Bill Duke (filmmaker)
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Bill Duke (filmmaker)
William Henry Duke Jr. (born February 26, 1943) is an American actor and film director. Known for his physically imposing frame, Duke works primarily in the action and crime drama genres often as a character related to law enforcement. Frequently a character actor, he has starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in '' Commando'' and ''Predator'', and has appeared in films like '' Car Wash'', ''American Gigolo'', ''No Man's Land'', '' Bird on a Wire'', ''Menace II Society'', '' Exit Wounds'', ''Payback'', '' X-Men: The Last Stand'', and ''Mandy''. In television, he is best known as Agent Percy Odell in ''Black Lightning''. He has directed episodes of numerous television series including '' Cagney & Lacey'', ''Dallas'', '' Hill Street Blues'', ''Miami Vice'', ''The Twilight Zone,'' and '' American Playhouse''. He has also directed the crime films '' Deep Cover'' and ''A Rage in Harlem'', for which he was nominated for a Palme d'Or, as well as the comedy ''Sister Act 2''. Early life ...
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Poughkeepsie, New York
Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie is in the Hudson River Valley region, midway between the core of the New York metropolitan area and the state capital of Albany. It is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area which belongs to the New York combined statistical area. It is served by the nearby Hudson Valley Regional Airport and Stewart International Airport in Orange County, New York. Poughkeepsie has been called "The Queen City of the Hudson". It was settled in the 17th century by the Dutch and became New York State's second capital shortly after the American Revolution. It was chartered as a city in 1854. Major bridges in the city include the Walkway over the Hudson, a former railroad bridge called the Poughkeepsie Bridge which r ...
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Bird On A Wire (film)
''Bird on a Wire'' is a 1990 American action comedy film directed by John Badham and starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn. It was shot mainly in British Columbia, Canada. The title refers to the Leonard Cohen song "Bird on the Wire". The alley motorcycle chase scene was filmed in Victoria's Chinatown, in Fan Tan Alley. Plot Marianne "Muffie" Graves, a former hippie, is a successful lawyer completing a business deal in Detroit, Michigan. At a gas station, she crosses paths with a man that looks and sounds exactly like her hippie ex-fiancé Rick Jarmin, who disappeared in a plane crash 15 years previously and is presumed dead. The man pretends to be a Vietnam War veteran and Marianne apologizes, says that Rick would never have served in that war, and then leaves. The terrified man then makes a call saying that he has been recognized and needs to be moved. 15 years earlier, Rick testified against murderous drug-smuggling DEA agent Eugene Sorenson and has been in the witness protec ...
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Deep Cover
''Deep Cover'' is a 1992 American action thriller film starring Laurence Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum and Charles Martin Smith, and directed by veteran actor Bill Duke in his third directorial outing. The screenplay was written by Henry Bean and Academy Award-nominee Michael Tolkin. Fishburne plays a police officer who goes undercover in a sting operation in Los Angeles to bring down a West Coast drug cartel. The film received positive reviews, being likened by some critics to a modern film noir. It is also notable for its theme song of the same title, composed by Dr. Dre and released as his debut solo single, which also features then-newcomer Snoop Doggy Dogg making his studio debut. Plot In Cleveland, at Christmas 1972, Russell Stevens Jr. is the son of a drug-addicted, alcoholic man, who tells his son never to be like him. Stevens then witnesses his father getting shot and killed while robbing a liquor store. He swears that he will never end up like him. In 1991, Stevens is a p ...
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American Playhouse
''American Playhouse'' is an American anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Overview It premiered on January 12, 1982, with ''The Shady Hill Kidnapping'', written and narrated by John Cheever and directed by Paul Bogart. Its final broadcast, ''In the Wings: Angels in America on Broadway'', a rerun of a behind-the-scenes look at Tony Kushner's award-winning play in two parts, aired on January 1, 1994. The series proved to be the springboard for the careers of numerous performers, including David Marshall Grant, Laura Linney, A Martinez, Conchata Ferrell, Eric Roberts, Lynne Thigpen, John Malkovich, Peter Riegert, Lupe Ontiveros, Ben Stiller, and Megan Mullally. As part of WGBH's development of the Descriptive Video Service (DVS), ''American Playhouse'' was one of the first U.S. television programs to air with audio description for the visually impaired on the Secondary audio program (SAP). After trialing the system durin ...
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The Twilight Zone (1985 TV Series)
''The Twilight Zone'' is an anthology television series which was constructed from September 27, 1985 to April 15, 1989. It is the first of three revivals of Rod Serling's acclaimed 1959–64 television series, and like the original it featured a variety of speculative fiction, commonly containing characters from a seemingly normal world stumbling into paranormal circumstances. Unlike the original, however, most episodes contained multiple self-contained stories instead of just one. The voice-over narrations were still present, but were not a regular feature as they were in the original series; some episodes had only an opening narration, some had only a closing narration, and some had no narration at all. The multi-segment format liberated the series from the usual time constraints of episodic television, allowing stories ranging in length from 8-minutes to 40-minute mini-movies. The series ran for two seasons on CBS before producing a final season for syndication. Series hist ...
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Miami Vice
''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann (director), Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo Tubbs, Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, two Miami-Dade Police Department, Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. The series ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The USA Network began airing reruns in 1988 and broadcast an originally unaired episode during its syndication run of the series on January 25, 1990. Unlike standard police procedurals, the show drew heavily upon 1980s New wave music, New Wave culture and is noted for its integration of contemporary pop and rock music and stylish or stylized visuals. ''People (magazine), People'' magazine states that ''Miami Vice'' was the "first show to look really new and different since color TV was invented". Michael Mann directed a Miami Vice (film), film adaptati ...
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Hill Street Blues
''Hill Street Blues'' is an American serial police procedural television series that aired on NBC in prime-time from January 15, 1981, to May 12, 1987, for 146 episodes. The show chronicles the lives of the staff of a single police station located on Hill Street in an unnamed large city. The "blues" are the police officers in their blue uniforms. The show received critical acclaim, and its production innovations influenced many subsequent dramatic television series produced in the United States and Canada. In its debut season, the series won eight Emmy Awards, a debut season record later surpassed only by ''The West Wing''. The show won a total of 26 Emmy Awards (out of 98 Emmy Award nominations) during its run, including four consecutive wins for Outstanding Drama Series. Background MTM Enterprises developed the series on behalf of NBC, appointing Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll as series writers. The writers were allowed freedom to create a series that brought together a nu ...
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Dallas (1978 TV Series)
''Dallas'' is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1978, to May 3, 1991. The series revolves around an affluent and feuding Texas family, the Ewings, who own the independent oil company Ewing Oil and the cattle-ranching land of Southfork. The series originally focused on the marriage of Bobby Ewing and Pamela Barnes, whose families were sworn enemies. As the series progressed, Bobby's elder brother, oil tycoon J.R. Ewing, became the show's breakout character, whose schemes and dirty business became the show's trademark. When the show ended on May 3, 1991, J.R. was the only character to have appeared in every episode. The show was prominent for its cliffhangers, including the " Who shot J.R.?" mystery. The 1980 episode " Who Done It" remains the second-highest-rated prime-time telecast ever. The show also featured a "Dream Season", in which the entirety of season 9 was revealed to have been a dream of Pamela Ewing. After 14 seasons, ...
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Cagney & Lacey
''Cagney & Lacey'' is an American police procedural drama television series that aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from March 25, 1982, to May 16, 1988. The show is about two New York City police detectives who lead very different lives: Christine Cagney (Sharon Gless) is a career-minded single woman, while Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) is a married working mother. The series is set in a fictionalized version of Manhattan's 14th Precinct (known as "Midtown South"). The pilot movie had Loretta Swit in the role of Cagney, while the first six episodes had Meg Foster in the role. When the show was revived for a full-season run, Gless portrayed the role for six consecutive years. Each year during that time, one of the two lead actresses won the Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Drama (four wins for Daly, two for Gless), a winning streak matched only once since in any major category by a show. Development Producer Barney Rosenzweig was influenced by the feminist move ...
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Black Lightning (TV Series)
''Black Lightning'' is an American superhero drama television series, developed by Salim Akil, that premiered on The CW on January 16, 2018 and concluded on May 24, 2021. It is based on the character of the same name, created by Tony Isabella with Trevor Von Eeden, featured in publications of DC Comics. Cress Williams stars as the titular character alongside China Anne McClain, Nafessa Williams, Christine Adams, Marvin "Krondon" Jones III, Damon Gupton, James Remar, Jordan Calloway, and Chantal Thuy. The series sees the retired Black Lightning return to his life as a superhero and follows the effects of his vigilante activity on his professional and family life. Originally in development at Fox, the project was given a pilot production commitment in September 2016. In February 2017, Fox passed on the project and The CW subsequently picked it up with an order for a new pilot script. The CW officially ordered ''Black Lightning'' to series in May 2017. The first season premier ...
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Mandy (2018 Film)
''Mandy'' is a 2018 Action-horror film, action horror film directed by Panos Cosmatos, produced by Elijah Wood and co-written by Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart-Ahn based on a story Cosmatos conceived. A co-production of the United States and Belgium, the film stars Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Ned Dennehy, Olwen Fouéré, Richard Brake, and Bill Duke. It premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, and was theatrically released on September 14, 2018 by RLJE Films. ''Mandy'' was praised for its style and originality, Cage's performance, Cosmatos' direction, and the action sequences. It is one of the last films scored by Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, who died in February 2018. The film is dedicated to him. Plot Near the Shadow Mountains, recovering alcoholic Red Miller lives a solitary life with his girlfriend, artist and author Mandy Bloom. He works as a logger, while she has a day job as a gas station cashier. In their cabin by a lake, Mand ...
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The Last Stand
Last stand is a position against overwhelming odds. Last Stand or The Last Stand may also stand for: Film and TV Film * ''The Last Stand'' (1938 film), an American film directed by Joseph H. Lewis * ''The Last Stand'' (1984 film), a film about the band Cold Chisel * ''Last Stand'', a 2000 science fiction action film with Orestes Matacena * ''The Last Stand'' (2013 film), an action film about an American sheriff who fights against the Mexican drug mafia, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger * '' X-Men: The Last Stand'', a 2006 film Television * "Last Stand" (Stargate SG-1), an episode of the television series ''Stargate SG-1'' * "Last Stand", an episode of the action-adventure television series ''MacGyver'' * "SpongeBob's Last Stand", an episode of the American animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' *" The Last Stand", the fifty-second and final episode of ''The Legend of Korra'' *"The Last Stand, Part 1" and " 2", the fifty-ninth and sixtieth episodes of ''Voltron: ...
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