Untouchables: Canada Run

Synopsis: Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon) hopes to expand his bootlegging empire across the US-Canadian border, setting up headquarters in the small Canadian fishing town of St. Brenden's. Meanwhile, Nitti's rival Joe Palakopoulos (Simon Oakland) has already gained a foothold in St. Brenden's, setting himself up Read More

Third of a Man

Actors: James Drury, Jan Shepard, Whit Bissell, Simon Oakland

Synopsis: In this drama, a young mother refuses to marry her son's father because he is too violent. The young father has a secret brother, a mute, whom his ashamed parents have locked away in an insane asylum. One day a cruel guard turns a hose upon him and, because he is deathly afraid of water, the Read More

Follow That Dream

Actors: Elvis Presley, Arthur O'Connell, Anne Helm, Joanna Moore, Jack Kruschen

Synopsis: One of a handful of Elvis Presley vehicles for United Artists release, Follow That Dream is a leisurely comedy/musical with a homey appeal that will delight even non-Presley fans. Based on Richard Powell's novel Pioneer Go Home, the film casts Elvis as Toby Kwimper, the most responsible member of Read More

The Twilight Zone: The Rip Van Winkle Caper

Actors: Oscar Beregi, Simon Oakland, Lew Gallo, John Mitchum, Wallace Rooney

Synopsis: Having successfully robbed a train shipment of gold bullion, four thieves, headed by Mr. Farwell (Oscar Beregi), decide to lay low until the heat is off -- for 100 years, to be exact. Farwell and his three cohorts -- DeCruz (Simon Oakland), Brooks (Lew Gallo), and Erbie (John Mitchum) -- repair to Read More

West Side Story

Actors: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris

Synopsis: Romeo and Juliet is updated to the tenements of New York City in this Oscar-winning musical landmark. Adapted by Ernest Lehman from the Broadway production, the movie opens with an overhead shot of Manhattan, an effect that director Robert Wise would repeat over the Alps in The Sound of Music four Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Misguided Missile

Synopsis: Once again, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) is called upon to defend an old war buddy on a murder charge. This time around, his client is Major Jerry Reynolds (Robert Rockwell), who is also the target of an investigation at Vandenberg Air Force Base concerning the mysterious crashes of several guided Read More

Who Was That Lady?

Actors: Tony Curtis, Dean Martin, Janet Leigh, James Whitmore, John McIntire

Synopsis: A screwball comedy that turns into political farce, this film was something of a throwback even in 1960. Real-life husband and wife Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh star as David and Ann Wilson. David is a university professor who is kissing one of his students when Ann walks in on them. She demands a Read More

Murder, Inc.

Actors: Stuart Whitman, May Britt, Henry Morgan, Peter Falk, Sarah Vaughan, David J. Stewart

Synopsis: This true crime story was hardly "ripped from today's headlines," since the events took place some 20 to 30 years before the movie was released. Still, Murder, Inc. is not afraid to name names, notably those of syndicate boss Louis "Lepke" Buchalter (David J. Stewart) and killer Abe Reles (Peter Falk Read More