Ray Sharkey

Acting

Ray Sharkey

Born 1952-11-14 · Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

Raymond Sharkey Jr. (November 14, 1952 – June 11, 1993) was an American stage, film and television actor. His most notable film role was Vincent Vacarri in the 1980 film The Idolmaker, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. He is also known for his role as Sonny Steelgrave in the television series Wiseguy.

Acting credits

Paradise Alley poster
5.9

Three Italian-American brothers, living in the slums of 1940's New York City, try to help each other with one's wrestling career using one brother's promotional skills and another brother's con-artist tactics to thwart a sleazy manager.

Paradise Alley

1978

No Mercy poster
5.8

An unconventional undercover Chicago cop and his partner are recruited to commit the murder of a New Orleans criminal kingpin.

No Mercy

1986

Cop & ½ poster
4.6

When a pint-sized 8-year-old kid witnesses a murder he offers to help the police, if they make him a cop, too. Saddled with this streetwise sidekick, a hardboiled cop is forced to take his new partner seriously as they race the clock to bring the bad guys to justice.

Cop & ½

1993

Love & Money poster
5.1

An investment planner, bored with his job and his girlfriend, is given the opportunity to help open a new firm in South America. Once in the new country, he finds himself dealing with dictators and revolutionaries during a time of intense political upheaval, and to complicate his life further, he begins an affair with his new employer's wife.

Love & Money

1981

Some Kind of Hero poster
5.6

A Vietnam vet returns home from a prisoner of war camp and is greeted as a hero, but is quickly forgotten and soon discovers how tough survival is in his own country.

Some Kind of Hero

1982

Wise Guys poster
5.4

Harry Valentini and Moe Dickstein are both errand boys for the Mob. When they lose $250,000, they are set up to kill each other. But they run off to Atlantic City and comedy follows.

Wise Guys

1986

Willie & Phil poster
4.6

Life imitates art when two Manhattanites — pompous teacher Willie and quiet photographer Phil — become friends after a thought-provoking screening of "Jules et Jim," Truffaut's classic film about a decades-long ménage à trois. Soon, the men meet Jeanette, a sexually liberated southern transplant who promptly falls for both of them. Frustrated passions curdle into jealousy as Jeanette entertains love affairs with each in the ensuing years.

Willie & Phil

1980

Who'll Stop the Rain poster
6.5

John, a disillusioned Vietnam War journalist, turns to heroin smuggling. He cons Ray, an equally burnt out veteran into delivering the drugs stateside to his wife. Everything soon falls apart and Ray ends up on the run with John's wife trying to evade crooked narcotics agents.

Who'll Stop the Rain

1978

Trackdown poster
5.7

When his sister Betsy packs up and leaves the family's Montana cattle ranch to find fame and fortune in Hollywood, her brother Jim decides to follow after her to make sure she doesn't get into trouble.

Trackdown

1976

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills poster
5.4

A wealthy Beverly Hills resident who has just become a widow, Clare Lipkin temporarily takes on her friend Lisabeth as a house guest. As the two women deal with their upper-class woes, Clare's driver, Frank, and Lisabeth's servant, Juan, make a wager to see who can be the first to seduce the other's boss.

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills

1989

The Idolmaker poster
5.6

Based on the life of rock promoter/producer Bob Marucci, who discovered, among others, Frankie Avalon and Fabian.

The Idolmaker

1980

Good Cops, Bad Cops poster
4.2

Made-for-TV drama about one of the largest crimes in history—the 1980 robbery of the Boston Depositors Trust by a group of policemen. Capt. Gerry Clemente is the leader of a gang of rotten cops who take their piece of Boston's criminal offerings. The crimes are petty at first, but soon, Clemente sets his sights on a bank that promises a big score. Can the gang pull it off before a case is built against them?

Good Cops, Bad Cops

1990

Heart Beat poster
5.6

An exploration of the relationship between Beat Generation writers Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, and Cassady's wife, Carolyn.

Heart Beat

1980

Regina Roma poster
4.0

An aging couple search for peace and family harmony when their only son returns home after a long absence with his fiancee.

Regina Roma

1982

Hot Tomorrows poster
7.5

A portrait of Michael, a man 'intrigued' by death and drawn to it. Late one Christmas Eve, Michael's closest buddy Louis joins him for an adventure in Hollywood.

Hot Tomorrows

1977

Wiseguy: Pilot poster
9.0

This was the feature-length pilot for the hit series. Vinnie Terranova, a Justice Department agent reassigned to the Organized Crime Bureau as a “wiseguy”, a specially trained deep undercover agent. To help support his cover, Vinnie has just finished serving 18 months in a New Jersey prison…

Wiseguy: Pilot

1987

The Revenge of Al Capone poster
6.6

After Al Capone is imprisoned, he still continues to run his empire, and plots to assassinate the mayor of Chicago.

The Revenge of Al Capone

1989

Du-beat-e-o poster
3.0

A filmmaker tries to finish editing a movie about all-girl rock band Runaways.

Du-beat-e-o

1984

Hellhole poster
4.9

An unlucky woman’s mother is murdered by a scarf-wielding killer named Silk, leaving the woman injured, traumatised and suffering from amnesia. She’s committed to a mental institution, where Silk follows her, looking for the papers he was trying to get from her mother. And Silk’s only the beginning of her problems, since the asylum is run by a mad doctor, performing experiments in chemical lobotomies!

Hellhole

1985

P.I. Private Investigations poster
5.1

A young architect finds himself being stalked by a gang of criminals who believe he knows something that could expose their activities.

P.I. Private Investigations

1987

Stunts poster
5.3

After a stunt man dies while he is involved in the making of a motion picture, his brother takes his place in order to find out what really happened.

Stunts

1977

Round Trip to Heaven poster
3.7

Since Larry works at a garage, he gets to use one of the Rolls Royces. There is only one problem, there is a briefcase full of money in the trunk. So when Larry and his cousin Steve decide to go to Palm Springs to look for Ms. Right at a popular beauty pageant, the owner of the briefcase will do the impossible to get it back.

Round Trip to Heaven

1992

Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp poster
6.0

Based on the story "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp", directed by Tim Burton and starring Robert Carradine.

Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp

1986

The Neon Empire poster
6.7

New York mobster Junior Moloff begins plans to transform Las Vegas into a mecca of prostitution and gambling.

The Neon Empire

1989