Josef Sommer

Acting

Josef Sommer

Born

1934-06-26 (92)

Place of birth

Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

Known for

Acting

Credits

86 titles

Maximilian Josef Sommer (born June 26, 1934) is a German-American retired stage, television, and film actor. His best known roles are as The President in X-Men: The Last Stand, Senator Jessup in The Sum of All Fears, Peter Lassiter in The Family Man, Curtis Flemming in Shaft, Dr. Eaton in Patch Adams, Phelps Bowen in The Chamber, Clive Peoples Jr. in Nobody's Fool, Mr. Duckworth in The Mighty Ducks, Chief Paul Schaefer in Witness, Max Richter in Silkwood, Sam Taylor in Independence Day, Rothko in Dirty Harry, and narrator for the film Sophie's Choice.

Known for

Law & Order poster
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit poster
8.0

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999

Law & Order: Criminal Intent poster
7.6

The third installment of the “Law & Order” franchise takes viewers deep into the minds of its criminals while following the intense psychological approaches the Major Case Squad uses to solve its crimes.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

2001

The West Wing poster
8.3

The West Wing provides a glimpse into presidential politics in the nation's capital as it tells the stories of the members of a fictional presidential administration. These interesting characters have humor and dedication that touches the heart while the politics that they discuss touch on everyday life.

The West Wing

1999

Without a Trace poster
7.2

The series follows the ventures of a Missing Persons Unit of the FBI in New York City.

Without a Trace

2002

Great Performances poster
6.1

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

1971

Film credits

2000s · 8 titles

The Sum of All Fears poster
6.4

When the president of Russia suddenly dies, a man whose politics are virtually unknown succeeds him. The change in political leaders sparks paranoia among American CIA officials, so CIA director Bill Cabot recruits a young analyst to supply insight and advice on the situation. Then the unthinkable happens: a nuclear bomb explodes in a U.S. city, and America is quick to blame the Russians.

The Sum of All Fears

2002

The Invasion poster
6.1

Washington, D.C. psychologist Carol Bennell and her colleague Dr. Ben Driscoll are the only two people on Earth who are aware of an epidemic running rampant through the city. They discover an alien virus aboard a crashed space shuttle that transforms anyone who comes into contact with it into unfeeling drones while they sleep. Carol realizes her son holds the key to stopping the spread of the plague and she races to find him before it is too late.

The Invasion

2007

The Family Man poster
6.8

Jack's lavish, fast-paced lifestyle changes one Christmas night when he stumbles into a grocery store holdup and disarms the gunman. The next morning he wakes up in bed lying next to Kate, his college sweetheart he left in order to pursue his career, and to the horrifying discovery that his former life no longer exists. As he stumbles through this alternate suburban universe, Jack finds himself at a crossroad where he must choose between his high-power career and the woman he loves.

The Family Man

2000

The Next Best Thing poster
5.2

A comedy-drama about best friends - one a straight woman, Abbie, the other a gay man, Robert - who decide to have a child together. Five years later, Abbie falls in love with a straight man and wants to move away with her and Robert's little boy Sam, and a nasty custody battle ensues.

The Next Best Thing

2000

Shaft poster
6.0

New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.

Shaft

2000

Stop-Loss poster
6.1

A veteran soldier returns from his completed tour of duty in Iraq, only to find his life turned upside down when he is arbitrarily ordered to return to field duty by the Army.

Stop-Loss

2008

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Winds of Change poster
5.8

Following World War I, Indy - now fluent in several languages - works as a translator at the controversial Paris Peace Conference, where he once more meets Lawrence of Arabia, and encounters the Arab Prince Faisal and a young Ho Chi Minh. Disillusioned by the hard and cynical realpolitik of international deal-making, he returns home to Princeton, New Jersey after a three-year absence, where he finds his father as cold and distant as ever, and discovers a detrimental change in his boyhood friend, Paul Robeson, caused by bigotry.

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Winds of Change

2000

The Elephant King poster
5.9

The story of two brothers who lead totally different lives. Jake Hunt enjoys life to the fullest in Thailand, while his shy brother Oliver deals with his own depressions back home in the USA. Their dominant mother wants Jake back home and for this reason, Oliver is sent to Thailand to retrieve his brother. Once there, Oliver finds himself in Jake's bizarre life and falls in love with a beautiful girl, Lek. However, it is not a coincidence that she and Oliver have met

The Elephant King

2006

1990s · 21 titles

Patch Adams poster
7.3

The true story of Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams, who in the 1970s found that humor is the best medicine, and was willing to do just anything to make his patients laugh—even if it meant risking his own career.

Patch Adams

1998

The Mighty Ducks poster
6.6

After reckless young lawyer Gordon Bombay gets arrested for drunk driving, he must coach a kids hockey team for his community service. Gordon has experience on the ice, but isn't eager to return to hockey, a point hit home by his tense dealings with his own former coach, Jack Reilly. The reluctant Gordon eventually grows to appreciate his team, which includes promising young Charlie Conway, and leads them to take on Reilly's tough players.

The Mighty Ducks

1992

Nobody's Fool poster
6.9

A rascally man nearing retirement juggles a workers' compensation suit while secretly working for his nemesis and flirting with his nemesis' young wife. As his estranged son returns, he faces new family responsibilities, while a banker plots to evict him from his home.

Nobody's Fool

1994

Malice poster
6.3

A tale about a happily married couple who would like to have children. Tracy teaches infants, Andy's a college professor. Things are never the same after she is taken to hospital and operated upon by Jed, a "know all" doctor.

Malice

1993

Shadows and Fog poster
6.7

With a serial strangler on the loose, a bookkeeper wanders around town searching for the vigilante group intent on catching the killer.

Shadows and Fog

1991

Strange Days poster
7.0

In the last days of 1999, ex-cop turned street hustler Lenny Nero receives a disc which contains the memories of the murder of a prostitute. With the help of bodyguard Mace, he starts to investigate and is pulled deeper and deeper in a whirl of murder, blackmail and intrigue.

Strange Days

1995

Bulworth poster
6.3

A suicidally disillusioned liberal politician puts a contract out on himself and takes the opportunity to be bluntly honest with his voters by affecting the rhythms and speech of hip-hop music and culture.

Bulworth

1998

The Chamber poster
5.9

Idealistic young attorney Adam Hall takes on the death row clemency case of his racist grandfather, Sam Cayhall, a former Ku Klux Klan member he has never met.

The Chamber

1996

The Proposition poster
5.9

Father Michael McKinnon goes from the UK to Boston circa 1935. For unknown reasons, he avoids at all costs the most prominent parishioners, Arthur and Eleanor Barret. Meanwhile Eleanor and Arthur desperately want to have a child, but Arthur is sterile, so they hire Harvard law student Roger Martin to impregnate Eleanor, but unfortunately Roger falls in love with her.

The Proposition

1998

Don't Drink the Water poster
5.6

Somewhere behind the early 1960s cold-war iron curtain, the Hollander family cause an international spying incident when Walter photographs a sunset in a sensitive region. In order to stay out of jail, the Hollanders take refuge in the American Embassy, which is temporarily being run by the absent Ambassador's diplomatically incompetent son, Axel.

Don't Drink the Water

1994

The Enemy Within poster
5.8

A officer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff uncovers a planned military coup of the U.S. government and has only one week to prevent the takeover.

The Enemy Within

1994

Moonlight and Valentino poster
5.6

A young widow still grieving over the death of her husband finds herself being comforted by a local housepainter.

Moonlight and Valentino

1995

Mistrial poster
5.3

When a cop-killer goes free, a detective's search for personal justice veers dangerously out of control. Declaring a mistrial, he takes the accused, the judge and the jury hostage...and begins a trial of his own.

Mistrial

1996

An American Story poster
6.4

World War II has ended and many soldiers return to their houses and families. But three of them find themselves with big problems when they arrive at their home village.

An American Story

1992

Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker poster
6.3

The story of Johnson Whittaker, one of the first African-American cadets admitted to West Point. Tied down and beaten by his fellow cadets

Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker

1994

William Shakespeare's Hamlet poster
NR

A Danish prince and university student avenges his father's murder by his uncle, who stole the crown and married his mother.

William Shakespeare's Hamlet

1990

The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer poster
4.8

An account of early 1970s social activist Ira Einhorn, who allegedly murdered his girlfriend and then fled the country.

The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer

1999

Citizen Cohn poster
6.3

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.

Citizen Cohn

1992

Kansas poster
5.5

When a single mother and high-powered Chicago ad executive returns to her home town in Kansas to care for her ailing father, she rediscovers the joys and hardships of farm life.

Kansas

1995

When Will I Be Loved? poster
9.0

Three disillusioned wives who are contemplating divorce compare notes on their stormy marriages.

When Will I Be Loved?

1990

Before the Storm poster
9.0

A follow up to Under Cover aka The Company (1991). Linda Purl is again Kate Del'Amico, National Intelligence Agent who travels to Kuwait in 1990 to investigate the possibility of an Iraqi invasion. When it is discovered that the Iraqi's plan to launch a missile of chemical warfare, the Agency must sacrifice trainee Sam Hamadi (Jesse Borrego) in order for the missile site to be pinpointed.

Before the Storm

1991

1980s · 23 titles

Sophie's Choice poster
7.3

Stingo, a young writer, moves to Brooklyn in 1947 to begin work on his first novel. As he becomes friendly with Sophie and her lover Nathan, he learns that she is a Holocaust survivor. Flashbacks reveal her harrowing story, from pre-war prosperity to Auschwitz. In the present, Sophie and Nathan's relationship increasingly unravels as Stingo grows closer to Sophie and Nathan's fragile mental state becomes ever more apparent.

Sophie's Choice

1982

Witness poster
7.1

While protecting an Amish boy—the sole witness to a brutal murder—and his mother, a detective is forced to seek refuge within their community when his own life comes under threat.

Witness

1985

Absence of Malice poster
6.6

Megan Carter is a reporter duped into running an untrue story on Michael Gallagher, a suspected racketeer. He has an alibi for the time his crime was allegedly committed—but it involves an innocent party. When he tells Carter the truth and the newspaper runs it, tragedy follows, forcing Carter to face up to the responsibilities of her job when she is confronted by Gallagher.

Absence of Malice

1981

Chances Are poster
6.6

Louie Jeffries is happily married to Corinne. On their first anniversary, Louie is killed crossing the road. Louie is reincarnated as Alex Finch, and twenty years later, fate brings Alex and Louie's daughter, Miranda, together. It's not until Alex is invited to Louie's home that he begins to remember his former life, wife and best friend. Of course, there's also the problem that he's attracted to Louie's/his own daughter.

Chances Are

1989

Still of the Night poster
5.7

When one of his patients is found murdered, psychiatrist Dr. Sam Rice is visited by the investigating officer but refuses to give up any information. He's then visited by the patient's mistress, Brooke Reynolds, whom he quickly falls for despite her being a likely murder suspect. As the police pressure on him intensifies, Rice decides to attempt solving the case on his own and soon discovers that someone is trying to kill him as well.

Still of the Night

1982

Iceman poster
6.2

A team of Arctic researchers find a 40,000 year-old man frozen in ice and bring him back to life. Anthropologist Dr. Stanley Shephard wants to befriend the Iceman and learn about the man's past while Dr. Diane Brady and her surgical team want to discover the secret that will allow man to live in a frozen state.

Iceman

1984

Hanky Panky poster
5.3

Naïve Michael Jordon is drawn into a web of government secrets when a girl carrying a mysterious package gets into a taxi with him. When she's later murdered, Michael becomes the chief suspect and goes on the run.

Hanky Panky

1982

Reds poster
6.9

An account of the revolutionary years of the legendary American journalist John Reed, who shared his adventurous professional life with his radical commitment to the socialist revolution in Russia, his dream of spreading its principles among the members of the American working class, and his troubled romantic relationship with the writer Louise Bryant.

Reds

1981

D.A.R.Y.L. poster
6.4

Daryl is a normal 10-year-old boy in many ways. However, unbeknown to his foster parents and friends, Daryl is actually a government-created robot with superhuman reflexes and mental abilities. Even his name has a hidden meaning -- it's actually an acronym for Data Analyzing Robot Youth Life-form. When the organization that created him deems the "super soldier" experiment a failure and schedules Daryl to be disassembled, it is up to a few rogue scientists to help him escape.

D.A.R.Y.L.

1985

Silkwood poster
6.9

Like most of the people in her town, Karen Silkwood works at the local nuclear plant producing highly radioactive plutonium. Exposed one day to a lethal dose of radiation, Karen faces the blank walls of corporate indifference and denial. As her illness increases, her protest grows louder and she becomes an obvious danger to the powers that be.

Silkwood

1983

Target poster
5.9

A Texan with a secret past searches Europe with his son after the KGB kidnaps his wife.

Target

1985

The Rosary Murders poster
5.7

A priest is put in a dilemma when the serial killer who has been murdering priests and nuns confesses to him.

The Rosary Murders

1987

Rollover poster
5.1

The wife of a murdered petrochemical company chairman and a banker investigating the liquidity of his new bank stumble upon an international financial scheme that could lead to global economic collapse.

Rollover

1981

Hide in Plain Sight poster
5.7

True story of a man in search of his children after his ex-wife enters the Witness Protection Program.

Hide in Plain Sight

1980

Double Image poster
5.4

This film tells the true-life story of Yuri Nosenko, a top Soviet KGB agent who defected to the West at the height of the Cold War in 1962.

Double Image

1986

Bloodhounds of Broadway poster
5.7

On New Year's Eve 1928, in the New York underworld, a gambler sells his body to science, a gangster needs a transfusion, and a gambler is on the run

Bloodhounds of Broadway

1989

Dracula's Widow poster
4.6

Dracula's wife, Vanessa, comes back to life and attacks Raymond who has a waxworks museum, where he displays notorious monsters and murderers.

Dracula's Widow

1988

Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman poster
6.6

The Bionic Woman and the Six-Million-Dollar Man reunite--with a few younger bionic assistants--and try to catch a bionic spy.

Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman

1989

Sparkling Cyanide poster
6.0

The beautiful but unfaithful wife of a successful lawyer meets her untimely end at their anniversary dinner. After a suicide note is found soon after her death, it seems more likely that she was murdered, as all the dinner guests had good reason to want her dead.

Sparkling Cyanide

1983

Doctor Franken poster
6.0

This variation of the Frankenstein legend, set in a brownstone in present-day Manhattan, has Robert Vaughn as a determined New York surgeon bringing "parts" home from work -- the hospital where he does experimental research -- to painstakingly rebuild the shattered body of an anonymous patient with organs from various donors.

Doctor Franken

1980

The Execution of Raymond Graham poster
6.6

A young man, convicted of the murder of a clerk, who has been on death row for five years and now awaits his execution while his family desperately seek a reprieve.

The Execution of Raymond Graham

1985

Saigon: Year of the Cat poster
5.3

The year is 1974, and Barbara Dean (Judi Dench), a British assistant manager in a foreign bank in Saigon, begins a relationship with American Bob Chesneau (Frederic Forrest). She quickly realises that he works for the CIA and he knows that the fall of South Vietnam is very near.

Saigon: Year of the Cat

1983

Brotherly Love poster
7.3

A businessman is stalked by his murderous twin brother, who has just been released from a mental hospital.

Brotherly Love

1985

1970s · 7 titles

Close Encounters of the Third Kind poster
7.4

After an encounter with UFOs, an electricity linesman feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

1977

Dirty Harry poster
7.4

When a madman dubbed 'Scorpio' terrorizes San Francisco, hard-nosed cop, Harry Callahan – famous for his take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement – is tasked with hunting down the psychopath.

Dirty Harry

1971

The Stepford Wives poster
6.7

Joanna Eberhart comes to the town of Stepford, Connecticut with her family, but soon discovers there lies a sinister truth in the all too perfect behavior of the female residents.

The Stepford Wives

1975

The Front poster
7.1

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

Valley Forge poster
7.0

George Washington struggles to hold his army together at a critical point during the Revolutionary War.

Valley Forge

1975

Man on a Swing poster
5.9

When a young schoolteacher is found dead in her car in a parking lot in broad daylight, police chief Lee Tucker can find no clues pointing to her killer. Flamboyant self-proclaimed psychic Franklin Wills offers his help to the skeptical policeman, and, when his supposed visions about the case begin to reveal clues and information that only the killer could possibly have known, he becomes a suspect himself.

Man on a Swing

1974

Oliver's Story poster
4.8

Oliver Barrett IV is emotionally devastated by the death of his wife Jenny, and, while he tries to lose himself in his work as a lawyer, the long hours don't ease his pain, especially when he finds that his leftist views conflict with those of the senior partners at the firm. Eventually, Oliver's inconsolable grief begins to alienate those around him, until he finds new love with Marcie Bonwit, the wealthy and beautiful heiress to the Bonwit Teller fortune. Despite his affection for her, Oliver finds it difficult to leave the memory of Jenny behind, which causes major problems in their relationship.

Oliver's Story

1978

Series credits

Law & Order poster
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990

Law & Order poster
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit poster
8.0

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999

Law & Order: Criminal Intent poster
7.6

The third installment of the “Law & Order” franchise takes viewers deep into the minds of its criminals while following the intense psychological approaches the Major Case Squad uses to solve its crimes.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

2001

The West Wing poster
8.3

The West Wing provides a glimpse into presidential politics in the nation's capital as it tells the stories of the members of a fictional presidential administration. These interesting characters have humor and dedication that touches the heart while the politics that they discuss touch on everyday life.

The West Wing

1999

Without a Trace poster
7.2

The series follows the ventures of a Missing Persons Unit of the FBI in New York City.

Without a Trace

2002

Great Performances poster
6.1

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

1971

Great Performances poster
6.1

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

1971

American Playhouse poster
6.6

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

American Playhouse

1982

American Playhouse poster
6.6

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

American Playhouse

1982

The Equalizer poster
7.2

Robert McCall is a former agent of a secret government agency who is now running his own private crime fighting operation where he fashions himself as "The Equalizer." It is a service for victims of the system who have exhausted all possible means of seeking justice and have nowhere to go. McCall promises to even out the odds for them.

The Equalizer

1985

Early Edition poster
7.4

Gary Hobson thinks he may even be losing his mind when tomorrow's newspaper mysteriously arrives today giving him a disconcerting look into the future. What will he do with tomorrow's news?

Early Edition

1996

Scarecrow and Mrs. King poster
6.7

Scarecrow and Mrs. King is an American television series that aired from October 3, 1983, to May 28, 1987 on CBS. The show stars Kate Jackson and Bruce Boxleitner as divorced housewife Amanda King and top-level "Agency" operative Lee Stetson who begin a strange association, and eventual romance, after encountering one another in a train station.

Scarecrow and Mrs. King

1983

Screen Two poster
7.1

Series of single made-for-television dramas.

Screen Two

1985

Providence poster
6.7

Providence is an American television drama series.

Providence

1999

Ally McBeal poster
6.5

Ally McBeal is a young lawyer working at the Boston law firm Cage and Fish. Ally's lives and loves are eccentric, humorous, dramatic with an incredibly overactive imagination that's working overtime!

Ally McBeal

1997

The Adams Chronicles poster
7.4

Chronicles the story of the Adams political family over a 150-year span, including John Adams (drafter and signer of the Declaration, accomplished diplomat, and the 2nd President of the U.S.), his wife Abigail Adams, his son John Quincy Adams (acclaimed Secretary of State, the 6th President, and prominent abolitionist Congressman), grandson Charles Francis Adams, Congressman and Ambassador to Great Britain during the Civil War, and much-heralded members of the fourth generation Henry Brooks Adams, the historian and author of the novel Democracy, and Charles Francis Adams II, the industrialist.

The Adams Chronicles

1976

Hallmark Hall of Fame poster
8.8

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.

Hallmark Hall of Fame

1951

A Woman Named Jackie poster
8.8

This biographical miniseries, based on the best seller by C. David Heymann, starts when Jackie Kennedy was working after college; and spans her life through the Presidency of John F. Kennedy and her marriage to Aristotle Onassis after the assassination of President Kennedy.

A Woman Named Jackie

1991

The Andros Targets poster
7.0

James Sutorious star as Mike Andros, a newspaper investigative reporter who seeks out corruption and injustice in this this action-drama series.

The Andros Targets

1977

Hothouse poster
7.5

A medical drama set in a New England psychiatric clinic includes father-and-son discord between the head of the facility and its business manager.

Hothouse

1988

The Hunt For The Unicorn Killer poster
4.7

An account of early 1970s social activist Ira Einhorn, who allegedly murdered his girlfriend and then fled the country.

The Hunt For The Unicorn Killer

1999

The Scarlet Letter poster
4.5

The Scarlet Letter is a 1979 miniseries based on the novel of the same name that aired on WGBH from March 3, 1979 to March 24, 1979. The series is four episodes long, 60 minutes each. Part 2 won the 1979 Emmy Award for Outstanding Video Tape Editing for a Limited Series or Special for film editors Ken Denisoff, Janet McFadden, and Tucker Wiard. In 1979, when most literary programs were being produced in the United Kingdom, Boston public television station WGBH decided to produce a homegrown literary classic of its own. The result is this epic version of Nathaniel Hawthorne's enduring novel of Puritan America in search of its soul. Hester Prynne overcomes the stigma of adultery to emerge as the first great heroine in American literature. Hawthorne's themes, the nature of sin, social hypocrisy, and community repression, still reverberate through American society. Meg Foster brings a quiet strength to the role of Hester, the adulteress condemned to wear a scarlet "A" for the rest of her life. As her partner in crime, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, John Heard writhes in private torment most convincingly. Kevin Conway completes this grim triangle as the mysterious, maleficent Roger Chillingworth. The costumes and scenery are simple, so as not to detract from the dialogue as each character grapples with the meaning of sin, forgiveness, and redemption.

The Scarlet Letter

1979

No artwork available
7.5

Under Cover is an American secret agent drama series that premiered on ABC on January 7, 1991. The series starred Anthony John Denison and Linda Purl as Dylan and Kate Del'Amico, a husband and wife who share the same day job—as spies for a fictional US intelligence agency. Under Cover follows the couple's adventures as they attempt to balance the demands of a sometimes deadly profession while raising two children. The series co-starred John Rhys-Davies as Flynn, the team's gadget man who is also a deadly assassin. Although well received by critics and launched with a high-rated made-for-TV movie, Under Cover was adversely affected by the outbreak of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. A two-part episode had been produced involving the Del'Amicos infiltrating Iraq in the wake of its invasion of Kuwait, and culminated with an American military strike on the country. The night the first episode was scheduled to air, real-life hostilities erupted. The two-part storyline was postponed indefinitely and the series itself was effectively cancelled. Following the end of the war, the series resumed for several more episodes, but it was soon officially cancelled, though not before the pulled Iraq episode was finally broadcast. Several episodes have subsequently been edited together as TV-movies and syndicated.

Under Cover

1991

Mourning Becomes Electra poster
5.0

In a Greek tragedy updated to the 1860s, young New Englanders exact vengeance after the murder of their father.

Mourning Becomes Electra

1978

The Kennedys of Massachusetts poster
7.8

The Kennedys of Massachusetts is a 1990 TV miniseries that aired on ABC. Focusing mainly on the fifty-four year marriage of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Kennedy. The events depicted in the series are based upon the book by Doris Kearns Goodwin titled The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys : An American Saga. The series aired across three nights, an earned an Emmy and Golden Globe.

The Kennedys of Massachusetts

1990