Bill | |
---|---|
Genre | Biography Drama |
Written by | Corey Blechman |
Story by | Barry Morrow |
Directed by | Anthony Page |
Starring | Mickey Rooney Dennis Quaid Largo Woodruff Anna Maria Horsford Harry Goz |
Theme music composer | William Kraft |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | Alan Landsburg Bernard Sofronski |
Producer | Mel Stuart |
Production locations | New York City Yonkers, New York College of Mount Saint Vincent |
Cinematography | Mike Fash |
Editor | George Hively |
Running time | 100 minutes |
Production company | Alan Landsburg Productions |
Original release | |
Network | CBS |
Release | December 22, 1981 |
Bill is a 1981 American made-for-television biographical drama film starring Mickey Rooney and Dennis Quaid based on the life of Bill Sackter. [1] [2] The film was broadcast on CBS on December 22, 1981. [3] A sequel, Bill: On His Own , was released in 1983. [4] Writer/filmmaker Barry Morrow, portrayed in the film by Dennis Quaid, based the story on his life experiences with Sackter, and later became his legal guardian. Sackter, who did not have autism, would also serve as a partial inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbitt in Morrow's early draft screenplay for the 1988 film Rain Man.
Mickey Rooney won an Emmy Award and Golden Globe for his performance, and the film also received a Golden Globe for Best TV Film. [5] [6]
Bill is a man with an intellectual disability in his 60s. He ventures out into the world for the first time after spending most of his life at Grandville, a dreary inner city institution in Minneapolis, Minnesota, since age seven (when his mother sent him there). Bill is taken in by a kind family and learns what it means to love for the first time in his life.
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her performance in Robert Siodmak's film noir The Killers. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in John Ford's Mogambo (1953), and for best actress for both a Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for her performance in John Huston's The Night of the Iguana (1964). She was a part of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Mickey Rooney was an American actor, producer, radio entertainer, and vaudevillian. In a career spanning nearly nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the silent-film era. He was the top box-office attraction from 1939 to 1941, and one of the best-paid actors of that era. At the height of a career marked by declines and comebacks, Rooney performed the role of Andy Hardy in a series of 16 films in the 1930s and 1940s that epitomized the mainstream United States self-image.
Rain Man is a 1988 American road comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass. It tells the story of abrasive, selfish, young wheeler-dealer Charlie Babbitt, who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed virtually all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond, an autistic savant of whose existence Charlie was unaware. Charlie is left with only his father's beloved vintage car and rosebushes. Valeria Golino also stars as Charlie's girlfriend, Susanna. Morrow created the character of Raymond after meeting Kim Peek, a real-life savant; his characterization was based on both Peek and Bill Sackter, a good friend of Morrow who was the subject of Bill, an earlier film that Morrow wrote.
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Alan Landsburg Productions (ALP) was an independent television production company founded by Alan Landsburg in 1971. The company produced In Search of... and That's Incredible!. The company also found success in television movies, and scripted shows. They made a few theatrical movies as well, most notably Jaws 3-D (1983).
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Bill: On His Own is a 1983 American made-for-television biographical drama film and a sequel to Bill (1981) starring Mickey Rooney as Bill Sackter. However, it was far less successful.
Alan William Landsburg was an American television writer, producer, and director. He was the founder and CEO of Alan Landsburg Productions and the Landsburg Company and was involved in producing over fifty movies of the week. He had over 2,000 hours of television production experience.
William Sackter was an American man with an intellectual disability whose fame as the subject of two television movies and a feature-length documentary helped change national attitudes on persons with disabilities.
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