James Olson

Acting

James Olson

Born 1930-10-08 · Evanston, Illinois, USA

James Olson (October 8, 1930 – April 17, 2022) was an American actor. From 1952 until 1954, he was a military policeman in the United States Army. He performed stage work in and around Chicago before his 1956 film debut in The Sharkfighters. His Broadway credits include Of Love Remembered (1967), Slapstick Tragedy (1966), The Three Sisters (1964), The Chinese Prime Minister (1964), Romulus (1962), J.B. (1958), The Sin of Pat Muldoon (1957), and The Young and Beautiful (1955). He starred alongside Joanne Woodward in the Academy Award nominee for Best Picture Rachel, Rachel in 1968. He made numerous stage, feature film, and TV appearances from the mid-1950s until 1990, when he retired. On television, Olson portrayed Mickey Mantle in The Life of Mickey Mantle. His other TV appearances included guest roles on scores of shows, including episodes of Kraft Television Theatre; Ironside; Murder, She Wrote; Little House on the Prairie; Hawaii Five-O; Battlestar Galactica; Lou Grant; The Bionic Woman; Wonder Woman; Mannix; Bonanza; Have Gun-Will Travel; Marcus Welby, M.D.; Police Woman; Barnaby Jones; The New Land; Columbo; Maude; The Virginian; The Streets of San Francisco; and Cannon. Description above from the Wikipedia article James Olson (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Commando poster
6.7

John Matrix, the former leader of a special commando strike force that always got the toughest jobs done, is forced back into action when his young daughter is kidnapped. To find her, Matrix has to fight his way through an array of punks, killers, one of his former commandos, and a fully equipped private army. With the help of a feisty stewardess and an old friend, Matrix has only a few hours to overcome his greatest challenge: finding his daughter before she's killed.

Commando

1985

The Andromeda Strain poster
7.1

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

Amityville II: The Possession poster
5.7

Anthony and Dolores Montelli, along with their four children, move into their dream house in Amityville and are immediately plagued by a string of paranormal experiences. When the abusive Anthony wrongly places the blame on the children, Dolores recruits a local Catholic priest to exorcise the house.

Amityville II: The Possession

1982

The Mafu Cage poster
5.9

Two strange sisters live in a crumbling mansion, where they keep a pet ape, which belonged to their late father, locked in a cage. While one of the sisters seems to be keeping her head on straight, as it were, the other appears to be sinking further and further into barbarism and insanity.

The Mafu Cage

1978

Incident on a Dark Street poster
5.3

A small-time hood is murdered just as he is about to blow the whistle on an organized crime ring.

Incident on a Dark Street

1973

Strange New World poster
4.3

In the near future, a group of scientists living in a space ship wake up from a hibernation state and come back to an apocalyptic Earth.

Strange New World

1975

The Stalking Moon poster
5.9

While moving a group of Apaches to a Native American reservation in Arizona, an American scout named Sam Varner is surprised to find a white woman, Sarah Carver, living with the tribe. When Sam learns that she was taken captive by an Indian named Salvaje ten years ago, he attempts to escort Sarah and her half-Native American son to his home in New Mexico. However, it soon becomes clear that Salvaje is hot on their trail.

The Stalking Moon

1968

Ragtime poster
7.0

A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.

Ragtime

1981

Moon Zero Two poster
4.9

On the Moon in the year 2021, a former-astronaut-turned-salvager helps a millionaire space industrialist capture a 6000-ton sapphire asteroid, while also assisting a woman in finding her missing miner/prospector brother

Moon Zero Two

1969

Manhunter poster
6.7

Pilot movie for the short-lived TV series set in the 1930's about a World War I ex-marine-turned-bounty-hunter, named Dave Barrett, who goes after two Bonnie-and-Clyde style bank robbers who murdered his former girlfriend.

Manhunter

1974

Rachel, Rachel poster
6.6

Rachel is a 35-year-old school teacher who has no man in her life and lives with her mother. When a man from the big city returns and asks her out, she begins to have to make decisions about her life and where she wants it to go.

Rachel, Rachel

1968

Wild Rovers poster
6.1

Ross Bodine and Frank Post are cowhands on Walt Buckman's R-Bar-R ranch. Bodine is older and broods a bit about how he will get along when he's too old to cowboy. Post is young and rambunctious and ambitious for a better life than wrangling cows. When one of their fellow cowboys is killed in a corral accident, Post suggests a way into a better life for himself and his friend: robbing a bank. Bodine reluctantly joins in the plan and the two contrive to rob the local bank. They make good their escape initially, but Walt Buckman and his two sons, John and Paul, are incensed at this betrayal by their own trusted employees. John and Paul set out to bring Bodine and Post to justice.

Wild Rovers

1971

The Strange One poster
6.5

A military school student develops a destructive power over his fellow cadets.

The Strange One

1957

The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer poster
2.0

General Custer is on trial for the deaths of his men at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer

1977

Law and Order poster
8.0

Story follows three generations of a family in the New York City Police Department.

Law and Order

1976

Someone I Touched poster
5.1

A woman learns that her husband has been unfaithful and that she has acquired a venereal disease. Then she learns that, after years of trying, she is finally pregnant

Someone I Touched

1975

The Sex Symbol poster
4.0

A thinly-disguised version of the life of Marilyn Monroe, detailing her ups and downs in life and how her erratic behavior contributed to her deteriorating career.

The Sex Symbol

1974

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn poster
10.0

The story of a family living in a New York City slum in 1912, headed by a loving but alcoholic father and a strong-willed mother.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

1974

The Groundstar Conspiracy poster
6.3

A break-in and sabotage attempt occurs at a top secret research institute and the culprit is cornered and captured. The problem is that he's been badly injured and claims to have lost his memory entirely. A cat-and-mouse game ensues between investigator Tuxan, the mystery intruder Welles and the people who sent him on the mission.

The Groundstar Conspiracy

1972

The Three Sisters poster
7.5

In a small Russian town at the turn of the century, three sisters and their brother live but dream daily of their return to their former home in Moscow, where life is charming and stimulating meaningful. But for now they exist in a malaise of dissatisfaction. Soldiers from the local military post provide them some companionship and society, but nothing can suffice to replace Moscow in their hopes. Andrei marries a provincial girl, Natasha, and begins to settle into a life of much less meaning than he had hoped. Natasha begins to run the family her way. Masha, though married, yearns for the sophisticated life and begins a dalliance with Vershinin, an army officer with a sick and suicidal wife. Even Irina, the freshest, most optimistic of the sisters, begins to waver in her dreams until, finally, tragedy strikes.

The Three Sisters

1966

One Police Plaza poster
9.0

A veteran New York City Police Lieutenant's investigation of a woman's murder uncovers corruption in high places.

One Police Plaza

1986

The Parade poster
4.5

When her estranged, drifter husband Matt returns after spending seven years in prison to ask her to let him be a part of her life again, Rachel Kirby's life is thrown into turmoil, which also affects her teenage daughter and mother.

The Parade

1984

Cave-In! poster
4.6

A party of tourists -- including a state senator, a park ranger who was her one-time lover, a cantankerous professor, and an escaped convict -- are trapped deep inside the caverns of an unnamed national park, rescued briefly, and then caught in a second cave-in.

Cave-In!

1983

The Silent Lovers poster
4.7

The story of the ill-fated romance between Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.

The Silent Lovers

1980