Tess HarperFilmography

Born:: August 15, 1950 in Mammoth Springs, AR
Occupation:: Actor
Birth name:: Tessie Jean Washam
Biography:: Born in Arkansas and schooled in Missouri, actress Tess Harper worked hard to shed her Southern accent. Nevertheless, some of her best movies have been set in the American South. Her film breakthrough came in 1983 opposite Robert Duvall in Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies. As compassionate Rosa...Read More

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Kiss the Bride

Actors: Tori Spelling, Philipp Karner, James O'Shea, Joanna Cassidy, Tess Harper

Synopsis: Director C. Jay Cox explores the complex social and sexual landscapes of contemporary America with this heartfelt romantic comedy about a gay male who just discovered that the love of his life is about to tie the knot -- with a woman! Back in high school, Matt (Philipp Karner) and Ryan (James Read More

4/18/08
Balancing the Books

Actors: Dina Meyer, Vincent Spano, Lea Thompson, Lela Rochon, Ed Begley, Jr.

Synopsis: A desperate woman enlists the aid of two close friends in contending with a volatile situation that is fast threatening to spiral out of control. Julia (Dina Meyer) is a successful, independent woman. The only thing missing from her life is the right man. Though Julia is currently sleeping with Read More

2008
No Country for Old Men

Actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, Kelly MacDonald

Synopsis: When a Vietnam veteran discovers two million dollars while wandering through the aftermath of a Texas drug deal gone horribly awry, his decision to abscond with the cash sets off a violent chain reaction in a stripped-down crime drama from Joel and Ethan Coen. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) has just Read More

11/9/07
Broken

Actors: Heather Graham, Jeremy Sisto, Randall Batinkoff, Jake Busey, Michael A. Goorjian

Synopsis: A waitress looking to make good on a series of bad life choices finds her noble quest for redemption stifled when a deeply disturbed ex-boyfriend comes looking to win her back in a dark psychological drama from director Alan White. Hope (Heather Graham) has traveled quite a few darkened roadways Read More

10/5/07
Saving Sarah Cain

Actors: Lisa Pepper, Tom Tate, Elliott Gould, Tess Harper

Synopsis: A well-meaning but self-centered newspaper columnist learns the importance of placing career before family when her sister dies and she brings her late sibling's five Amish-raised children to live with her in the big city. There was a time when Sarah Cain was one of the city's best-known writers Read More

2007
Broken Bridges

Actors: Toby Keith, Kelly Preston, Lindsey Haun, Burt Reynolds, Tess Harper

Synopsis: When a fading country music superstar Bo Price (Toby Keith) returns to his hometown for the funeral of his younger brother, a reunion with his high-school sweetheart drags the pain of the past into the present day and soon promises to change his life forever. Bo and Angela (Kelly Preston) have Read More

9/8/06
Karla

Actors: Laura Prepon, Misha Collins, Tess Harper, Patrick Bauchau, Leonard Kelly-Young

Synopsis: Laura Prepon and Misha Collins star as the murderous pair whose deplorable crimes sent shock waves of terror rippling across Canada in director Joel Bender's unflinching look at the crimes of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. On the surface Bernardo (Collins) and Homolka (Prepon) were your average Read More

1/20/06
Loggerheads

Actors: Bonnie Hunt, Kip Pardue, Tess Harper, Chris Sarandon, Michael Learned

Synopsis: Tim Kirkman wrote and directed Loggerheads, a film that follows three different storylines that all transpire over the course of a Mother's Day weekend, but take place at different times. One of the stories features a man who arrives in a coastal North Carolina town in order to preserve turtles Read More

10/14/05
Jesus, Mary and Joey

Actors: Marley Shelton, Jennifer Esposito, Vincent Pagano

Synopsis: Love brings a shiftless young man in touch with the Lord, which proves more than a bit confusing to his family in this independent comedy drama. Joey Vitello (Vincent Pagano) is a guy in his mid-twenties who still lives with his extended Italian-American family and his trying to get his life in Read More

2005
Jam

Synopsis: A car wreck causes the lives of 15 strangers to unexpectedly collide in this independent comedy drama. It's Father's Day, and Ted (William Forsythe) is out on the road with his 19-year-old son Josh (Dan Byrd). When Josh slams on the brakes to avoid hitting a dog along a two-lane highway in the Read More

2005
Angel in the Family

Synopsis: Weary and dispirited following the death of his wife Lorraine (Meredith Baxter) and after suffering a mild stroke, Buddy Bishop (Ronny Cox) anxiously reaches out to his estranged daughters Sarah (Tracy Needham) and Beth (Natasha Gregson Wagner), asking that they join him for a Christmas reunion. Read More

2004
The Rising Place

Actors: Laurel Holloman, Elise Neal, Mark Webber, Liam Aiken, Bill Campbell

Synopsis: A woman learns a valuable lesson about her family as she and her aunt look back at her troubled past in this independent drama. As Virginia Wilder (Frances Fisher) visits her elderly Aunt Millie (Alice Drummond) for the Christmas holidays, she discovers a number of letters she received during the Read More

11/8/02
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Bully for You

Synopsis: An arrogant high-school football star, known to be an abrasive class clown and a bully, is found murdered in a school bathroom. The CSI team picks through evidence indicating that the boy was murdered in retaliation by one of his put-upon victims. And in another case, Sara (Jorja Fox) and Nick (George Eads Read More

2001
Morning

Actors: Kieran Mulroney, Annabeth Gish, Darren E. Burrows, Tess Harper

Synopsis: Ami Canaan Mann, the daughter of acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann, follows in her father's footsteps with this, her first feature as a director. Johnny (J.R. Richards) and Trick (Kieran Mulroney) grew up together in a small North Carolina community, but now that they're edging into their thirties Read More

2001
Touched by an Angel: The Empty Chair

Synopsis: The popular daytime TV show "Breakfast with the Baxters" has been cancelled, and hosts Betsey and Bud Baxter (Tess Harper, George Dzundza) are out of work. As they sit in their home ruminating over their bad luck, Betsey and Bud are visited by their two biggest fans--who bear a remarkable Read More

2000
Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Actors: Meredith Monroe, Tess Harper, Walton Goggins, Lindsay Crouse

Synopsis: Four of the autobiographical novels of Laura Ingalls Wilder served as the basic source material for this made-for-TV movie. Covering some of the same ground as the Wilder-inspired TV series Little House on the Prairie, the film stars Meredith Monroe as 19th-century teenager Laura Ingalls, who at Read More

2000
The Secret

Actors: Mark Krassenbaum, Ari Meyers, Soleil Moon Frye, Tess Harper

Synopsis: Small screen veterans Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster), Ari Meyers (Kate & Allie, Evening Shade) and Tess Harper (Tender Mercies) co-star in the melodrama The Secret (AKA The Killing Secret), which took its initial bow on Mon., Jan. 6, 1997 as an NBC prime-time telemovie, but is now available in Read More

1997
The Jackal

Actors: Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier, Diane Venora, Tess Harper

Synopsis: In Moscow, after FBI deputy director Carter Preston (Sidney Poitier) and scarred Russian intelligence officer Valentina Koslova (Diane Venora) bring down a key figure in the Russian Mafia, they are threatened by the criminal's powerful brother who swears vengeance on the FBI and immediately hires Read More

1997
A Child's Wish

Synopsis: This fact-based TV movie stars John Ritter as Ed Chandler, whose life is torn asunder when his daughter Missy (Anna Chlumsky) is diagnosed with cancer. The nature of Missy's illness obliges Ed to spend many hours away from his job as a car salesman to commiserate with her daughter's doctors at the Read More

1997
Dirty Laundry

Synopsis: Middle-age crises abound in this ribald New Jersey-set sex-comedy. Professional dry cleaner Joey Green is not aging gracefully. With little interest in making love to his wife Beth, a rapidly growing bald spot, and a failing business, he is convinced that he has hit "male menopause." To lift his Read More

1996
The Road to Galveston

Actors: Cicely Tyson, Tess Harper, Piper Laurie, James McDaniel, Penny Johnson

Synopsis: In this heartwarming drama, a dying widow "abducts" a trio of women suffering from Alzheimer's disease and embarks upon a journey to the title Texas town in order to fulfill her lifelong fantasy of seeing the ocean. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1996
A Stranger to Love

Synopsis: Based on a true story, the made-for-TV A Stranger to Love stars Beau Bridges as Allan Grant, a reasonably happy Omaha man with a wife (Tess Harper) and two sons. Attacked by muggers and left for dead, Allan awakens with no memory of his past life--or even his name. Wandering from town to town, he Read More

1996
Death in Small Doses

Actors: Richard Thomas, Tess Harper, Glynnis O'Connor

Synopsis: Based on a well-publicized 1991 Dallas murder case, the made-for-TV Death in Small Doses begins with the death of architect Nancy Lyon (Glynnis O'Connor), who has succumbed to arsenic poisoning. The prime suspect is Nancy's frequently estranged husband Richard (Richard Lyon), who stands to collect Read More

1994
My New Gun

Actors: Diane Lane, James LeGros, Stephen Collins, Tess Harper, Bill Raymond, Bruce Altman

Synopsis: Stacy Cochran's debut film is a black comedy about a yuppie couple (Diane Lane and Stephen Collins) whose lives are turned upside down by the purchase of a .38 revolver. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

10/30/92
The Turning

Actors: Gillian Anderson, Karen Allen, Raymond J. Barry, Michael Dolan, Tess Harper

Synopsis: With his All-American good looks, Cliff (Michael Dolan) has had easy access to the sorts of groups that appealed to him as he traveled around the U.S., mostly Klan and neo-Nazi organizations. He is bitter about his childhood, during which his parents bickered constantly. Now, at 22, he has come Read More

1992
Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story

Synopsis: Do not confuse this fact-based feature with the more tongue-in-cheek cable TV version, The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader Murdering Mom. This one looks seriously at the story of a Texas mother who was willing to kill to ensure her daughter's place on the cheerleading Read More

1992
In the Line of Duty: Siege at Marion

Synopsis: This 1970s true story features a fanatically religious woman and her son-in-law who hold her children prisoner while waiting for her late husband's resurrection in Utah. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

1992
The Man in the Moon

Actors: Sam Waterston, Tess Harper, Gail Strickland, Reese Witherspoon, Jason London

Synopsis: In its elegiac nostalgia for the days of childhood innocence, Robert Mulligan's The Man in the Moon recalls another of Mulligan's earlier films, To Kill A Mockingbird. Set in a Louisiana backwater town in the 1950s, the film chronicles the coming-of-age of a young teenage girl. Dani (Reese Witherspoon Read More

10/4/91
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

Actors: Scott Glenn, Kate Capshaw, Ben Johnson, Balthazar Getty, Tess Harper

Synopsis: Scott Glenn is H.D., a champion rodeo rider whose career is ruined after being gored by a bull. He returns home to discover things have drastically changed -- the family farm has been abandoned, his old girlfriend Julie (Kate Capshaw) is a now a widowed mother, and his sister Cheryl (Tess Harper) Read More

3/1/91
Daddy's Dyin'... Who's Got the Will?

Actors: Beau Bridges, Beverly D'Angelo, Tess Harper, Judge Reinhold, Amy Wright

Synopsis: This screen version of Del Shores' play follows a dysfunctional Southern family as they squabble among themselves over the family fortune. As the title would suggest, Daddy (Bert Remsen), the patriarch of a large family in the deep South, is reaching the end of life's journey as his health and Read More

5/4/90
Criminal Law

Actors: Gary Oldman, Kevin Bacon, Karen Young, Joe Don Baker, Tess Harper, Ron Lea

Synopsis: Criminal Law is an inadvertently legal thriller wherein criminal defense attorney Ben Chase (Gary Oldman) decides to prove that his client Martin Thiel (Kevin Bacon) is in fact a serial killer, despite the acquittal that Ben won for him. When new murders occur, Ben takes matters into his own Read More

4/28/89
Her Alibi

Actors: Tom Selleck, Paulina Porizkova, William Daniels, James Farentino, Hurd Hatfield

Synopsis: A frustrated writer helps save a woman being railroaded by the law -- or is she? -- in this comic mystery with romantic overtones. Phil Blackwood (Tom Selleck) is a best-selling mystery novelist who has run into a bad case of writer's block. Hoping to find inspiration for his next book, Phil goes Read More

2/3/89
Incident at Dark River

Synopsis: The made-for-cable Incident at Dark River stars Mike Farrell as a working-stiff family man. When his daughter falls ill, Farrell discovers to his horror that the girl is suffering from toxic poisoning. A local battery factory has been polluting the area with its deadly waste, but when Farrell Read More

1989
Unconquered

Synopsis: This biopic follows physically challenged Richmond Flowers Jr. as he overcomes his difficulties and the conflicts caused by his father's activism in the civil rights movement, and becomes a famous college athlete. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1989
Far North

Actors: Jessica Lange, Charles Durning, Tess Harper, Donald Moffat, Ann Wedgeworth

Synopsis: Writer/director Sam Shepard's jaundiced view of "Lake Woebegone" territory is essentially a vehicle for his lady fair Jessica Lange. Far North is set in rural Minnesota, at the home of a dour, curmudgeonly farm family. Only Kate (Lange) has been able to escape this repressive environment, but she Read More

11/9/88
Little Girl Lost

Synopsis: When a couple tries to adopt a child, they run into red tape because the foster child asserts that her natural father molested her. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

1988
Ishtar

Actors: Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Adjani, Charles Grodin, Jack Weston

Synopsis: Considered one of the great box-office turkeys of its decade, Ishtar was an attempt by writer/director Elaine May and stars Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty to do a modern-day road picture in the style of the much-loved Bob Hope and Bing Crosby comedy classics. Beatty is Lyle Rogers, a Read More

5/15/87
Murder, She Wrote: Simon Says, Color Me Dead

Synopsis: Comedian Foster Brooks curtails his "lovable lush" routine to play Simon Thane, a celebrated artist living in Cabot Cove. For the last several years, Thane has jealously guarded his favorite painting, which he has never allowed to be seen publicly. Jessica (Angela Lansbury) becomes involved in the Read More

1987
Daddy

Actors: Patricia Arquette

Synopsis: "Daddy" is Dermot Mulroney--a high-school-age kid who has no clue of what he's in for. Mulroney has gotten his girlfriend Patricia Arquette pregnant, less out of callousness than naivete. Arquette drops out of school, thinking she can drop back in anytime, while Mulroney puts his music lessons on Read More

1987
Crimes of the Heart

Actors: Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, Tess Harper

Synopsis: Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Beth Henley (who also penned the screenplay), Crimes of the Heart stars three high-powered actresses as three high-strung sisters. Lenny (Diane Keaton), Meg (Jessica Lange) and Babe (Sissy Spacek) gather at Lenny's deep-South home for her birthday. Read More

12/12/86
Promises to Keep

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Claire Bloom, Christopher Mitchum

Synopsis: In this family drama, the life of a woman and her son are severely disrupted when her estranged husband, who abandoned them thirty years before, returns. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1986
Celebrity

Synopsis: After twenty-five years, a trio of old high school friends are held responsible for a rape incident they have, until now, kept secret in this television miniseries based on Thomas Thompson's novel. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

1985
Flashpoint

Actors: Kris Kristofferson, Treat Williams, Rip Torn, Kevin Conway, Kurtwood Smith, Tess Harper

Synopsis: Bob Logan (Kris Kristofferson) and Ernie Wyatt (Treat Williams) are freewheeling U.S. border patrol officers in a tiny Texas town. Though they're "oil and water" in terms of personality, they're a dynamite team on the job. Coming across a million dollars in stolen money, their relationship Read More

1984
A Summer to Remember

Synopsis: The friendship between a deaf boy and an orangutan skilled in sign language provides the basis of this heartwarming made-for-TV drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1984
Reckless Disregard

Actors: Tess Harper, Leslie Nielsen, Ronny Cox, Henry Ramer

Synopsis: Made for cable, Reckless Disregard was clearly inspired by the 1983 court trial involving Dan Rather of 60 Minutes and Dr. Carl Galloway, who felt he was wrongly linked to a pill-dispensing clinic. Leslie Nielsen stars as arrogant TV reporter Bob Franklin, who as part of a lengthy investigative Read More

1984
Chiefs

Synopsis: This TV miniseries concerns a Southern village where the murder of a boy has puzzled three different police chiefs since the 1920s. By the time that a black sheriff (Billy Dee Williams) takes over in 1962, he might have just enough evidence to find the culprit. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

1983
Amityville 3-D

Actors: Tony Roberts, Tess Harper, Robert Joy, Candy Clark, John Beal

Synopsis: The third installment in the haunted-house saga discards any pretense of being based on actual events in order to provide the requisite cheap thrills sought by audiences during the short-lived 3-D revival of the early '80s. When a skeptical reporter (Tony Roberts) with a penchant for debunking Read More

1983
Kentucky Woman

Actors: Ned Beatty

Synopsis: Cheryl Ladd seemed bound and determined in the early 1980s to prove that she was a "Charlie's Angel" no more; we probably would have taken her word for it even if she hadn't tried so hard and stridently. Made for television, Kentucky Woman found Ladd as a poverty-stricken waitress who becomes a Read More

1983
Silkwood

Actors: Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher, Craig T. Nelson, Diana Scarwid

Synopsis: Based on a true story, Silkwood begins and ends with Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) driving along a lonely road in 1974, heading to a meeting with a New York Times reporter to deliver evidence of negligence at the Kerr-McGee Plant in Cimarron, Oklahoma. The balance of the film flashes back to Read More

1983
Starflight One

Synopsis: In this taut, futuristic drama, the maiden voyage of a hypersonic passenger jet becomes a disaster when something goes terribly wrong and it gets stuck in orbit. The film is also known as Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1983
Tender Mercies

Actors: Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, Allan Hubbard, Betty Buckley, Ellen Barkin

Synopsis: Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall), a once-famous country western singer, wakes up broke, alone and hung over in a tiny Texas motel run by widowed Rosa Lee (Tess Harper). Having nowhere else to go, Sledge takes a job at the motel, and through the kindness and faith of Rosa he changes his self-destructive Read More

1983

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Trailer: Kiss The Bride (2:13)

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