Paula Kelly

Acting

Paula Kelly

Born — Died

1943-10-21 — 2020-02-08

Place of birth

Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

54 titles

Paula Alma Kelly (October 21, 1942 – February 8, 2020) was an American actress, singer, dancer and choreographer in films, television and theatre.

Known for

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson poster
7.6

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

1962

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

Hill Street Blues poster
7.6

A realistic glimpse into the daily lives of the officers and detectives at an urban police station.

Hill Street Blues

1981

Tony Awards poster
NR

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre.

Tony Awards

1956

Night Court poster
7.3

An eccentric fun-loving judge presides over an urban night court and all the silliness going on there.

Night Court

1984

St. Elsewhere poster
5.7

St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels as teaching doctors at a lightly-regarded Boston hospital who gave interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions.

St. Elsewhere

1982

Film credits

1990s · 5 titles

Zora is My Name! poster
10.0

A celebration of the life of Zora Neale Hurston, who was born at the turn of the 20th Century and grew to be an important voice with her written portrayals of Black American life in the rural south of the 1930's and 40's, and the stories, songs and folklore that were her heritage and inspiration.

Zora is My Name!

1990

Bank Robber poster
4.4

After robbing a bank, the robber hides out from the police in a seedy hotel where he is forced to bribe various tennants for protection as well as their silence which becomes more difficult as greed takes over and the people demand more exuberant bribes from the bank robber to shelter and hide him.

Bank Robber

1993

Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored poster
4.2

A narrator tells the story of his childhood years in a tightly knit Afro-American community in the deep south under racial segregation.

Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored

1996

No artwork available
8.0

The true story of Olympic gold medalist Gail Devers (Charlayne Woodard) and her fight to combat Graves disease while becoming the fastest female sprinter in the world. From a setback in Seoul that nearly costs her the use of her feet to her excruciating battle with the crippling illness to victories in Barcelona and Atlanta, Gail proves she's got the heart of a champion in this inspirational original biography. Louis Gossett Jr., Jeffrey Sams, Tina Lifford, Robert Guillaume and Paula Kelly costar.

Run for the Dream: The Gail Devers Story

1996

Drop Squad poster
3.5

Controversial film about an underground organization that kidnaps and 'deprograms' African Americans who sell out or deny their cultural heritage. Spike Lee is the Executive Producer.

Drop Squad

1994

1980s · 6 titles

That's Dancing! poster
6.8

A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from its origins after the invention of the movie camera, over the movie musical from the late 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, up to the break dance and music videos from the 80s.

That's Dancing!

1985

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling poster
6.5

Although Jo Jo Dancer has achieved success as a stand-up comedian, he hasn't found happiness. After receiving severe burns in a narcotics-related incident, Jo Jo remains in a coma, and, while in this state, he looks back on his life. Drifting off into memories of his troubled childhood, Jo Jo revisits his youth, recalling his eventual rise to fame and the decadence that followed. As he considers his existence, he must decide if he wants to go on living or not.

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling

1986

Uncle Tom's Cabin poster
7.0

The life of an aging black slave, Tom, and the people he interacts with.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

1987

The Women of Brewster Place poster
6.9

A multigenerational story of the lives of several black women who call an inner-city tenement home.

The Women of Brewster Place

1989

No artwork available
NR

A modern-day descendant of Caine hopes to turn his estranged son away from a life of crime.

Kung Fu the next generation

1987

Sophisticated Ladies poster
9.0

The classic songs of legendary jazz composer Duke Ellington come alive on stage in this performance video. Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies documents a performance of the popular Broadway revue, built around more than two dozen great tunes from Ellington's songbook. Hinton Battle, Paula Kelly and Phyllis Hyman headline the cast for this production; songs include "Take The A Train," "Caravan," "Satin Doll," "In a Sentimental Mood," "Mood Indigo," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," and many more.

Sophisticated Ladies

1982

1970s · 11 titles

Soylent Green poster
6.9

In the year 2022, overcrowding, pollution, and resource depletion have reduced society’s leaders to finding food for the teeming masses. The answer is Soylent Green.

Soylent Green

1973

The Andromeda Strain poster
7.0

When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. A group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone scrambles to a secure laboratory and tries first to isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont - an old alcoholic and a six-month-old baby - survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form, unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device designed to prevent the escape of dangerous biological agents.

The Andromeda Strain

1971

Drum poster
5.2

A mid-19th century mulatto slave is torn between his success as a pit-fighter and the injustices of white society.

Drum

1976

Peter Pan poster
6.0

Peter Pan is a 1976 musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, produced for television as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, starring Mia Farrow as Peter Pan and Danny Kaye as Captain Hook, and with Sir John Gielgud narrating. Julie Andrews sang one of the songs, "Once Upon a Bedtime", off-camera over the opening credits. It aired on NBC at 7:30pm on Sunday, December 12, 1976, capping off the program's 25th year on the air. The program did not use the score written for the highly successful Mary Martin version which had previously been televised many times on NBC. Instead, it featured 14 new and now forgotten songs, written for the production by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.

Peter Pan

1976

Trouble Man poster
6.3

It seems that masked men are knocking over the floating crap games of Chalky and Pete. Chalky and Pete hire the cool, loose, elegant Mr. T to fix things. Then, the masked manipulators set up the death of a collector for a rival gang lord. It looks like it's up to T to hold a gang war from breaking out, keep the police off his back, and earn his fee from Chalky and Pete.

Trouble Man

1972

Three Tough Guys poster
5.1

Isaac Hayes plays as Lee in his feature film debut, as Father Charlie and himself solve a bank robbery mystery that stretches across the city. After Lee is removed from the force due to $1,000,000 being stolen from the bank Father Charlie helps him to gain revenge for the loss of one of his friends.

Three Tough Guys

1974

The Spook Who Sat by the Door poster
6.4

A black man plays Uncle Tom in order to gain access to CIA training, then uses that knowledge to plot a new American Revolution.

The Spook Who Sat by the Door

1973

Uptown Saturday Night poster
6.2

Two blue-collar buddies search the underworld for a winning lottery ticket lost in a nightclub holdup.

Uptown Saturday Night

1974

Cool Breeze poster
5.1

A paroled crook masterminds a $3 million jewelry theft to fund a bank for businessmen.

Cool Breeze

1972

Lost in the Stars poster
6.5

A black South African minister searches the unfamiliar back alleys and shantytowns of Johannesburg for his son.

Lost in the Stars

1974

Top of the Heap poster
5.9

A Black cop is pushed over the edge when he is passed over for a promotion, leading him on a violent personal crusade against criminals punctuated by feverish psychedelic dream visions.

Top of the Heap

1972

Series credits

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson poster
7.6

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

1962

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

Hill Street Blues poster
7.6

A realistic glimpse into the daily lives of the officers and detectives at an urban police station.

Hill Street Blues

1981

Tony Awards poster
NR

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre.

Tony Awards

1956

Night Court poster
7.3

An eccentric fun-loving judge presides over an urban night court and all the silliness going on there.

Night Court

1984

St. Elsewhere poster
5.7

St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels as teaching doctors at a lightly-regarded Boston hospital who gave interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions.

St. Elsewhere

1982

Cannon poster
6.7

Cannon is a CBS detective television series produced by Quinn Martin which aired from March 26, 1971 to March 3, 1976. The primary protagonist is the title character, private detective Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad. He also appeared on two episodes of Barnaby Jones. Cannon is the first Quinn Martin-produced series to be aired on a network other than ABC. A "revival" television film, The Return of Frank Cannon, was aired on November 1, 1980. In total, there were 124 episodes.

Cannon

1971

The Red Skelton Show poster
7.4

The Red Skelton Show is an American variety show that was a television staple for two decades, from 1951 to 1971. It was second to Gunsmoke and third to The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings during that time. Skelton, who had previously been a radio star, had appeared in several motion pictures as well. Although his television series is largely associated with CBS, where it appeared for more than fifteen years, it actually began and ended on NBC. During its run, the program received three Emmy Awards, for Skelton as best comedian and the program as best comedy show during its initial season, and an award for comedy writing in 1961.

The Red Skelton Show

1951

The Golden Girls poster
7.6

Four Southern Florida seniors share a house, their dreams, and a whole lot of cheesecake. Bright, promiscuous, clueless and hilarious, these lovely, mismatched ladies form the perfect circle of friends.

The Golden Girls

1985

The Carol Burnett Show poster
7.7

The Carol Burnett Show is an American variety/sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33. The series won 25 prime time Emmy Awards, was ranked No. 16 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time in 2002 and in 2007 was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All Time."

The Carol Burnett Show

1967

Police Woman poster
6.5

Sergeant “Pepper"” Anderson, an undercover cop for the Criminal Conspiracy Unit of the Los Angeles Police Department, poses undercover from mob girl to prostitute.

Police Woman

1974

Medical Center poster
6.4

Medical Center is a medical drama series which aired on CBS from 1969 to 1976. It was produced by MGM Television.

Medical Center

1969

Trapper John, M.D. poster
6.6

Trapper John, M.D. is an American television medical drama and spin-off of the film MASH, concerning a lovable doctor who became a mentor and father figure in San Francisco, California. The show ran on CBS from September 23, 1979, to September 4, 1986.

Trapper John, M.D.

1979

Kojak poster
7.3

A bald, lollipop sucking police detective with a fiery righteous attitude battles crime in New York City.

Kojak

1973

Sanford and Son poster
7.5

The misadventures of a cantankerous junk dealer and his frustrated son.

Sanford and Son

1972

The Streets of San Francisco poster
7.1

Two police officers, the older Lt. Stone and the young upstart Inspector Keller, investigate murders and other serious crimes in San Francisco. Stone would become a second father to Keller as he learned the rigors and procedures of detective work.

The Streets of San Francisco

1972

The Streets of San Francisco poster
7.1

Two police officers, the older Lt. Stone and the young upstart Inspector Keller, investigate murders and other serious crimes in San Francisco. Stone would become a second father to Keller as he learned the rigors and procedures of detective work.

The Streets of San Francisco

1972

Good Times poster
8.0

Good Times is an American sitcom that originally aired from February 8, 1974, until August 1, 1979, on the CBS television network. It was created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans, and developed by Norman Lear, the series' primary executive producer. Good Times is a spin-off of Maude, which is itself a spin-off of All in the Family along with The Jeffersons. The series is set in Chicago. The first two seasons were taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood. In the fall of 1975, the show moved to Metromedia Square, where Norman Lear's own production company was housed.

Good Times

1974

Amen poster
6.6

Amen is an American television sitcom produced by Carson Productions that ran from September 27, 1986 to May 11, 1991 on NBC. Set in Sherman Hemsley's real-life hometown of Philadelphia, Amen stars Hemsley as the deacon of a church and was part of a wave of successful sitcoms on NBC in the 1980s which featured entirely or almost-entirely black casts. Others included The Cosby Show, A Different World, and 227.

Amen

1986

Startime poster
6.8

Startime, an anthology of drama, comedy and variety, was one of the first American television shows broadcast in color.

Startime

1959

Finder of Lost Loves poster
6.8

The Finder of Lost Loves TV show was a 60 minute drama series on ABC about a private investigator who specialized in finding lost loves from the past for his heartbroken clients.

Finder of Lost Loves

1984

Santa Barbara poster
5.0

Santa Barbara is an American television soap opera, first broadcast in the United States on NBC on July 30, 1984, and last aired on January 15, 1993. The show revolves around the eventful lives of the wealthy Capwell family of Santa Barbara, California. Other prominent families featured on the soap were the rival Lockridge family, and the more modest Andrade and Perkins families. Santa Barbara aired in over 40 countries around the world and is best remembered for its witty dialogue and sometimes tongue-in-cheek situations that often seemed like an affectionate parody of the genre. The show won 24 Daytime Emmy Awards and 18 Soap Opera Digest Awards among various other awards.

Santa Barbara

1984

CBS Summer Playhouse poster
7.0

CBS anthology series airing unsold television pilots during the summer season.

CBS Summer Playhouse

1987

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

Room for Two poster
8.2

Room for Two is an American situation comedy starring Linda Lavin that also featured Patricia Heaton as Jill Kurland, a producer of a New York City television show called Wake Up, New York. The show focused on Jill's relationship with her mother from Ohio, played by Lavin, who joined Jill's show as a result of her humorous and misplaced opinions and criticisms.

Room for Two

1992

Hot Pursuit poster
5.8

Hot Pursuit is a short-lived American television series starring Kerrie Keane and Eric Pierpoint, which aired from September 22 to December 28, 1984 on NBC. It was written and directed by executive producer Kenneth Johnson.

Hot Pursuit

1984

South Central poster
5.8

South Central is an American comedy-drama series that aired on the Fox network from April 5, 1994 to June 7, 1994. It was cancelled following its first season, and the airing of only 10 episodes.

South Central

1994

The Women of Brewster Place poster
6.0

A multigenerational story of the lives of several black women who call an inner-city tenement home.

The Women of Brewster Place

1989