Vic Tayback

Vic Tayback

Birth : 1930-01-06, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Death : 1990-05-25

History

Victor Tayback (January 6, 1930 – May 25, 1990) was an American actor. He is best known for his role as diner owner Mel Sharples in the comedy-drama film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) and the television sitcom Alice (1976–1985), for which he won two consecutive Golden Globes.

Profile

Vic Tayback
Vic Tayback

Movies

Horseplayer
George Samsa
A blonde seduces a quirky liquor-store worker as inspiration for her artist boyfriend.
All Dogs Go to Heaven
Carface (voice)
When a casino-owning dog named Charlie is murdered by his rival Carface, he finds himself in Heaven basically by default since all dogs go to heaven. However, since he wants to get back at his killer, he cons his way back to the living with the warning that doing that damns him to Hell. Once back, he teams with his old partner, Itchy, to prep his retaliation. He also stumbles onto an orphan girl who can talk to the animals, thus allowing him to get the inside info on the races to ensure his wins to finance his plans. However, all the while, he is still haunted by nightmares of what's waiting for him on the other side unless he can prove that he is worthy of Heaven again.
Beverly Hills Bodysnatchers
Lou
A doctor and a mortician have teamed up to do re-animation experiments on corpses using gangster money loaned for "remodeling." When they can't pay it back, the Mafia guy sends his nephews to work at the funeral home to keep a watch on the debtors, but the nephews end up helping in the search for new bodies, and mayhem ensues when some undesirable types are re-animated.
Criminal Act
The Exterminator (Greengrass)
Two investigative reporters track down reports of giant rats in a city sewer system.
Loverboy
Harry Bruckner
Randy Bodek works as a pizza delivery boy at Senor Pizza to make a few extra bucks. Some customers are special, though: When the order is for a pizza with extra anchovies, it means the female customers are looking for some loving. "Loverboy's" reputation soon makes him very popular, but when Mom Bodek suddenly feels like some extra anchovies, things are looking grim for young Randy
The Underachievers
Coach
Danny Warren is a former minor-league shortstop that becomes a narc to uncover drug dealing in this situation comedy. Investigating at a high-school adult-education class, he falls for the tempting teacher. He joins a colorful group of characters that includes ex-cons, illegal aliens, and brain-dead baby boomers that cause more trouble than their younger counterparts. Swimming classes and wine tastings serve as background for a series of comic catastrophes.
The Three Kings
Harold
The made-for-TV film stars Jack Warden, Lou Diamond Phillips and Stan Shaw as three patients in a Los Angeles-area mental institution. Dressed as the Three Wise Men for a Christmas pageant, the trio is suddenly struck with the delusion that they are really their Biblical counterparts on a quest to find the Baby Jesus. As TV cameras grind away, the three ersatz Kings surreptitiously ride out of the gates of the asylum—on camels—and into the mean streets of LA. As the story draws to its conclusion, the three escapees find themselves providing a Christmas miracle (but not in the form of rap) for a group of homeless people on the outskirts of the city.
Weekend Warriors
Sgt. Burdge
In 1961, with war looming in Berlin, an Air National Guard unit of actors, journalists and studio personnel is up for military academy consideration.
George Carlin: Playin' with Your Head
The Bad Guys
George Carlin is in top form with these stand-up recorded at the Beverly Theater in Los Angeles in 1986. Routines included are "Losing Things," "Charities," "Sports," "Hello and Goodbye," "Battered Plants," "Earrings," and "A Moment of Silence." Also included is a short film entitled "The Envelope" co-starring Vic Tayback.
Treasure Island
Silver
Jim is a small child who lives in an inn run by his parents. The arrival of a strange captain to the Island they live will trouble his existence and tip him into an universe of adventures.
Reel Horror
Smedke (archive footage)
Evil spirits that emerge from cans of old movie film terrorize a neighborhood.
The Jesse Owens Story
Abe Saperstein
The Jesse Owens Story is a biographical film about the black athlete Jesse Owens. Dorian Harewood plays the Olympic gold-winning athlete. The drama won a 1985 Primetime Emmy Award and was nominated for two more.
Mysterious Two
Ted Randall
Two Aliens visit the Earth in an effort to enlist converts to travel the universe with them.
Through the Magic Pyramid
Horembeb
A lad finds himself magically sent back to ancient Egypt where he and the young King Tut team up to stop their evil and overly ambitious elders.
The Night the City Screamed
Morris Brustein
A massive blackout plunges a major American city into a night of terror.
Gridlock
Floyd 'Snake' Kraslowski
A series of freak accidents on the Los Angeles freeway traps a cast-load of familiar TV faces in an astounding traffic tie-up, with the entire system caught in a gridlock that John Beck, as a traffic expert, endeavors to unsnarl.
Rage!
Tommy
In an attempt to be rehabilitated, a rapist goes to therapy while in prison.
This Year's Blonde
Harry Cohn
First he seduced her. Then he made her a star. He was Johnny Hyde, 52-year-old agent, friend, lover. She was an unemployed starlet — destined to be America's greatest sex goddess. Theirs was a sizzling romance — torrid, touching, tragic.
Portrait of a Stripper
Harry Parkins
A young widow, supporting herself and her pre-teen son by performing as a nightclub dancer, finds the place turned into a strip joint and learns that her father-in-law is trying to prove her an unfit mother.
The Cheap Detective
Lieutenant DiMaggio
A spoof of the entire 1940s detective genre. San Francisco private detective, Lou Pekinpaugh is accused of murdering his partner at the instigation of his mistress—his partner's wife.
Getting Married
Burt Carboni
A man falls madly in love with a pretty newscaster and goes all out to win her heart and her hand in marriage before she weds another man.
The Choirboys
Zoony
A group of Los Angeles cops decide to take off some of the pressures of their jobs by engaging in various forms of after-hours debauchery.
Little Ladies of the Night
Finch
The sister of ex-pimp and current Los Angeles Police detective Lyle York was murdered working the streets a few years ago. Since his reform, he has teamed with Officer Russ Garfield to clear the streets of underage girls working in prostitution. Pretty, young runaway Hailey Atkins has been turned out. Down deep she wants to go straight but has had great difficulty escaping her pimp and doesn't even have a place to go. York and Garfield go out on a limb to try and help.
The Shaggy D.A.
Eddie Roschak
Wilby Daniels, a successful lawyer running for District Attorney, suddenly finds himself being transformed into an English sheepdog. Somehow he has to keep his change a secret and find just what is causing it, all the while eluding the local dog catcher.
Mansion of the Doomed
Detective Simon
An insane surgeon finds himself up to his armpits in eyeballs after guilt prompts him to begin removing the eyes of abducted people in hopes of performing transplants on his daughter who lost her own in a car-accident he caused.
Special Delivery
Wyatt
A gang of thieves plan a daring bank robbery, making their escape across the rooftops of Los Angeles. The police are quickly called in, however, and only one of the robbers, Murdock, makes a clean getaway. Unfortunately, in order to do so, he is forced to dump the stolen cash into a mailbox, which he then finds is locked until midnight, forcing him to wait until the mailman makes his late night pickup. As he waits, he discovers that his hiding place has been observed by several other people, all of whom want a share of the loot.
The Big Bus
Goldie
The ultimate disaster film parody. A nuclear-powered bus is making its maiden non-stop trip from New York to Denver. The journey is plagued by disasters due to the machinations of a mysterious group allied with the oil lobby. Will the down-on-his-luck driver, with a reputation for eating his passengers, be able to complete the journey?
Dark Victory
Archie
A TV producer with a terminal illness is given the strength to keep going by her love for her doctor.
No Deposit, No Return
Big Joe Adamo
Two rich children devise a way to escape their grandfather and visit their mother. Unfortunately for two hapless safe crackers, they become part of the plan.
The Black Bird
Warren Finley, Police Lieutenant
The son of famous detective Sam Spade carries on the family tradition of getting involved with the Maltese Falcon - and with the people who will stop at nothing, including murder, to get it.
Lepke
Charles 'Lucky' Luciano
Lepke is the feared leader of "Murder Incorporated" in this underworld drama based on the life of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. Lepke began his criminal career as a petty thief in his teens; a stretch in prison taught him the finer points of life on the wrong side of the law. After getting out of jail, Lepke and his pal Gurrah Shapiro join a gang who hire themselves out as strikebreakers, and the vicious but clever Lepke soon rises through the ranks.
Report to the Commissioner
Lt. Seidensticker
Police officer Patty Butler, alias "Chicklet," is the live-in girlfriend of Thomas 'Stick' Henderson to gather evidence. Detective Bo Lockley is instructed to try to find her, not knowing she's also a cop.
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Mel
After her husband dies, Alice and her son, Tommy, leave their small New Mexico town for California, where Alice hopes to make a new life for herself as a singer. Money problems force them to settle in Arizona instead, where Alice takes a job as waitress in a small diner.
The Gambler
One
New York City English professor Axel Freed outwardly seems like an upstanding citizen. But privately Freed is in the clutches of a severe gambling addiction that threatens to destroy him.
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Mario Pinski
With the help of an irreverent young sidekick, a bank robber gets his old gang back together to organise a daring new heist.
Papillon
Sergeant
A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
The Don Is Dead
Ralph Negri
After his mistress is murdered, a Mafia leader goes after the killer with a bloody vengeance. Soon after the hunt begins, a gang war ensues.
The Blue Knight
Neil Grogan
Bumper Morgan is a veteran Los Angeles Police Department street cop. He is due to retire after 20 years on the job, but is not letting up on the criminal element on his beat.
The Alpha Caper
Policeman
A parole officer forced into retirement gets together three ex-convicts to pull off a $30-million armored car robbery.
Emperor of the North
Yardman
Hobos encounter a sadistic railway conductor that will not let anyone "ride the rails" for free.
Partners in Crime
A retired judge who opens a private detective agency and her ex-con associate try to track down $750,000 in bank robbery loot.
Honor Thy Father
Don A. Tirello
Joseph Bologna stars as Bill Bonanno in this made-for-television adaptation of the controversial bestseller from Gay Talese, chronicling the rise of New York's infamous Bonanno organized crime family. When his father disappears in 1964 and Bill is compelled to take over the "empire," other mafiosi attempt to take what's theirs. Brenda Vaccaro and Richard S. Castellano fill out the impressive cast of this gripping crime tale.
Maxie
Smedke
When deaf-mute Maxie (K.T. Baumann) goes to work at the local butcher shop, she senses strange things are afoot. When she discovers the beloved town butcher (Vic Tayback) is getting his choicest cuts from the local morgue, she finds herself tangled in a web of deception, betrayal and bloody murder. Featuring incredible suspense and a chilling twist, The Butchers is a lost cannibal classic in the tradition of Silence of the Lambs and Cannibal! The Musical.
They Call It Murder
Jeff Poland
A small-town district attorney is saddled with several major investigations, including a gambler's murder and a possible insurance scam.
Blood and Lace
Calvin Carruthers
After her prostitute mother and her john are beaten to death while they are asleep in bed, teen-aged Ellie Masters is sent to an isolated orphanage run by a mysterious woman and her handyman, both whom she comes to suspect are hiding dark secrets.
Bullitt
Pete Ross
Senator Walter Chalmers is aiming to take down mob boss Pete Ross with the help of testimony from the criminal's hothead brother Johnny, who is in protective custody in San Francisco under the watch of police lieutenant Frank Bullitt. When a pair of mob hitmen enter the scene, Bullitt follows their trail through a maze of complications and double-crosses. This thriller includes one of the most famous car chases ever filmed.
Gambit
Plainclothes Officer at TWA Counter (uncredited)
Harry Dean is a career burglar set on stealing a piece of priceless art from the world's wealthiest man, Mr. Shahbandar. With the help of exotic showgirl Nicole Chang, he concocts the perfect scheme for how the robbery should go and lays it out point by point. However, when the team tries to execute the plan, perfection and reality don't quite match up, and Harry's vision begins to unravel in this twisty tale of a heist gone wrong.
Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round
Detective Merchant (uncredited)
A sophisticated con man mounts an intricate plan to rob an airport bank while the Soviet premier is due to arrive.
Love with the Proper Stranger
Cye (uncredited)
Angie Rossini, an innocent New York City sales clerk from a repressive Italian-American family, engages in a short-lived affair with a handsome jazz musician named Rocky Papasano. When Angie becomes pregnant, she tracks down Rocky hoping he'll pay for her abortion.
Surftide 77
Arms Cooper
Private Eye Bernard Bingbang is hired by old lady Agatha Bungworthy to find her runaway niece Cynthia, heir to the family fortune, before that fortune goes to nasty Uncle Philip. Bingbang’s only clue to the niece’s identity: she has a birthmark that looks like a butterfly right above her left nipple. Naturally, in true Nudie-Cutie fashion, “The Case of the Hidden Butterfly Birthmark” means our hero will have to see numerous naked breasts in order to find the missing heiress.
Five Minutes to Live
Fred Dorella
A guitar playing killer terrorizes a housewife while his partner robs the bank where her husband works.
Gangster Story
Norm (uncredited)
Gangster and cop killer Jack Martin is on the run from the law, and hides out in a small town. Low on funds, he engineers a clever bank robbery that yields him a big bundle. Now he has not only the cops and the FBI after him, but also the local crime boss, who's outraged that an outsider can pull off a heist like that in his territory and not cut him in on it.
T-Bird Gang
Policeman
A high school boy, out to find his father's killer, joins up with a gang of juvenile delinquents.
Death Follows a Psycho
Private eye Wade Griffin finds himself in an intense stand-off with a "human time-bomb", who is holding four people hostage and will kill them all unless Griffin delivers the person that the bomber really wants dead.