James Luisi
Birth : 1928-11-11, New York City, New York, USA
Death : 2002-06-07
History
A native New Yorker, James Luisi attended St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights on a basketball scholarship. He served in the Army during the Korean War. He then played one season (1953-54) with the Baltimore Bullets in the National Basketball Association. His acting career began on the stage with early parts coming in the Broadway musicals "Sweet Charity" and "Zorba". His early movies were minor, though his "beefcake" appeal was evident in 1973's I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973) in which he rarely wore a shirt. Most of his later work was on TV. In 1976 he shared a "best actor" daytime Emmy for playing George Washington in a daytime drama special titled First Ladies Diaries: Martha Washington (1975). Also in 1976 he started his four-season role as Jim Rockford's (James Garner) nemesis Lt. Chapman in The Rockford Files (1974). In 1983 he played the cop in charge of some street-gang-members-turned-undercover-agents in the short-lived series The Renegades (1983), which provided a boost for Patrick Swayze, who played one of the gang members. Along with guest spots on numerous TV shows, Luisi also appeared in the soap operas Days of Our Lives (1965) and Another World (1964).
In the 1990s he returned to acting in and directing stage work in the Los Angeles area. Stricken with cancer he passed away on 7 June 2002 and is survived by his wife of 41 years, the former Georgia Phillips.
Capt. Doug Chapman
An friend of Jim's continues to seek his help for her murdered son, but when she winds up dead not long after an altercation with the mafia man, Jim must must do what it takes to put both her soul and her son's, at rest, himself.
Capt. Doug Chapman
Jim Rockford, is framed for the murder of another rival detective with whom Jim was seen having an argument.
Colonel Jerry Maxim
A group of men are told that they have won an "erotic vacation" at a fantasy island. In reality, they are being lured to the island by women they have wronged, and once there they are captured and set loose on the island to be hunted down.
Sperry
Ellie DeWitt and Janis Zuckermann are admitted to the very strict FBI Training Academy. They get a hard course, in which they learn to deal with guns and to recognise crimes. They also get a physical training. It appears that Ellie is a real fighting- machine, in contrast with Janis, the great student. They have to help each other, all the way to graduation.
Ferrari Salesman
When average, law-abiding citizens suddenly turn to a life of hedonistic behavior and violent crime, Detective Tom Beck is tasked with helping young FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher determine the cause.
Ed Reineke
A tough police detective escapes from custody after being framed and arrested for the murder of his ex-wife, and must now find the real killer and prove his innocence.
Renny Lucas
They paid $450,000 for a Whorehouse just to catch an Extortionist!
Roy
Paul Snider is a narcissistic, small time hustler who fancies himself a ladies man. His life changes when he meets Dorothy Stratten working behind the counter of a Dairy Queen. Under his guidance Dorothy grows to fame as a Playboy Playmate. But when Dorothy begins pursuing an acting career, the jealous Paul finds himself elbowed out of the picture by more famous men.
Angel
Alan O'Black is a comic who wants to hit it big. But his endless attempts at stardom have worn down his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Julie. Thinking she'll give him another chance if he gets a real job, Alan gets a gig as a limo driver, which promptly lands him in a slew of trouble when he meets and gets involved in the hijinks of a crooked entrepreneur, Bradley Coleman.
Lieutenant Joe Marciano
In this drama, undercover investigators are recruited from the streets to prevent arms smugglers from getting their weapons to street gangs.
Frank
A syndicate mob boss doesn't realize that his eldest son, Gep, has been informing to the police on the family's dealings in exchange for protection, while Gep's younger brother, Phil, a bank vice president, tries to separate himself from the family's business.
Capt. M.L. Gallagher
A shy, lonely film buff embarks on a killing spree against those who browbeat and betray him, all the while stalking his idol, a Marilyn Monroe lookalike.
George Benson
Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. This concern about the situation gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.
Dan Santini
Trisha Rawlings, a Beverly Hills socialite suffering from loneliness following the separation from her womanizing husband, develops a May–December romance with a young drifter named Strip.
Jimmy Karalla
The true story of baseball star Ron LeFlore, from his days as a street-corner punk with no future to his days behind bars on a petty robbery conviction to his ultimate once-in-a-lifetime chance with the Detroit Tigers, where he became an outstanding baseball player.
Harry Foreman
A black family leaves the ghetto of Detroit to look for a better life in Los Angeles.
Sgt. Vince De Carlo
A detective tracks a serial killer through San Francisco.
Tony Lazzeri
Legendary ballplayer and humanitarian Lou Gehrig and his relationship with his stalwart wife, Eleanor, are portrayed in this film that focuses on the Hall of Famer's life off the baseball field. Featuring unflinching looks at the Gehrigs' relationship, as well as Lou's feud with Babe Ruth. This film is for anyone interested in baseball. [imdb]
Al Palmini / Arnold Palmer
A policeman devises an unorthodox plan for bringing criminals to justice after his partner is brutally gunned down.
Alvin Blake
After a stunt man dies while he is involved in the making of a motion picture, his brother takes his place in order to find out what really happened.
Benedetto
A policeman in New Mexico takes payoff money but still manages to go after a racketeer.
Blackie
In the wild west con-man 'Candy' Johnson heads to Nevada to set up his own gambling den and teams up with Lucy Cotton, a young woman he meets there. This failed television pilot film is loosely based on Honky Tonk (1941), which starred Clark Gable.
Det. Kroger
A man who is arrested for rape swears it wasn't him but somebody who looks just like him, but the victim insists it was him.
Dazzas
In 1916, a group of prisoners plot their escape from the notorious fortress located in French Guiana.
Ed
A lonely boy becomes good friends with Ben, a rat. This rat is also the leader of a pack of vicious killer rats, killing lots of people.
Spider Levinsky
A pretty ranch owner hires an alcoholic gunfighter to protect her ranch and her adopted boy from an outlaw gang's depredations.
