Julie Bovasso
Also Known As: Julia Anne Bovasso
Biography: Julia Anne Bovasso (August 1, 1930 – September 14, 1991) was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. Bovasso was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of this borough, the daughter of Angela Mary (née Padovani) and Bernard Michael Bovasso, a teamster. She was Albanian-Italian-American. She attended The High School of Music & Art in Manhattan. Bovasso appeared in numerous films, including Saturday Night Fever (1977) as Florence Manero, the mother of John Travolta's character, Tony Manero. She reprised the role in the film's 1983 sequel Staying Alive. Before Saturday Night Fever, she appeared in the 1970 Otto Preminger film Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon. In addition to Staying Alive, she was in a number of films in the 1980s, including Willie & Phil (1980), The Verdict (1982), Daniel (1983), Off Beat (1986), Wise Guys (1986), Moonstruck (1987). In the 1990s, Bovasso was seen in Betsy's Wedding (1990) and My Blue Heaven (1990). On-stage, Bavasso wrote and appeared in avant-garde productions off-Broadway such as Jean Genet's The Maids. For the latter, she won the first Best Actress Obie (Off-Broadway) Award in 1956, presented to her by Shelley Winters. Before her film work, Bovasso established the experimental Tempo Playhouse at 4 St. Marks Place in Manhattan during the 1950s. There, she introduced works of the Theater of the Absurd, including works by the playwrights Jean Genet, Eugene Ionesco and Michel de Ghelderode, to the professional theater in the United States. Bovasso also performed with The Living Theater and had a longstanding relationship with La Mama Experimental Theatre Club. From 1968 to 1975, she directed many of her own original works at La MaMa, including Gloria and Esperanza, Schubert's Last Serenade, The Moondreamers, Standard Safety, and The Nothing Kid. In addition to her work as a director and actor, her playwriting credits include the four-hour play Gloria and Esperanza, which Village Voice theatre critic Jerry Tallmer described as "a miracle, a mythopoetic fireworks display." A sought-after acting coach, Bovasso was known as an exacting instructor and her private New York workshops regularly included prominent performers. As per the DVD commentary, Bovasso coached both Cher and Olympia Dukakis on their Brooklyn accents in the film Moonstruck. In earlier performances, she played Rose Corelli Fraser in the short-lived soap opera From These Roots. She was fired from that show due to a disagreement with producers.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Birthday: August 01, 1930
Deathday: September 14, 1991
Adult: No
Gender: Female
Popularity:
Known For:
Moonstruck
Overview: 37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Johnny, even though she doesn't love him. When she meets his estranged younger brother Ronny, an emotional and passionate man, she finds herself drawn to him. She tries to resist, but Ronny, who blames his brother for the loss of his hand, has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls for Ronny, she learns that she's not the only one in her family with a secret romance.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-12-16
Popularity:
Saturday Night Fever
Overview: Tony spends his Saturdays at a disco where his stylish moves raise his popularity among the patrons. But his life outside the disco is not easy and things change when he gets attracted to Stephanie.
Genres: Music Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-12-16
Popularity:
Just Me and You
Overview: A salesman travels cross country with a quirky New Yorker.
Genres: Romance Drama Comedy TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1978-05-22
Popularity:
Article 99
Overview: Dr. Richard Sturgess leads a team of compassionate doctors at a veteran's hospital. Along with Drs. Morgan, Handleman and Van Dorn, he fights to deliver adequate care to needy veterans in the face of funding cuts and a corrupt administration. To succeed, the staff may have to bend the rules and circumvent the villainous "Article 99," a bureaucratic loophole that prevents veterans from receiving the benefits they deserve.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-03-13
Popularity:
The Verdict
Overview: Frank Galvin is a down-on-his-luck lawyer and reduced to drinking and ambulance chasing, when a former associate reminds him of his obligations in a medical malpractice suit by serving it to Galvin on a silver platter—all parties are willing to settle out of court. Blundering his way through the preliminaries, Galvin suddenly realizes that the case should actually go to court—to punish the guilty, to get a decent settlement for his clients... and to restore his standing as a lawyer.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-12-08
Popularity:
Wise Guys
Overview: 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.
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-04-17
Popularity:
Betsy's Wedding
Overview: Offbeat fashion student Betsy Hopper and her straight-laced investment-banker fiancé Jake Lovell just want an intimate little wedding reception, but Betsy's father Eddie, a Long Island construction contractor, feels so threatened by Jake's rich WASP parents that he blows the ceremony up into a bank-breaking showpiece, sending his wife Lola into a financial panic.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-06-22
Popularity:
Off Beat
Overview: 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.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-04-10
Popularity:
Daniel
Overview: The fictionalized story of Daniel, the son of Paul and Rochelle Isaacson, who were executed as Soviet spies in the 1950s. As a graduate student in New York in the 1960s, Daniel is involved in the antiwar protest movement and contrasts his experiences to the memory of his parents and his belief that they were wrongfully convicted.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1983-08-26
Popularity:
King Crab
Overview: Two brothers take over the family seafood business, and battle each other for control of the company - and their father's attention.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1980-06-15
Popularity:
Doubletake
Overview: Two corpses are found in different locations with their heads severed and exchanged. Frank Janek is called on to head the team of detectives investigating. Meanwhile, Janek is trying to find out why an old friend and colleague committed suicide, which eventually leads to a romantic situation with photographer Caroline Wallace and the discovery of some major corruption among his superiors, all of which has little or nothing to do with the murder story.
Genres: Action Thriller TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-11-24
Popularity:
Hot Paint
Overview: Two losers rob a rich guy and discover that, among the loot, they've taken a rare painting worth $2.8 million. John Larroquette plays his usual rude, selfish character-here named Gus - and he suckers Willy (Gregory Harrison) into his scheme to rob the mansion. The two losers have to try to figure out how to sell the valuable but high-profile item without getting busted. They travel the world looking for potential buyers but always end up short. Everyone can see that they are novices in the art world and buffoons in general.
Genres: Crime Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-03-20
Popularity:
The Last Tenant
Overview: Family members face hard decisions about the care of their elderly father who needs constant care and can no longer safely live alone, which particularly affects the eldest son's life, placing his impending marriage in jeopardy.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1978-06-25
Popularity:
Staying Alive
Overview: It's five years later and Tony Manero's Saturday Night Fever is still burning. Now he's strutting toward his biggest challenger yet - making it as a dancer on the Broadway stage.
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1983-07-11
Popularity:
The Gentleman Bandit
Overview: Based on the real-life ordeal of Baltimore priest Bernard Pagano, who was accused of several armed robberies in the late Seventies.
Genres: Crime Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1981-05-06
Popularity:
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
Overview: Junie Moon is in the hospital after her face has been disfigured by her deranged boyfriend. There she meets two other patients — Arthur, an epileptic, and Warren, who is gay and uses a wheelchair. The unlikely trio of outcasts decides to move in together and manages to enjoy a series of adventures as they endure various forms of prejudice and struggle with their own issues.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-05-11
Popularity:
A Time to Triumph
Overview: Construction worker, Chuck Hassan, has a heart attack and is no longer able to work and support his family. After losing their home and savings, his wife, Concetta, looks for work and decides to join the Army, to take advantage of the security and benefits. She advances quickly and eventually becomes a helicopter pilot.
Genres: TV Movie Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-01-07
Popularity:
The Sin of Jesus
Overview: An egg-sorting woman shrugs off even the appearance of Christ. From Isaak Babel story.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-12-10
Popularity:
Moonstruck: At the Heart of an Italian Family
Overview: Documentary highlighting the development of the screenplay into a film with the desired cast. It also describes the closeness among Italian families, which comes from the kitchen, and how a real Italian father is the source of believability for the film.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2006-01-31
Popularity:
Willie and Phil
Overview: 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.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1980-08-15
Popularity:
My Blue Heaven
Overview: FBI agent Barney Coopersmith is assigned to protect former Mafia figure turned informant Vincent Antonelli. In the witness protection program one is supposed to keep a low profile, but that is something that Antonelli has trouble doing. Coopersmith certainly has his hands full keeping Antonelli away from the Mafia hitmen who want to stop him testifying, not to mention the nightclubs...
Genres: Action Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-08-17
Popularity:
The Iceman Cometh
Overview: Theodore Hickman, a hardware salesman, makes by-yearly visits to Harry Hope's 1910-era waterfront bar for his periodical drinking binges. But on this visit he has decided to try to save the bar's patrons from their "lying pipe dreams."
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-11-14
Popularity: