Joel Polis

Acting

Joel Polis

Born 1951-10-03 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

An American television, film and stage actor. He has appeared in over one hundred television programs and films during his career. Polis' first film role was the character 'Fuchs' in the science fiction film The Thing. He appeared in numerous television series including Cheers, Alien Nation, Northern Exposure, Star Trek: Voyager, Roseanne, Seinfeld, Chicago Hope, Boston Legal and CSI. He appeared in a recurring role on the television series Cheers as the mischievous Gary, owner of the rival bar, Gary's Olde Towne Tavern. Polis's theater credits include performances at the Astor Place Theatre, Hartford Stage, Old Globe Theater, South Coast Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, Odyssey Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, Lillian Theater and the Pasadena Playhouse.

Acting credits

The Thing poster
8.1

A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.

The Thing

1982

The Rookie poster
5.9

Veteran cop Nick Pulovski is used to playing musical partners; many of the partners he's had in the past have died on the job, and often as a result of Nick's risky tactics. But the rookie who's been assigned to help Nick bust a carjacking ring is almost as hotheaded as he is … and when Nick gets kidnapped, his newbie partner is his only hope.

The Rookie

1990

Tumbleweeds poster
6.4

Whenever trouble strikes in one of her relationships, single mother Mary Jo Walker and her daughter, Ava, pack up and move to another city, a routine Ava is tiring of. This time, they are helped on their move to San Diego by trucker Jack Ranson. While Ava settles in, getting a leading part in the school play, Jack starts dating Mary Jo but soon reveals himself to be controlling and aggressive. Mary Jo prepares to flee again, angering Ava.

Tumbleweeds

1999

Best Defense poster
4.3

An engineer fails to get the bugs out of a tank before an Army officer has to use it in Kuwait.

Best Defense

1984

True Believer poster
6.2

Eddie Dodd is a burnt out former civil rights lawyer who now specializes in defending drug dealers. Roger Baron, newly graduated from law school, has followed Eddie's great cases and now wants to learn at his feet. With Roger's idealistic prodding, Eddie reluctantly takes on a case of a young Korean man who, according to his mother, has been in jail for eight years for a murder he didn't commit.

True Believer

1989

Alien Hunter poster
5.1

Government agents find evidence of extraterrestrial life at the South Pole.

Alien Hunter

2003

My Blue Heaven poster
6.1

FBI agent Barney Coopersmith is assigned to protect former Mafia figure turned informant Vincent Antonelli. In the witness protection program one is supposed to keep a low profile, but that is something that Antonelli has trouble doing. Coopersmith certainly has his hands full keeping Antonelli away from the Mafia hitmen who want to stop him testifying, not to mention the nightclubs...

My Blue Heaven

1990

Attraction poster
6.9

A writer/radio advice show host fails to heed his own advice as he stalks his ex-girlfriend and then becomes involved with an actress friend of hers.

Attraction

2001

Dark Angel poster
3.2

Homicide detective Walter D'Arcangelo is the only link to a serial killer who preys on adulterous women. Walter must confront his past in order to prove himself innocent before more women are killed.

Dark Angel

1996

The Thing Expanded poster
8.5

The ultimate companion to John Carpenter’s "The Thing", digging deep into the proverbial iceberg to enhance your viewing experience with new insights, stories, and revelations.

The Thing Expanded

2026

It's My Party poster
6.3

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.

It's My Party

1996

Twilight Man poster
6.4

Jordan Cooper, a professor in Durham, has everything going for him. A beautiful girlfriend named Kathy, a good job and a nice place to live. But when he goes for his annual check up, things go wrong. Someone is tampering with his computer files and all his tests are bad. He is admitted to the hospital and dragged off to the county hospital late that night for a brain operation that he does not need. His electronic records are changing. He gets cable he did not order and then his girlfriend is murdered in his car. Someone is trying to ruin the life of Cooper, and he has to find out who and why before the police catch up to him.

Twilight Man

1996

Prison of Secrets poster
5.2

Lynn Schaffer is willfully irresponsible once too often, gets fired and refuses a plea-bargain with her employer. She's now convicted and because of this uncooperative attitude gets the maximum sentence, 10 years in a women's jail wing. Model husband Larry, who wasn't informed of her dumb schemes is left running her appeal, the household and spoiled daughter who now feels abandoned. Since most inmates are junkies or prostitutes, sergeant Ed Crang and fellow corrupt jailers can run a 'favors in kind exchange'. For rebels, it gets worse. Larry however has his own radio show, so it all hangs on gathering proof.

Prison of Secrets

1997

Fallen Angels poster
3.0

When a turn of the century prison reformatory is slated for demolition, a grisly discovery is made. Hidden deep underground beneath the west cell block is a sub-basement structure that has not been entered in 100 years. Inside are the skeletal remains of several brutally slain children. As a CSI team arrives at the prison, an even more disturbing discovery is made that will eventually unveil a legion of seven demons and their even more chilling origins: each demon is responsible for one of the seven deadly sins. Seven deadly sins...Seven deadly demons...Seven more deadly ways to die...

Fallen Angels

2007

Swallow poster
8.0

Lacking the grades and money for college, a Florida high school senior takes assignment as a cocaine mule.

Swallow

2004

Serial Killer poster
4.7

As a member of FBI Psychological Profile Unit, Selby Younger tracks Morrano, vicious and intelligent serial killer. Before getting caught, Morrano attacks her leaving serious psychological wounds. Two years later, Morrano escapes and Selby, now working on a desk job, must face her personal traumas again.

Serial Killer

1995

Chasing a Dream poster
6.3

When high school football player Cam Stiles loses his best friend, he decides to drop football and focus on attaining his friend's goal of running a mile in under four minutes. Cam's decision tears apart his relationship with former teammates and his father—who happens to be his demanding football coach.

Chasing a Dream

2009

The Sleepwalker Killing poster
5.9

Mark Schall kills his mother-in-law and wounds his father-in-law in the middle of the night, then turns himself in. He claims, however, that he cannot remember the crime itself. His defense team finds evidence that suggests the crimes were committed while Mark was sleep walking. They build their defense around this theory.

The Sleepwalker Killing

1997

Burning Bridges poster
4.0

Fact-based story of a woman who suffered a nervous breakdown after having an extra-marital affair.

Burning Bridges

1990

Rocket's Red Glare poster
5.0

A troubled 17-year-old Todd Baker restores a Mercury Redstone rocket as a science project with the help of his ex-astronaut grandfather. When a NASA emergency leaves a space shuttle and its crew in danger, Todd's rocket is the only one ready for immediate launch.

Rocket's Red Glare

2000

Born Beautiful poster
7.0

This is the story of Betsy a model who is nearly 30. Now in the world of modeling that is considered to be the age of retirement. She then sets out to see what else she can do and at the same time try to straighten out her personal life cause her husband has demanded that she should be either a full time wife or give him a divorce. And she has also taken an aspiring model under her wing, and is considering also being a photographer.

Born Beautiful

1982

Deadly Medicine poster
4.0

A pediatrician becomes trapped in a web of betrayal and guilt when her best friend, a nurse, seems to be a baby-killer.

Deadly Medicine

1991

All The Kids Do It poster
10.0

High school diving champion Buddy Elder (Scott Baio) can't seem to stop drinking and driving.

All The Kids Do It

1984

The Thing: Terror Takes Shape poster
7.4

An in-depth look at the making of John Carpenter's cult classic sci-fi horror The Thing, telling the story of a group of researchers in Antarctica who encounter a parasitic extra-terrestrial life-form that assimilates, then imitates other organisms.

The Thing: Terror Takes Shape

1998