![Basil Hoffman](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w185/iDAK5OkF0tHs049IB858uQ0NYjX.jpg)
Basil Hoffman
Basil Harry Hoffman (January 18, 1938 — September 17, 2021) was an American actor with a film and television career spanning five decades, mostly in supporting roles. He starred in films with many award-winning directors, including Alan Pakula and Robert Redford. He has also authored two books about acting, including Acting and How to Be Good at It.
Hoffman was born in Houston, Texas in January 1938, the son of Beulah (née Novoselsky) and David Hoffman, an antique dealer. He graduated from Tulane University; and he spent two years at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, receiving a scholarship for the second, graduating year.
His thirteen years of work in New York included many plays, some roles in episodic television, a recurring character on One Life to Live on ABC, hundreds of commercials and a film role in Lady Liberty with Sophia Loren, directed by Mario Monicelli.
He made his first trip to Los Angeles in 1974. In that season, he filmed a theatrical feature, At Long Last Love, for Peter Bogdanovich. In the years that followed he appeared in two television movies, television episodes of Kung Fu, The Rockford Files, Sanford and Son (2 roles), Police Woman, Columbo, Kojak, M*A*S*H (2 roles), Barney Miller and several TV commercials. He had recurring roles as the fingerprint technician on Ellery Queen and as Principal Dingleman on Square Pegs.
Although most of his work was in film and television, he made a few stage appearances, most notably in Sand Mountain, by Romulus Linney, for which he won a Drama-Logue Award, the first staged reading of Martin E. Brooks’ Joe and Flo at the Actors Studio, and the world premiere of William Blinn's Walking Peoria.
He was best known for his work with distinguished film directors, including Peter Bogdanovich, Mario Monicelli, Richard Benjamin, Carl Reiner (twice), Peter Medak (six times) and Alan J. Pakula (twice); Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen, Paolo Sorrentino, Michel Hazanavicius, Steven Spielberg, Delbert Mann, Blake Edwards, Stanley Donen, Sydney Pollack, Ron Howard and Robert Redford (twice as director); and others. His films include: All the President's Men, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, My Favorite Year, The Box, The Electric Horseman, Night Shift, Lucky Lady, Switch, The Milagro Beanfield War, Rio, I Love You, The Pineville Heist, and the Academy Award-winning Best Pictures Ordinary People and The Artist, among many others.
A long-time private acting teacher and coach, he was also a frequent guest lecturer and teacher at prestigious professional and academic institutions, including the American Film Institute, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Emerson College, the University of Southern California, Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and the Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts in Beirut, Lebanon.
In 2008, he returned to Beirut as a U.S. State Department Cultural Envoy to Lebanon to teach acting and directing at the University of Balamand's Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts, Lebanese University, Notre Dame University and St. Joseph University's Institut D'Etude Sceniques Audiovisuelles et Cinematographiques. ...
Source: Article "Basil Hoffman" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 11.361 |
Birthday | 1938-01-18 |
Place of Birth | Houston, Texas, USA |
Also Known As | Basil Harry Hoffman, |
![Close Encounters of the Third Kind](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/yaPx3cK9zGFX3SbcKwxWM1QIbUh.jpg)
1977
![Close Encounters of the Third Kind](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/yaPx3cK9zGFX3SbcKwxWM1QIbUh.jpg)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
7.361/4090
After an encounter with UFOs, an electricity linesman feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is abou...
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![Down with Love](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/8hpGe0U8oK05dEjVjACjw6TgbWm.jpg)
2003
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Down with Love
6.112/694
In 1962 New York City, love blossoms between a playboy journalist and a feminist advice author.
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Down with Love
![My Favorite Year](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/xksAhZJx1WmHM03OaePNe9IiEBt.jpg)
1982
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My Favorite Year
6.8/101
Fledgling comic Benjy Stone can't believe his luck when his childhood hero, the swashbuckling matinee idol Alan Swann, gets booked to appear on the va...
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My Favorite Year
![Comes a Horseman](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/iSX6HqUJM0Caxm4hK5N2EAPbLaV.jpg)
1978
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Comes a Horseman
6.026/61
Ella Connors is a single woman who gets pressured to sell her failing cattle farm to her corrupt ex-suitor, Jacob Ewing. She asks for help from her ne...
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![Night Shift](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/srd48SpmL8KNjPYCobCEAbgohYK.jpg)
1982
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6.003/191
A nebbish of a morgue attendant gets shunted back to the night shift where he is shackled with an obnoxious neophyte partner who dreams of the "one gr...
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![Ordinary People](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/kPt2AQiSP39g3I1TtAnjSGQwN9S.jpg)
1980
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7.452/606
Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son. Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the e...
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Ordinary People
![The Artist](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/z68py0ZqPgeacGPG54AGVRbNBS7.jpg)
2011
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7.456/3186
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![3 Geezers!](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/xBjjItGr37WrsaptRuMecxbJiTW.jpg)
2013
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3 Geezers!
4.022/23
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![Hefner: Unauthorized](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/yo0a9Lr4AYyvpKcbn6F1GzfREsp.jpg)
1999
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4/2
The unauthorized biography of Hugh Hefner and the birth of the Playboy empire.
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![When Life Gives You Lemons](https://movieunlimited.net/assets/no-poster.png)
2010
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When Life Gives You Lemons
0/0
Retired Oscar-winning actor Calvin Adams attempts to outwit some neighborhood kids in a battle to sell the most lemonade.
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![Culture](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/lrSuhJZ1m2qLQ2IRjSDLc2Z0koA.jpg)
1997
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6/2
Culture is a 1997 short film directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, with Greg Germann, Florence Stanley, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film was nom...
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2014
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Throwdown
3.1/12
A young criminal defense attorney struggles with a homicide case that is not as cut and dry as it appears while battling a drinking habit. The story g...
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![The French American](https://movieunlimited.net/assets/no-poster.png)
2015
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0/0
The French American is a drama film directed by Darla Rae
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![Rio, I Love You](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/e4MEGQlEE7VojlBpwaJvjMcXJPg.jpg)
2014
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Rio, I Love You
4.9/42
The third episode of the Cities of Love franchise, Rio, I Love You is an anthology, created by 10 visionary directors from across the globe. The story...
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![Surreal Estate](https://movieunlimited.net/assets/no-poster.png)
2011
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0/0
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![Mimi & Me](https://movieunlimited.net/assets/no-poster.png)
1991
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0/0
Mimi, a free spirited girl out shopping, is given a mysterious box by a dying man, who instructs her not to give it to his killers. While being chased...
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![The Ratings Game](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/p4IeHxPpbXnjvBYtwjuzBwqHhE6.jpg)
1984
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The Ratings Game
5.659/22
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![The Pineville Heist](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/1AT36nqhp4qjimXpCY1ops7xCVX.jpg)
2016
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7/1
A high school teen stumbles into the aftermath of a bank robbery gone wrong and finds himself locked inside his school trying to keep himself and his...
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The Pineville Heist
![Communion](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/5WsMyE6wwY2QbM3fpAePOX3e7pZ.jpg)
1989
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Communion
5.4/158
A novelist's wife and son see him changed by an apparent encounter with aliens in the mountains.
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![The Ice Runner](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/8so0Mj662NPjDjrSCnxVzdAKXCr.jpg)
1992
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The Ice Runner
5/4
US-agent West travels to Moscow for the CIA in order to buy Russian weapons and to send them to the rebels in Afghanistan. When West gets caught he hi...
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![Hail, Caesar!](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/txvoksUbyxqvaOvDfEbwW5nEcmX.jpg)
2016
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Hail, Caesar!
5.912/3689
When a Hollywood star mysteriously disappears in the middle of filming, the studio sends their fixer to get him back.
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![The Last Word](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/zvwBd0nsW5OqTs4ndEJLQY62leF.jpg)
2017
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The Last Word
6.567/344
A retired businesswoman – who tries to control everything around her – decides to write her own obituary. A young journalist takes up the task of find...
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The Last Word
![The Electric Horseman](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/x9wifiDa8q7oK4GIBpJnUjGVSww.jpg)
1979
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The Electric Horseman
6.058/139
A former champion rodeo rider is reduced to using his saddle skills to promote a breakfast cereal in a gaudy Las Vegas show. When he's asked to perfor...
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The Electric Horseman
![Love at First Bite](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/4uCIqSr0SiUbjEaq25tWhgHq4w.jpg)
1979
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Love at First Bite
5.995/91
Dracula and Renefield relocate to 70's era New York in search of Cindy Sondheim, the reincarnation of Dracula's one true love, Mina Harker. "Trouble a...
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![The Great Ice Rip-Off](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/qBmWCcLNxvSa6rvU3sJC7GifU09.jpg)
1974
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The Great Ice Rip-Off
7/1
A retired cop goes up against a slick jewel thief and his gang, who have pulled a diamond heist and are trying to smuggle the diamonds cross-country.
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The Great Ice Rip-Off
![The Box](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/xMAmOu6xl4CsstixcuecBle9krd.jpg)
2009
![The Box](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/xMAmOu6xl4CsstixcuecBle9krd.jpg)
The Box
5.612/1707
Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A...
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The Box
![Switch](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/ddmOMoFWMpXJSU0YFddBU7d6kWT.jpg)
1991
![Switch](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/ddmOMoFWMpXJSU0YFddBU7d6kWT.jpg)
Switch
5.9/217
Steve Brooks, a sexist womanizer, is killed by a group of his angry former lovers. In heaven, he makes a bargain with God for redemption and agrees to...
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Switch
![All of Me](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/psPV28pJfFXN3RNxPe2CPkZwUMl.jpg)
1984
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All of Me
6.498/328
Just before stubborn millionaire Edwina Cutwater dies, she asks her uptight lawyer, Roger Cobb, to amend her will so that her soul will pass to the yo...
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All of Me
![Mr. Roberts](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/2vg0uDyelY32BGjyrERLPf9bgHv.jpg)
2019
![Mr. Roberts](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/2vg0uDyelY32BGjyrERLPf9bgHv.jpg)
Mr. Roberts
0/0
The question is...do you ever really know anyone?
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Mr. Roberts
![Love’s Dark Ride](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/poCzhgK0lDYByBTXEz8b9rNeXsN.jpg)
1978
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Love’s Dark Ride
6.5/2
A young advertising executive, blinded in a gun accident, attempts to rebuild his life and career by living through a nightclub entertainer who befrie...
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Love’s Dark Ride
![Jennifer: A Woman’s Story](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/abpHaArSwGXWjiFxhRHQYwj6Z3n.jpg)
1979
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Jennifer: A Woman’s Story
0/0
The widow of a wealthy shipbuilder tries to hold onto his business and becomes involved with boardroom intrigue in her bitter struggle to maintain con...
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Jennifer: A Woman’s Story
![At Long Last Love](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/5bAMJ8SU3zdggtyJ3Iy2tyXXSf2.jpg)
1975
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At Long Last Love
5.4/24
Four socialites unexpectedly clash: heiress Brooke Carter runs into gambler Johnny Spanish at the race track while playboy Michael O. Pritchard nearly...
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At Long Last Love
![Lady Liberty](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/1gqFXFpk4VSB7txx31RmSdMctU1.jpg)
1971
![Lady Liberty](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/1gqFXFpk4VSB7txx31RmSdMctU1.jpg)
Lady Liberty
5.4/18
The story concerns the difficulties and reactions of Maddalena (Sophia Loren), an Italian visitor to New York City. She has come to the country carryi...
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Lady Liberty
![Ellery Queen: Too Many Suspects](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/7Pp8v6KMlt6XWMgRgvdiG48hNMw.jpg)
1975
![Ellery Queen: Too Many Suspects](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/7Pp8v6KMlt6XWMgRgvdiG48hNMw.jpg)
Ellery Queen: Too Many Suspects
0/0
When a famous fashion designer is found murdered, Inspector Richard Queen of the NYPD is baffled by her dying clue, prompting him to bring in his son,...
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Ellery Queen: Too Many Suspects
![Cage Without a Key](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/vDMDQ5wZ815odjyDFdrCEvN25NT.jpg)
1975
![Cage Without a Key](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/vDMDQ5wZ815odjyDFdrCEvN25NT.jpg)
Cage Without a Key
0/0
A high school girl who needs a ride accepts one from a boy she doesn't know. He then forces her to participate in a robbery, in which a clerk is kille...
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Cage Without a Key
![Games Mother Never Taught You](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/u3rFXoasLZokoTRHbQojxJubJcG.jpg)
1982
![Games Mother Never Taught You](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/u3rFXoasLZokoTRHbQojxJubJcG.jpg)
Games Mother Never Taught You
0/0
Hard-working career wife Laura becomes the first female executive in an all-male office and is dismayed to find she now has to learn the rules of the...
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Games Mother Never Taught You
![Scout's Honor](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/yu3vAfZzggKtA33sUCXvONN9YM9.jpg)
1980
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Scout's Honor
5.5/2
Gary Coleman stars as little Joey Seymour, a clever but lonely orphan shuffled from one foster home to the next, who is also determined to be the best...
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Scout's Honor
![Welcome Home, Jellybean](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/8NFLI7SnxdOtWFGfIdJgiPHNN78.jpg)
1984
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Welcome Home, Jellybean
0/0
A CBS Schoolbreak Special about a 12-year-old mentally-challenged girl whose parents decide to remove her from the institution where she was raised, a...
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Welcome Home, Jellybean
![All the President's Men](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/cPtSHR7D2WGsDBfnC5DxV927hKn.jpg)
1976
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All the President's Men
7.672/1751
During the 1972 elections, two reporters' investigation sheds light on the controversial Watergate scandal that compels President Nixon to resign from...
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All the President's Men
![The Elvira Show](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/vLmOaOMcpGaBFxgcwI0NYGyTcKK.jpg)
1993
![The Elvira Show](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/vLmOaOMcpGaBFxgcwI0NYGyTcKK.jpg)
The Elvira Show
0/0
Filmed for CBS in 1993, this unaired pilot features the witch Elvira, her aunt, and their pet cat welcoming a long-lost niece into their new Kansas ho...
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The Elvira Show
![Lucky Louie](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/xy0Zuq3MBxSKK5VdDcFj4MYeymG.jpg)
2023
![Lucky Louie](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/xy0Zuq3MBxSKK5VdDcFj4MYeymG.jpg)
Lucky Louie
0/0
A retired cop teams up with four ex-convicts and a behavioral science student to solve a fifty year old bank robbery.
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Lucky Louie
![Lambada](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/ckioJl5xDaCTCDBKiySYgn4TrqG.jpg)
1990
![Lambada](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/ckioJl5xDaCTCDBKiySYgn4TrqG.jpg)
Lambada
5.4/34
Kevin Laird is a Beverly Hills school teacher by day and a mystery man by night. Using his lambada dance moves to first earn the kid's respect and acc...
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Lambada
![The Milagro Beanfield War](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/rVLZuiNfKua7C2x3rGUiAR8wGEc.jpg)
1988
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The Milagro Beanfield War
6.418/79
The accidental breakdown of an irrigation valve launches a hot confrontation between the mainly Latino farmers in a tiny New Mexico town and the real...
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The Milagro Beanfield War
![Third Act](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/iAAlXgd5WLYMo2z0oe7PJlLo61L.jpg)
2022
![Third Act](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/iAAlXgd5WLYMo2z0oe7PJlLo61L.jpg)
Third Act
0/0
"Third Act" follows a beloved theater troupe facing eviction, prompting them to scheme a bank heist while filming on-site. Combining the humor of 'The...
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