
Acting
Darren McGavin
Born 1922-05-07 · Spokane, Washington, U.S.
Darren McGavin (born William Lyle Richardson; May 7, 1922 – February 25, 2006) was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and his portrayal of the grumpy father given to bursts of profanity in the film A Christmas Story. He appeared as the tough-talking, funny detective in the 1950s television series Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. From 1959-1961, McGavin starred in the NBC western series Riverboat, first with Burt Reynolds and then with Noah Beery, Jr. Description above from the Wikipedia article Darren McGavin, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Acting credits
5.9Mark Kaminsky is kicked out of the FBI for his rough treatment of a suspect. He winds up as the sheriff of a small town in North Carolina. FBI Chief Harry Shannon, whose son has been killed by a mobster named Patrovina, enlists Kaminsky in a personal vendetta with a promise of reinstatement into the FBI if Patrovina is taken down. To accomplish this, he must go undercover and join Patrovina's gang.
Raw Deal
1986
6.9An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league.
The Natural
1984
5.6Flight 23 has crashed in the Bermuda Triangle after a hijacking gone wrong. Now the surviving passengers must brave panic, slow leaks, oxygen depletion, and more while attempting a daring plan, all while 200 feet underwater.
Airport '77
1977
6.7After being run out of Las Vegas, reporter Carl Kolchak heads for Seattle and another reporting job with the local paper. It's not long before he’s on the trail of another string of bizarre murders. It seems that every 21 years, for the past century, a killer murders a certain number of people, drains them of their blood, and then disappears into the night. Kolchak is on his trail, but can he stop him?
The Night Strangler
1973
7.2The comic mishaps and adventures of a young boy named Ralph, trying to convince his parents, teachers, and Santa that a Red Ryder B.B. gun really is the perfect Christmas gift for the 1940s.
A Christmas Story
1983
6.2Billy Madison is the 27 year-old son of Bryan Madison, a very rich man who has made his living in the hotel industry. Billy stands to inherit his father's empire, but only if he can make it through all 12 grades, 2 weeks per grade, to prove that he has what it takes to run the family business.
Billy Madison
1995
4.925 years ago at Winfield College, psycho-priest Zachary Malius murdered seven frat boys and was put away in the local asylum. Now, however, the same fraternity stages a prank from which Malius is inadvertently set free and returns to the house to repeat his crime...
Happy Hell Night
1991
7.1When illegal card dealer and recovering heroin addict Frankie Machine gets out of prison, he decides to straighten up. Armed with nothing but an old drum set, Frankie tries to get honest work as a drummer. But when his former employer and his old drug dealer re-enter his life, Frankie finds it hard to stay clean and eventually finds himself succumbing to his old habits.
The Man with the Golden Arm
1955
6.8Eisenhower the military man is the focus of this mini-series, his relationships with the other wartime leaders, and, very discreetly, his personal relationship with his driver, Kay Summersby.
Ike
1979
6.2Detective Roger Mortis is killed in action while investigating a string of mysterious robberies: until he's brought back from the dead with a chemical company's secret re-animation technology. Now he has twelve hours to solve the case of his own death before he dies: And stays dead.
Dead Heat
1988
6.8A dramatization of the American general and his court martial for publically complaining about High Command's dismissal and neglect of the aerial fighting forces.
The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell
1955
6.9Wisecracking reporter Carl Kolchak investigates a string of murders in Las Vegas and suspects the culprit is a vampire. His editor thinks he's crazy and the police think he's a nuisance, so Kolchak takes matters into his own hands.
The Night Stalker
1972
7.0All-out war between the United States and an Asian country is averted when the two sides agree to settle their differences by each choosing a single soldier as champion and having the two men fight to the death on an isolated island.
The Challenge
1970
4.5During World War II, a brave, patriotic American Soldier undergoes experiments to become a new supersoldier, "Captain America". Racing to Germany to sabotage the rockets of Nazi baddie "Red Skull", Captain America winds up frozen until the 1990s. He reawakens to find that the Red Skull has changed identities and is now planning to kidnap the President of the United States.
Captain America
1990
6.2A Marine Corps drill instructor who is disgusted by the fact that the Corps now accepts draftees finds himself pitted against a hippie who has been drafted but refuses to accept the military's way of doing things.
Tribes
1970
6.7Middle-aged Ohio secretary Jane Hudson has never found love and has nearly resigned herself to spending the rest of her life alone. But before she does, she uses her savings to finance a summer in romantic Venice, where she finally meets the man of her dreams, the elegant Renato Di Rossi.
Summertime
1955
6.4Sidney Pythias is a bumbling janitor picked up by cop Mike Damon as a teenage gang member worth saving from delinquency. With Damon's help, Sidney works his way through the Police Academy to become a cop too.
The Delicate Delinquent
1957
6.5A nuclear warhead launched by Soviet insurgents protesting the waning Cold War destroys the Ukrainian city of Donetsk. The destruction sets off a race between American and Soviet politicians to prevent a nuclear holocaust. While the U.S. president feverishly works to keep the military and political machine from going into overdrive, various subordinates panic. When the president is believed to be killed in a helicopter crash, zealous advisers take over.
By Dawn's Early Light
1990
5.7A dimwitted thug encounters a strung-out, suicidal young woman and an unlikely relationship develops as they work together to make a break for new horizons.
Blood and Concrete
1991
6.0When streetwise Manhattan police detectives Rawlings (Howard Hesseman) and Brendan Thomas (Ed Marinaro) discover a major diamond heist is about to go down at a renowned gallery, they enlist one of their suspects, gallery employee Tara Holden (Brooke Shields). But an attempt to foil the robbery explodes with deadly consequences for Tara. Committed to break the case, Rawlings relentlessly pursues the clues through a twisted maze of deceit and danger that takes him to England, where he and Scotland Yard detecive Charlie Lawson expose the ultimate con and solve the crime.
The Diamond Trap
1988
5.4A young couple moves into a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania. What they don't know is that there is an unseen presence in the house, and that it wants to take possession of the wife.
Something Evil
1972
6.3A "play on words" about a fictional political scandal concerning covert arms deals and double-dealing government operatives, satirizing the Watergate hearings of 1972-1973.
Mastergate
1992
4.7Three American astronauts who land on Mars discover the body of a frozen Russian cosmonaut and a mysterious talking orb.
Mission Mars
1968
5.9Twin brothers -- one rough and tough, the other a city-bred milquetoast -- compete for their father's fortune.
Hot Lead & Cold Feet
1978
Behind the camera
6.5An adopted teen runs away to what he believes to be his birth town and mother, in the hopes of putting together the missing pieces of his identity. He arrives during a wave of disappearances and murders, only to encounter New England aloofness and some very eccentric relatives.
Happy Mother's Day, Love George
1973
4.6A divorced man hooks up with a street-smart 16-year-old who makes her living by repossessing cars from their owners.
Zero to Sixty
1978