Wings Hauser | |
---|---|
Born | Gerald Dwight Hauser December 12, 1947 Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US |
Other names | J.D. Hauser |
Occupation(s) | Actor, film director |
Years active | 1966–present |
Spouses | Margaret Boltinhouse (m. 1970;div. 1973)Cass Warner (m. 1974;div. 1977)Nancy Locke (m. 1979;div. 1999)Cali Lili Hauser (m. 2002) |
Children | 2, including Cole |
Parent(s) | Dwight Hauser Geraldine Thienes |
Gerald Dwight "Wings" Hauser (born December 12, 1947) is an American actor, screenwriter, film director, and musician. A prolific character actor, he has appeared in over 100 film and television productions since 1967, and was once called "the biggest star you've never heard of." [1]
Hauser received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his supporting role in Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987).
Hauser was born in Hollywood, California, the son of Geraldine (née Thienes) and Dwight Hauser, a director and producer. [2] His brother is actor Erich Hauser. The elder Hauser's career was hampered by McCarthyism, and the family moved outside Los Angeles when Hauser was 8 years old, where his father started a small theatre group. [1]
Hauser made his film debut at the age of 18, when he played a small role in the 1967 war film First to Fight. Although from an acting family, Hauser did not seriously pursue acting at first, and spent most of his twenties working as a folk musician and busker. For a period in the early 1970s, Hauser was homeless, and spent several months living in a vacant garage with his 13-month-old daughter Bright. [1]
In 1975, Hauser released an album for RCA titled Your Love Keeps Me Off the Streets. For this LP, he used the name "Wings Livinryte." [3] Though the album was not a success, it enabled Hauser to move into more stable housing with his daughter. The same year, he appeared in an episode of the television series Cannon, earning his SAG card.
Hauser first attracted notice in December 1977, when as an unknown he was cast to play Greg Foster on the soap opera The Young and the Restless , succeeding Brian Kerwin in the part. Hauser remained with the show until 1981, when he was succeeded by Howard McGillin. He returned to the part nearly thirty years later for three episodes, in 2010.
Hauser's had his film breakthrough playing the villainous pimp Ramrod in Vice Squad (1982). Hauser also wrote and performed the film's theme song, "Neon Slime".
In 1983, he wrote the story for the Paramount Pictures box-office hit Uncommon Valor. The film was stories of a childhood friend, Gary Dickerson, who had been to Vietnam. "I saw that he had left something behind in Viet Nam and that triggered the whole thing," said Hauser. "And then I became aware of the MIA and the POW situation and said well that will be the excuse to go back to Nam and get the POWs, but what they’re really going back for is their own clarity and their own integrity right? And that’s the story. That’s the whole film." [4]
He starred in the 1982 made-for-TV movie Hear No Evil as Garrard. [5] [6] [7] In 1987, he was co-starred in the Norman Mailer-directed Tough Guys Don't Dance, earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male.
Hauser appeared in 41 television series, including recurring roles in Beverly Hills 90210 , Murder, She Wrote , and Roseanne , and a cameo as a juror in the season-4 episode "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty" of Monk .
He appeared in the French movie Rubber , [8] directed by French musician Quentin Dupieux. [9]
Hauser has a daughter, Bright Hauser, from his first marriage to Jane Boltinhouse. From his second marriage to Cass Warner Sperling, daughter of Milton Sperling, he has a son, actor Cole Hauser. Wings Hauser is married to actress Cali Hauser. The Melbourne Underground Film Festival held a retrospective with his films in 2009.
Eugene Harrison Roche was an American actor and the original "Ajax Man" in 1970s television commercials.
Walter Jack Gotell was a German-British actor. He was well known for his role as General Gogol, head of the KGB, in the Roger Moore era of the James Bond film series as well as having played the role of Morzeny, a villain, in From Russia With Love. He also appeared as Gogol in the final part of The Living Daylights (1987), Timothy Dalton's debut Bond film.
Richard Lynch was an American actor best known for portraying villains in films and television.
Robert DoQui was an American actor who starred in film and on television. He is best known for his roles as King George in the 1973 film Coffy, starring Pam Grier; as Wade in Robert Altman's 1975 film Nashville; and as Sgt. Warren Reed in the 1987 science fiction film RoboCop, the 1990 sequel RoboCop 2, and the 1993 sequel RoboCop 3. He is also known for his voice as Pablo Robertson on the cartoon series Harlem Globetrotters from 1970 to 1973.
Donald Lee Stroud is an American actor, musician, and surfer. Stroud has appeared in over 100 films and 200 television shows. He portrayed Disabled Stunt Driver Carl in Dukes Of Hazzard Season 2, Ep. 24 and 25 "Carnival of Thrills." 1980.
Vice Squad is a 1982 American exploitation crime thriller film directed by Gary Sherman and starring Wings Hauser, Season Hubley, and Gary Swanson. Its plot follows a Los Angeles businesswoman-turned-prostitute who is enlisted by the Los Angeles Police Department to help apprehend a homicidal and misogynistic pimp. The original music score was composed by Joe Renzetti and Keith Rubinstein. Wings Hauser sang the vocal track for the film's opening and closing theme song, "Neon Slime".
Hamilton Camp was a British-American actor and singer. He was relocated to the United States with his family when he was a young child. He is known for his work as a folk singer during the 1960s, and eventually branched out into acting in films and television.
William Lance LeGault Sr. was an American actor. He was best known as U.S. Army Colonel Roderick Decker in the 1980s American television series The A-Team.
Michael Preston is an English international film and television actor, and singer, sometimes credited as Mike Preston.
William Berger, also known as Bill Berger and Wilhelm Berger, born Wilhelm Thomas Berger was an American actor, mostly associated with Euro and spaghetti Westerns.
Beau Starr is an American actor who has starred in movies and on television. He is known for his film role as Sheriff Ben Meeker in the 1988 horror film Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers; he reprised his role in the 1989 sequel Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. Many also remember him as Lt. Harding Welsh in Due South.
Arthur James Evans is an American actor who has made multiple film and television program appearances over three decades.
Jared Christopher Martin was an American film and television actor. He was best known for his role as Steven "Dusty" Farlow in the 1978 series Dallas and for roles on two science fiction TV series, The Fantastic Journey and War of the Worlds.
Charles John Hallahan was an American film, television, and stage actor. His films include Going in Style, and Nightwing (1979), The Thing (1982), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Vision Quest and Pale Rider (1985), Cast a Deadly Spell (1991), and Dante's Peak (1997). On television he appeared in The Rockford Files, Happy Days and Hawaii Five-O, played Chet Wilke in Lou Grant (1979–1982), M* A* S* H and Hill Street Blues (1981), The Equalizer (1985), and as Capt. Charlie Devane in Hunter from 1986 to 1991.
Yoram Globus is an Israeli–American film producer, cinema owner, and distributor. He has been involved in over 300 full-length motion pictures and he is most known for his association with The Cannon Group, Inc., an American film production company, which he co-owned with his cousin Menahem Golan.
Christopher Connelly was an American actor, best known for his role as Norman Harrington in the successful prime time ABC soap opera Peyton Place. He stayed with the series during its entire five-year run, from 1964 to 1969.
Sidney Hayers was a British film and television director, writer and producer.
Paul Sand is an American actor and comedian.
William Charles Littlejohn was an American animator and union organizer. Littlejohn worked on animated shorts and features in the 1930s through to the 1990s. His notable works include the Tom and Jerry shorts, the Peanuts television specials, the Oscar-winning short The Hole (1962), and the Oscar-nominated A Doonesbury Special (1977). He was inducted into the Cartoon Hall of Fame and received the Winsor McCay Award and garnered lifetime achievement awards from the Annie Awards and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Director Michael Sporn has called Littlejohn "an animation 'God'."
Thomas Francis Duffy is an American actor. He has appeared as the sadistic rapist Charles Wilson in Death Wish II, the paleontologist Dr. Robert Burke in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and as the football-loving dad in Varsity Blues.