Lee Grant
Birthday: Born in 1925-10-31 in New York City, New York, USA
Deathday: Alive
Lee Grant (born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal; October 31, during the mid-1920s) is an American actress and director. She made her film debut in 1951 as a young shoplifter in William Wyler's Detective Story, co-starring Kirk Douglas and Eleanor Parker. This role earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress as well as the Best Actress Award at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival. In 1952 she was blacklisted from most acting jobs for the next 12 years. She was able to find only occasional work onstage or as a teacher during this period. It also contributed to her divorce. She was removed from the blacklist in 1962 and rebuilt her acting career. She starred in 71 TV episodes of Peyton Place (1965–1966), followed by lead roles in films such as Valley of the Dolls, In the Heat of the Night (both 1967), and Shampoo (1975), for the last of which she won an Oscar. In 1964, she won the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress for her performance in The Maids. During her career she was nominated for the Emmy Award seven times between 1966 and 1993, winning twice. In 1986 she directed Down and Out in America which tied for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, and in the same year she also won a Directors Guild of America Award for Nobody's Child. Description above from the Wikipedia article Lee Grant, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
TV Credits
Inside the Actors Studio
Character: Self
James Lipton sits down with some of the world's most accomplished actors and directors for penetrating, fascinating interviews....
Empty Nest
Character:
Widowed pediatrician Harry Weston is a miracle worker when it comes to dealing with his young patients, but he's more challenged by the other people surrounding him: daughters Barbara and Carol; his wisecracking office assistant, nurse LaVerne Todd; and obnoxious neighborhood mooch Charley Dietz. Thank goodness he always finds a friendly shoulder (and a warm, wet tongue) in Dreyfuss, his enormous dog....
The Mod Squad
Character:
The Mod Squad was the enormously successful groundbreaking "hippie" undercover cop show that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. It starred Michael Cole as Pete Cochren, Peggy Lipton as Julie Barnes, Clarence Williams III as Linc Hayes, and Tige Andrews as Captain Adam Greer. The executive producers of the series were Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas. The iconic counter-culture police series earned six Emmy nominations, four Golden Globe nominations plus one win for Peggy ...
Studio One
Character: Emily Brooks
An American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. Studio One, presented by Westinghouse, was one of the first of the anthology TV programs. The episodes were often abridged remakes of movies from years gone by and many future well-known television and movie actors appeared in the productions....
Mission: Impossible
Character: Susan Buchanan
Mission: Impossible is an American television series that was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicles the missions of a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force. In the first season, the team is led by Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill; Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, takes charge for the remaining seasons. A hallmark of the series shows Briggs or Phelps receiving his instructions on a recording that then self-destructs, followed by the th...
The Ray Bradbury Theater
Character:
A Canadian-produced fantastic anthology series scripted by famed science-fiction author Ray Bradbury. Many of the teleplays were based upon Bradbury's novels and short stories....
Backstairs at the White House
Character: Grace Coolidge
Behind the scenes at the White House during eight administrations, as told by the people who work there....
The Fugitive
Character: Millie Hallop
Richard Kimble is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death penalty. En route to death row, Kimble's train derails and crashes, allowing him to escape and begin a cross-country search for the real killer, a "one-armed man". At the same time, Dr. Kimble is hounded by the authorities, most notably dogged by Police Lieutenant Philip Gerard....
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Character: Self
An American sketch comedy television program hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin....
The Big Valley
Character: Rosemary
The Big Valley is an American western television series which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969. The show stars Barbara Stanwyck, as the widow of a wealthy nineteenth century California rancher. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman, and produced by Levy-Gardner-Laven for Four Star Television....
Judd for the Defense
Character:
High-priced Houston lawyer Clinton Judd and his assistant Ben Caldwell take difficult cases throughout the U.S....
Peyton Place
Character: Stella Chernak
Like the novel and film of the same name, this nighttime soap opera is set in the small New England town of Peyton Place, whose quaint charm masks a complicated web of extramarital affairs, shady business deals, scandals, even murder....
The Philco Television Playhouse
Character:
The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956....
ABC Stage 67
Character: Laura
ABC Stage 67 is the umbrella title for a series of 26 weekly shows that included dramas, variety shows, documentaries, and original musicals. It premiered on American Broadcasting Company on September 14, 1966 with Murray Schisgal's The Love Song of Barney Kempinksi, directed by Stanley Prager and starring Alan Arkin as a man enjoying the sights and sounds of New York City in his last remaining hours of bachelorhood. Arkin was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance By An...
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....
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
Character: Self
In 1973 the American Film Institute initiated its Life Achievement Award, to be presented to a yearly recipient whose talent has fundamentally advanced the film art; whose accomplishments have been acknowledged by scholars, critics, professional peers and the general public; and whose work has stood the test of time....
The Oscars
Character: Self
An annual American awards ceremony honoring cinematic achievements in the film industry. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a statuette, officially the Academy Award of Merit, that is better known by its nickname Oscar....
The Defenders
Character: Norma Burgess
The Defenders is an American courtroom drama series . It starred E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed as father-and-son defense attorneys who specialized in legally complex cases, with defendants such as neo-Nazis, conscientious objectors, civil rights demonstrators, a schoolteacher fired for being an atheist, an author accused of pornography, and a physician charged in a mercy killing....
The Defenders
Character: Maria Edwards
The Defenders is an American courtroom drama series . It starred E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed as father-and-son defense attorneys who specialized in legally complex cases, with defendants such as neo-Nazis, conscientious objectors, civil rights demonstrators, a schoolteacher fired for being an atheist, an author accused of pornography, and a physician charged in a mercy killing....
Intimate Portrait
Character: Self
Intimate Portrait is a biographical television series on the Lifetime Television cable network focusing on different celebrities, which includes interviews with each subject. Among the people profiled were Grace Kelly, Natalie Wood, Carly Simon, Jackie Kennedy, Katharine Hepburn, Carol Burnett, Tanya Tucker, and Marla Maples....
Columbo
Character: Leslie Williams
Columbo is a friendly, verbose, disheveled-looking police detective who is consistently underestimated by his suspects. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for indictment. His formidable eye for detail and meticulously dedicated approach often become clear to the killer only late in the storyline....
Mussolini: The Untold Story
Character: Rachele Mussolini
The rise and fall of Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Recounting his life with his wife, children and mistress, this biography (based on the recollections of Mussolini's eldest son, Vittorio) chronicles Il Duce's tyranny as he plunges Italy into the dark days of World War II....
Tony Awards
Character: Self - Presenter
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre....
ABC Stage 67
Character: Ruth
ABC Stage 67 is the umbrella title for a series of 26 weekly shows that included dramas, variety shows, documentaries, and original musicals. It premiered on American Broadcasting Company on September 14, 1966 with Murray Schisgal's The Love Song of Barney Kempinksi, directed by Stanley Prager and starring Alan Arkin as a man enjoying the sights and sounds of New York City in his last remaining hours of bachelorhood. Arkin was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance By An...
The Dick Cavett Show
Character: Self - Guest
The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks....
The Name of the Game
Character: Edwina Booker
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....
Bare Essence
Character: Ava Marshall
Miniseries along the lines of a soap opera which centers on one young woman, Tiger Hayes, as she starts up a perfume company. The usual soap plots of adultery, romance, corruption, and greed abound....
Dinah!
Character: Self
Dinah's show premiered 9 September 1974 and continued through to 4 September 1981. She started out the 70's with Dinah's Place which usually featured one guest and was more of a home oriented show about cooking, crafts and occasionally music. This format lasted until May of 1974. When the show came back in October of 1974 the format had changed drastically to a variety talk show which was called Dinah. and went on until 1981. This show was also known as "Dinah and Friends" during the summer of 1...
Great Performances
Character: Irina Arkadina
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries....
Great Performances
Character:
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries....
Ironside
Character: Francesca Kirby
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....
Movie Credits
Mulholland Drive
Character: Louise
Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project....
Valley of the Dolls
Character: Miriam Polar
In New York City, bright but naive New Englander Anne Welles becomes a secretary at a theatrical law firm, where she falls in love with attorney Lyon Burke. Anne befriends up-and-coming singer Neely O'Hara, whose dynamic talent threatens aging star Helen Lawson and beautiful but talentless actress Jennifer North. The women experience success and failure in love and work, leading to heartbreak, addiction and tragedy....
In the Heat of the Night
Character: Mrs. Leslie Colbert
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth....
Sidney Poitier - Der Mann, der Hollywood veränderte
Character: Self
...
Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval
Character: Narrator
The life and career of the renowned television writer and creator of the classic science fiction series, "The Twilight Zone."...
Dr. T & the Women
Character: Dr. Harper
A successful Texas gynecologist finds himself amid a bevy of women and their problems – his wife’s breakdown, his daughter's fake marriage, his other daughter’s conspiracy theories, and his secretary’s crush. Craving time for himself, he finds solace in a kind outsider....
Damien: Omen II
Character: Ann Thorn
Since the sudden and suspicious deaths of his parents, young Damien has been in the charge of his wealthy aunt and uncle and enrolled in a military school. Widely feared to be the Antichrist, he relentlessly plots to seize control of his uncle's business empire — and the world....
Detective Story
Character: Shoplifter
Tells the story of one day in the lives of the various people who populate a police detective squad. An embittered cop, Det. Jim McLeod, leads a precinct of characters in their grim daily battle with the city's lowlife. The characters who pass through the precinct over the course of the day include a young petty embezzler, a pair of burglars, and a naive shoplifter....
Shampoo
Character: Felicia Karpf
A Beverly Hills hairdresser runs around town on the eve of the 1968 presidential election trying to make heads or tails of his financial and romantic entanglements. His attempts to gather the money to open his own salon are continually side-tracked by the distractions presented by his many lovers....
Teachers
Character: Dr. Donna Burke
A teacher reconnects with an old student who is now an attorney representing a family who is suing the school for graduating their son who still cannot read or write. Amid the daily chaos of teaching in an inner city school, Alex Jurel tries to decide if he will lie at his deposition to protect the school or tell the truth and risk throwing away his career....
Airport '77
Character: Karen Wallace
Flight 23 has crashed in the Bermuda Triangle after a hijacking gone wrong. Now the surviving passengers must brave panic, slow leaks, oxygen depletion, and more while attempting a daring plan, all while 200 feet underwater....
Defending Your Life
Character: Lena Foster
Is there love after death? After he dies suddenly, the hapless advertising executive Daniel Miller finds himself in Judgment City, a gleaming way station where the newly deceased must prove they lived a life of sufficient courage to advance in their journey through the universe. As the self-doubting Daniel struggles to make his case, a budding relationship with the uninhibited Julia offers him a chance to finally feel alive....
Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell
Character: Fritzie Braddock
After the end of WWII, an Italian woman receives child support payments from three former US soldiers who all believe themselves to be the father of her daughter, Gia....
There Was a Crooked Man...
Character: Mrs. Bullard
Arizona Territorial Prison inmate Paris Pitman, Jr. is a schemer, a charmer, and quite popular among his fellow convicts — especially with $500,000 in stolen loot hidden away and a plan to escape and recover it. New warden Woodward Lopeman has other ideas about Pitman. Each man will have the tables turned on him....
Actresses Turned Producer/Directors
Character:
From Mary Pickford to Barbra Streisand the successful actress turned producer/director is one of Hollywood's longest standing traditions....
Marooned
Character: Celia Pruett
After spending several months in an orbiting lab, three astronauts prepare to return to Earth only to find their de-orbit thrusters won't activate. After initially thinking they might have to abandon them in orbit, NASA decides to launch a daring rescue. Their plans are complicated by a hurricane headed towards the launch site—and a shrinking air supply in the astronauts' capsule....
Poor Liza
Character: Countess Ekaterina
A beautiful peasant girl is romanced and abandoned by a young nobleman....
TVTV Looks at the Oscars
Character: Self
Made in 1976, TVTV's close-up look at Hollywood's annual awards ritual mixes irreverent documentary with deadpan comedy. TVTV's cameras go behind the scenes to follow major Hollywood figures (including Steven Spielberg, Michael Douglas, Lee Grant, Jack Nicholson, and many others), capturing them in candid moments—inside their limousines, dressing for the ceremony, backstage at the awards....
Plaza Suite
Character: Norma Hubley
Film version of the Neil Simon play has three separate acts set in the same hotel suite in New York's Plaza Hotel with Walter Matthau in a triple role. In the first, Karen Nash tries to get her inattentive husband Sam's attention to spruce up their failing marriage. In the second, brash film producer Jesse Kiplinger tries to get his former one-time flame Muriel to see him for what he stands for. In the third, Roy Hubley and his wife Norma try and try to get their uncertain-of-herself daughter ou...
The Landlord
Character: Joyce Enders
At the age of twenty-nine, Elgar Enders "runs away" from home. This running away consists of buying a building in a black ghetto in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Initially, his intention is to evict the black tenants and convert the building into a posh flat. But Elgar is not one to be bound by yesterday's urges, and soon he has other thoughts on his mind....
Little Miss Marker
Character: The Judge
Sorrowful Jones is a cheap bookie in the 1930s. When a gambler leaves his daughter as a marker for a bet, he gets stuck with her. His life will change a great deal with her arrival and his sudden love for a woman also involved in gambling operations....
The Swarm
Character: Anne MacGregor
Scientist Dr. Bradford Crane and army general Thalius Slater join forces to fight an almost invisible enemy threatening America; killer bees that have deadly venom and attack without reason. Disaster movie-master Irwin Allen's film contains spectacular special effects, including a train crash caused by the eponymous swarm....
Visiting Hours
Character: Deborah Ballin
A deranged, misogynistic killer assaults a journalist. When he discovers that she survived the attack, he follows her to the hospital to finish her off....
Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen
Character: Mrs. Sylvia Lupowitz
Famous detective Charlie Chan is called out of retirement to help a San Francisco detective solve a mysterious series of murders. With his bumbling grandson as his sidekick, Chan also encounters an old nemesis known as the Dragon Queen who is the prime suspect....
The Spell
Character: Marion Matchett
A distraught mother must cope with her embittered daughter who has the ability to cause "accidents" to happen....
When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?
Character: Clarisse Ethridge
A drug dealer's car breaks down in a small U.S. town. In turn, the town's people become victim to his unique brand of physical and mental torture....
Storm Fear
Character: Edna
A wounded bank robber takes over his brother's home....
Voyage of the Damned
Character: Lili Rosen
A luxury liner carries Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany in a desperate fight for survival....
The Internecine Project
Character: Jean Robertson
Offered a job as a presidential adviser, a professor is forced to dispose of those who knew him when he was a spy....
Why Me?
Character: Narrator/Self
Why Me? a one-hour documentary on breast cancer narrated by actress Lee Grant. First broadcast on May 13, 1974 on CBS in Los Angeles, it was the first major television documentary to deal with breast cancer....
Middle of the Night
Character: Marilyn
Jerry Kingsley is a wealthy garment manufacturer left lonely in his 50s when his wife dies. Despite the difference in their ages, he strikes up a romance with divorced 24-year-old receptionist Betty. The relationship is dismissed by his daughter, Lillian, discouraged by his sister, Evelyn, and denounced by Betty's mother. But when Jerry begins to mention marriage, even Betty is forced to confront her ambivalence....
The Big Bounce
Character: Joanne
A Vietnam veteran and ex-con is persuaded by a shady woman to rob a $50,000 payroll account on a California produce farm. But who is playing who?...
The Balcony
Character: Carmen
The Madam of a brothel satisfies the erotic fantasies of her customers, while a revolution is sweeping the nation. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010....
The Substance of Fire
Character: Cora Cahn
Isaac Geldhart is a Holocaust survivor who, overcome by grief at the recent death of his wife, seems determined to run his publishing firm into the ground by printing books that have no hope of financial success. His son Aaron, who also works at the company, grows frustrated with Isaac's emotional decline and attempts to take over the firm. The resulting crisis involves Isaac's other two children, his daughter Sarah and his dying son Martin....
The Amati Girls
Character: Aunt Spendora
Four sisters who disagree about everything... except what matters most. Family....
You Can't Go Home Again
Character: Esther Jack
An adaptation of Thomas Wolfe's literary classic, telling of the struggles of a young writer determined to be a success in New York's literary world of the 1920s, his married lover, and the brilliant editor who sees him as a blossoming genius. The story parallels the life of Wolfe himself and his affair with stage designer Aline Bernstein....
Night Slaves
Character: Marjorie Howard
A man and his wife stumble upon a town whose inhabitants turn into zombies and head for the edge of town every night... he seems to be the only one unaffected. What is happening to the townsfolk? Who is the mysterious young women he keeps seeing? Why isn't he affected?...
The Love Song of Barney Kempinski
Character: Laura
On his wedding day, in the few remaining hours of his bachelorhood, Barney Kempinski goes off to tour the city and sing his song to life, love and the city of New York....
Will There Really Be a Morning?
Character: Lillian Farmer
This is the story of actress Frances Farmer, her struggles with mental illness and involuntary confinement in an insane asylum....
What Are Best Friends For?
Character: Adele Ross
A married couple is determined to find a girl for their recently divorced best friend....
Lieutenant Schuster's Wife
Character: Ellie Schuster
After a policeman is murdered in an ambush, rumors surface that he was on the take. His widow sets out to catch the killers and clear her husband's name....
Hello Actors Studio
Character: Self
After Lee Strasberg’s death in 1982, the most prestigious talents from the Actors Studio assumed the leadership of this exceptional organization. For the first time ever, filmmakers have been allowed to film their work....
Portnoy's Complaint
Character: Sophie Portnoy
During a session with his psychoanalyst, Alexander Portnoy rants about everything that is bothering him. His complaints include his childhood and his family with an emphasis on his mother, his sexual fantasies and the problems that he has with women, and his obsessive feelings about his Judaism....
Three Plays by Tennessee Williams
Character: Jane (Segment "Moony's Kid Don't Cry")
A presentation of Tennessee Williams' three one-act plays: "Moony's Kid Don't Cry", "The Last of My Solid Gold Watches", and "This Property Is Condemned"....
The Neon Ceiling
Character: Carrie Miller
A housewife and her teenage daughter, fleeing their boring lives, stop in a diner in the California desert. She runs up against the diner's owner, a gruff, beer-drinking artist whose life's work is the neon sculptures he collects and attaches to the ceiling....
Calling the Shots
Character: Self
Documentary about women in the film industry. Numerous notable actresses and female directors share their thoughts....
Tell Me a Riddle
Character: Flight Attendant (voice)
Touching story of elderly couple David and Eva who go on one last journey across the USA when they discover Eva is dying, ending up with their granddaughter Jeannie in San Francisco. Restored in 2022 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation....
The Mafu Cage
Character: Ellen
Two strange sisters live in a crumbling mansion, where they keep a pet ape, which belonged to their late father, locked in a cage. While one of the sisters seems to be keeping her head on straight, as it were, the other appears to be sinking further and further into barbarism and insanity....
The Big Town
Character: Ferguson Edwards
It is 1957. J.C. Cullen is a young man from a small town, with a talent for winning at craps, who leaves for the big city to work as a professional gambler. While there, he breaks the bank at a private craps game at the Gem Club, owned by George Cole, and falls in love with two women, one of them Cole's wife....
The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer
Character: Narrator
Richard Kuklinski was a devoted husband, loving father--and ruthless killer of over 100 people. You'll meet him in this powerful documentary that features one of the most vivid and disturbing interviews ever recorded--taped behind the walls of the prison where Kuklinski is serving two consecutive life sentences for multiple homicide....
Seeing is Believing: Women Direct
Character: Self
“We are the stories we tell ourselves.” Seeing is Believing: Women Direct is a documentary series about directors, leaders… who happen to be women.Audiences will hear directly from women who are on the front lines of the field: from major award winners to NYU students, festival darlings to frustrated auteurs. They will discover the pathways to successful creativity as well as how these filmmakers drive through obstacles creative, cultural, and professional. The film ultimately will act as a too...
A Billion for Boris
Character: Sascha Harris
In this family-friendly sequel to Freaky Friday, teenaged Boris realizes that his television set is somehow receiving broadcasts from the future, so he starts betting piles of cash on horse races and making himself outrageously rich. Boris is on top of the world...until he discovers that something this good doesn't come without a price....
For Ladies Only
Character: Anne Holt
An aspiring young actor moonlights as a male stripper while looking for work in the theatre....
Hidden Values: The Movies of the Fifties
Character: Self
This documentary was broadcast on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) cable channel to kick off the presentation of films related to TCM's theme of the month for September 2001. Actors Lee Grant and Paul Mazursky, producer Roger Corman, director John Carpenter, film critic Molly Haskell, and journalist Peter Biskind discuss the issues involved in six films of the 1950s. Topics include teenage loneliness, youth rebellion, changing gender roles, and the beginning of the sexual revolution....
A Crime to Fit the Punishment
Character: Narrator
This fascinating making-of documentary investigates the controversy and political atmosphere surrounding the production of Salt of the Earth, movingly chronicling the filmmakers' defiance of the blacklist. (BAM) Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2015....
She Said No
Character: D.A. Doris Cantore
A successful career woman is raped by a prominent lawyer. However, when she takes the case to court, it results in a hung jury. When the DA's office declines to retry the case, the lawyer opts to sue the woman for malicious prosecution and slander leaving her feeling raped again....
It's My Party
Character: Amalia Stark
Nick, a gay, HIV-positive architect, begins to display severe symptoms of AIDS and makes preparations to kill himself before he is unable to function normally. He arranges a party to reconnect and say goodbye to his closest friends and his confused parents. But when his ex-partner, Brandon, a television director who left Nick when he was diagnosed with HIV, shows up, what was supposed to be a celebratory event becomes much more difficult for everyone....
Hal
Character: Self
Hal Ashby's obsessive genius led to an unprecedented string of Oscar®-winning classics, including Harold and Maude, Shampoo and Being There. But as contemporaries Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg rose to blockbuster stardom in the 1980s, Ashby's uncompromising nature played out as a cautionary tale of art versus commerce....
Mulholland Dr.
Character: Louise Bonner
Initially, "Mulholland Dr." was to mark David Lynch's return to television. It is a retooling of a script originally shot as a 94-minute pilot for a TV series (co-written with TV screenwriter Joyce Eliason) for the channel ABC, which had approved the script, but chose not even to air the pilot once it was done in 1999, despite Lynch's labours to cut the project to their liking. It was left in limbo until 18 month later French company Studio Canal Plus (also producer of 'The Straight Story') agre...
Pie in the Sky
Character: Suzy
Rural runaway finds himself in Manhattan....
Going Shopping
Character: Winnie
A clothing designer tries to save her struggling boutique store by having a tumultuous weekend sale of her shop's inventory by playing on the addictions of shopping for the women of Beverly Hills....
Ransom for a Dead Man
Character: Leslie Williams
A brilliant attorney gets rid of her boring husband by faking his kidnapping and keeping the ransom. The FBI may be fooled, but not Columbo....
Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story
Character: Carol Gertz
An AIDS-stricken woman becomes a leader in the struggle to educate people about the disease and its prevention....
Perilous Voyage
Character: Virginia Monroe
A South American guerrilla, whose revolution is faltering, hijacks a ship carrying arms and holds all of the passengers hostage....
The Willmar 8
Character: Narrator
Risking jobs, friends, family and the opposition of church and community, eight unassuming women begin the longest bank strike in American history....
Plaza Suite
Character: Norma Hubley / Muriel Tate / Karen Nash
HBO filmed version of the Neil Simon play (filmed in front of a live audience) has three separate acts set in the same hotel suite in New York's Plaza Hotel with Lee Grant and Jerry Orbach playing three roles....
When Women Kill
Character: Herself
When Women Kill is a poignant documentary exploring the shocking violence that seven women fell victim to at the hands of men. The program profiles the battered women who speak frankly about the cruel abuse, threats, and fears, and the overassertive men who led them down a one-way path to death and destruction. The film features in-prison footage, including a segment depicting a confession by a follower of the notorious Charles Manson, Leslie Van Houten, who was convicted of two killing sprees a...
What Sex Am I?
Character: Self
"What Sex Am I?" follows a group of Transgender individuals struggling to make their way in every strata of 1980s America. From finding employment to finding acceptance, the first question the world forces them to ask is always, "What Sex Am I?"...
Citizen Cohn
Character: Dora Cohn
As lawyer and power broker Roy Cohn lies dying of AIDS in a private hospital room, ghosts from his past visit him as he reflects on his life and loves....
And the Oscar Goes To...
Character: Self (archive footage)
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement....
Scandal: The Trial of Mary Astor
Character: Narrator (voice)
This documentary recounts the difficult choice actress Mary Astor had to make after learning her personal, very intimate, diaries had been stolen. The film tells the story of Astor's 1936 child custody case....
Women on Trial
Character: Narrator
"Women On Trail" exposes the innate corruption and sexism in the family court system as children are removed from their mothers and given to fathers who often either don't want them or have been convicted of domestic violence....
An Affair of the Skin
Character: Katherine McCleod
A neurotic woman, her unhappy husband and three other New Yorkers share a complicated relationship....
Earth and the American Dream
Character: Reader (voice)
A beautiful and disturbing film recounts America’s story from the environment’s point of view. From the arrival of Columbus to the simple wilderness living of the 16th and 17th centuries, through the agrarian lifestyle of the 18th century, the changes from the Industrial Revolution, to the 20th century when most of the planet’s resources have been depleted — this film examines the North American landscape and all the wildlife destruction, deforestation, soil depletion and pollution that have bee...
In My Daughter's Name
Character: Maureen Leeds
A mother takes the law into her own hands after her daughter's murderer is acquitted on a technicality....
The John Garfield Story
Character: Self
This documentary looks at the life and career of John Garfield, whose career was cut short when he died at age 39. His difficult childhood in the rough neighborhoods of New York City provided the perfect background for the tough-guy roles he would play on both stage and screen....
Divorce American Style
Character: Dede Murphy
After 17 years of marriage in American suburbia, Richard and Barbara Harmon step into the new world of divorce....
Thou Shalt Not Kill
Character: Maxine Lochman
A man is wrongly convicted for murder and sent to prison, where he is accused of murdering a brutal guard he killed in self-defense....
Partners in Crime
Character: Judge Meredith Leland
A retired judge who opens a private detective agency and her ex-con associate try to track down $750,000 in bank robbery loot....
The Million Dollar Face
Character: Evalyna
Tony Curtis is the ruthless head of a cosmetics firm, Kiss of Gold, locked in fierce competition with his arch-rival, Glamour, Inc., that happens to be run by his former lover (Lee Grant), and finds his company in the grip of a power struggle among his executives (one of whom, unbeknownst to him, is the son he'd never met) when he is severely injured in a helicopter accident. This pilot to a prospective primetime soap opera failed to generate network interest....
Killian & the Comeback Kids
Character: Ms. Hunter (voice)
Forced to return to his struggling hometown after an expensive college degree, Killian gathers former childhood friends to audition for a music festival coming to their once prosperous steel town....
Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light
Character: Narrator
Actor/director Sidney Poitier discusses his life and career. He tells of his upbringing in Jamaica; the difficulties he encountered in New York City at the start of his career; his involvement in the US civil-rights movement; and efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. Friends and acquaintances, as well as other performers, give their insights about what makes him so special....
The Seagull
Character: Irina Arkadina
Anton Chekhov's play "The Seagull" is brought to life in this acclaimed 1975 production directed by John Desmond. Seeking to reform the theater, Konstantin (Frank Langella) has written an experimental play with the lead to be acted by his beloved, Nina (Blythe Danner). He arranges the first performance to take place at a country estate, but the presence of his self-absorbed mother (Lee Grant) and her novelist lover disrupts the production....
Battered
Character: Narrator
Lee Grant's acclaimed 1989 investigation of domestic violence in American Homes. Battered is the powerful, if harrowing portrait of a life lived in constant fear of the people closest to you. Intimate interviews with the victims and children of the cycle are combined with the eye opening and heart breaking stories of the abusers themselves to take you deeper into every facet of these American lives....
Down and Out in America
Character: Narrator (voice)
The recession of the 1980s split the country into the haves and have-nots, from family farmers to factory workers and homeless people forced to live in decrepit welfare hotels. On the verge of losing everything, courageous Americans discover the power of community organizing to fight injustice....
Under Heat
Character: Jane
Dean is 36 and recently diagnosed as HIV positive. He has come home to tell his mother and his older brother Milo....
The Good Doctor
Character: Various Roles
A writer (made to resemble Russian playwright Anton Chekhov) narrates a collection of his stories, all of which are written in the style of Chekhov....
Reel Herstory: The Real Story of Reel Women
Character: Self
Using rare footage and exclusive interviews with filmmakers from all over the globe, "Reel Herstory" corrects the historic notion that women behind the scenes in motion pictures held peripheral careers compared with their male counterparts....
Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist: None Without Sin
Character: Self
Director Elia Kazan and playwright Arthur Miller were once best friends and professional colleagues, to most that knew them then in both capacities as soul mates. Their politics were similar which was reflected in their work. Kazan was a Communist Party member for a few years in the mid-1930's, but Miller never officially joined the party ranks. Their relationship changed in the early 1950's when Kazan was subpoenaed to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee where he name...
Who Is Henry Jaglom?
Character: Self
Hailed by some as a cinematic genius, a feminist voice and a true maverick of American cinema, dismissed by others as a voyeuristic fraud and the "world's worst director," Henry Jaglom obsessively confuses and abuses the line between life and art. Featuring scores of interviews (including Orson Welles, Dennis Hopper, Milos Forman and Peter Bogdanovich) and rare behind-the-scenes footage, this hilarious documentary explores the fascinating question of Who Is Henry Jaglom?...
The World of Sholom Aleichem
Character: The Goatseller / Avenging Angel
This omnibus release consists of three playlets filmed and aired during television's Golden Age, and starring some of the legends of film and television. The collection originally ran as a two-hour segment on December 14, 1959, on the anthology series The Play of the Week, broadcast locally in New York City via the independent radio station WNTA. Each "tale" in the anthology was adapted from a single tale by the inimitable Sholom Aleichem, regarded by many as the "Yiddish Mark Twain". Included a...
Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster
Character: Self
Beginning just before his debut as Frankenstein’s creation, this documentary compellingly explores the life and legacy of a cinema legend, presenting a perceptive history of the genre he personified. Karloff's films were long derided as hokum and attacked by censors, but his phenomenal popularity and pervasive influence endures, inspiring some of our greatest actors and directors into the 21st Century – among them Guillermo Del Toro, Ron Perlman, Roger Corman, and John Landis, all of whom and ma...