Michael Wright

Acting

Michael Wright

Born — Died

1956-04-30 — 2026-08-21

Place of birth

New York City, New York, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

34 titles

Michael Wright (April 6, 1956 – August 21, 2026) was an American film and television actor, who is best known for his role as Eddie Kane, Jr. in the 1991 Robert Townsend film The Five Heartbeats. Wright's body of work in television includes the 1983 NBC science fiction miniseries V, the 1984 sequel "V: The Final Battle" and on "V: The Series" as Elias Taylor, TV series "Miami Vice" 1987 episode "The Savage", and on the 1997 HBO series Oz as Omar White from 2001-2003. And he played "Clinton", the leader of The Del Bombers in the cult film The Wanderers. Wright's film roles include the 1987 drama The Principal as Victor Duncan, also starring James Belushi, and the 1994 film Sugar Hill with We…

Known for

Miami Vice poster
7.4

The story of the Miami Police Department's vice squad and its efforts to end drug trafficking and prostitution, centered on the unlikely partnership of Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs - who first meet when Tubbs is undercover in a drug cartel.

Miami Vice

1984

Oz poster
8.0

The daily lives of prisoners in Emerald City, an experimental unit of the Oswald Maximum Security Prison where ingroups - Muslims, Latinos, Italians, Aryans - stick close to their mutual friends and terrorize their mutual enemies.

Oz

1997

Black Lightning poster
6.9

Jefferson Pierce is a man wrestling with a secret. As the father of two daughters and principal of a charter high school that also serves as a safe haven for young people in a New Orleans neighborhood overrun by gang violence, he is a hero to his community.

Black Lightning

2018

New York Undercover poster
7.3

New York Undercover is an American police drama The series stars Detective J.C. Williams and Detective Eddie Torres, two undercover detectives in New York City's Fourth Precinct who were assigned to investigate various crimes and gang-related cases.

New York Undercover

1994

V poster
7.1

Once again, Earth is the battleground. But now the aliens whose human guise hides their true reptilian natures are wiser. They believe the secret to their survival on Earth lies in the DNA of the newly born half-human, half-spaceling Starchild. But that's something the world's Resistance Fighters cannot allow.

V

1984

The Interpreter poster
6.3

After Silvia Broome, an interpreter at United Nations headquarters, overhears plans of an assassination, an American Secret Service agent is sent to investigate.

The Interpreter

2005

Film credits

2000s · 9 titles

The Interpreter poster
6.3

After Silvia Broome, an interpreter at United Nations headquarters, overhears plans of an assassination, an American Secret Service agent is sent to investigate.

The Interpreter

2005

El Cantante poster
7.2

The rise and fall of salsa singer, Héctor Lavoe (1946-1993), as told from the perspective of his wife Puchi, who looks back from 2002.

El Cantante

2006

Diminished Capacity poster
5.4

A Chicago journalist suffering from memory loss takes leaves from his job and returns to his rural hometown, where he bonds with his Alzheimer's impaired uncle Rollie and his old flame.

Diminished Capacity

2008

Piñero poster
6.1

"Piñero" tells the story of the explosive life of a Latino icon, the gay poet-playwright-actor Miguel Piñero, whose urban poetry is recognized as a pre-cursor to rap and hip-hop. After doing time in hard-core Sing-Sing for petty thefts and drug dealing, Piñero's prison experiences developed into the 1974 Tony-nominated play Short Eyes. The resulting notoriety and fame was too much for the Latino bad-boy genius who retreated to the darker corners of New York City.

Piñero

2001

Before I Self Destruct poster
4.8

A coming of age story about an inner-city youth raised by a hardworking single mother. When his dream of becoming a basketball player fails to materialize, he finds himself employed in a supermarket. After his mother is tragically gunned down, Clarence (played by Jackson) is consumed by revenge and takes up a life of crime in order to support his younger brother.

Before I Self Destruct

2009

Downtown: A Street Tale poster
5.5

A group of street kids find that the only way to make it through the day is to hold onto their dreams while their reality is eating out of dumpsters, turning tricks and squatting in abandoned buildings.

Downtown: A Street Tale

2004

Hardrock poster
NR

After a prominent judge's daughter dies from taking contaminated Ecstasy, the ensuing political scandal brings a world of grief to the city's street dealers in this gritty actioner. Under threat of being shut down, the city's top two rival dealers must work together to unearth the source of the tainted drug -- or take the fall themselves. Raekwon and Michael Wright star.

Hardrock

2007

Raving poster
6.5

In New York City, a young woman forms a curious bond with a lonely older man after they encounter one another on a street corner.

Raving

2007

No artwork available
5.0

A realistic depiction of how New York's lucrative construction business is systematically shaken down by minority non-union labor.

Coalition

2006

1990s · 6 titles

Money Talks poster
6.0

Sought by police and criminals, a small-time huckster makes a deal with a TV newsman for protection.

Money Talks

1997

The Five Heartbeats poster
7.2

In the early 1960s, a quintet of hopeful, young African-American men form an amateur vocal group called The Five Heartbeats. After an initially rocky start, the group improves, turns pro, and rises to become a top flight music sensation. Along the way, however, the guys learn many hard lessons about the reality of the music industry.

The Five Heartbeats

1991

Point Blank poster
4.5

Convicted corporate criminal Howard engineers a prison break as he and a number of fellow inmates are being transferred to a new facility. The escapees storm a shopping mall and take a group of shoppers hostage (after killing many more of them) before making their demands. Only Rudy, a former mercenary and brother of one of the fugitives, can take out the criminals before more of the hostages die.

Point Blank

1998

Sugar Hill poster
5.7

In the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the Mafia steps in when a drug dealer quits his partner and brother to lead a straight life with his girlfriend.

Sugar Hill

1994

The Cottonwood poster
10.0

Four friends get three million dollars and decide to construct a screenplay of 52 stolen scenes from the greatest movies ever made.

The Cottonwood

1996

Confessions of a Hitman poster
6.3

A former hitman named Bruno steals some cash from his mobster uncle. He plans to go to Tahiti, but things go wrong and he finds himself headed for Vegas via Death Valley in a comandeered airport limousine, pursued by his uncle's henchmen and accompanied by a limo driver and an enigmatic blonde.

Confessions of a Hitman

1994

1980s · 8 titles

The Principal poster
6.4

Burglary. Drugs. Assault. Rape. The students at Brandel High are more than new Principal Rick Latimer bargained for. Gangs fight to control the school using knives - even guns - when they have to. When Latimer and the head of security try to clean up the school and stop the narcotics trade, they run up against a teenage mafia. A violent confrontation on the campus leads to a deadly showdown with the drug dealer's gang, and one last chance for Latimer to save his career... and his life.

The Principal

1987

Bedtime Eyes poster
4.7

Based on a polemic novel by Amy Yamada, Bedtime Eyes is about the intense love relationship between a second rate Japanese jazz singer and a black American GI on the margins of the law.

Bedtime Eyes

1987

Streamers poster
5.6

Four young recruits about to be sent to Vietnam confront their prejudicial feelings toward one another when it's learned one of them is gay.

Streamers

1983

The Laundromat poster
7.5

Two lonely women coincide at midnight in a laundromat, where they reveal their secrets.

The Laundromat

1985

Benny's Place poster
10.0

Time begins to catches up to a tough factory worker who is feeling threatened by younger men at work and at play.

Benny's Place

1982

Dream House poster
8.0

Vacationing Georgia construction worker (John Schneider) meets and falls for Manhattan's comely Director of Urban Renewal (Marilu Henner) and despite her initial rejection of him, sets out to build a dream house for both of them.

Dream House

1981

We're Fighting Back poster
7.0

Inspired by the exploits of New York's Guardian Angels, which began as a band of streetwise young people who formed an anti-crime subway patrol and went on to gain a national reputation and units in major cities around the country, this film unites three New York City youths as leaders of a citizens' patrol tackling gangs terrorizing merchants and local citizens.

We're Fighting Back

1981

The Moonstone Gem poster
NR

Deep in the heavily guarded vault of jovial King Gunther lies the most cherished and wonderful of all national treasures - the Moonstone Gem. The good king's troubles begin when the evil baron manages to steal the priceless jewel.

The Moonstone Gem

1983

Series credits

Miami Vice poster
7.4

The story of the Miami Police Department's vice squad and its efforts to end drug trafficking and prostitution, centered on the unlikely partnership of Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs - who first meet when Tubbs is undercover in a drug cartel.

Miami Vice

1984

Oz poster
8.0

The daily lives of prisoners in Emerald City, an experimental unit of the Oswald Maximum Security Prison where ingroups - Muslims, Latinos, Italians, Aryans - stick close to their mutual friends and terrorize their mutual enemies.

Oz

1997

Black Lightning poster
6.9

Jefferson Pierce is a man wrestling with a secret. As the father of two daughters and principal of a charter high school that also serves as a safe haven for young people in a New Orleans neighborhood overrun by gang violence, he is a hero to his community.

Black Lightning

2018

New York Undercover poster
7.3

New York Undercover is an American police drama The series stars Detective J.C. Williams and Detective Eddie Torres, two undercover detectives in New York City's Fourth Precinct who were assigned to investigate various crimes and gang-related cases.

New York Undercover

1994

V poster
7.1

Once again, Earth is the battleground. But now the aliens whose human guise hides their true reptilian natures are wiser. They believe the secret to their survival on Earth lies in the DNA of the newly born half-human, half-spaceling Starchild. But that's something the world's Resistance Fighters cannot allow.

V

1984

V poster
7.8

Planet Earth is visited by an alien race. Initially, they seem friendly and kind, but over time, their intentions become quite clear. Their peaceful façade quickly turns, also showing their true colors and their real intentions...

V

1983

V: The Final Battle poster
7.4

A small group of human resistance fighters fight a desperate guerilla war against the genocidal extra-terrestrials who dominate Earth.

V: The Final Battle

1984