Joel Polis | |
---|---|
Born | October 3, 1951 73) | (age
Education | |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1982–present |
Joel Polis (born October 3, 1951) is an American television, film and stage actor. [1]
Polis has appeared in over one hundred television programs and films during his career.
Polis' first film role was the character Fuchs in the 1982 science fiction film The Thing . [2] He appeared in numerous television series including Cheers , Alien Nation , Northern Exposure , Star Trek: Voyager , Roseanne , Seinfeld , Chicago Hope , Boston Legal and CSI . He appeared in a recurring role on the television series Cheers as the mischievous Gary, owner of the rival bar, Gary's Olde Towne Tavern. [3]
Polis's theater credits include performances at the Astor Place Theatre, Hartford Stage, Old Globe Theater, South Coast Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, Odyssey Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, Lillian Theater and the Pasadena Playhouse. He was a guest on NCIS
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1982 | The Thing | Fuchs | |
1983 | Born Beautiful | Ted | |
1984 | Best Defense | First Agent | |
1989 | True Believer | Dean Rabin | |
1990 | My Blue Heaven | U.S. Attorney | |
1990 | The Rookie | Detective Lance | |
1992 | Fly by Night | Halbein | |
1996 | It's My Party | Tim Bergen | |
1999 | Tumbleweeds | Vice Principal | |
2000 | Attraction | William | |
2002 | A Light in the Darkness | Corporate Flunkie #1 | |
2003 | Alien Hunter | Copeland | |
2006 | Fallen Angels | Horace Millhouse | |
2015 | The Return of Mike and Ike | Bad Guy 1 |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1983 | Remington Steele | Eldon Veckmer | 1 episode |
1984 | St. Elsewhere | Jeff Hassett | 1 episode |
1984 | Fatal Vision | Brian Murtagh | 2 episodes |
1985 | T.J. Hooker | John Jenkins | 1 episode |
1985 | Moonlighting | Frank Harbert | 1 episode |
1985 | Scarecrow and Mrs. King | Eddie Munson | 1 episode |
1985 | Cagney & Lacey | Deputy D.A. Ackerman | 1 episode |
1985 | The Twilight Zone | Dad | 1 episode |
1985-1990 | Cheers | Gary | 3 episodes |
1985 | The Hitchhiker | Carl | 1 episode |
1985 | Misfits of Science | Dwayne / Lonnie | 1 episode |
1989 | Gideon Oliver | Iselin Cort | 1 episode |
1989 | Alien Nation | Carl Peterson / Dr. Edward Windsor | 2 episodes |
1992 | Northern Exposure | Matthew Miller | Episode 43: "Blowing Bubbles" |
1993-1994 | Home Improvement | Wes Davidson, President of Binford Tools | 2 episodes |
1995 | Star Trek: Voyager | Ny Terla | Episode: "Time and Again" |
1997 | Seinfeld | Reilly | Episode: "The Comeback" |
2009 | Bones | Mario Trivisonno | Episode: "The Witch in the Wardrobe" |
Cheers is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, for 11 seasons and 275 episodes. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television and was created by the team of James Burrows and Glen and Les Charles. The show is set in the titular bar in Boston, where a group of locals meet to drink, relax, socialize, and escape from their day to day issues.
Christopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and television shows since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990) and Jim Ignatowski in the comedy series Taxi (1978–1983), for which he won two Emmy Awards.
Nathan Lane is an American actor. Since 1975, he has been on stage and screen in both comedic and dramatic roles. His awards include three Tony Awards, seven Drama Desk Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, three Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, The New York Times hailed Lane as being "the greatest stage entertainer of the decade".
Gary "Gedde" Watanabe is an American actor. He is known for voicing the character of Ling in the animated film Mulan (1998) and its sequel Mulan II (2004), as well as playing Long Duk Dong in the film Sixteen Candles (1984) and Takahara "Kaz" Kazihiro in Gung Ho (1986), and Nurse Yosh Takata in the NBC medical drama ER from 1997 to 2003. He was also an original cast member of the Stephen Sondheim musical Pacific Overtures.
George Robert Wendt Jr. is an American actor. He is best known for playing Norm Peterson on the television sitcom Cheers (1982–1993), which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. After Cheers, he starred in his own sitcom, The George Wendt Show (1995), but it was cancelled after only a few episodes. His numerous film roles include Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), No Small Affair (1984), Fletch (1985), The Little Rascals (1994), Spice World (1997), Outside Providence (1999), Santa Buddies (2009), and Sandy Wexler (2017).
Pee-wee Herman is a comedy character created and portrayed by the American comedian Paul Reubens. He starred in films and television series during the 1980s. The childlike Pee-wee Herman character developed as a stage act that quickly led to an HBO special in 1981. As the stage performance gained further popularity, Reubens took the character to motion picture with Pee-wee's Big Adventure in 1985, toning down the adult innuendo for the appeal of children. This paved the way for Pee-wee's Playhouse, an Emmy Award-winning children's series that ran on CBS from 1986 to 1991. Another film, Big Top Pee-wee, was released in 1988.
Annie Golden is an American actress and singer. She first came to prominence as the lead singer of the punk band the Shirts from 1975 to 1981 with whom she recorded three albums. She began her acting career as Mother in the 1977 Broadway revival of Hair; later taking on the role of Jeannie Ryan in the 1979 film version of the musical. Other notable film credits include Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Baby Boom (1987), Longtime Companion (1989), Strictly Business (1991), Prelude to a Kiss (1992), 12 Monkeys (1995), The American Astronaut (2001), It Runs in the Family (2003), Adventures of Power (2008), and I Love You Phillip Morris (2009).
Arvid Laurence Bryggman is an American actor. He is known for playing the role of Dr. John Dixon on the CBS Daytime soap opera As the World Turns. He won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his work on As the World Turns in 1984 and 1987. He received six other Daytime Emmy Award nominations. He has had roles in many theatrical productions, including Ulysses in Nighttown (1974), The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1977), Prelude to a Kiss (1990), Picnic (1994), Proof (2000), Romance (2005), Festen (2006), and Harvey (2012). He has received two Tony Award nominations and won two Obie Awards. He has also appeared in the films ...And Justice for All (1979), Hanky Panky (1982), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) and Spy Game (2001).
Roger Rees was a Welsh actor and director. He won an Olivier Award and a Tony Award for his performance as the lead in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. He also received Obie Awards for his role in The End of the Day and as co-director of Peter and the Starcatcher. Rees was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in November 2015.
Ernest Sabella is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Pumbaa from The Lion King franchise, voicing the character in all media except the 2019 and 2024 films. Sabella's TV roles include Mr. Donald "Twinkie" Twinkacetti in Perfect Strangers (1986-1987), George Shipman in A Fine Romance, and Leon Carosi in Saved by the Bell (1991). His work in Broadway theatre includes starring roles in Guys and Dolls,Chicago,Curtains, and Man of La Mancha.
Mark Linn-Baker is an American actor and director who played Benjy Stone in the film My Favorite Year and Larry Appleton in the television sitcom Perfect Strangers.
Peter Frechette is an American actor. He is a stage actor with two Tony Award nominations for Eastern Standard and Our Country's Good, and frequently stars in the plays of Richard Greenberg. He is well known on TV for playing hacker George on the NBC series Profiler and Peter Montefiore on Thirtysomething. In film, he is known for playing T-Bird Louis DiMucci in the musical Grease 2.
Joel Franklin Higgins is an American actor and singer with a stage career spanning over 50 years.
James Timothy Daly is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Joe Hackett on the NBC sitcom Wings and his recurring role as drug-addicted screenwriter J.T. Dolan on The Sopranos. He starred as Pete Wilder on the ABC medical drama Private Practice from 2007 to 2012. He is also known for his voice role as Clark Kent/Superman in Superman: The Animated Series and several animated Superman movies. From 2014 until 2019, he portrayed Henry McCord, husband of the Secretary of State, on the CBS political drama Madam Secretary, starring Téa Leoni.
Julia Margaret Duffy is an American actress.
Glenne Aimee Headly was an American actress. She was widely known for her roles in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Dick Tracy, and Mr. Holland's Opus. Headly received a Theatre World Award and four Joseph Jefferson Awards and was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Željko Ivanek is a Slovenian-American actor. Known for his work in film, television, and theatre, he is the recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Drama Desk Award, as well as three Tony Award nominations.
David Michael Schramm was an American actor. He was best known for playing the role of Roy Biggins, the curmudgeonly rival airline owner in the TV series Wings.
Donald Ragan Stephenson IV, known as Don Stephenson, is an American actor and stage director. He has numerous credits on both television and in the theatre.
Kelly AuCoin is an American actor who has appeared in film, television, and theater. He is best known as "Dollar" Bill Stern on Billions (Showtime) and Pastor Tim on The Americans (FX). He has had recurring roles on several other American television series, including The Girl from Plainville (Hulu), WeCrashed, The Endgame (NBC), House of Cards (Netflix), and as Hercules Mulligan on the final season of Turn: Washington's Spies (AMC). He frequently appears on stage in New York and venues around the country, such as Manhattan Theatre Club, Signature Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and La Jolla Playhouse. He has had supporting roles in many films, including Steven Spielberg's The Post, The Good House, False Positive, The Kingdom, Julie & Julia, and All That I Am, which won the SXSW Special Jury Award for Ensemble Acting.
The best of the ongoing prank contests between Cheers and Gary's Olde Time Tavern: Sam and the gang are convinced that they have scared Gary (Joel Polis) to death, even attending his elaborate funeral