Del Close

Acting

Del Close

Born 1934-03-09 · Manhattan, Kansas, USA

Del Close (March 9, 1934 – March 4, 1999) was an American actor, writer, and teacher who coached many of the best-known comedians and comic actors of the late twentieth century. In addition to an acting career in television and film, he was one of the influences on modern improvisational theater. Close is co-founder of the ImprovOlympic (iO). From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Acting credits

The Untouchables poster
7.8

Elliot Ness, an ambitious prohibition agent, is determined to take down Al Capone. In order to achieve this goal, he forms a group given the nickname “The Untouchables”.

The Untouchables

1987

Ferris Bueller's Day Off poster
7.6

After high school slacker Ferris Bueller successfully fakes an illness in order to skip school for the day, he goes on a series of adventures throughout Chicago with his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron, all the while trying to outwit his wily school principal and fed-up sister.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

1986

A League of Their Own poster
7.2

As America's stock of athletic young men is depleted during World War II, a professional all-female baseball league springs up in the Midwest, funded by publicity-hungry candy maker Walter Harvey. Competitive sisters Dottie Hinson and Kit Keller spar with each other, scout Ernie Capadino and grumpy has-been coach Jimmy Dugan on their way to fame.

A League of Their Own

1992

The Blob poster
6.9

In Arborville, California, three high school students try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches.

The Blob

1988

Thief poster
7.2

Frank is an expert professional safecracker, specialized in high-profile diamond heists. He plans to use his ill-gotten income to retire from crime and build a nice life for himself complete with a home, wife and kids. To accelerate the process, he signs on with a top gangster for a big score.

Thief

1981

American Graffiti poster
7.0

A couple of high school graduates spend one final night cruising the strip with their buddies before they go off to college.

American Graffiti

1973

Next of Kin poster
5.9

Truman Gates, a Chicago cop, sets out to find his brother's killer. Meanwhile, another of his brothers, Briar (a hillbilly) decides to find the killer himself.

Next of Kin

1989

Fat Man and Little Boy poster
6.2

Assigned to oversee the development of the atomic bomb, Gen. Leslie Groves is a stern military man determined to have the project go according to plan. He selects J. Robert Oppenheimer as the key scientist on the top-secret operation, but the two men clash fiercely on a number of issues. Despite their frequent conflicts, Groves and Oppenheimer ultimately push ahead with two bomb designs — the bigger "Fat Man" and the more streamlined "Little Boy."

Fat Man and Little Boy

1989

The Public Eye poster
6.2

A crime photographer gets involved in a conspiracy.

The Public Eye

1992

The Big Town poster
5.5

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 Big Town

1987

Thank You, Del: The Story of the Del Close Marathon poster
5.6

Del Close was never a household name, but any comedy enthusiast is aware of his impact. From Bill Murray to Chris Farley to Amy Poehler, many of the most famous comedians consider him their mentor. Fifteen years after Del Close’s death, thousands of Improv students, comedy fans, actors, and successful comedians gather to celebrate the most important person in modern comedy that no one knows.

Thank You, Del: The Story of the Del Close Marathon

2015

Light of Day poster
5.5

Cleveland siblings rise with a rock band while coping with personal problems.

Light of Day

1987

First Steps poster
8.0

Teenage Nan Davis is left paralyzed in a car accident and has a tough time accepting her new wheelchair-bound life. One day she hears about new research by Dr. Jerrold Petrofsky, about using external electric stimulations to enable paralyzed people to use their frozen muscles. She enters the research as a test subject and gets her reward when she walks up to receive her college diploma.

First Steps

1985

Opportunity Knocks poster
5.7

Eddie and Lou are a couple of two-bit con men on the lam from a loan shark. They hide out in someone's house and they hear on the answering machine that (A) the owner of the house is out of the country for a month or two and (B) the housesitter supposed to watch the house for the absent owner won't be able to watch the house due to a new job in another part of the country. This provides for a pretty nifty arrangement for Eddie and Lou...until the relatives of the house owner drop by to visit. Eddie quickly adopts the guise of the person supposedly housesitting for the owner, and the shenanigans start from there.

Opportunity Knocks

1990

Mommy's Day poster
3.3

After escaping a lethal injection for the murders Mommy (Patty McCormack) had committed, she is given a special implant in her arm that will keep her from having homicidal urges. However, since she still tries to see her daughter and other murders are continuing, it doesn't look very good for Mommy.

Mommy's Day

1997

One More Saturday Night poster
4.2

The problems faced by both teenagers and adults in a small Minnesota town who are trying to get dates for a Saturday night.

One More Saturday Night

1986

Beware! The Blob poster
4.5

A technician brings a frozen specimen of the original Blob back from the North Pole. When his wife accidentally defrosts the thing, it terrorizes the populace-- the local hippies, cops, drunks and bowlers must all face the Blob!

Beware! The Blob

1972

The Last Affair poster
7.0

The wife of a sterile man steps outside the marriage with a gigolo in order to conceive.

The Last Affair

1976

Dream Breakers poster
9.0

A movie about a Chicago family -- a building contractor and his two sons who have opposing ideologies. One brother works for a power-hungry builder with underworld connections; the younger son, a priest in one of the city's poor parishes, is fighting the forces for which his brother works.

Dream Breakers

1989

Gold poster
2.0

Uptight killjoy square cop Captain Harold Jinks doesn't approve of the local hippies in an Old West-style rural community romping about naked, so he zealously enforces various strict laws to ban public nudity. It's up to loopy long-haired rebel Hawk to save the townspeople from Jinks' oppressive reign.

Gold

1972

You Are What You Eat poster
4.4

A montage of the weird, a freak-out film that appeared when the expression was in fashion and in flower, along with the flower people. The film was one of the first exponents of the mobile camera-rock track-optical effect school of filmmaking, and it is much a document as it is a documentary. A repellent and fascinating depiction of the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, along with Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco and the East Village in New York. Tiny Tim amounts to something resembling a recurring motif and narrator.

You Are What You Eat

1968

It Is Now Our Time: Peter Sellars’ The Merchant of Venice poster
NR

A BBC documentary about a pre-rehearsal workshop held in New York prior to the Goodman Theater’s 1994 production of The Merchant of Venice, directed by Peter Sellars in Chicago.

It Is Now Our Time: Peter Sellars’ The Merchant of Venice

1994

Goldstein poster
5.8

A fable about an old man with an odd effect on those he encounters.

Goldstein

1965