Michael Wright

Acting

Michael Wright

Born 1956-04-30 · New York City, New York, USA

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 Wesley Snipes, his most recent film is 2005's The Interpreter. He has also made guest appearances on other TV shows including New York Undercover. In 1982, he starred in Peter Byrne's production of Barrie Keefe's play Barbarians at the SoHo Rep Theater with Gregg Martin and the as yet unknown actor Kevin Spacey. Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Wright (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

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

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 Wanderers poster
6.9

The streets of the Bronx are owned by '60s youth gangs where the joy and pain of adolescence is lived. Philip Kaufman tells his take on the novel by Richard Price about the history of the Italian-American gang ‘The Wanderers.’

The Wanderers

1979

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

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

The Principal poster
6.5

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

Sugar Hill poster
5.6

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

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

The Laundromat poster
7.5

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

The Laundromat

1985

The Five Heartbeats poster
7.3

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

Diminished Capacity poster
5.3

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

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

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

Jesse poster
1.5

Nassau County, New York Police detective Jesse turns vigilante as she investigates her brother's murder and enters into a world of crime, corruption, and shocking deception.

Jesse

2011

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

D'Curse poster
NR

NYPD cop Ruda is a cop during the day and a religious Santerio (High Ranking Priest) of "Black Magic" by night. A curse is placed on the NYPD by the mother of a boy shot by cops. Now the NYPD needs Ruda to help break the curse.

D'Curse

2013

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

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

Before I Self Destruct poster
4.9

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

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

2 Aces and a Dirty Heart poster
1.0

Two hustlers come up the hard way. When a group of savage stick up boys start terrorizing the city.

2 Aces and a Dirty Heart

2017

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

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

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