Bernie Hamilton
Birthday: Born in 1928-06-12 in East Los Angeles, California, USA
Deathday: 2008-12-30
Solid character actor that for various reasons never became a star. He is perhaps best known for his role as the tough police captain in the hit 1970s television series, "Starsky and Hutch." Other notable credits include Luis Buñuel's English-language film, "The Young One" (1960) where he plays a jazz musician who flees a lynch mob, and "One Potato, Two Potato" (1964), where he got a chance to show a softer side as a man fighting to obtain parental rights of his stepdaughter.
TV Credits
The Great Adventure
Character: Wilbur Jones
The Great Adventure is a historical anthology series that appeared on CBS for the 1963-1964 television season. The series, narrated each week by Van Heflin, and featuring theme music by Richard Rodgers, presented a weekly one-hour dramatization of the lives of famous Americans and important historical events in American History....
Cain's Hundred
Character: Willie Carter
A former underworld lawyer goes to work for the Federal Government, determined to bring 100 top criminals to justice....
Starsky & Hutch
Character: Harold Dobey
Streetwise Detective David Starsky partners up with a more intellectual partner, Kenneth 'Hutch' Hutchinson, to protect citizens and patrol the streets of Bay City....
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Character: Nelson
The Dick Van Dyke Show centers around the work and home life of television comedy writer Rob Petrie. The plots generally revolve around problems at work, where Rob got into various comedic jams with fellow writers Buddy Sorrell, Sally Rogers and producer Mel Cooley....
All in the Family
Character: Walter
Archie Bunker, a working class bigot, constantly squabbles with his family over the important issues of the day....
Sanford and Son
Character:
The misadventures of a cantankerous junk dealer and his frustrated son....
General Electric Theater
Character: Christy
General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations....
The Twilight Zone
Character: Coley
A series of unrelated stories containing drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and/or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist....
Ironside
Character:
When an assassin's bullet confines him to a wheelchair for life ending his career as Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside becomes a consultant to the police department. Detective Sergeant Ed Brown and policewoman Eve Whitfield join with him to crack varied and fascinating cases. Ex-con Mark Sanger is employed by the chief as home help but eventually becomes a fully fledged member of the team also. Officer Whitfield leaves after 4 years service, and is replaced by Officer Fran Belding....
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Character: Dawson
A television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries....
Run, Buddy, Run
Character:
Run, Buddy, Run is an American situation comedy starring Jack Sheldon, which ran on CBS from September 12, 1966, until January 2, 1967....
That's My Mama
Character:
Clifton Curtis has got it made—he runs a successful business he inherited from his late father and he's lucky with the the ladies—but he still lives with his Mama. She rules the roost and dispenses advice to everyone who'll listen—no one at Oscar's Barbershop is spared from Mama's wisdom. And they wouldn't have it any other way....
Run for Your Life
Character: J.C.
Run for Your Life is an American television drama series starring Ben Gazzara as a man with only a short time to live. It ran on NBC from 1965 to 1968. The series was created by Roy Huggins, who had previously explored the "man on the move" concept with The Fugitive....
Police Story
Character:
Police Story is an anthology television crime drama. The show was the brainchild of author and former policeman Joseph Wambaugh and represented a major step forward in the realistic depiction of police work and violence on network TV. Although it was an anthology, there were certain things that all episodes had in common; for instance, the main character in each episode was a police officer. The setting was always Los Angeles and the characters always worked for some branch of the LAPD. Notwith...
The Virginian
Character: Ransome Kiley
The Shiloh Ranch in Wyoming Territory of the 1890s is owned in sequence by Judge Henry Garth, the Grainger brothers, and Colonel Alan MacKenzie. It is the setting for a variety of stories, many more based on character and relationships than the usual western....
Galactica 1980
Character: Police Chief
30 years after the original Battlestar Galactica series. Upon reaching Earth, the inhabitants of the renegade starfleet take action when they realize earthlings aren't advanced enough to help battle the Cylons....
Judd for the Defense
Character:
High-priced Houston lawyer Clinton Judd and his assistant Ben Caldwell take difficult cases throughout the U.S....
Tarzan
Character:
Tarzan is a series that aired on NBC from 1966 – 1968. The series portrayed Tarzan as a well-educated character, one who, tired of civilization, had returned to the jungle where he had been raised. The show retained many of the trappings of the classic movie series, including Cheeta, while excluding other elements, such as Jane, as part of the "new look" for the fabled apeman that producer Sy Weintraub had introduced in previous motion pictures starring Gordon Scott, Jock Mahoney, and Mike Henry...
Ben Casey
Character:
Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, ✳, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." Neurosurgeon Joseph Ransohoff was a medical consultant for the show and may have influenced the personality of the title character....
Jungle Jim
Character:
Jungle Jim is a 26-episode syndicated adventure television series which aired from 1955 till 1956, starring Johnny Weismuller, as Jim "Jungle Jim" Bradley, a hunter, guide, and explorer in, primarily, Africa. The program should not be confused with Ramar of the Jungle, but is based on the Jungle Jim comic strip created by Alex Raymond and Don Moore. Starring with Weismuller were Martin Huston as Jungle Jim's teenage son, Skipper; Dean Fredericks as Haseem, the Hindu manservant, and Neal, a chimp...
87th Precinct
Character: Officer Kendal
87th Precinct is an American crime drama starring Robert Lansing, Gena Rowlands, and Ron Harper, which aired on NBC on Monday evenings during the 1961–1962 television season....
The Six Million Dollar Man
Character: Lt. Dobbs
Follow the adventures of Steve Austin, cybernetically enhanced astronaut turned secret agent, employed by the OSI, under the command of Oscar Goldman and supervised by the scientist who created his cybernetics, Rudy Wells. Steve uses the superior strength and speed provided by his bionic arm and legs, and the enhanced vision provided by his artificial eye, to fight enemy agents, aliens, mad scientists, and a wide variety of other villains....
The Name of the Game
Character: Doc Cullen
The Name of the Game is an American television series starring Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack that ran from 1968 to 1971 on NBC, totaling 76 episodes of 90 minutes. It was a pioneering wheel series, setting the stage for The Bold Ones and the NBC Mystery Movie in the 1970s. The show had an extremely large budget for a television series....
The Name of the Game
Character: Jason
The Name of the Game is an American television series starring Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack that ran from 1968 to 1971 on NBC, totaling 76 episodes of 90 minutes. It was a pioneering wheel series, setting the stage for The Bold Ones and the NBC Mystery Movie in the 1970s. The show had an extremely large budget for a television series....
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Character: Convict #2
A continuation of the anthology series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, hosted by the master of suspense and featuring thrillers and mysteries....
The Bold Ones: The Senator
Character: Dr. Benjamin Edwards
The Bold Ones: The Senator is an American political television drama series that aired on NBC from 1970 through 1971, lasting for nine episodes. The series stars Hal Holbrook as Senator Hays Stowe. The Senator was part of The Bold Ones, a rotating series of dramas that also included The New Doctors, The Lawyers, and The Protectors. As a group of dramas, The Bold Ones was nominated for nine Emmy Awards and won five awards. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe for best Drama TV Show. The se...
Movie Credits
The Young One
Character: Traver
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions....
Scream Blacula Scream
Character: Ragman
After an aging voodoo priestess dies, her arrogant son Willis Daniel's believes he is next in line to lead. He is outraged when Lisa, his mother's adopted apprentice is chosen as the leader. Willis seeks revenge by reviving the African prince Blacula — but soon finds that he cannot control him....
Hammer
Character: Davis
Hotheaded laborer B.J. Hammer can't go long without ending up in a fight, and, after he comes out on top in a particularly impressive workplace scuffle, word of his brawling skills makes its way to Davis, a top boxing manager. Hammer is hired by Davis and begins a lucrative career in the ring, only to find out that his new employer wants him to throw a fight and take part in other illicit activities. Hammer reacts to this news violently, and the feud is on....
The Organization
Character: Lt. Jessop
After a group of young revolutionaries break into a company's corporate headquarters and steal $5,000,000 worth of heroin to keep it off the street, they call on San Francisco Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs for assistance....
Bucktown
Character: Harley
Duke Johnson visits a small Southern town, intent on burying his brother. After the funeral, he learns that he must stay for 60 days, for the estate to be processed. A few locals convince Duke to reopen his late brother's nightclub, and soon the local redneck policemen are intimidating Duke with threats of violence. Duke refuses to pay the bribes they demand, so then he and his lady friend Aretha are threatened and attacked by the crooked cops. Rather than take them on himself, Duke calls on his...
The Losers
Character: Capt. Jackson
Some bikers are hired by the CIA during the Vietnam War to rescue a captured agent from the clutches of the Red Chinese army. After a round of drinking, fighting, and whoring around, the cycle gang, led by Big Bill Smith, fix up their Yamahas with machine guns, grenades and armor plating, and storm the enemy camp....
One Potato, Two Potato
Character: Frank Richards
Study of interracial marriage in the 1960s. A white divorcée falls in love with and marries an African-American man. When her ex-husband sues for custody of her child, arguing that a mixed household is an improper place to raise the girl, the new husband fights for his parental rights in court, fighting against a judge who represents the prejudices of the era....
13 West Street
Character: Negro
Walt Sherill is attacked and beat down by a group of juvenile delinquents on his way home from work one night. The boys who attacked him are not previously known by the police and are therefore hard to track down. As Sherill starts getting impatient he begins his own investigation. Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Koleski does his best to track down the culprits....
Jungle Man-Eaters
Character: Zuwaba
Jungle Jim does battle with a would-be diamond smuggler and a renegade tribe....
The Lost Man
Character: Reggie Page
A gang of black militants plots to rob a factory to finance their "revolutionary struggle."...
The Girl He Left Behind
Character: Corporal West
A young man is drafted and goes through the rigors of basic training, ultimately discovering the experience is also character-building. Director David Butler's 1956 film stars '50s teen favorites Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood, with supporting roles played by Jim Backus, Jessie Royce Landis, Murray Hamilton, Henry Jones, James Garner, Alan King, Ernestine Wade, David Janssen and Raymond Bailey....
Carmen Jones
Character: Reporter
Carmen, a seductive woman, seduces a young soldier, Joe, in order to avoid imprisonment. However, when she leaves Joe for another man, he seeks revenge....
Kismet
Character: Pearl Merchant (uncredited)
A silver-tongued poet and self-proclaimed "King of the Beggars" searches old Baghdad for a rich bachelor to marry his dreamy daughter, Marsinah. Along the way, he poses as the renowned sorcerer Hajj and gets in and out of scrapes with an elderly thief, a dim-witted wazir, and his wife. Meanwhile, his daughter develops feelings for a handsome caliph....
The Harlem Globetrotters
Character: Higgins
All-American basketball player, Billy signs up with the world-famous "Harlem Globetrotters", an all-Negro professional team. Billy struggles with important life decisions and their consequences....
Underworld U.S.A.
Character: Investigator
A bitter young man sets out to get back at the gangsters who murdered his father....
Up Periscope
Character: Seaman Weary
Lieutenant Braden discovers that Sally, the woman he's been falling in love with, has actually been checking out his qualifications to be a U.S. Navy frogman. He must put his personal life behind him after being assigned to be smuggled into a Japanese-held island via submarine to photograph radio codes....
Take a Giant Step
Character: Bar Sharpie
This pioneering film in the history of African-American cinema, released two years before "A Raisin In The Sun", is the coming-of-age story of a Black high-school student living in a middle-class white neighborhood in the late '50s....
Stranger on the Run
Character: Dickory
A drifter finds himself wrongly accused of murder by a power-crazed sheriff. The sheriff gives him a horse, some supplies, and a one-hour head start into the desert before sending his murderous posse after him....
Cry Tough
Character:
After getting out of prison, a Latino criminal tries to go straight....
Walk the Walk
Character: Mike
A young black theological student battles against his heroin addiction and alcoholism....
Congo Crossing
Character: Pompala
Congotanga, West Africa, has no extradition laws; the government is controlled by foreign gangsters, headed by Carl Rittner. The latest plane from Europe carries lovely Louise Whitman, fleeing a French murder charge, and Mannering, who pays resident hit man O'Connell to kill her. Through a chain of circumstances Louise, O'Connell, and heroic surveyor David Carr end up alone in the jungle on Carr's mission to determine the true border of Congotanga... in which Rittner is keenly interested....
Bright Victory
Character: Soldier (uncredited)
A soldier blinded in war returns home and attempts to adjust to civilian life....
Full Moon High
Character: Hijacker #2
High-school quarterback Tony Walker is bitten by a werewolf and transforms into a growling beast that hungrily chases down beautiful girls....
The Devil at 4 O'Clock
Character: Charlie
A crusty, eccentric priest recruits three reluctant convicts to help him rescue a children's leper colony from a Pacific island menaced by a smoldering volcano....
Captain Sindbad
Character: Quinius
After completing his voyages Sindbad the Sailor and his hearty crew have come home to find a palace coup d'etat has occurred and his home city is being run by a brutal dictator played by Pedro Armendariz. He's got designs on the beautiful young princess, Heidi Bruhl both lustful and political....
Tarzan and the Perils of Charity Jones
Character: Shambu
Jai, the orphaned boy adopted by the Monkey Man, helps missionary Charity Jones bring an organ to a friendly tribe, but they are captured by hostile natives....
Let No Man Write My Epitaph
Character: Goodbye George
Nick Romano lives in a poor tenement building on the south side of Chicago with his well-meaning but drug-addicted mother, Nellie. She encourages him to pursue his piano-playing talent in hopes that it will bring him a better life. Nellie's neighbors, like the alcoholic ex-lawyer who secretly loves her, help her in keeping Nick away from Louie, the resident drug dealer. But a chance meeting between Nick and Louie could change things forever....
The Swimmer
Character: Chauffeur
Well-off ad man Ned Merrill is visiting a friend when he notices the abundance of backyard pools that populate their upscale suburb. Ned suddenly decides that he'd like to travel the eight miles back to his own home by simply swimming across every pool in town. Soon, Ned's journey becomes harrowing; at each house, he is somehow confronted with a reminder of his romantic, domestic and economic failures....
Mysterious Island
Character: Neb
It is 1865 and Union prisoners use a military balloon to escape a Southern prison camp near the end of the Civil War. The balloon drifts for days and finally lands on a mysterious volcanic island with very unusual inhabitants. Also landing, in a better aircraft, is Rulu, a visitor from Mercury. She seeks a radio-active material that will enable her to manufacture an explosive that will destroy the world or, at least, the portion known as Earth in this 15 Chapter Serial from the 1950s....
Sullivan's Empire
Character: Amando
Three grown brothers journey to Brazil to rescue their plane-wrecked father who has been kidnapped by a revolutionary guerrilla....
The Jackie Robinson Story
Character: Ernie
Biography of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player in the 20th century. Traces his career in the negro leagues and the major leagues....
Synanon
Character: Pete
A dramatization of the goings on at a drug rehabilitation home. Filmed at the original Synanon House in Santa Monica, California....
A Clear and Present Danger
Character: House
The son of a U.S. Senator takes on the cause of clean air when a friend dies of emphysema....
Tarzan and the Four O'Clock Army
Character: Chaka
Tarzan has to deal with slave traders who are making raids into African villages to get slaves....