Jim Backus
Birthday: 1913-02-25 Place of Birth: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Synopsis
Jim Backus (1913–1989) was a radio, television, film, and voice actor. Among his most famous credits are The Alan Young Radio Show, I Married Joan, Gilligan's Island, and Rebel Without a Cause. He also starred on his own show The Jim Backus Show.
Acting
The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island
The Harlem Globetrotters' chartered plane crash lands on the atoll inhabited by the happily marooned Gilligan and fellow castaways, and they all must play basketball against a specially programmed squad of robots controlled by a mad scientist.
Angels' Brigade
Six sexy women, and a teenage girl, devastate a right-wing militia before doing battle with ruthless drug pushers.
The Rebels
This sequel to "The Bastard" continues the saga of Philip Kent, the illegitimate son of an English nobleman, who has renounced his patrician birthright to become a Colonial soldier fighting for America's independence, befriending a Southern aristocrat and his earthy buddy to help thwart a plot to assassinate George Washington. (Episodes 3 and 4 of the Kent Chronicles miniseries.)
C.H.O.M.P.S.
A young man invents a robot dog that has super strength, x-ray vision and can detect crimes being committed. A greedy businessman tries to steal the boy's invention from him.
The Castaways on Gilligan's Island
In the second of three additional Gilligan's Island movies following the series, the gang finds a way of getting rescued from the "uncharted desert isle" for a second time through a series of misadventures but comes back to turn it into a tropical resort for uptight mainlanders.
Good Guys Wear Black
The former leader of a commando rescue attempt into Vietnam tries to discover why his squad members are being murdered, one-by-one, after the war is over.
Rescue from Gilligan's Island
When a decaying Russian satellite crashes on the island, the Professor uses a key component for a barometer. With that device, he learns that a massive wave is going to swamp the island. In desperation, the castaways lash their huts together into one structure in order to have any chance to ride the disaster out.
Pete's Dragon
Pete, a young orphan, runs away to a Maine fishing town with his best friend a lovable, sometimes invisible dragon named Elliott! When they are taken in by a kind lighthouse keeper, Nora, and her father, Elliott's prank playing lands them in big trouble. Then, when crooked salesmen try to capture Elliott for their own gain, Pete must attempt a daring rescue.
Friday Foster
Friday Foster, a magazine photographer, goes to Los Angeles International airport to photograph the arrival of Blake Tarr, the richest black man in America. Three men attempt to assassinate Tarr. Foster photographs the melee and is plunged into a web of conspiracy involving the murder of her childhood friend, a US senator, and a shadowy plan called "Black Widow".
Crazy Mama
Melba Stokes, her mother Sheba and daughter Cheryl embark on a crime spree after their California beauty parlor is repossessed. Their destination is Arkansas, where the three generations of women want to reclaim the family farm.
Goodnight Jackie
Wendell Burton is a guy who can't get over his ex-girlfriend, Lana Wood. He is caught up in a nutty crisis of trying to survive life without her!
Miracle on 34th Street
A department store Santa tries to convince a little girl who doesn't believe in Santa Claus that he is Santa Claus, and winds up going on trial to prove who he is.
Now You See Him, Now You Don't
Dexter Riley is a science student at Medfield College who inadvertently invents a liquid capable of rendering objects and people invisible. Before Dexter and his friends, Debbie and Richard Schuyler, can even enjoy their spectacular discovery, corrupt businessman A.J. Arno plots to get his greedy hands on it. Slapstick hijinks ensue as Dexter and his pals try to thwart the evil Arno before he can use the invisibility spray to rob a bank.
Myra Breckinridge
Myron Breckinridge flies to Europe to get a sex-change operation and is transformed into the beautiful Myra. She travels to Hollywood, meets up with her rich Uncle Buck and, claiming to be Myron's widow, demands money. Instead, Buck gives Myra a job in his acting school. There, Myra meets aspiring actor Rusty and his girlfriend, Mary Ann. With Myra as catalyst, the trio begin to outrageously expand their sexual horizons.
The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County
A simple-minded blacksmith named Charley, well loved by the townsfolk, saves for a year to send off for a mail-order bride.
Hello Down There
Given the chance to live in a simulated underwater home for a month, a scientist convinces his family to take advantage of the offer. Once the family agrees to move in, underwater mayhem occurs!
Billie
A 16-year-old tomboy and high school athlete becomes embroiled with the lives around her boyfriend whose conservative father is running for mayor.
John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!
During the Cold War, John Goldfarb crashes his spy plane in the Middle East and is taken prisoner by the local government. His captor, King Fawz, soon discovers that Goldfarb used to be a college football star. So he issues him an ultimatum: coach his country's football team, or Fawz will surrender him to the Russians. Goldfarb teams up with undercover reporter Jenny Ericson, and together they plot to escape their dangerous situation.
The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo
The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo is an animated television series, produced by United Productions of America, which aired for one season. The television series was based on the original cartoon of the same name, with Jim Backus reprising the voice over of the role he did on TV: while doing this show, he continued with the prime time show Gilligan's Island.
Unlike the theatrical cartoons, which focused on the extremely nearsighted Quincy Magoo's bumbling, the show featured the Magoo character as an actor in adaptations of such literary classics as Don Quixote and Gunga Din. Each of these roles was played seriously, with few if any references to Magoo's nearsightedness; however, introductory segments in each program featured Magoo backstage stumbling into scenery and talking to props, thus connecting the older cartoons to this series. Some stories were contained in a single half-hour episode, but others ran to two and even four episodes. As UPA did not have its own studio facility the production was farmed out to the Grantray-Lawrence and Format Films studios.
Among the most ambitious adaptations mounted in this format were the four-part Robin Hood, in which he took the role of Friar Tuck; Treasure Island, in which he played the villainous Long John Silver; and a version of Snow White in which he portrayed all seven dwarves.
Gilligan's Island
The slapstick adventures of hapless Gilligan, long-suffering Skipper and their gang of mismatched castaways, all stranded on an uncharted desert isle after their tiny ship hit stormy weather.
Operation Bikini
The film takes place aboard an American submarine in the Pacific during World War II. The sub's commander is ordered to stop and pick up an underwater demolition team led by Lt. Hayes, whose mission is to locate and destroy a US submarine sunken in a lagoon off Bikini Atoll before the Japanese are able to raise it and capture the advanced radar system on board.
The Wheeler Dealers
Henry J. Tyroon leaves Texas, where his oil wells are drying up, and arrives in New York with a lot of oil money to play with in the stock market. He meets stock analyst Molly Thatcher, who tries to ignore the lavish attention he spends on her but, in the end, she falls for his charm.
Sunday in New York
An innocent upstarter visits her airline pilot brother and meets a stranger she tries to seduce.
Critic's Choice
Parker Ballantine is a New York theater critic and his wife writes a play that may or may not be very good. Now Parker must either get out of reviewing the play or cause the breakup of his marriage.
Johnny Cool
A deported gangster trains an Italian convict to take over his operations in the U.S.
Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol
In this animated musical version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", Ebenezer Scrooge - via Mr. Magoo's starring performance in a stage production of the classic - doesn't have a ghost of a chance unless he learns the true meaning of Christmas from the three spirits who haunt him one Christmas Eve.
