Fred Gwynne

Fred Gwynne

Born: July 10, 1926
Died: July 2, 1993
in New York City, New York, USA
An American actor. Gwynne was best known for his roles in the 1960s sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later roles in The Cotton Club, Pet Sematary and My Cousin Vinny.

Movies for Fred Gwynne...

Auto-Tune the Munsters: A Rock Opera
Title: Auto-Tune the Munsters: A Rock Opera
Character: Herman Munster (archive footage)
Released: October 31, 2015
Type: Movie
A television special made up of footage of the Munsters episode "A Man for Marilyn", which has been extensively re-edited into an Auto-Tune musical.
bee
Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon
Title: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon
Character: Self / Actor (archive footage)
Released: January 25, 2015
Type: Movie
A look at the history of the American comedy publication and production company, National Lampoon, from its beginning in the 1970s to 2010, featuring rare and never before seen footage, this is the mind boggling story of The National Lampoon from its subversive and electrifying beginnings, to rebirth as an unlikely Hollywood heavyweight, and beyond. A humour empire like no other, the impact of the magazines irreverent, often shocking, sensibility was nothing short of seismic: this is an institution whose (drunk stoned brilliant) alumni left their fingerprints all over popular culture. Both insanely great and breathtakingly innovative, The National Lampoon created the foundation of modern comic sensibility by setting the bar in comedy impossibly high.
bee
Waking Sleeping Beauty
Title: Waking Sleeping Beauty
Character: Herman Munster (archive footage)
Released: September 5, 2009
Type: Movie
By the mid-1980s, the fabled animation studios of Walt Disney had fallen on hard times. The artists were polarized between newcomers hungry to innovate and old timers not yet ready to relinquish control. These conditions produced a series of box-office flops and pessimistic forecasts: maybe the best days of animation were over. Maybe the public didn't care. Only a miracle or a magic spell could produce a happy ending. Waking Sleeping Beauty is no fairy tale. It's the true story of how Disney regained its magic with a staggering output of hits - "Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast ," "Aladdin," "The Lion King," and more - over a 10-year period.
bee
Lincoln
Title: Lincoln
Character: Edwin Stanton (voice)
Released: December 26, 1992
Type: Movie
Famous actors read testimonies from people close to Lincoln about him and his actions during the Civil War.
bee
My Cousin Vinny
Title: My Cousin Vinny
Character: Judge Chamberlain Haller
Released: March 13, 1992
Type: Movie
Two carefree pals traveling through Alabama are mistakenly arrested, and charged with murder. Fortunately, one of them has a cousin who's a lawyer - Vincent Gambini, a former auto mechanic from Brooklyn who just passed his bar exam after his sixth try. When he arrives with his leather-clad girlfriend, to try his first case, it's a real shock - for him and the Deep South!
bee
Shadows and Fog
Title: Shadows and Fog
Character: Hacker's Follower
Released: December 5, 1991
Type: Movie
With a serial strangler on the loose, a bookkeeper wanders around town searching for the vigilante group intent on catching the killer.
bee
Earthday Birthday
Title: Earthday Birthday
Character: Fred the Moose (voice)
Released: April 22, 1990
Type: Movie
After learning about pollution a group of creatures called Zwibble Dibbles, decide to throw a party for the Earth to raise awareness.
bee
Murder in Black and White
Title: Murder in Black and White
Character: Brannigan
Released: January 7, 1990
Type: Movie
A recently appointed black police commissioner is killed. So, Frank Janek is assigned to investigate.
bee
Pet Sematary
Title: Pet Sematary
Character: Jud Crandall
Released: April 21, 1989
Type: Movie
After the Creed family's cat is accidentally killed, a friendly neighbor advises its burial in a mysterious nearby cemetery.
bee
Disorganized Crime
Title: Disorganized Crime
Character: Max Green
Released: April 14, 1989
Type: Movie
Lou Diamond Phillips and Fred Gwynne team up with a gang of professional criminals who have everything it takes to rob a bank. The only things they do have going for them are a cop and his partner, who are dumber than they are! By the time the gang hits the bank vault, it's a safe bet there's going to be organized insanity and disorganized crime!
bee
Ironweed
Title: Ironweed
Character: Oscar Reo
Released: December 18, 1987
Type: Movie
Albany, New York, Halloween, 1938. Francis Phelan and Helen Archer are bums, back in their birth city. She was a singer on the radio, he a major league pitcher. Death surrounds them: she's sick, a pal has cancer, he digs graves at the cemetery and visits the grave of his infant son whom he dropped; visions of his past haunt him, including ghosts of two men he killed. That night, out drinking, Helen tries to sing at a bar. Next day, Fran visits his wife and children and meets a grandson. He could stay, but decides it's not for him. Helen gets their things out of storage and finds a hotel. Amidst their mistakes and dereliction, the film explores their code of fairness and loyalty.
bee
The Ten-Year Lunch
Title: The Ten-Year Lunch
Character: George S. Kaufman (voice)
Released: September 28, 1987
Type: Movie
The story of the legendary wits who lunched daily at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City during the 1920s. The core of the so-called Round Table group included short story and poetry writer Dorothy Parker; comic actor and writer Robert Benchley; The New Yorker founder Harold Ross; columnist and social reformer Heywood Broun; critic Alexander Woollcott; and playwrights George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly, Edna Ferber and Robert Sherwood.
bee
Fatal Attraction
Title: Fatal Attraction
Character: Arthur
Released: September 18, 1987
Type: Movie
For Dan Gallagher, life is good. He is on the rise at his New York law firm, is happily married to his wife, Beth, and has a loving daughter. But, after a casual fling with a sultry book editor named Alex, everything changes. Jilted by Dan, Alex becomes unstable, her behavior escalating from aggressive pursuit to obsessive stalking. Dan realizes that his main problem is not hiding his affair, but rather saving himself and his family.
bee
The Secret of My Success
Title: The Secret of My Success
Character: Donald Davenport
Released: April 10, 1987
Type: Movie
Brantley Foster, a well-educated kid from Kansas, has always dreamed of making it big in New York, but once in New York, he learns that jobs - and girls - are hard to get. When Brantley visits his uncle, Howard Prescott, who runs a multi-million-dollar company, he is given a job in the company's mail room.
bee
Murder by the Book
Title: Murder by the Book
Character: Victor Greville
Released: March 17, 1987
Type: Movie
Mild-mannered mystery writer D. H. Mercer has become so immersed in his material that his creation, hard-boiled private eye Biff Deegan, constantly appears to him as a hallucination. Intent on getting rid of Biff, and replacing him with a more civilized detective, Mercer soon finds himself in a genuine mystery involving art fraud, murder, and a beautiful lady in peril.
bee
The Christmas Star
Title: The Christmas Star
Character: Waters
Released: December 14, 1986
Type: Movie
Horace McNickle (Edward Asner) is a two-time felon serving prison time for counterfeiting. On the week before Christmas, he escapes from prison dressed as Santa Claus due to his uncanny resemblence to St. Nick resulting from his long white beard and heavyset features. McNickle hides out from the police in a nearby suburban neighborhood where he is befriended and helped by two local children who think he is the real Santa Claus. McNickle takes advantage of the kids naive ness to help him get his counterfeit money hidden somewhere in a local department store while he develops kind-hearted feelings for his two con victims that make him slowly understand the true nature of Christmas.
bee
The Boy Who Could Fly
Title: The Boy Who Could Fly
Character: Uncle Hugo
Released: August 15, 1986
Type: Movie
Milly and Louis, and their recently-widowed mom, Charlene, move to a new neighborhood. Once there, they all deal with a variety of personal problems, but Milly finds a friend in Eric, her autistic next door neighbor. Eric has a fascination with flight, and as the story progresses, he exerts an enthralling force of change on all those around him.
bee
Vanishing Act
Title: Vanishing Act
Character: Father Macklin
Released: May 4, 1986
Type: Movie
A man honeymooning with his new wife in the Rockies reports her disappearance to the police. A few days later, a woman escorted by the local priest claims to be his missing wife, despite the man's failure to recognize her. Is a stranger impersonating her or is he delusional?
bee
Off Beat
Title: Off Beat
Character: The Commissioner
Released: April 10, 1986
Type: Movie
Joe Gower's job is skating through library shelves, fetching books. A police officer/friend of his is chosen to participate in a charity dance performance. Gower agrees to take his place in the show by posing as a police officer. He falls for a female officer in the show and gets into various scrapes with fellow cops and also crooks. And he dances.
bee
Title: Kane & Abel
Character: Davis LeRoy
Released: November 17, 1985
Type: TV
Kane & Abel is a television miniseries, based on the novel of the same name written by Jeffrey Archer, that aired on CBS in 1985. It stars Peter Strauss as Rosnovski and Sam Neill as Kane.
bee
Water
Title: Water
Character: Spender
Released: January 11, 1985
Type: Movie
A British diplomat to a West Indian island nation finds his idyllic existence thrown into chaos when a large American drilling company finds a huge source of natural mineral water there.
bee
The Cotton Club
Title: The Cotton Club
Character: Frenchy Demange
Released: December 14, 1984
Type: Movie
Harlem's legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide.
bee
The Mysterious Stranger
Title: The Mysterious Stranger
Character: Balthasar Hoffman
Released: October 11, 1982
Type: Movie
The film version of the same-titled book by Mark Twain. A young printer's apprentice imagines himself back in the days of Guttenberg, helping him to print the Bible. The next thing he knows he has conjured up a young spirit from the future who casts spells over striking printers and causes general mischief.
bee
Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby Is a Friend of Mine
Title: Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby Is a Friend of Mine
Character: Charles Dickens
Released: February 9, 1982
Type: Movie
The arrival in a small town of a stranger who calls himself 'Charles Dickens' makes a magical and lasting change in the lives of an imaginative 12-year-old boy and a loving young woman.
bee
So Fine
Title: So Fine
Character: Chairman Lincoln
Released: September 25, 1981
Type: Movie
While trying to get his father out of a financial jam, a man comes up with an idea that turns into an unexpected overnight financial fashion success - the bottomless pants.
bee
The Munsters' Revenge
Title: The Munsters' Revenge
Character: Herman Munster
Released: February 27, 1981
Type: Movie
The lovable Munster family finds their placid world turned into turmoil by the diabolical Dr. Diablo, the mastermind of an art heist using monster robots, including clones of Herman and Grandpa.
bee
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
Title: The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
Character: Rev. Burgess
Released: March 17, 1980
Type: Movie
A mysterious stranger descends on the small town of Hadleyburg to teach its deceitful residents a lesson
bee
Simon
Title: Simon
Character: Maj. Gen. Korey
Released: February 1, 1980
Type: Movie
A group of scientists take Simon, a psychology professor, as a test person for a brainwash experiment. After that they try to convince him that he was a living-being from another planet.
bee
Luna
Title: Luna
Character: Douglas Winter
Released: August 29, 1979
Type: Movie
While touring in Italy, a recently-widowed American opera singer has an incestuous relationship with her 15-year-old son to help him overcome his heroin addiction.
bee
Sanctuary of Fear
Title: Sanctuary of Fear
Character: Judge Potter
Released: April 23, 1979
Type: Movie
A Manhattan priest with a penchant for solving crimes goes to the aid of a young actress. She is becoming enmeshed in a series of bizarre incidents she can't explain, and her complaints to the police have gone ignored.
bee
Captains Courageous
Title: Captains Courageous
Character: Long Jack
Released: December 4, 1977
Type: Movie
A spoiled little rich boy learns what life is really like after he falls overboard in the middle of the ocean and is picked up by a crusty old sea captain.
bee
Bound for Freedom
Title: Bound for Freedom
Released: March 7, 1976
Type: Movie
In Colonial New England two indentured servants fare differently. Twelve-year-old James is contracted to a family that treats him like a son and his friend Davy works for a callous farmer.
bee
Harvey
Title: Harvey
Character: Cab Driver
Released: March 20, 1972
Type: Movie
Elwood P. Dowd's constant companion is Harvey, a six-foot tall invisible rabbit. To his sister, his obsession with Harvey has been a thorn in her plans to marry off her daughter. However, when she decides to put Elwood in a mental institution, a mix-up occurs, and she finds herself committed instead. It's now up to Elwood and "Harvey" to straighten out the mess.
bee
Dames at Sea
Title: Dames at Sea
Character: Hennesy
Released: November 15, 1971
Type: Movie
Dames at Sea is a musical with book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller and music by Jim Wise. The musical is a parody of large, flashy 1930s Busby Berkeley-style movie musicals in which a chorus girl, newly arrived off the bus from the Midwest to New York City, steps into a role on Broadway and becomes a star. It originally played Off-Off-Broadway in 1966 at the Caffe Cino and then played Off-Broadway, starring newcomer Bernadette Peters, beginning in 1968 for a successful run. The television version was broadcast on the Bell System Family Theater on NBC on November 15, 1971. The cast had extra chorus girls and boys, and there were full production numbers, turning into the very thing it was spoofing. Ann Miller was singled out for praise, especially when "she was allowed to tap out her brassy...temperamental star..."
bee
Paradise Lost
Title: Paradise Lost
Character: Mr. Pike
Released: February 25, 1971
Type: Movie
Playwright Clifford Odets' portrait of the Great Depression unfolds in the modest two-family home of Leo and Clara Gordon as misfortune strikes them and the people running with them. Opened on Broadway in 1935, it became one of the Group Theatre's most controversial plays and Odets' favorite.
bee
Title: Great Performances
Character: Pike
Released: January 28, 1971
Type: TV
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
bee
The Littlest Angel
Title: The Littlest Angel
Character: Patience, the Guardian Angel
Released: December 6, 1969
Type: Movie
Adapted from the book by Charles Tazewell. Michael, a shepherd boy living in Biblical times, finds himself transported to Heaven on his eighth birthday. Michael doesn't fully understand where he is, or why he's there. A guardian angel named Patience is given the task of showing Michael the joys of Heaven and helping him find his place in the Hereafter.
bee
Arsenic and Old Lace
Title: Arsenic and Old Lace
Character: Jonathan Brewster
Released: April 2, 1969
Type: Movie
A drama critic learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are homicidal maniacs, and that insanity runs in his family.
bee
Antkeeper
Title: Antkeeper
Character: Narrator
Released: November 16, 1966
Type: Movie
This classic from Rolf Forsberg, in the style of Fellini and Bergman, tells the story of a gardener who decides to introduce ants to his garden, because they will benefit what grows there. He is disturbed when the ants spend all their time fighting. He sends his son to teach them how to live peacefully.
bee
Munster, Go Home!
Title: Munster, Go Home!
Character: Herman Munster
Released: June 15, 1966
Type: Movie
Herman discovers he's the new lord of Munster Hall in England. The family sails to Britain, where they receive a tepid welcome from Lady Effigy and Freddie Munster, who throws tantrums because he wasn't named Lord Munster. An on-board romance had blossomed between Marilyn and Roger, but on land Marilyn discovers Roger's family holds a longstanding grudge against the Munsters.
bee
Salute to Stan Laurel
Title: Salute to Stan Laurel
Character: Herman Munster
Released: November 23, 1965
Type: Movie
A program featuring original comedy skits written as a tribute to Stan Laurel.
bee
Marineland Carnival: The Munsters Visit Marineland
Title: Marineland Carnival: The Munsters Visit Marineland
Character: Herman Munster
Released: April 18, 1965
Type: Movie
The Munsters take in the sights at Marineland.
bee
Title: The Munsters
Character: Herman Munster
Released: September 24, 1964
Type: TV
A family of friendly monsters that have misadventures all while never quite understanding why people react to them so strangely.
bee
Title: The Danny Kaye Show
Character: Self
Released: September 25, 1963
Type: TV
The Danny Kaye Show is an American variety show hosted by Danny Kaye that aired on CBS from 1963 to 1967 on Wednesday nights. Directed by Robert Scheerer, the show premiered in black-and-white, but later switched to color broadcasts. At the time, Kaye was at the height of his popularity, having starred in a string of successful films in the 1940s and '50's, made successful personal appearances at such venues as the London Palladium, and appeared many times on television. His most recent films had been considered disappointing, but the television specials he starred in were triumphant, leading to this series. Prior to his television and film career, Kaye had made a name for himself with his own radio show, and numerous other guest appearances on other shows.
bee
Title: The Merv Griffin Show
Character: Self
Released: October 1, 1962
Type: TV
The Merv Griffin Show is an American television talk show, starring Merv Griffin. The series ran from October 1, 1962 to March 29, 1963 on NBC, September 20, 1965 to August 15, 1969 in first-run syndication, from August 18, 1969 to February 11, 1972 at 11:30 PM ET weeknights on CBS and again in first-run syndication from February 14, 1972 to September 5, 1986.
bee
Title: Car 54, Where Are You?
Character: Officer Francis Muldoon
Released: September 17, 1961
Type: TV
The misadventures of two of New York's finest in the 53rd precinct in the Bronx. Toody, the short, stocky and dim-witted one, either saves the day or messes things up, much to the chagrin of Muldoon, the tall, lanky and smart one.
bee
Title: Suspicion
Character: Hughie
Released: September 30, 1957
Type: TV
Suspicion is the title of an American television mystery drama series which aired on the NBC from 1957 through 1959. The executive producer of Suspicion was film director Alfred Hitchcock.
bee
Title: The Steve Allen Show
Character: Self
Released: June 24, 1956
Type: TV
bee
Title: The Phil Silvers Show
Released: September 20, 1955
Type: TV
The Phil Silvers Show, originally titled You'll Never Get Rich, was a sitcom which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959 for 142 episodes, plus a 1959 special. The series starred Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko of the United States Army. The series was created and largely written by Nat Hiken, and won three consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Comedy Series. The show is sometimes titled Sergeant Bilko or simply Bilko in reruns, and is very often referred to by these names, both on-screen and by viewers. The show's success transformed Silvers from a journeyman comedian into a star, and writer-producer Hiken from a highly-regarded behind-the-scenes comedy writer into a publicly recognized creator.
bee
On the Waterfront
Title: On the Waterfront
Character: Slim (uncredited)
Released: June 22, 1954
Type: Movie
A dim-witted yet kind-hearted boxer, Terry Malloy, who failed to succeed unintentionally lures a man to his death after being tricked by a criminal called Johnny Friendly whose men pick of every man who has the courage to speak up to their crimes. As he works on the waterfronts that Friendly owns, he is sent to a church meeting run by a good preacher about how to deal with the problem and runs into the dead man’s sister. Slowly, he falls in love with her and begins to feel guilt about his crime.
bee
Title: You Are There
Released: February 1, 1953
Type: TV
You Are There is an American historical educational television and radio series broadcast over the CBS Radio and CBS Television networks.
bee
Escape From Limbo
Title: Escape From Limbo
Character: Tallow Pot Thompson
Released: January 1, 1953
Type: Movie
The bizarre tale of Pennsylvania Railroad fireman Henry who is involved in a hunting accident. He ends up in Limbo where a supernatural figure explains that he is now required to cause accidents on the railroad line to gather other souls for his patron. This unique premise allows the filmmakers to show nearly all types of accidents, from switch weights dropped on feet to maiming and — death.
bee
Title: Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Cab Driver
Released: December 24, 1951
Type: TV
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then changed to videotaped productions before finally changing to filmed ones. The series has received eighty Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes. Once a common practice in American television, it is the last remaining television program such that the title includes the name of the sponsor. Unlike other long-running TV series still on the air, it differs in that it broadcasts only occasionally and not on a weekly broadcast programming schedule.
bee
Title: Hallmark Hall of Fame
Released: December 24, 1951
Type: TV
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then changed to videotaped productions before finally changing to filmed ones. The series has received eighty Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes. Once a common practice in American television, it is the last remaining television program such that the title includes the name of the sponsor. Unlike other long-running TV series still on the air, it differs in that it broadcasts only occasionally and not on a weekly broadcast programming schedule.
bee
Title: Studio One
Character: Little Dude
Released: November 7, 1948
Type: TV
An American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. Studio One, presented by Westinghouse, was one of the first of the anthology TV programs. The episodes were often abridged remakes of movies from years gone by and many future well-known television and movie actors appeared in the productions.