Joshua Shelley

Acting

Joshua Shelley

Born 1920-01-27 · New York, New York, USA

Joshua Shelley (born Joshua Kurzweil; January 27, 1920 – February 16, 1990) was one of the actors blacklisted by movie studios as a result of the House Un-American Activities Committee's (HUAC) investigation of the Communist Party in Hollywood in 1952. He did not begin to again work regularly in Hollywood until 1973 when his career restarted. A member of The Actors Studio from its inception in 1947, Shelley worked frequently on stage, both on and off Broadway, during his Hollywood exile. Shelley's onscreen work, both pre- and post-blacklist, was confined primarily to television. Nonetheless, two career highlights remain Shelley's enthusiastically received 1949 feature film debut in City Across the River, as well as the blacklist-related 1976 film, The Front, notable for reuniting Shelley with several fellow blacklistees, including cast members Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, and Lloyd Gough, screenwriter Walter Bernstein and director Martin Ritt, the latter also a fellow Actors Studio member. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Acting credits

All the President's Men poster
7.7

During the 1972 elections, two reporters' investigation sheds light on the controversial Watergate scandal that compels President Nixon to resign from his post.

All the President's Men

1976

Funny Lady poster
5.3

Famous singer Fanny Brice has divorced her first husband Nicky Arnstein. During the Great Depression she has trouble finding work as an artist, but meets Billy Rose, a newcomer who writes lyrics and owns a nightclub.

Funny Lady

1975

Quicksilver poster
5.6

Jack Casey used to be a hot-shot stock market whiz kid. After a disastrous professional decision, his life in the fast lane is over. He loses his nerve and joins a speed delivery firm which relies on bicycles to avoid traffic jams of San Francisco, is attracted to a fellow bicycler, Terri, and befriends Hector, a budding entrepreneur. Can Jack regain his nerve and his self-respect, and rebuild his life on a more sound basis?

Quicksilver

1986

The Front Page poster
7.3

Ruthless Chicago newspaper editor Walter Burns resorts to dubious motives in order to get top reporter Hildy Johnson to cover one more big crime story before retirement.

The Front Page

1974

The Front poster
7.0

A cashier poses as a writer for blacklisted talents to submit their work through, but the injustice around him pushes him to take a stand.

The Front

1976

Little Miss Marker poster
6.6

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 changes a great deal with her arrival and he finds sudden love for a woman also involved in gambling operations.

Little Miss Marker

1980

City Across the River poster
6.0

Brooklyn youth Frank Cusack, good son and brother by day, is a gang member by night. The Dukes, seemingly likable dead-end-kids, are dangerously involved with racketeer Gaggsy Steens. Despite the efforts of Franks's parents, he and pal Benny get involved in a serious crime. Can Stan Albert, head of the community center, prevent them from becoming full-time crooks?

City Across the River

1949

Crackle of Death poster
7.5

The first of two Kolchak: The Night Stalker compilation TV films. It combines two episodes of the Kolchak TV series, Firefall (about the ghost of an arsonist that tries to take over a renowned conductor's body as his doppelgänger) and The Energy Eater (about a Native American bear-spirit haunting a newly built hospital) and adds new narration by Darren McGavin.

Crackle of Death

1976

Sonny Boy poster
7.0

The owner of a toy store chain still lives at home with his mother and crazy uncle.

Sonny Boy

1974

The Marcus-Nelson Murders poster
7.6

A homicide detective begins to suspect that the black teenager accused of murdering two white girls is being framed by his fellow detectives.

The Marcus-Nelson Murders

1973

Firehouse poster
5.0

Conflict erupts within a close-knit engine company of a big-city fire department when a black recruit and a bigoted white veteran clash during a wave of suspected arson in the ghetto. Pilot to the short-lived series that began a run in January 1974.

Firehouse

1973

Ring of Passion poster
7.0

Fact-based drama about the two Joe Louis-Max Schmeling heavyweight fights and the way both boxers unwillingly became symbols of political ideologies just prior to World War II.

Ring of Passion

1978

Switch poster
9.0

In this pilot film that led to the series, an ex-con and a retired cop, partners in a private investigation agency, try to prove that a safecracker has been framed for a diamond robbery.

Switch

1975

Yes Sir, That's My Baby poster
6.0

At a college, a group of ex-GIs clash with their wives about over playing football.

Yes Sir, That's My Baby

1949

Behind the camera