Acting

Ray Sharkey

Born November 14, 1952 · Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

Died June 11, 1993 · aged 40

Raymond Sharkey Jr. (November 14, 1952 – June 11, 1993) was an American stage, film and television actor. His most notable film role was Vincent Vacarri in the 1980 film The Idolmaker, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. He is also known for his role as Sonny Steelgrave in the television series Wiseguy.

Known For

Paradise Alley

Paradise Alley · 1978

MovieActionDrama

Three Italian-American brothers, living in the slums of 1940's New York City, try to help each other with one's wrestling career using one brother's promotional skills and another brother's con-artist tactics to thwart a sleazy manager.

No Mercy

No Mercy · 1986

MovieActionCrime

An unconventional undercover Chicago cop and his partner are recruited to commit the murder of a New Orleans criminal kingpin.

Cop & ½

Cop & ½ · 1993

MovieActionComedy

When a pint-sized 8-year-old kid witnesses a murder he offers to help the police, if they make him a cop, too. Saddled with this streetwise sidekick, a hardboiled cop is forced to take his new partner seriously as they race the clock to bring the bad guys to justice.

Love & Money

Love & Money · 1981

MovieDramaRomance

An investment planner, bored with his job and his girlfriend, is given the opportunity to help open a new firm in South America. Once in the new country, he finds himself dealing with dictators and revolutionaries during a time of intense political upheaval, and to complicate his life further, he begins an affair with his new employer's wife.

Some Kind of Hero

Some Kind of Hero · 1982

Some Kind of Hero

MovieComedyDrama

A Vietnam vet returns home from a prisoner of war camp and is greeted as a hero, but is quickly forgotten and soon discovers how tough survival is in his own country.

Wise Guys

Wise Guys · 1986

MovieComedyCrime

Harry Valentini and Moe Dickstein are both errand boys for the Mob. When they lose $250,000, they are set up to kill each other. But they run off to Atlantic City and comedy follows.

Who'll Stop the Rain

Who'll Stop the Rain · 1978

Who'll Stop the Rain

MovieCrimeAction

John, a disillusioned Vietnam War journalist, turns to heroin smuggling. He cons Ray, an equally burnt out veteran into delivering the drugs stateside to his wife. Everything soon falls apart and Ray ends up on the run with John's wife trying to evade crooked narcotics agents.

Trackdown

Trackdown · 1976

MovieActionWestern

When his sister Betsy packs up and leaves the family's Montana cattle ranch to find fame and fortune in Hollywood, her brother Jim decides to follow after her to make sure she doesn't get into trouble.

Filmography

Sort

Paradise Alley

Paradise Alley · 1978

MovieActionDrama

Three Italian-American brothers, living in the slums of 1940's New York City, try to help each other with one's wrestling career using one brother's promotional skills and another brother's con-artist tactics to thwart a sleazy manager.

Legs

No Mercy

No Mercy · 1986

MovieActionCrime

An unconventional undercover Chicago cop and his partner are recruited to commit the murder of a New Orleans criminal kingpin.

Angles Ryan

Cop & ½

Cop & ½ · 1993

MovieActionComedy

When a pint-sized 8-year-old kid witnesses a murder he offers to help the police, if they make him a cop, too. Saddled with this streetwise sidekick, a hardboiled cop is forced to take his new partner seriously as they race the clock to bring the bad guys to justice.

Vinnie Fountain

Love & Money

Love & Money · 1981

MovieDramaRomance

An investment planner, bored with his job and his girlfriend, is given the opportunity to help open a new firm in South America. Once in the new country, he finds himself dealing with dictators and revolutionaries during a time of intense political upheaval, and to complicate his life further, he begins an affair with his new employer's wife.

Byron Levin

Some Kind of Hero

Some Kind of Hero · 1982

Some Kind of Hero

MovieComedyDrama

A Vietnam vet returns home from a prisoner of war camp and is greeted as a hero, but is quickly forgotten and soon discovers how tough survival is in his own country.

Sgt. Vinnie DiAngelo

Wise Guys

Wise Guys · 1986

MovieComedyCrime

Harry Valentini and Moe Dickstein are both errand boys for the Mob. When they lose $250,000, they are set up to kill each other. But they run off to Atlantic City and comedy follows.

Marco

Who'll Stop the Rain

Who'll Stop the Rain · 1978

Who'll Stop the Rain

MovieCrimeAction

John, a disillusioned Vietnam War journalist, turns to heroin smuggling. He cons Ray, an equally burnt out veteran into delivering the drugs stateside to his wife. Everything soon falls apart and Ray ends up on the run with John's wife trying to evade crooked narcotics agents.

Smitty

Trackdown

Trackdown · 1976

MovieActionWestern

When his sister Betsy packs up and leaves the family's Montana cattle ranch to find fame and fortune in Hollywood, her brother Jim decides to follow after her to make sure she doesn't get into trouble.

Flash

Heart Beat

Heart Beat · 1980

An exploration of the relationship between Beat Generation writers Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, and Cassady's wife, Carolyn.

Ira (based on Allen Ginsberg)

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills · 1989

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills

A wealthy Beverly Hills resident who has just become a widow, Clare Lipkin temporarily takes on her friend Lisabeth as a house guest. As the two women deal with their upper-class woes, Clare's driver, Frank, and Lisabeth's servant, Juan, make a wager to see who can be the first to seduce the other's boss.

Frank

Hot Tomorrows

Hot Tomorrows · 1977

MovieDramaMusic

A portrait of Michael, a man 'intrigued' by death and drawn to it. Late one Christmas Eve, Michael's closest buddy Louis joins him for an adventure in Hollywood.

Louis

Willie & Phil

Willie & Phil · 1980

MovieComedyDrama

Life imitates art when two Manhattanites — pompous teacher Willie and quiet photographer Phil — become friends after a thought-provoking screening of "Jules et Jim," Truffaut's classic film about a decades-long ménage à trois. Soon, the men meet Jeanette, a sexually liberated southern transplant who promptly falls for both of them. Frustrated passions curdle into jealousy as Jeanette entertains love affairs with each in the ensuing years.

Phil D'Amico

The Idolmaker

The Idolmaker · 1980

MovieDramaRomance

Based on the life of rock promoter/producer Bob Marucci, who discovered, among others, Frankie Avalon and Fabian.

Vincent 'Vinnie' Vacarri

Good Cops, Bad Cops

Good Cops, Bad Cops · 1990

Good Cops, Bad Cops

MovieDramaCrime

Made-for-TV drama about one of the largest crimes in history—the 1980 robbery of the Boston Depositors Trust by a group of policemen. Capt. Gerry Clemente is the leader of a gang of rotten cops who take their piece of Boston's criminal offerings. The crimes are petty at first, but soon, Clemente sets his sights on a bank that promises a big score. Can the gang pull it off before a case is built against them?

The Revenge of Al Capone

The Revenge of Al Capone · 1989

The Revenge of Al Capone

MovieCrimeAction

After Al Capone is imprisoned, he still continues to run his empire, and plots to assassinate the mayor of Chicago.

Scarface

Regina Roma

Regina Roma · 1982

An aging couple search for peace and family harmony when their only son returns home after a long absence with his fiancee.

Carry

Du-beat-e-o

Du-beat-e-o · 1984

A filmmaker tries to finish editing a movie about all-girl rock band Runaways.

duBEAT-e-o

Hellhole

Hellhole · 1985

MovieHorrorAction

An unlucky woman’s mother is murdered by a scarf-wielding killer named Silk, leaving the woman injured, traumatised and suffering from amnesia. She’s committed to a mental institution, where Silk follows her, looking for the papers he was trying to get from her mother. And Silk’s only the beginning of her problems, since the asylum is run by a mad doctor, performing experiments in chemical lobotomies!

Silk

Act of Piracy

Act of Piracy · 1988

MovieActionCrime

A large motor yacht becomes the focal point in this action tale when a group of mercenaries decide to capture the vessel. The original owner, who was delivering it to Sydney, Australia, is believed dead but is in fact very much alive, and determined to recover the yacht...

Jack Wilcox

Round Trip to Heaven

Round Trip to Heaven · 1992

Round Trip to Heaven

MovieComedyCrime

Since Larry works at a garage, he gets to use one of the Rolls Royces. There is only one problem, there is a briefcase full of money in the trunk. So when Larry and his cousin Steve decide to go to Palm Springs to look for Ms. Right at a popular beauty pageant, the owner of the briefcase will do the impossible to get it back.

Stoneface

Wiseguy: Pilot

Wiseguy: Pilot · 1987

MovieDramaCrime

This was the feature-length pilot for the hit series. Vinnie Terranova, a Justice Department agent reassigned to the Organized Crime Bureau as a “wiseguy”, a specially trained deep undercover agent. To help support his cover, Vinnie has just finished serving 18 months in a New Jersey prison…

Sonny Steelgrave

Body Rock

Body Rock · 1984

MovieMusicDrama

A disco owner lures a New York breakdancer away from his rapping and dancing friends.

Terrence

Stunts

MovieActionDrama

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.

Paul Salerno

The Neon Empire

The Neon Empire · 1989

The Neon Empire

MovieCrimeDrama

New York mobster Junior Moloff begins plans to transform Las Vegas into a mecca of prostitution and gambling.

Junior Molov

Miami Vice

Miami Vice · 1984

SeriesCrimeDrama

The story of the Miami Police Department's vice squad and its efforts to end drug trafficking and prostitution, centered on the unlikely partnership of Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs - who first meet when Tubbs is undercover in a drug cartel.

Bobby Profile

Jake and the Fatman

Jake and the Fatman · 1987

Jake and the Fatman

SeriesDramaCrime

Jake and the Fatman is a television crime drama starring William Conrad as prosecutor J. L. "Fatman" McCabe and Joe Penny as investigator Jake Styles. The series ran on CBS for five seasons from 1987 to 1992. Diagnosis: Murder was a spin-off of this series.

Barney Miller

Barney Miller · 1975

Barney Miller is the kind of cop we'd all like to run into. Always sensible, he maintains order over a band of detectives who gamble, hit on anything in skirts, go to renaissance philosophy conventions for fun, and would really prefer to be writing. Nearly all of the action takes place in the squad room where citizens and criminals are brought in to complicate the mix.

David Salas

The Equalizer

The Equalizer · 1985

SeriesAction & AdventureCrime

Robert McCall is a former agent of a secret government agency who is now running his own private crime fighting operation where he fashions himself as "The Equalizer." It is a service for victims of the system who have exhausted all possible means of seeking justice and have nowhere to go. McCall promises to even out the odds for them.

Geoffery Dryden

Wiseguy

Wiseguy · 1987

SeriesCrimeDrama

Vinnie Terranova does time in a New Jersey penitentiary to set up his undercover role as an agent for the OCB (Organized Crime Bureau) of the United States. His roots in a traditional Italian city neighborhood form the underlying dramatic base throughout the series, bringing him into conflict with his conservative mother and other family members while acting undercover as syndicate enforcer.

All in the Family

All in the Family · 1971

All in the Family

Archie Bunker, a working class bigot, constantly squabbles with his family over the important issues of the day.

Man At Clinic (uncredited)

The Hitchhiker

The Hitchhiker · 1983

SeriesDramaCrime

A young hitchhiker introduces characters who are about to experience a frightening and sometimes supernatural incident of some kind in this moody anthology series.

Eric Coleman

The Streets of San Francisco

The Streets of San Francisco · 1972

The Streets of San Francisco

SeriesCrimeDrama

Two police officers, the older Lt. Stone and the young upstart Inspector Keller, investigate murders and other serious crimes in San Francisco. Stone would become a second father to Keller as he learned the rigors and procedures of detective work.

The Jeffersons

The Jeffersons · 1975

SeriesComedyFamily

Sitcom following a successful African-American couple, George and Louise “Weezyö Jefferson as they “move on up” from working-class Queens to a ritzy Manhattan apartment. A spin-off of All in the Family.

Robert Phelps

Kojak

SeriesCrimeDrama

A bald, lollipop sucking police detective with a fiery righteous attitude battles crime in New York City.

Gallagher (uncredited)

Crime Story

Crime Story · 1986

SeriesCrimeDrama

The hard-boiled saga of hair-trigger cop Lieutenant Mike Torello and his obsessive pursuit of ruthless gangster Ray Luca.

US Atty. Harry Breitel

The Ray Bradbury Theater

The Ray Bradbury Theater · 1985

The Ray Bradbury Theater

SeriesSci-Fi & FantasyDrama

A Canadian-produced fantastic anthology series scripted by famed science-fiction author Ray Bradbury. Many of the teleplays were based upon Bradbury's novels and short stories.

Faerie Tale Theatre

Faerie Tale Theatre · 1982

Faerie Tale Theatre

SeriesDramaFamily

A live-action children's television anthology series retelling popular fairy tales.

Grand Vizier

The Neon Empire

The Neon Empire · 1989

The Neon Empire

SeriesDramaCrime

New York mobster Junior Moloff begins plans to transform Las Vegas into a mecca of prostitution and gambling.

Junior Molov