Bradford Dillman

Acting

Bradford Dillman

Born 1930-04-14 · San Francisco, California, USA

Bradford Dillman (April 14, 1930 – January 16, 2018) was an American actor, as well as an author starred in the taut crime drama Compulsion (1959). The lanky, dark-haired Dillman also played Robert Redford's best friend J.J. in The Way We Were (1973). Dillman also appeared opposite Clint Eastwood in the Dirty Harry films The Enforcer (1976) and Sudden Impact (1983). In director Richard Fleischer's Compulsion, derived from the infamous Leopold & Loeb case of the 1920s, Dillman and Stockwell starred as the brazen killers Arthur A. Straus and Judd Steiner, respectively, who think they have committed the perfect murder. Dillman, Stockwell and Orson Welles (who played their attorney) shared best actor honors at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. The Fox film was an adaptation of a Broadway hit, with Dillman taking on the role that Roddy McDowall had originated on the stage.

Acting credits

The Heart of Justice poster
5.7

David Leader investigates a seemingly senseless murder, and in the course of it is drawn into the labyrinth of a sinisterly unique wealthy family...

The Heart of Justice

1992

Sudden Impact poster
6.5

When a young rape victim takes justice into her own hands and becomes a serial killer, it's up to Dirty Harry Callahan, on suspension from the SFPD, to bring her to justice.

Sudden Impact

1983

Escape from the Planet of the Apes poster
6.4

The world is shocked by the appearance of three talking chimpanzees, who arrived mysteriously in a spacecraft. Intrigued by their intelligence, humans use them for research - until the apes attempt to escape.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

1971

Piranha poster
5.9

When flesh-eating piranhas are accidentally released into a summer resort's rivers, the guests become their next meal.

Piranha

1978

The Way We Were poster
7.0

Opposites attract when, during their college days, Katie Morosky, a politically active Jew, meets Hubbell Gardiner, a feckless WASP. Years later, in the wake of World War II, they meet once again and, despite their obvious differences, attempt to make their love for each other work.

The Way We Were

1973

The Enforcer poster
6.7

Dirty Harry Callahan returns again, this time saddled with a rookie female partner. Together, they must stop a terrorist group consisting of angry Vietnam veterans.

The Enforcer

1976

The Swarm poster
5.0

Scientist Dr. Bradford Crane and army general Thalius Slater join forces to fight an almost invisible enemy threatening America; killer bees that have deadly venom and attack without reason. Disaster movie-master Irwin Allen's film contains spectacular special effects, including a train crash caused by the eponymous swarm.

The Swarm

1978

Love and Bullets poster
5.8

Jackie Pruit is the girlfriend of notorious gangster Joe Bomposa. When it looks as if Bomposa's goons are threatening Jackie's life, the FBI moves in to protect her, hoping that she'll have incriminating evidence. Veteran agent Charlie Congers is assigned to watch over Jackie, and while it soon becomes apparent that she knows almost nothing about Bomposa that would be of any use to the FBI, he falls in love with her. Bomposa decides it would be more convenient to have Jackie out of the way, ordering her to be executed. Bomposa's henchmen slip through FBI security and murder her, but now they have to answer the angry and vengeful Congers.

Love and Bullets

1979

The Bridge at Remagen poster
6.7

In March of 1945, as the War in Europe is coming to a close, fighting erupts between German and American troops at the last remaining bridgehead across the Rhine.

The Bridge at Remagen

1969

The Mephisto Waltz poster
6.0

A frustrated pianist himself, music journalist Myles Clarkson is thrilled to interview virtuoso Duncan Ely. Duncan, however, is terminally ill and not much interested in Myles until noticing that Myles' hands are ideally suited for piano. Suddenly, he can't get enough of his new friend, and Myles' wife, Paula, becomes suspicious of Duncan's intentions. Her suspicions grow when Duncan dies and Myles mysteriously becomes a virtuoso overnight.

The Mephisto Waltz

1971

Gold poster
5.7

Rod Slater is the newly appointed general manager of the Sonderditch gold mine, but he stumbles across an ingenious plot to flood the mine, by drilling into an underground lake, so the unscrupulous owners can make a killing in the international gold market.

Gold

1974

Fear No Evil poster
6.9

A psychiatrist specializing in the occult becomes involved in the case of a man who is possessed by a spirit in an antique mirror. The man's fiance discovers that the mirror is able to bring back her former boyfriend, who had been killed in a car accident, from the dead.

Fear No Evil

1969

Demon, Demon poster
6.5

An executive falls in love with and marries his secretary. However, he soon begins to suspect that she may be a demon who is after possession of his soul.

Demon, Demon

1975

Francis of Assisi poster
7.7

In 13th century Italy, Francis Bernardone, the son of an Assisi merchant, renounces a promising army career in favor of a monastic life and starts his own religious order, sanctioned by the Pope.

Francis of Assisi

1961

Compulsion poster
7.1

Two close friends' plan to execute a flawless crime is crushed when one of them inadvertently leaves his glasses at the crime scene.

Compulsion

1959

The Iceman Cometh poster
6.1

Set in 1912, inside a dive bar named The Last Chance Saloon, its destitute patrons eagerly await the arrival of Hickey, who arrives annually and props everyone up with free drinks and spirited stories of his travels. However, when Hickey does show up this year, it is with a message of temperance and an exhortation to give up hopeless dreams and face reality.

The Iceman Cometh

1973

Sanctuary poster
5.4

In 1920s rural Mississippi, Nancy Mannigoe, an African-American servant, is placed on death row for the murder of Temple Drake's infant child. Temple, the daughter of the governor, pleads with her father to exonerate Nancy of the charges, explaining that Nancy acted in haste to prevent her from resuming her affair with a roguish Cajun called Candy Man. Details of Temple's sordid past are uncovered as she begs mercy for her faithful servant.

Sanctuary

1961

Covenant poster
3.4

A powerful family that controls the world's banks has made a deal with Satan to help the forces of evil take over the world. An underground group named The Judges bands together to try to stop them.

Covenant

1985

Sergeant Ryker poster
6.3

During the Korean War Sergeant Paul Ryker is accused of defecting to Communist China and then returning to his unit as a spy. He's court-martialed and sentenced to death but his attorney believes Ryker's innocent and asks for a new trial.

Sergeant Ryker

1968

Moon of the Wolf poster
4.7

After several locals are viciously murdered, a Louisiana sheriff starts to suspect he may be dealing with a werewolf.

Moon of the Wolf

1972

The Plainsman poster
5.6

Calamity Jane tries to help Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickock stop an Indian war.

The Plainsman

1966

A Rage to Live poster
4.8

Grace Caldwell, a young Pennsylvania newspaper heiress living with her widowed mother, has trouble restraining herself when it comes to the amorous attentions of young men. As word starts to spread about her behavior, Grace becomes a major source of heartache for her mother and a big source of concern to her brother.

A Rage to Live

1965

In Love and War poster
6.7

Three Marines take shore leave in San Francisco during World War II. Frankie O'Neill visits his lower-class dysfunctional family; Nico Kantaylis visits his pregnant fiancée; and the upper-class Alan Newcombe visits his high-living playgirl girlfriend. Each must decide whether to make the best of his situation or break out of it. O'Neill drowns his troubles in alcohol, losing the respect of a potential lover; Kantaylis marries his fiancée, but realizes he may not survive the war to see his child; while Newcombe sheds his decadent girlfriend for a pure-hearted Hawaiian nurse. Later, in battle, a heroic act costs one of the Marines his life.

In Love and War

1958

Bug poster
5.3

An earthquake releases a strain of mutant cockroaches with the ability to start fires, which proceed to cause destructive chaos in a small town. The studies carried out by scientist James Parmiter, however, reveal an intent with much more far-reaching consequences.

Bug

1975