Tony Bill

Acting

Tony Bill

Born 1940-08-23 · San Diego, California, USA

Gerard Anthony "Tony" Bill (born August 23, 1940) is an American actor, producer, and director. He produced the 1973 movie The Sting, for which he shared the Academy Award for Best Picture with Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips. He majored in English and art at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, from which he graduated in 1962. Bill began his career as an actor in the 60s, first appearing on screen as Frank Sinatra's ingenuous younger brother in Come Blow Your Horn (1963). Bill specialized in likeable but none-too-bright juveniles and young leads. His acting credits include None But the Brave (1965), You're A Big Boy Now (1966), Never a Dull Moment (1968), Ice Station Zebra (1968), Shampoo (1975), The Little Dragons (1980), Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), and Less Than Zero (1987). Bill continued to act in TV-movies, miniseries, and guest spots though with decreasing frequency as he segued into directing. He appeared in the 1966 episode "Chaff In The Wind" of the long running western The Virginian. He then appeared in 1967 episode "The Predators" of NBC's western series The Road West starring Barry Sullivan. In 1980, Bill directed his first film, My Bodyguard. From there he went on to direct Six Weeks (1982), Five Corners (1987), Crazy People (1990) A Home of Our Own (1993), and Flyboys (2006) which Bill claims was one of the first features shot entirely with digital cameras. In television Bill directed Truman Capote's One Christmas, Harlan County War, and Pictures of Hollis Woods, among others. In 2009, Bill published the book Movie Speak: How to Talk Like You Belong on a Film Set. The book traces the etymology of the language of the movie set and is filled out with stories from the Bill's career in film. From 1984-2000, he co-owned with Dudley Moore the celebrated 72 Market Street, a restaurant in Venice, California. He is married to his second wife, the former Helen Buck Bartlett, his producer/partner in Barnstorm Films in Venice. The couple have two daughters, Madeline and Daphne. Description above from the Wikipedia article Tony Bill, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Barb Wire poster
4.1

A sexy nightclub owner, Barb Wire moonlights as a mercenary in Steel Harbor, one of the last free zones in the now fascist United States. When scientist Cora Devonshire wanders into Barb's establishment, she gets roped into a top-secret government plot involving biological weapons. Soon Barb is reunited with her old flame Axel Hood, who is now Cora's husband and a guerrilla fighter, resulting in plenty of tense action.

Barb Wire

1996

Ice Station Zebra poster
6.4

A top-secret Soviet spy satellite -- using stolen Western technology -- malfunctions and then goes into a descent that lands it near an isolated Arctic research encampment called Ice Station Zebra, belonging to the British, which starts sending out distress signals before falling silent. The atomic submarine Tigerfish, commanded by Cmdr. James Ferraday, is dispatched to save them.

Ice Station Zebra

1968

Less Than Zero poster
6.4

A college freshman returns to Los Angeles for Christmas at his ex-girlfriend's request, but discovers that his former best friend has an out-of-control drug habit.

Less Than Zero

1987

Must Love Dogs poster
5.9

Sarah Nolan is a newly divorced woman cautiously rediscovering romance with the enthusiastic but often misguided help of her well-meaning family. As she braves a series of hilarious disastrous mismatches and first dates, Sarah begins to trust her own instincts again and learns that, no matter what, it's never a good idea to give up on love.

Must Love Dogs

2005

Pee-wee's Big Adventure poster
6.5

The eccentric and childish Pee-wee Herman embarks on a big adventure when his beloved bicycle is stolen. Armed with information from a fortune-teller and a relentless obsession with his prized possession, Pee-wee encounters a host of odd characters and bizarre situations as he treks across the country to recover his bike.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure

1985

Shampoo poster
6.0

On Election Day, 1968, irresponsible hairdresser and ladies' man George Roundy is too busy cutting hair and dealing with his girlfriends and mistress Felicia Karpf, whose husband Lester is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend Jackie.

Shampoo

1975

Citizen Steve poster
6.0

On the occasion of the 40th birthday of the almighty filmmaker Steven Allan Spielberg, inquisitive reporter Clip Maxwell attempts to uncover the truth behind his undisputed rise to the throne of the Amblin Empire.

Citizen Steve

1987

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood poster
7.1

The chronicle of the mind-blowing journey that was Hollywood during the seventies; the true and gripping story of the last golden age of American cinema, an exalted celebration of creativity and experimentation; but also of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll: a turbulent and dark tale of ambition, envy, betrayal, hatred and self-destruction.

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

2003

A Home of Our Own poster
7.0

In 1960s Los Angeles an energetic widow and her six children try to make a dream of theirs come true: to have a home of their own. They leave L.A. and head for the countryside, all the while facing numerous difficulties and obstacles during their journey.

A Home of Our Own

1993

Castle Keep poster
5.7

During the Battle of the Bulge, an anachronistic count shelters a ragtag squad of Americans in his isolated castle hoping they will defend it against the advancing Germans.

Castle Keep

1969

None But the Brave poster
6.4

American and Japanese soldiers, stranded on a tiny Pacific island during World War II, must make a temporary truce and cooperate to survive various tribulations. Told through the eyes of the American and Japanese unit commanders, who must deal with an atmosphere of growing distrust and tension between their men.

None But the Brave

1965

Soldier in the Rain poster
6.5

Maxwell Slaughter is a kind, heavyset guy who has reached the rank of master sergeant in the army. Admired by handsome young Sgt. Eustis Clay, Slaughter forms a close bond with his peer. Clay hopes to convince Slaughter to join him in a business venture outside of the service, but, in the meantime, he introduces the older officer to the beautiful young Bobby Jo Pepperdine, inadvertently creating trouble for both men.

Soldier in the Rain

1963

Salinger poster
6.4

An in-depth investigation into the private world of the American writer J. D. Salinger (1919-2010), who lived most of his life behind the impenetrable wall of a self-imposed seclusion: how his dramatic experiences during World War II influenced his life and work, his relationships with very young women, his obsessive writing methods, his many literary secrets.

Salinger

2013

You're a Big Boy Now poster
6.1

Naive library clerk Bernard Chanticleer moves out of his parents’ home and into a chaotic city full of eccentric landlords, meddling parents, and romantic missteps. Infatuated with a glamorous but manipulative go-go dancer, he learns through heartbreak—and the kindness of a steadfast admirer—what growing up really means.

You're a Big Boy Now

1966

No artwork available
6.5

A chronicle of the 1975 International Press Conclave hosted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer over two days in May 1975.

The Lion Roars Again

1975

Marriage on the Rocks poster
5.8

Ad-agency president Dan Edwards goes to Mexico to celebrate his nineteenth wedding anniversary and winds up getting divorced by mistake, whereupon his wife Valerie marries his best friend Ernie Brewer by mistake.

Marriage on the Rocks

1965

Flap poster
6.8

Comedy based on the plight of modern Native Americans living on reservations.

Flap

1970

Washington Mistress poster
3.5

Maggie Parker, a U.S. Senator's ambitious aide, falls head over heels for her boss' chief adversary, Michael Reynolds, a high-powered lobbyist who happens to be married with children. Both mismatched lovers become involved in a long-running affair.

Washington Mistress

1982

Heart Beat poster
5.6

An exploration of the relationship between Beat Generation writers Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, and Cassady's wife, Carolyn.

Heart Beat

1980

Having Babies II poster
5.0

The story of various couples who get caught up in the personal and emotional crises of birth, adoption and hospitalization, and also of the hospital and health care workers who take care of them.

Having Babies II

1977

Naked City: Justice with a Bullet poster
4.2

A pair of taxi-driving NYC detectives take up the case of tourists who are robbed of their money and luggage by a shady limo driver. Things get dicey when the tourists accidentally get mixed up in a drug dealer's murder and money heist, while the detectives go after a hit man posing as a friend from the `hood'.

Naked City: Justice with a Bullet

1998

Lee Oswald: Assassin poster
NR

The life of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who shot President John F. Kennedy, as reported to the Warren Commission enquiry into the circumstances of the assassination.

Lee Oswald: Assassin

1966

Never a Dull Moment poster
6.2

When practicing for a role, actor Jack is mistaken for the killer Ace. He doesn't realize this until it's too late and is carried off to gangster boss Leo Smooth, who wants Ace to do a job for him. Fearing for his life, Jack plays his role, but always searching for a way out of the well-guarded house.

Never a Dull Moment

1968

The Initiation of Sarah poster
5.5

Shy misfit Sarah Goodwin has a secret gift: the ability to control — and destroy — with her mind. When Sarah goes off to college with her more outgoing and popular sister, Patty, their plans to join the most prestigious sorority on campus are scuttled by snobby president, Jennifer Lawrence. Separated from her sister, Sarah is taken in by a rival, less popular sorority, whose mysterious house mother, Mrs. Hunter, is harboring a secret of her own: a scheme to harness Sarah's terrifying power for revenge. Betrayed by Patty, humiliated by Jennifer, it can only be a matter of time before Sorority Hell Week erupts in flame!

The Initiation of Sarah

1978

Behind the camera

The Sting poster
8.0

A novice con man teams up with an acknowledged master to avenge the murder of a mutual friend by pulling off the ultimate big con and swindling a fortune from a big-time mobster.

The Sting

1973

Flyboys poster
6.5

The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots.

Flyboys

2006

Untamed Heart poster
6.8

Caroline, a young waitress who seems to have bad taste in men, is on her way home one night when thugs attempt to rape her. Adam, the mysterious busboy who works at the same diner, helps fight off the assailants, and she begins a relationship with him -- but not all their fellow Minnesotans are happy for them. Meanwhile, the couple face their own difficulties when Caroline finds about Adam's past, including his unique health condition.

Untamed Heart

1993

Untamed Heart poster
6.8

Caroline, a young waitress who seems to have bad taste in men, is on her way home one night when thugs attempt to rape her. Adam, the mysterious busboy who works at the same diner, helps fight off the assailants, and she begins a relationship with him -- but not all their fellow Minnesotans are happy for them. Meanwhile, the couple face their own difficulties when Caroline finds about Adam's past, including his unique health condition.

Untamed Heart

1993

My Bodyguard poster
6.4

Clifford Peache, an easygoing teenager, is finding less than easy to fit in at his new high school, where a tough-talking bully terrorizes his classmates and extorts their lunch money. Refusing to pay up, Clifford enlist the aid of an overgrown misfit whose mere presence intimidates students and teachers alike. But their "business relationship" soon turns personal as Clifford and the troubled loner forge a winning alliance against their intimidators - and a very special friendship with each other.

My Bodyguard

1980

A Home of Our Own poster
7.0

In 1960s Los Angeles an energetic widow and her six children try to make a dream of theirs come true: to have a home of their own. They leave L.A. and head for the countryside, all the while facing numerous difficulties and obstacles during their journey.

A Home of Our Own

1993

Going in Style poster
7.0

Three kindly old men decide to light up the dimming twilight of their lives with a last blaze of glory – by sticking up a Manhattan bank in broad daylight.

Going in Style

1979

Crazy People poster
5.9

A bitter ad executive, who has reached his breaking point, finds himself in a mental institution, where his career actually begins to thrive with the help of the hospital's patients.

Crazy People

1990

Rescuers: Stories of Courage - Two Families poster
8.0

Two compassionate stories about two remarkable families who risk everything to help Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.

Rescuers: Stories of Courage - Two Families

1998

A Chance of Snow poster
5.9

After signing her divorce papers, a woman heads out to her Minnesota airport with her sister and daughters for a flight to her mother's home. At the airport, her sportswriter husband shows up to catch a flight to Miami to visit his father. When a blizzard hits, the two suddenly find they have time to re-evaluate their relationship with assistance from an older couple.

A Chance of Snow

1998

Five Corners poster
5.9

A psychotic young man returns to his old neighborhood after release from prison. He seeks out the woman he previously tried to rape and the man who protected her, with twisted ideas of love for her and hate for him.

Five Corners

1987

Five Corners poster
5.9

A psychotic young man returns to his old neighborhood after release from prison. He seeks out the woman he previously tried to rape and the man who protected her, with twisted ideas of love for her and hate for him.

Five Corners

1987

Beyond the Call poster
6.5

Russell Gates (David Strahairn) is a Vietnam vet on death row for killing a policeman. His childhood sweetheart, Pam O'Brien (Sissy Spacek), is stunned to learn this and does not believe he could commit such a crime. She writes to him much to the dismay of her husband Keith and becomes obsessed with the case, exploring every avenue that may still be open to the doomed man. The trips to the prison take a toll on both her marriage and her family.

Beyond the Call

1996

Beyond the Call poster
6.5

Russell Gates (David Strahairn) is a Vietnam vet on death row for killing a policeman. His childhood sweetheart, Pam O'Brien (Sissy Spacek), is stunned to learn this and does not believe he could commit such a crime. She writes to him much to the dismay of her husband Keith and becomes obsessed with the case, exploring every avenue that may still be open to the doomed man. The trips to the prison take a toll on both her marriage and her family.

Beyond the Call

1996

Steelyard Blues poster
5.0

A group of misfits who want to find a happier life somewhere out of society decide to leave town on a PBY flying boat. The problem is that their transport needs a lot of work before they can fly it.

Steelyard Blues

1973

Hearts of the West poster
5.6

Lewis Tater writes Wild West dime novels and dreams of actually becoming a cowboy. When he goes west to find his dream he finds himself in possession of the loot box of two crooks who tried to rob him.

Hearts of the West

1975

Pictures of Hollis Woods poster
6.6

After running away from her last foster placement with the Regan family, twelve year old Hollis Woods is placed with a new foster mother, the loving, retired art teacher, Josie Cahill.

Pictures of Hollis Woods

2007

Next Door poster
4.9

Matt and Karen have inconsiderate neighbours whose lawn sprinkler drowns their flowers. A feud errupts and a series of tit-for-tat actions develop and escalate.

Next Door

1994

Oliver Twist poster
6.2

An orphan endures a harsh life in a workhouse before fleeing to London, where he falls in with a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the criminal Fagin, and eventually finds a better life, exposing the cruelties of poverty and child labor in Victorian England.

Oliver Twist

1997

One Christmas poster
5.7

Based on Truman Capote's bittersweet tale of a young boy's adventures with the father he's never known in New Orleans in the 1930s..

One Christmas

1994

Six Weeks poster
6.0

A wealthy cosmetic tycoon and her 12-year-old daughter, who's dying from leukemia, strike up a sentimental friendship with a California politician. Since the girl has only six weeks or less to live, the trio fly to New York City where the daughter skates the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, assumes the lead in The Nutcracker ballet, and sightsees most of the city.

Six Weeks

1982

Harlan County War poster
7.1

A Kentucky woman whose mine-worker husband is nearly killed in a cave-in, and whose father is slowly dying of black lung disease, joins the picket lines for a long, violent strike.

Harlan County War

2000

The Princess and the Pea poster
8.2

A bored prince realizes he would like a wife. His mother searches through all the kingdoms far and wide for a "suitable" princess. In the meantime, a charming and witty young lady, who claims to be a princess, shows up at the castle doorstep with a sprained ankle and is shown hospitality by the prince and his best friend the Fool.

The Princess and the Pea

1984

Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story poster
8.0

Based on the true story of Clarence Brandley, a black man wrongly accused in 1980 of the murder of a 16-year-old white high school girl named Cheryl Ferguson. Brandley worked at Conroe High School, where Ferguson was visiting as a member of the Belleville High School volleyball team. Three days after her body was discovered, Brandley was arrested as the murderer. Jew Don Boney, a popular activist and Houston city council member, leads the fight to uncover the truth about the Ferguson murder. Mike DeGeurin, a Texas attorney, is brought in to act as the head defense attorney for Brandley, and is joined by a former minister, Jim McCloskey. The lawyers discover that not only is there a complete lack of evidence against Brandley, but the District Attorney, James Keeshan, has been strategizing with the presiding judge. After nine years in prison, three trials and a stay of execution that saved Brandley's life, justice finally prevails as Brandley is granted his freedom.

Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story

2002