Peter Masterson

Directing

Peter Masterson

Born 1934-06-01 · Houston, Texas, USA

Carlos Bee Masterson Jr. was an American actor, director, producer, and writer. Masterson often worked with his cousin, writer Horton Foote. Acting from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, including 1975's The Stepford Wives as Walter Eberhart, since then he concentrated mostly on directing and producing. Actress Mary Stuart Masterson is his daughter; she appeared with her father in The Stepford Wives, playing one of his daughters. His other acting credits include roles in Ambush Bay (1966), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Counterpoint (1968), Von Richthofen and Brown (1971), Tomorrow (1972), The Exorcist (1973), Man on a Swing (1974), and Gardens of Stone (1987). Masterson co-wrote (with Larry L. King) the books for the hit musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1978) and its short-lived sequel The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public (1994). In 1980, he produced the ABC television movie, "City in Fear" based on an idea by screenwriter William Goldman—an idea that became the well-reviewed 1979 novel "Panic on Page One" by Linda Stewart, and the television script by Albert Ruben. The cast was led by Robert Vaughn and David Janssen in the final role before his death that year. In 1985, he directed The Trip to Bountiful, for which Geraldine Page won the Academy Award for Best Actress. The film also featured his wife, Carlin Glynn who had previously won a Tony Award for her role in 'Whorehouse.' His directing credits additionally include Full Moon in Blue Water (1988), Night Game (1989), Blood Red (1989), Convicts (1991), Arctic Blue (1993), The Only Thrill (1997), Lost Junction (2003), and Whiskey School (2005). Masterson died at the age of 84 on December 18, 2018, after suffering a fall at his home. He had received a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease 14 years earlier.

Acting credits

The Exorcist poster
7.7

When a mysterious entity possesses a young girl, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.

The Exorcist

1973

In the Heat of the Night poster
7.7

African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.

In the Heat of the Night

1967

The Stepford Wives poster
6.7

Joanna Eberhart comes to the town of Stepford, Connecticut with her family, but soon discovers there lies a sinister truth in the all too perfect behavior of the female residents.

The Stepford Wives

1975

Gardens of Stone poster
6.2

At Arlington National Cemetery during the Vietnam era, veteran sergeant Clell Hazard trains young soldiers while mourning those lost in combat. Unable to return to war himself, he mentors Jackie Willow—the idealistic son of a fallen comrade—hoping to prepare him for the realities of Vietnam and the cost of duty.

Gardens of Stone

1987

Counterpoint poster
6.2

In December of 1944, Lionel Evans, an internationally renowned American conductor, is on a USO tour with his 70-piece symphony orchestra in newly-liberated Belgium. While fleeing from a German counterattack, Evans and his orchestra members are captured by a Panzer division and taken to an old chateau in Luxembourg. Despite orders to execute every prisoner, General Schiller, an avid music lover, commands Evans to give a private concert for him.

Counterpoint

1967

Man on a Swing poster
5.9

When a young schoolteacher is found dead in her car in a parking lot in broad daylight, police chief Lee Tucker can find no clues pointing to her killer. Flamboyant self-proclaimed psychic Franklin Wills offers his help to the skeptical policeman, and, when his supposed visions about the case begin to reveal clues and information that only the killer could possibly have known, he becomes a suspect himself.

Man on a Swing

1974

Von Richthofen and Brown poster
6.2

Spend time on both sides of World War I, partly with German flying ace Baron Manfred Von Richthofen (John Phillip Law), aka "The Red Baron," and his colorful "flying circus" of Fokker fighter planes, during the time from his arrival at the war front to his death in combat. On the other side is Roy Brown of the Royal Air Force, sometimes credited with shooting Richthofen down.

Von Richthofen and Brown

1971

Hello Actors Studio poster
6.7

After Lee Strasberg’s death in 1982, the most prestigious talents from the Actors Studio assumed the leadership of this exceptional organization. For the first time ever, filmmakers have been allowed to film their work.

Hello Actors Studio

1988

Ambush Bay poster
5.6

A Marine unit on a Japanese-held island in the Philippines tries to hook up with local Filipino guerrillas.

Ambush Bay

1966

Pueblo poster
6.5

Dramatization showing the 1968 seizure of the spy ship, Pueblo, by the North Koreans and the treatment of the Pueblo's crew during their year of captivity through flashbacks during the 1969 investigation of the affair.

Pueblo

1973

A Question of Guilt poster
7.0

A swinging divorcée is prejudged by a police detective and accused of killing her child.

A Question of Guilt

1978

The Stepford Life poster
7.5

A documentary about the making of The Stepford Wives (1975).

The Stepford Life

2001

Tomorrow poster
6.7

A lonely farmer takes in a pregnant woman and looks after her. After she gives birth, tragedy strikes.

Tomorrow

1972

Witchfire poster
4.0

When her psychiatrist is killed in an auto accident, his mentally deranged patient and two of her even crazier companions hide out in a house in a rural area where, years ago, the woman had set fire to her parents.

Witchfire

1986

The Storyteller poster
9.0

A television writer is troubled by accusations that a young boy's death resulted from actions the boy copied from the writer's teleplay.

The Storyteller

1977

No artwork available
10.0

Delta County is a staid Southern community caught between the old traditions and a rapidly changing way of life. For teenagers Terry Nicholas, his sister McCain, and Joe Ed, the boy from the wrong side of the tracks that she's attracted to, the old traditions have little meaning in their lives. Their elders, struggling to preserve values of an older day, have personal problems that are sometimes overwhelming, such as the one facing John McCain Jr., an alcoholic whose wife Kate is having a hidden and torrid romance that sets her husband off on a vengeance-seeking spree.

Delta County, USA

1977

The Quinns poster
8.0

A drama about three generations of Irish-American firefighters in the New York City Fire Department, and their careers, romances, and growing pains. This pilot film was not picked up to series.

The Quinns

1977

Behind the camera

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas poster
6.2

When a Conservative TV crusader threatens to shut down beloved brothel The Chicken Ranch, proprietress Miss Mona Stangley and her girls won't go down without a fight.

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

1982

No artwork available
8.0

Leopold De Angeli is a talented playwright, but like many scribes he fancies the drink a little too much. In the hopes of saving Leopold's life, his theater friends come together to stage an intervention for him.

Whiskey School

2005

Lily Dale poster
3.7

In 1910, 19-year-old Horace Robedaux, still bitter toward his stepfather, goes to Houston to be reunited with his mother, Corella, and his sister, Lily Dale, following a long estrangement. He has not seen either since he was 12 because his wicked stepfather, Pete Davenport (whom his mother married after his father drank himself to death) believes a boy ought to be self-reliant.

Lily Dale

1996

The Only Thrill poster
5.0

A small-town store owner with a comatose wife shares a long-term relationship with his seamstress.

The Only Thrill

1997

Convicts poster
5.7

In 1902, 13-year-old Horace toils on a run-down plantation in rural Texas to buy a tombstone for the father he lost a year earlier. Soll, the crusty old Confederate who owns the plantation and depends on convict labor to keep his farm running, takes a liking to Horace. However, Soll is aging and sinking into senility, making the possibility of Horace ever getting his pay increasingly unlikely. On Christmas Eve, as Soll becomes obsessed with his own mortality, he makes a grand promise... forcing Horace to confront his fear of death and the harsh truths of a decadent society.

Convicts

1991

The Trip to Bountiful poster
7.2

Carrie Watts is living the twilight of her life trapped in an apartment in 1940s Houston, Texas with a controlling daughter-in-law and a hen-pecked son. Her fondest wish – just once before she dies – is to revisit Bountiful, the small Texas town of her youth which she still refers to as "home."

The Trip to Bountiful

1985

Lost Junction poster
5.8

A hitchhiker gets a ride with an oddball woman who has her husband's body in the trunk of the car.

Lost Junction

2003

Full Moon in Blue Water poster
6.1

Floyd, the owner of a bar on the Texas coast, has been depressed for a year after his wife disappeared in a swimming accident. He lives with his senile father-in-law "The General" and is helped by Jimmy, a former asylum inmate, and the good-natured Louise. The bar is rapidly losing money and Charlie wants to buy it cheaply before it becomes publicly known that a nearby bridge is to be built. Louise offers her savings to go into partnership with Floyd, but Floyd decides to sell when he is forced to pay his back taxes.

Full Moon in Blue Water

1988

Arctic Blue poster
4.7

Eric Desmond, a committed environmentalist, is accidentally involved in the transfer of Ben Corbett, a ruthless killer, from an isolated Alaskan village, along a long route, to civilization; but the prisoner is determined to escape at any cost.

Arctic Blue

1993

Night Game poster
4.7

A police detective tracks a serial killer who is stalking young women on a beach front after each game that a baseball pitcher wins.

Night Game

1989

Mermaid poster
6.7

Four year old Desi learns to accept the death of her father by sending him a letter on a balloon to which she receives a reply. Based on a true story.

Mermaid

2000

Blood Red poster
4.9

Set in the Napa Valley in 1895, an immigrant family struggles to keep their vineyards from industrialists.

Blood Red

1989