Tom AtkinsFilmography

Out of the Black

Actors: Tyler Christopher, Sally Kirkland, Dee Wallace, Jack Conley, Jacqueline Aries

Synopsis: A family faces new crises while trying to resolve an old one in this drama. After the death of Cal Malby (Miles O'Keefe), a miner who died in an accident that eventually leveled the economy of a small Pennsylvania community, his sons Patrick (Jason Widener) and Cole (Tyler Christopher) have been Read More

Bruiser

Actors: Jason Flemyng, Peter Stormare, Leslie Hope, Nina Garbiras

Synopsis: Horror-meister George Romero directs this thriller about a 99-pound weakling who strikes back at everyone who has wronged him in the past. Henry Creedlow (Jason Flemyng) works at a fashion mag called Bruiser for the short-fused, dictatorial Miles Styles (Peter Stormare). Henry spends much Read More

The Rockford Files: If It Bleeds... It Leads

Synopsis: James Garner is reunited with several of his fellow cast members from the Rockford Files series in this made-for-TV sequel. It all begins when schoolteacher Ernie Landale (Hal Holbrook), the husband of private eye Jim Rockford's ex-prostitute friend Rita Kapkovic (Rita Moreno), is accused of child Read More

Homicide: Life on the Street: The Twenty Percent Solution

Actors: Richard Belzer, Giancarlo Esposito, Peter Gerety, Clark Johnson, Yaphet Kotto

Synopsis: Patti D'Arbanville guest stars as Darlene Everett, who shows up at the squad room with a videotape that "proves" that her husband, a bestselling author of espionage thrillers, was killed by his agent. Trouble is, there's no corpse -- and for the moment at least, it looks like there was no crime. Read More

Xena: Warrior Princess: Ties That Bind

Actors: Lucy Lawless, Renee O'Connor, Tom Atkins, Kevin Smith, Stephen Lovatt

Synopsis: While rescuing a group of slave girls from a warlord, Xena saves the life of an old man (Tom Atkins) who has helped her fend off the villains. The oldster subsequently claims to be Atrius -- Xena's long-lost father. Ensuing events convince Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) that Xena should stay as far Read More

Striking Distance

Actors: Bruce Willis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Dennis Farina, Tom Sizemore, Brion James, Robert Pastorelli, Timothy Busfield

Synopsis: A maverick Pittsburgh policeman loses his job after he shares his suspicion that one of his colleagues is a serial killer. This thriller centers on his hunt to prove his point, a search that becomes more desperate when the killer begins killing the cop's female associates. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Read More

Bob Roberts

Actors: Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Alan Rickman, Ray Wise, Brian Doyle-Murray, Gore Vidal

Synopsis: In the tradition of This Is Spinal Tap, producer/ director/ star Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts is a satire disguised as a documentary. Robbins plays the titular Roberts, a wealthy, well-connected young man running for a senatorial seat in Pennsylvania. On the surface, Roberts is an ingratiating Read More

What She Doesn't Know

Actors: Valerie Bertinelli, George Dzundza, Peter Dobson, David Marshall Grant, Randle Mell

Synopsis: When a district attorney starts an investigation into corruption that leads her back to her own family--rife with police officers--she finds some decisions hard to make. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Two Evil Eyes

Actors: Adrienne Barbeau, E.G. Marshall, Harvey Keitel, Madeleine Potter, Ramy Zada

Synopsis: Two well-known directors each adapt stories by Edgar Allen Poe in this horror drama. George Romero's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" tells how the wife of an elderly, wealthy man and her lover--who also happens to be the husband's private physician--scheme to control his assets. Dying Read More

Cry in the Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann

Actors: Megan Follows, David Morse

Synopsis: Cry in the Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann eschews the usual "today's headlines" approach to fact-based TV movies. This 1991 film recounts an event which took place in Shade Gap, Pennsylvania, way back in 1966. A lunatic backwoodsman (David Morse) abducts a 17-year-old local girl (Megan Follows) and Read More

Dead Man Out

Actors: Danny Glover, Rubén Blades

Synopsis: Danny Glover and Ruben Blades costar in this made-for-cable death row thriller. Blades plays a condemned prisoner, while Glover plays his psychiatrist. The prisoner's behavior is so violent and erratic that he may be too sick to execute. Glover is brought in to calm Blades down--and if he does so Read More

Maniac Cop

Actors: Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree, William Smith

Synopsis: A maniacal murderer is stalking New York City cops in this urban crime thriller. Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell) is suspected of being the killer until Lieutenant McCrae (Tom Atkins) is found dead. Jack takes over the case after McCrae's death with help from undercover cop and sweetheart Theresa (Laurene Landon Read More

The Heist

Actors: Pierce Brosnan, Tom Skerritt, Wendy Hughes, Robert Prosky, Noble Willingham

Synopsis: In this made-for-HBO thriller, Pierce Brosnan stars as an ex-convict who seeks revenge on the racetrack partner (Tom Skerritt) who framed him. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Lethal Weapon

Actors: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Mitchell Ryan, Tom Atkins

Synopsis: LA cop Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson), whose wife has recently died, is a loose cannon with a seeming death wish. This makes him indispensable in collaring dangerous criminals, but a liability to any potential partners. Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover), a conservative family man who wants to stay alive Read More

A Stranger Waits

Synopsis: In this drama, the life of a San Francisco widow changes forever when she has a brief encounter with a younger man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Lemon Sky

Actors: Kevin Bacon, Tom Atkins, Lindsay Crouse, Kyra Sedgwick, Laura White

Synopsis: Originally written in 1970, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lanford Wilson's play Lemon Sky was brought to television by way of PBS' American Playhouse anthology. Based loosely on Wilson's own experiences, the story concerns a 17-year-old boy (Kevin Bacon) who hasn't seen his father in a dozen Read More

Night of the Creeps

Actors: Jason Lively, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow, Tom Atkins, Wally Taylor

Synopsis: Virtually unnoticed during its brief theatrical run, this wildly entertaining horror-comedy achieved healthy cult status following its home-video and cable TV releases. The directorial debut of Fred Dekker (writer of the successful horror parody House), this low-budget effort throws alien Read More

Blind Justice

Actors: Tim Matheson, Mimi Kuzyk, Philip Charles MacKenzie, Tom Atkins, Lisa Eichhorn

Synopsis: Blind Justice is a fact-based TV movie starring Tim Matheson, here made to look "normal" with glasses and mustache. The innocent Matheson is fingered by witnesses as an armed robber/kidnapper/rapist. For the next 14 months, his life is hell. Too much circumstantial evidence surrounds the case, and Read More

The New Kids

Actors: Shannon Presby, Lori Loughlin, James Spader, John Philbin, David H. MacDonald

Synopsis: Abby (Lori Loughlin) and her brother, Loren (Shannon Presby), seem to have it all: good looks, lots of friends, and a great relationship with their loving mom and their heroic, discipline-minded military dad. When their folks are killed in a car crash, however, the siblings must move to small-town Read More

M*A*S*H: The Tooth Shall Set You Free

Synopsis: Charles (David Ogden Stiers) is more obnoxious than ever, thanks to an extremely painful toothache. But despite his agony, Charles is terrified at the prospect of seeing a dentist. Elsewhere, the doctors try to find out why the combat-engineer outfit commanded by a certain Major Weems (Tom Atkins) Read More

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Actors: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy, Ralph Strait, Michael Currie

Synopsis: The only installment of the Halloween series to abandon the Michael Myers story line, Halloween III: Season of the Witch is an intricate sci-fi horror hybrid. A week before Halloween, an older man named Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry) is wounded by a mysteriously dispassionate group of assailants in Read More

Quincy, M.E.: The Last of Leadbottom

Synopsis: While attending the opening ceremonies of a Naval museum named in his honor, Rear Admiral Burgess McKenzie (Albert Paulsen), an old comrade in arms of medical examiner Quincy (Jack Klugman), suddenly drops dead. Peforming the autopsy, Quincy discovers that a microchip has been implanted in the Read More

Quincy, M.E.: Guns Don't Die

Synopsis: A pair of murders occur within a few days of each other, but there seems to be no relation between the two deaths. At least, that's what the authorities believe until Quincy (Jack Klugman) finds a common factor: both victims were killed by the same handgun, which had been stolen from its original Read More

Creepshow

Actors: Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver, Leslie Nielsen, Carrie Nye

Synopsis: Two of the most venerable names in the horror field, author Stephen King and director George A. Romero, present this anthology of original twisted tales inspired by the E.C. horror comics of the 50's and 60's (themselves a more direct basis for the popular Tales from the Crypt TV series). The five Read More

Desperate Lives

Actors: Helen Hunt

Synopsis: In this made-for-TV film, a high-school counselor (Joyce Brothers) faces ineffectual help from administration in combating drugs, so she recruits several students to help in the battle. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Skeezer

Synopsis: Skeezer is an irresistible dog with a special affinity towards handicapped children. Nurse/therapist Karen Valentine uses Skeezer to brighten the lives of the emotionally disturbed and mentally handicapped kids in her charge. The authorities aren't keen on Skeezer's presence, but rest assured Read More

Escape from New York

Actors: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes

Synopsis: The year is 1997. Manhattan Island is now a heavily guarded maximum-security prison, where the scum of the earth have converged. When Air Force One crash-lands in Manhattan, the president (Donald Pleasence) is held hostage by its denizens. One-eyed mercenary Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is Read More

The Fog

Actors: Adrienne Barbeau, Hal Holbrook, Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Houseman

Synopsis: Following the phenomenal box-office success of his seminal horror classic Halloween, director John Carpenter teamed up with producer Debra Hill for a second independent horror project, this time in the mode of an old-fashioned ghost story. The end result was The Fog, a spooky romp about a dark Read More

Power

Synopsis: In this made-for-TV "roman a clef", Joe Don Baker stars as Tommy Vanda, a Hoffa-esque labor leader. Told in flashback, the film recounts Vanda's humble beginnings on the Chicago docks, where he gains fame and notoreity amongst his coworkers and his bosses by spearheading a wildcat strike. Rising Read More

Skag

Synopsis: The short-lived TV series Skag was introduced with a 3-hour premiere on January 6, 1980. Karl Malden stars as Pete "Skag" Skagska, Pittsburgh steel mill foreman and family man. In the pilot, Skag attempts to deal with several family crises: his father's debilitating stroke, his strained Read More

The Ninth Configuration

Actors: Stacy Keach, Scott Wilson, Jason Miller, Ed Flanders, Neville Brand, Moses Gunn

Synopsis: William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist, proved a workmanlike producer/director for 1979's The Ninth Configuration. Army psychiatrist Col. Kane (Stacy Keach) (teetering on the sanity brink himself) tries to minister to the patients in a military mental hospital. The fact that the hospital is Read More

A Death in Canaan

Actors: Paul Clemens, Stefanie Powers

Synopsis: Paul Clemens plays the real-life Peter Reilly, who in September of 1973 was charged with the mutilation and murder of his mother. The confused 18-year-old signs a confession after being told that he's flunked a lie detector test. Later renouncing the confession, Reilly demands a reopening of his Read More

The Rockford Files: The Battle of Canoga Park

Synopsis: Not long after Jim (James Garner) hides his .38 in a cookie jar, he is charged with murder when the weapon is used in a gas station holdup. Can the pilfering of the pistol have anything to do with Viola Wenke (Nora Marlowe), the new cleaning lady that Rocky (Noah Beery Jr.) talked Jim into hiring? Read More

The Rockford Files: Requiem for a Funny Box

Synopsis: This episode is something of an amalgam of the Martin-and-Lewis legend and the much-later TV series The Sopranos). Jim (James Garner) is hired to protect over-the-hill comedian Kenny Bell (Chuck McCann) from his mean-spirited former partner Lee Russo (Robert Quarry), only to find himself Read More

Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo

Synopsis: After a plane crash, killer tarantulas escape from the cargo, threatening orange groves and scaring the crop out of the locals in this arachnorama. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

The Rockford Files: A Portrait of Elizabeth

Synopsis: Doing his best to control his jealousy, Jim (James Garner) agrees to do a job for Beth's last boyfriend Dave Delaroux (John Saxon). Jim's assignment is to check up on a suspicious financial transaction, tied in with the disappearance of some potentially incrimimnating checks. As the story Read More

The Rockford Files: Where's Houston?

Synopsis: At the request of Rocky's old friend Peter Preli (Dabbs Greer), Jim (James Garner) agrees to deliver the ransom for Peter's kidnapped granddaughter Houston (Lane Bradbury). Soon afterward, Houston turns up safe and sound--and Peter is found murdered. Suspected of committing the crime, Jim tries to Read More

Serpico: The Deadly Game

Synopsis: This police drama is the pilot episode of the Serpico television series and follows the straight arrow New York undercover cop Frank Serpico as he investigates racketeers and drug smugglers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Special Delivery

Actors: Bo Svenson, Cybill Shepherd, Tom Atkins, Sorrell Booke, Gerritt Graham

Synopsis: A botched robbery provides the basis of this romantic comedy. The caper was performed by three unemployed Vietnam vets desperate for cash. Unfortunately, two of them are captured during the getaway. The third vet continues to flee and stuffs the loot in a convenient mailbox. A dishonest barkeeper Read More

The Rockford Files: The Real Easy Red Dog

Synopsis: A woman identifying herself as Jennifer Sandstrom claims that her sister's death was not a suicide as reported, and hires Jim (James Garner) to find out for sure. It doesn't take long for Jim to determine that his client has not been entirely honest and up-front--and indeed, she isn't even Read More

Shell Game

Synopsis: An amiable con man pulls a scam on the corrupt leader of a fund-raising campaign for a major charity in this lively drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Rockford Files: Season 02

Actors: James Garner, Noah Beery, Jr., Joe Santos, Gretchen Corbett, Stuart Margolin

Synopsis: James Garner is back as rumpled, wryly humorous ex-con turned private eye Jim Rockford in season two of The Rockford Files. In addition to established supporting players Noah Beery Jr. (as Jim's dad Rocky), Gretchen Corbett (as Jim's lawyer girlfriend Beth Davenport), Stuart Margolin (as Read More

The Rockford Files: Sleight of Hand

Synopsis: Jim (James Garner) is baffled by the sudden disappearance of his girlfriend Karen (Pat Delaney). Even more disturbing is the fact that Karen's next-door neighbor was found murdered at the same time Karen vanished. Investigating, Jim discovers that both Karen and her neighbor had something in Read More

The Rockford Files: The Four Pound Brick

Synopsis: The death of police rookie Dave Banning has been ruled accidental by the authorities, but Dave's grieving mother Kate (Edith Atwater) is convinced that her son was murdered. Although Kate cannot afford his $200-per-day fee, Jim (James Garner) agrees to help her learn the truth behind her son's Read More

Miles to Go Before I Sleep

Synopsis: Its title inspired by the famous Robert Frost poem "Stopping By a Woods on a Snowy Evening," Miles to Go Before I Sleep stars Martin Balsam and MacKenzie Phillips. Balsam plays a lonely senior citizen, seeking a means of keeping busy in a world that has shut him out. He takes a part-time job at a Read More

The Rockford Files: Season 01

Actors: James Garner, Noah Beery, Jr., Joe Santos, Gretchen Corbett, Stuart Margolin

Synopsis: Introduced as a 90-minute TV movie in March of 1974, The Rockford Files began its weekly, hour-long series run in September of that year. The opening episode, "The Kirkoff Case," finds ex-con turned private eye Jim Rockford (James Garner) trying to prove that his earnest but obnoxious young client Read More

The Rockford Files: The Countess

Synopsis: Jim Rockford (James Garner) is hired by former countess Deborah Ryder (Susan Strasberg), who is being blackmailed about her less-than-savory past by Carl Brego (Dick Gautier). After filming Deborah meeting Brego at the drop-off point, Jim confronts the blackmailer and "leans" on him a little to Read More

Where's Poppa?

Actors: George Segal, Ruth Gordon, Ron Leibman, Trish VanDevere, Barnard Hughes

Synopsis: Director Carl Reiner, most closely associated with the homey values of situation comedies, shocked, surprised, and (in some cases) delighted his admirers with the jet-black comedy Where's Poppa?. George Segal plays Gordon Hocheiser, a New York attorney whose love life is constantly being sabotaged Read More

The Owl and the Pussycat

Actors: Barbra Streisand, George Segal, Robert Klein, Allen Garfield, Roz Kelly

Synopsis: The Owl and the Pussycat began life as a two-character Broadway play by Bill Manhoff, about a stuffy author who entered into an explosive relationship with his neighbor, a foulmouthed, freewheeling prostitute. Manhoff wrote the part of the hooker for a black actress, but all that changed when Barbra Streisand Read More

The Detective

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Lee Remick, Ralph Meeker, Jacqueline Bisset, Jack Klugman

Synopsis: Frank Sinatra gives a gritty performance in the crime thriller The Detective. When Teddy Leikman, the homosexual son of a politically connected department-store magnate, is murdered, detective Joe Leland (Frank Sinatra) is sent in to investigate. Leland drags in Teddy's psychotic former roommate Read More