Will Geer Filmography

A Decade of the Waltons

Synopsis: Originally made for television, creator Earl Hamner narrates this two-hour compilation of highlights from The Waltons TV series. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

A Woman Called Moses

Actors: Orson Welles

Synopsis: The made-for-TV A Woman Called Moses stars Cicely Tyson as real-life escaped slave Harriet Tubman. A the risk of recapture, Tubman helped organize the underground railroad, which enabled hundreds of enslaved African Americans to make their way to the freedom of the Northern states. Adding to the Read More

The Mafu Cage

Actors: Lee Grant, Carol Kane, Will Geer, James Olson

Synopsis: In this combination of domestic melodrama and offbeat suspense flick, an astronomer must shoulder the burden of caring for and sleeping with her mentally ill sister after their anthropologist father dies in Africa. Ellen (Lee Grant) and Cissy (Carol Kane) share a possibly incestuous relationship Read More

Rip Van Winkle

Synopsis: Will Vinton's clay animation version of Rip Van Winkle stays faithful to Washington Irving's original story. Rip is a kind-hearted but talkative farmer who, after seeing the loss of his crop after trying to be helpful to another person, ends up sharing beverages with some tiny men he meets. The Read More

The Billion Dollar Hobo

Actors: Tim Conway, Will Geer, Eric Weston, Sidney Lassick, John Myhers

Synopsis: Stuart McGowan, once a leading light of TV's Death Valley Days, serves as director and writer of Billion Dollar Hobo. Tim Conway plays Vernon Praiseworthy, a dimwit who inherits a fortune from former hobo Choo Choo Trayne (Will Geer). In order to collect the legacy, Vernon must emulate Choo Choo Read More

The Waltons: A Christmas Carol

The Waltons: The Children's Carol

Synopsis: John Boy, Ben, and the rest of the rosy-cheeked Walton clan are back for this Christmas-oriented heartwarmer, which involves the family's efforts to help two WWII refugees from England contact their mother. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide Read More

Unknown Powers

Synopsis: In this special feature, a group of people examine a variety of unexplained powers, including ESP, astrology, and magic. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

The Waltons: Season 06

Actors: Ralph Waite, Michael Learned, Will Geer, Ellen Corby, Judy Norton-Taylor

Synopsis: Although it was clearly established during season five that the events of The Waltons were taking place in 1937 and 1938, we've jumped ahead to 1940 as the series launches its sixth season. With Richard Thomas having left the program (save for a trio of guest appearances), it is explained that Read More

Bunco

Actors: Robert Urich, Tom Selleck

Synopsis: A couple of LAPD officers find a school for con artists. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Moving Violation

Actors: Stephen McHattie, Kay Lenz, Eddie Albert, Lonny Chapman, Will Geer

Synopsis: A young couple (Stephen McHattie, Kay Lenz) witness the murder of a police officer by the local sheriff (Lonny Chapman). When the sheriff figures out that they have seen him commit the crime, he tries to frame them as terrorists and the murderers of his deputy. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

The Waltons: Season 05

Actors: Ralph Waite, Michael Learned, Will Geer, Ellen Corby, Richard Thomas

Synopsis: Season five of The Waltons finds the people of Jefferson County, VA, seguing from 1936 to 1937, the latter year pinpointed when aspiring journalist John-Boy Walton (Richard Thomas) covers the arrival -- and explosion -- of the dirigible Hindenburg in Lakehurst, NJ. No, John-Boy has not landed a Read More

Hollywood on Trial

Actors: John Huston, Edward Dmytryk, Albert Maltz, Ring Lardner, Jr., Lester Cole, Dalton Trumbo, John Howard Lawson, Joseph McCarthy

Synopsis: Combining familiar newsreel footage with freshly shot material, David Helpern's Hollywood on Trial is a documentary concerning the "communist witch-hunt" era. In the years following World War II, several ambitious Washington politicos were anxious to dissipate the last traces of Roosevelt's New Read More

The Blue Bird

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, Ava Gardner, Sesiliya Tayson, Cicely Tyson, Robert Morley

Synopsis: The first official co-production between the United States and the Soviet Union, The Blue Bird was the third screen adaptation of the children's story by Maurice Maeterlinck about a pair of children, Tyltyl (Todd Lookinland) and Mytyl (Patsy Kensit), who leave home to search for the Blue Bird of Read More

Law and Order

Actors: Art Hindle

Synopsis: Former policewoman Dorothy Uhnak wrote the book upon which this 150-minute TV movie was based. The central characters of Law and Order are the male members of an Irish-American family--three generations of police officers. The bulk of the drama concerns the conflicts between Deputy Chief of Public Read More

The Night That Panicked America

Actors: Eileen Brennan, Paul Shenar

Synopsis: The Night That Panicked America is centered around Orson Welles' notorious "War of the Worlds" broadcast of October 30, 1938. Welles (Paul Shenar) arrives at CBS studios just in time to assume his directing post for the radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic, which has been updated and Read More

The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery

Actors: Gabriel Dell, Will Geer, Joyce Van Patten, Anjanette Comer, Vincent Gardenia, Barbara Harris, Jackie Coogan

Synopsis: Detective movies and film-noir are parodied in this comedy that tells the story of a rookie detective who is hired via mail-order to find out who killed the milkman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Waltons: Season 04

Actors: Ralph Waite, Michael Learned, Will Geer, Ellen Corby, Richard Thomas

Synopsis: It must be 1936 in Jefferson County, VA, as The Waltons launches its fourth season. This much we can determine by the episode in which the Walton family clusters around its radio to hear the abdication of England's King Edward VIII -- and by the final episode of the season, wherein aspiring Read More

The Waltons: Season 03

Actors: Ralph Waite, Michael Learned, Will Geer, Ellen Corby, Richard Thomas

Synopsis: Set in Jefferson County, VA, in the year 1935 or thereabouts, season three of The Waltons opens with the two-parter "The Conflict," in which oldest Walton son, John-Boy (Richard Thomas), is shot while trying to protect a relative. Fortunately he survives the ordeal and is packed off to his Read More

Honky Tonk

Actors: Will Geer

Synopsis: Honky Tonk represented an attempt by writer/director Douglas Heyes to create a TV series based on the 1941 Clark Gable-Lana Turner film of the same name. In Heyes' version of Honky Tonk, the role of gambler Candy Johnson, originally essayed by Gable, is filled by Richard Crenna, while Margot Kidder Read More

Hurricane

Synopsis: The made-for-TV Hurricane was based on William C. Anderson's novel Hurricane Hunters, which, in turn, was inspired by events surrounding Hurricane Camille in 1969. The scene is Cassler, MS, where a pair of hurricane chasers, patrol-plane pilot Major Stoddard (Martin Milner) and seafarer Paul Damon Read More

The Hanged Man

Actors: Steve Forrest, Cameron Mitchell, Sharon Acker, Dean Jagger, Will Geer

Synopsis: Steve Forrest, in his last starring role before moving permanently to series television with S.W.A.T., plays James Devlin, a once-notorious gunman who is wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Through an accident -- though the priest Father Alvaro (Rafael Campos) insists it was Read More

Memory of Us

Actors: Anne Elizabeth Beesley

Synopsis: A middle-aged housewife, bored and frustrated with her life, endeavors to find herself and renew her happiness in this drama. To relieve the ennui, she has tried several techniques, including mate swapping, but nothing works. She then takes to making daily visits to a hotel room where she finds Read More

Brock's Last Case

Synopsis: Richard Widmark is Brock, a salty NYC cop who retires to a small town in California. Brock's plans to become a peaceful orange farmer are interrupted when his Native American ranch hand (Henry Darrow) is accused of murdering the local sheriff. Before long, Brock himself has been appointed sheriff Read More

Isn't It Shocking?

Actors: Louise Lasser, Lloyd Nolan, Alan Alda, Ruth Gordon

Synopsis: This curious made-for-TV movie stars Alan Alda as a police detective in a small New England town. The community's elderly are dying at an unusual rate, prompting Alda to investigate. He deduces that the old folks are being murdered, but can't find a motive (there are no robberies involved, and Read More

Savage

Synopsis: The made-for-TV Savage is worth seeing today as an example of early Steven Spielberg. Martin Landau stars as Paul Savage, a TV investigative reporter. In possession of a photograph that might destroy the career of a Supreme Court nominee, Savage finds himself the target of scrutiny from all sorts Read More

The Waltons: The Scholar

Synopsis: Lynn Hamilton makes her first series appearance as Verdie Grant (Lynn Hamilton), one of the black residents of Walton's Mountain. Receiving word that her daughter is about to graduate from college, Verdie is reluctant to attend the ceremonies because she is unable to read or write, a secret she Read More

The Waltons: Season 02

Actors: Ralph Waite, Michael Learned, Will Geer, Ellen Corby, Richard Thomas

Synopsis: Season two of The Waltons takes place sometime in the mid-1930s in Jefferson County, VA, home of the large and loving Walton family. As in season one, the stories are told from the viewpoint of oldest son John-Boy Walton (Richard Thomas), who, in the course of this season, graduates from high Read More

The Thanksgiving Story

Synopsis: This special 2-hour episode of The Waltons was penned by series creator Earl Hamner Jr. As the Depression-era Walton family prepares for Thanksgiving, oldest son John-Boy (Richard Thomas) is injured in a freak accident. The crisis is compounded when John-Boy tries to cover up the accident's side Read More

Silence

Actors: Raleigh Geer, Tad Geer, Sam Robustelli

Synopsis: In this film, also released under the title Crazy Jack and the Boy, a young autistic boy, Eric (Ian Geer Flanders), loses himself in the woods while on a visit to the California wilderness. As his parents organize a search party for him, he is discovered by a hermit known as Crazy Jack, who Read More

Executive Action

Actors: Deanna Darrin, James MacColl, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Will Geer, Gilbert Green, John Anderson

Synopsis: If you think that Oliver Stone invented the "political paranoia" movie, take a glance at Executive Action sometime. Based on Mark Lane's Rush to Judgment, the conspiracy theorist's bible, Executive Action perpetuates the popular urban legend that John F. Kennedy was assassinated at the behest of a Read More

The Waltons: The Thanksgiving Story, Part 1

Synopsis: In the first half of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), John-Boy (Richard Thomas) is afforded the opportunity to qualify for a scholarship at Boatwright University--and, as icing on the cake, his former girlfriend Jenny (Sian Barbara Allen) is paying a return Read More

Gift of Terror

Synopsis: One Life to Life regular Denise Alexander briefly left her day job to star in the late-night videotaped spine tingler A Gift of Terror. Denise plays a woman given to strange, foreboding visions of death. As her friends begin dropping like flies, the girl realizes that the gift of prophecy is no Read More

Dear Dead Delilah

Synopsis: This gory gothic horror film marks the final appearance of actress Agnes Moorhead (though one year later, she did provide a voice in the animated film Charlotte's Web) who plays the terminally ill, wheelchair bound Southern matriarch Delilah. She is an unpleasant woman surrounded by desperately Read More

The Rowdyman

Actors: Austin Davis, Estelle Wall

Synopsis: Sometimes it seems as though all the character roles in Canadian films have been played by Al Waxman, Chris Wiggins and Gordon Pinsent. It is Pinsent who functions as both star and coscripter of the modest character study Rowdyman. He plays a roustabout, libinous middle-ager who accidently causes Read More

Bewitched: Father of Our Country

Actors: Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick Sargent, Agnes Moorehead, David White, Alice Ghostley

Synopsis: In the second episode of a two-part story, Esmerelda again accidentally causes George Washington (Will Geer) to materialize in the Stephens living room -- and this time George has brought along his wife, Martha (Jane Connell). As Mrs. Washington drinks in the wonders of Samantha's modern kitchen Read More

Jeremiah Johnson

Actors: Robert Redford, Will Geer, Stefan Gierasch, Allyn Ann McLerie, Delle Bolton, Charles Tyner, Josh Albee

Synopsis: Years before Kevin Costner danced with wolves, Robert Redford headed to the mountains to escape civilization in Sydney Pollack's wilderness western. Around 1850, ex-soldier Johnson (Redford) decides that he would rather live alone as a mountain man in Colorado than deal with society's constraints. Read More

Napoleon and Samantha

Actors: Johnny Whitaker, Michael Douglas

Synopsis: In this heartwarming family-oriented adventure from Disney, an adorable orphan named Napoleon (Johnny Whitaker) is sent to live on his grandfather's Oregon farm. There he is befriended by a college student (Michael Douglas) who has come to the spread to work as a goat herder during the summer. One Read More

Bewitched: George Washington Zapped Here

Actors: Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick Sargent, Agnes Moorehead, David White, Alice Ghostley

Synopsis: Will Geer guest stars as George Washington, who has been accidentally zapped into the 20th century by bumbling Esmerelda. Impressed at the progress made by the country which he fathered, Washington decides to exercise his right of free speech in a local park. As a result, he is arrested for Read More

The Waltons: Season 01

Actors: Ralph Waite, Michael Learned, Will Geer, Ellen Corby, Richard Thomas

Synopsis: Introduced to viewers in the 1971 TV movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, the Walton family of Jefferson County, VA, began showing up on a weekly basis as The Waltons had its first season. In the middle of the Great Depression (1934 or thereabouts), the Waltons, headed by dad John (Ralph Read More

Sam Hill: Who Killed Mr. Foster?

Synopsis: Ernest Borgnine plays alcoholic vagabond Sam Hill in this pilot film for a potential western detective series. Sam Hill is appointed sheriff of a one-horse town, then promptly becomes mixed up in a murder case. The victim was a preacher who was collecting $10,000 to build a new church; the money Read More

Bonanza: A Home for Jamie

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Mitch Vogel, Will Geer

Synopsis: Having unofficially adopted Jamie, Ben is poised to make it official in court. His plans are scuttled by the arrival of Jamie's actual grandfather Callahan (Will Geer, who wants to take the boy back with him to Boston. Written by Jean Holloway, this Bonanza episode served as a reunion for Will Read More

Who Killed the Mysterious Mr. Foster?

Synopsis: This comedy murder mystery and pilot for a series that never materialized, has Ernest Borgnine as western sheriff Sam Hill, who has a whole lot of trouble on his hands when he discovers the dead body of the town's newly arrived minister. ~ Mark Hockley, All Movie Guide Read More

Bonanza: The Love Child

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Mitch Vogel, Carol Lawson

Synopsis: Carol Lawson plays Etta, an unwed mother determined to carve out a decent life for her son Scott (Michael-James Wixted). When she learns she is dying, Etta asks her long-estranged parents to look after Scott-but her stern and merciless father Zac (Will Geer) is unwilling to do so. Josephine Read More

The Brotherhood of the Bell

Synopsis: Glenn Ford plays a man who joins a mysterious fraternity, "The Brotherhood of the Bell", while in college. Upon attaining wealth and prominence, Ford discovers that the Brotherhood has been keeping tabs on him, and expects certain favors from him in the private sector. It dawns on Ford that the Read More

Pieces of Dreams

Actors: Robert Forster, Lauren Hutton, Will Geer, Ivor Francis, Richard O'Brien

Synopsis: Father Gregory Lind (Robert Forster) is the Catholic priest who questions his dedication to his parishioners. He becomes disenchanted with the church over the official stance on birth control, unwanted pregnancy and social change. He tries to confide in his family but they rebuke him for Read More

One of the Girls in Research

Synopsis: In this drama, the publisher of a magazine finds herself victimized by an a conniving industrialist. She also learns that one of her employees has a terrible crush upon her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Moonshine War

Actors: Patrick McGoohan, Richard Widmark, Alan Alda, Melodie Johnson, Will Geer

Synopsis: In this comedy drama set during the late Prohibition era, a federal agent attempts to make some real money before the alcohol ban is lifted. He sets his sights on the whiskey cache of an old army buddy, but just before they strike a deal, two ex-convicts frighten the buddy away. The creeps then Read More

Brother John

Actors: Bradford Dillman, Beverly Todd, Sidney Poitier, Will Geer

Synopsis: Sidney Poitier stars as John Kane, a heavenly emissary who pays a visit to the Alabama town where he was born. Making it his mission to purge the community of all hatred and prejudice, "Brother John" is nothing less than the Messiah returned to earth. Trouble is, he's black, and it's Alabama-so Read More

Bonanza: The Running Man

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, David Canary, Will Geer

Synopsis: Joe Cartwright and Candy head to Butlerville, there to help out Candy's old friend Jess Parker (Robert Pine). The town is run with an iron hand by Calvin Butler (Will Geer), who will stop at nothing to drive all "squatters" out of the territory. Having witnessed Butler's brutality first hand Read More

The Reivers

Actors: Steve McQueen, Sharon Farrell, Will Geer, Rupert Crosse, Mitch Vogel

Synopsis: Adapted from William Faulkner's final novel, The Reivers top-bills Steve McQueen, but the major character is feisty 11-year-old Lucius McCaslin, played by Mitch Vogel. Growing up in Mississippi in the early 1900s, Lucius finds himself (through a hectic series of circumstances) in a bordello, where Read More

Mission: Impossible: The Town

Actors: Peter Graves, Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus

Synopsis: Taking a well-deserved vacation, Phelps finds himself in a small town populated almost exlclusively by political assassins. Captured, Phelps is drugged and left in a paralytic state. Despite his helplessness, he manages to blink a message to Rollin, who rallies the rest of the IMF to prevent the Read More

Bandolero!

Actors: James Stewart, Dean Martin, Raquel Welch, George Kennedy, Andrew Prine

Synopsis: James Stewart and Dean Martin are atypically cast as outlaws in Bandolero! The film begins as Dee Bishop (Martin) and his gang are about to be hanged. The Scripture-spouting executioner turns out to be Dee's brother Mace (Stewart), who helps the desperadoes escape. They are pursued by a sheriff (George Kennedy Read More

In Cold Blood

Actors: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart, Gerald O'Loughlin, John Gallaudet

Synopsis: Richard Brooks wrote and directed this stark black-and-white (with brilliantly evocative cinematography by Conrad Hall) study of two drifters who murder a family, based on Truman Capote's non-fiction novel In Cold Blood. The film takes place in Holcomb, Kansas, where four members of the Herbert Read More

The President's Analyst

Actors: James Coburn, Godfrey Cambridge, Severn Darden, Joan Delaney, Pat Harrington, Jr.

Synopsis: The President's Analyst is James Coburn, whose position makes him privy to any number of delicate government secrets. Thus Coburn becomes a most desirable prize for several secret-agent organizations, including the CEA and the FBR (we know who these folks are really supposed to be, even though the Read More

Seconds

Actors: Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph, Will Geer, Jeff Corey

Synopsis: Arthur Hamilton ({$John Randolph) is a listless Manhattan businessman who lives with his wife in the New York suburbs. One day, he runs into an old friend (Murray Hamilton) whom he thought had died. The friend leads him to The Company, a secretive operation run by The Old Man (Will Geer). The Read More

Black Like Me

Actors: James Whitmore, Sorrell Booke, Al Freeman, Jr., Roscoe Lee Browne

Synopsis: Black Like Me is the true story of white journalist John Howard Griffin, who "became" a Negro in the late 1950s. Feeling that the best way to understand what it was like to be black in a segregated south was to experience the feeling first-hand, Griffin (James Whitmore) undergoes extensive-and Read More

Advise and Consent

Actors: Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray, Walter Pidgeon, Gene Tierney

Synopsis: The first of Allen Drury "all names changed to protect the guilty" political novels, Advise and Consent was brought to the screen by producer/director Otto Preminger. The film hinges upon the appointment of Robert Leffingwell (Henry Fonda) to Secretary of State. Leffingwell has been hand-picked by Read More

Mobs Inc

Synopsis: This socially conscious drama is comprised of three cautionary tales designed to alert viewers to popular con-artist scams. The first shows how easily a hood with a female companion and a camera can gain permission to case a wealthy home. In the second vignette, a woman demonstrates profitable Read More

Salt of the Earth

Actors: Rosaura Revueltas, Juan Chacón, Will Geer, David Wolfe, Mervin Williams

Synopsis: Though it cannot help but lapse into dogma and didactics at times, Salt of the Earth is a powerful, persuasive labor-management drama. With the exception of five actors (including future Waltons star Will Geer), the cast is comprised of non-professionals, mostly participants of the real-life Read More

The Con Man

The Barefoot Mailman

Actors: Robert Cummings, Terry Moore, Jerome Courtland, John Russell

Synopsis: To call The Barefoot Mailman episodic would be understating the issue: the film's story stops and starts so often that it appears to be three half-hour TV episodes strung together. No matter, since the premise is workable and the characters appealing. Though Robert Cummings is top-billed as Read More

Bright Victory

Actors: Arthur Kennedy, Peggy Dow, Julie Adams, John Hudson, James Edwards

Synopsis: Arthur Kennedy stars as a blinded war veteran struggling to adjust to his affliction in peacetime. He must overcome his pugnacious attitude towards any problem he can't think his way out of--and he must learn to temper his inbred racial prejudices.