Edward James Olmos

Born: 1947-02-24

Edward James Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is an American actor, director, producer, and activist. He is best known for his roles as Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo in Miami Vice (1984–1989), actor in and director of American Me (1992), William Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009), teacher Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver (1988), and Detective Gaff in Blade Runner (1982), and its sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017). In 2018, he played the father of two members of an outlaw motorcycle club in the FX series Mayans MC. For his work in Miami Vice, Olmos won the 1985 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. For his performance in Stand and Deliver, Olmos was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He is also known for his roles as patriarch Abraham Quintanilla in the film Selena, narrator El Pachuco in both the stage and film versions of Zoot Suit, and the voice of Chicharrón in Coco. Over the course of his career, Olmos has been a pioneer for more diversified roles and images of Hispanics in the U.S. media. His notable direction, production, and starring roles for films, made-for-TV movies, and TV shows include Wolfen, Triumph of the Spirit, Talent for the Game, American Me, The Burning Season, My Family/Mi Familia, Caught, 12 Angry Men, The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca, Walkout, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, American Family, and Dexter. Description above from the Wikipedia article Edward James Olmos, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.


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as Gaff
Released: 2017-10-04

Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a...

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Coco

as Chicharrón (voice)
Released: 2017-10-27

Despite his family’s baffling generations-old ban on music, Miguel dreams of becoming an...

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as Gaff
Released: 1982-06-25

In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of...

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One Fast Move

as Abel
Released: 2024-08-07

A dishonorably discharged soldier seeks out his estranged father to help him pursue his dream of...

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The Road to El Dorado

as Chief (voice)
Released: 2000-03-31

Stowing away after a failed con, a pair of swindlers end up on El Dorado, the fabled "city of...

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as Papi Greco
Released: 2013-08-02

A DEA agent and an undercover Naval Intelligence officer who have been tasked with investigating...

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Don't See

A Dog's Way Home

as Axel
Released: 2019-01-10

The adventure of Bella, a dog who embarks on an epic 400-mile journey home after she is...

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Beverly Hills Chihuahua

as Diablo (voice)
Released: 2008-10-03

A pampered Beverly Hills chihuahua named Chloe who, while on vacation in Mexico with her owner...

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12 Angry Men

as Juror 11
Released: 1997-08-17

During the trial of a man accused of his father's murder, a lone juror takes a stand against the...

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Selena

as Abraham Quintanilla
Released: 1997-03-21

In this biographical drama, Selena Quintanilla is born into a musical Mexican-American family in...

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American Me

as Montoya Santana
Released: 1992-03-13

During his 18 years in Folsom Prison, street-gang leader Santana rules over all the...

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as Michael Axford
Released: 2011-01-12

Britt Reid, the heir to the largest newspaper fortune in Los Angeles, is a spoiled playboy who...

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See!

Stand and Deliver

as Jaime A. Escalante
Released: 1988-03-11

Jaime Escalante is a mathematics teacher in a school in a hispanic neighbourhood. Convinced that...

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I'm Still Here

as Edward James Olmos
Released: 2010-09-10

I'm Still Here is a portrayal of a tumultuous year in the life of actor Joaquin Phoenix. With...

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Blade Runner: Black Out 2022

as Gaff (voice)
Released: 2017-09-26

This animated short revolves around the events causing an electrical systems failure on the west...

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Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

as Musician at Barbecue (uncredited)
Released: 1994-05-13

A girl born with enormous thumbs in the repressive era of the 1950s learns to turn her quirks...

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Virus

as Captain Lopez
Released: 1980-06-26

Scientists in Antarctica desperately try to find a cure to a military virus that was released in...

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Gossip

as Detective Curtis
Released: 2000-04-21

For a class project, three college students decide to invent an unfounded rumor about the most...

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Caught

as Joe
Released: 1996-01-24

A middle-aged couple has a drifter enter their lives. The fish-store owners find that the...

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My Family

as Paco
Released: 1995-05-03

Traces over three generations an immigrant family's trials, tribulations, tragedies, and...

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Battlestar Galactica: Razor

as Admiral William Adama
Released: 2007-11-12

A two-hour Battlestar Galactica special that tells the story of the Battlestar Pegasus several...

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Wolfen

as Eddie Holt
Released: 1981-07-24

A New York City cop and an expert criminologist trying to solve a series of grisly deaths in...

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Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

as Commander William Adama
Released: 2009-10-27

When the initial Cylon attack against the Twelve Colonies fails to achieve complete...

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LA 92

as Himself (archive footage)
Released: 2017-04-28

Twenty-five years after the verdict in the Rodney King trial sparked several days of protests,...

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The Devil Has a Name

as Santiago
Released: 2019-08-04

An oil baron and a farmer standoff after the water on his farm is poisoned by her company.

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Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner

as Self
Released: 2007-12-18

The definitive 3½-hour documentary about the troubled creation and enduring legacy of the...

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In the Time of the Butterflies

as Rafael Leónidas Trujillo
Released: 2001-10-21

Based on the book by Julia Alvarez. Three sisters become activists during the Dominican...

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Americano

as Gayo (voice)
Released: 2016-01-29

Cuco, a mexican parrot, goes on an adventure from Mexico to Hollywood in order to get help from...

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Triumph of the Spirit

as Gypsy
Released: 1989-12-08

During World War II, Salamo Arouch, a passionate boxer, is arrested and sent to a concentration...

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Unity

as Narrator (voice)
Released: 2015-08-12

Despite the advent of science, literature, technology, philosophy, religion, and so on -- none...

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A Million to Juan

as The Angel
Released: 1994-05-15

Romantic comedy about an honest Mexican immigrant who struggles without a green card by selling...

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Death in Granada

as uncredited
Released: 1996-11-09

A journalist starts an investigation into the disappearance of famed poet and political...

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Menendez: A Killing in Beverly Hills

as Jose Menendez
Released: 1994-05-22

About the 1989 murders of Carolco Entertainment chairman, Jose Menendez, and his wife, Kitty,...

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Outlaw Posse

as Ossie
Released: 2024-03-01

1908. Chief returns from years of hiding in Mexico to claim stolen reparations gold hidden in...

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The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez

as Gregorio Cortez
Released: 1983-08-19

Forced to run from Texas Rangers after a heated misunderstanding leads to the death of a lawman,...

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Chasing Wonders

as uncredited
Released: 2021-06-04

A coming-of-age story set across the lush wine country of both Australia and Spain, a young man...

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Zoot Suit

as El Pachuco
Released: 1981-10-02

Part fact and part fiction, Zoot Suit is the film version of Luis Valdez's critically acclaimed...

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Bonanno: A Godfather's Story

as Gaspar DiGregario (Young)
Released: 1999-07-25

The true life story of mafia boss Joesph Bonanno. The story spans from Bonanno's early beginings...

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Zapatista

as Narrator (voice)
Released: 1999-01-01

"Zapatista" is the definitive look at the uprising in Chiapas. It is the story of a Mayan...

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The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit

as Vamanos
Released: 1998-01-23

Gomez is a middle-aged man who dreams of buying a gorgeous white suit in a nearby store, but...

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The Blade Runner Phenomenon

as Self - Actor (Gaff)
Released: 2021-05-27

Ridley Scott's cult film Blade Runner, based on a novel by Philip K. Dick and released in 1982,...

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Hollywood Confidential

as Stan Navarro, Sr.
Released: 1997-04-14

A former LA cop runs a top-flight private detective agency that caters to spoiled Hollywood types.

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Deck-A-Rep: The True Nature of Rick Deckard

as Self
Released: 2007-12-03

Fans, filmmakers and people involved with the making of Blade Runner debate if main character...

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The Earth Day Special

as Hospital Director
Released: 1990-04-22

The Earth Day Special is a television special revolving around Earth Day that aired on ABC on...

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The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

as Det. Anthony Piscotti
Released: 1998-02-01

In New York, armed men hijack a subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. Even if it's...

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Aloha, Bobby and Rose

as Chicano #1
Released: 1975-04-29

Bobby and Rose, two youngsters who are in love, have to run away from home when they are falsely...

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The Wall

as Col. Holst (segment "The Pencil Holder")
Released: 1998-05-24

The story of three items left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall: a pencil holder, a...

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Walkout

as Julian Nava
Released: 2006-03-18

Walkout is the true story of a young Mexican American high school teacher, Sal Castro. He...

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Filly Brown

as Leandro
Released: 2013-04-19

“Majo” Tonorio, a.k.a. Filly Brown, is a raw, young Los Angeles hip-hop artist who spits from...

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Saving Grace

as Ciolino
Released: 1986-05-02

A newly-elected Pope Leo XIV finds himself accidentally locked out of the Vatican. Unknown to...

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Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage

as Self
Released: 2019-09-13

Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Stage is a warm and revealing portrait of the charismatic,...

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Dead Angle

as uncredited
Released: 1979-07-04

Elite college graduates commit perfect financial crimes though loopholes in the law during the...

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The Burning Season

as Wilson Pinheiro
Released: 1994-09-17

Based on the true story of a Brazilian rubber tapper who leads his people in protest against...

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Splinter

as Captain garcia
Released: 2006-08-17

A gang member, suffering from severe memory loss, searches for his brother's murderer. He...

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Alambrista!

as 1st Drunk
Released: 1977-10-16

After the birth of his first child, Roberto, a young Mexican man, slips across the border into...

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The Judge

as Judge Armando Acosta
Released: 2001-05-06

When a key witness in a case of corruption is killed in courts all suspicion falls on Judge...

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The Disney Family Singalong - Volume II

as Self
Released: 2020-05-10

Ryan Seacrest hosts the second Disney Family Singalong featuring celebrities and their families...

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L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later

as Himself
Released: 2017-04-18

Documentary film exploring the lives of the people at the flashpoint of the LA riots, 25 years...

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Walking with Herb

as Joe Amable-Amo
Released: 2021-04-30

Joe Amable-Amo is a bank executive and former amateur golfer struggling with his faith after an...

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Go for Sisters

as Freddy Suárez
Released: 2013-11-08

Bernice and Fontayne grew up so tight they could ‘go for sisters’. After twenty years apart,...

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Evening in Byzantium

as Angelo
Released: 1978-08-14

While the prestigious Cannes Film Festival goes on around him, American movie producer Jesse...

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Windows on the World

as Balthazar
Released: 2019-04-28

After watching the news on 9/11 with his family, Fernando travels from Mexico to New York City...

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The Nightingale

as Prime Minister
Released: 1983-05-10

A kitchen maid and a nightingale help save an emperor with the power of song and friendship.

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Imprisoned

as Hospicio
Released: 2019-09-12

Dylan Burke attempts to move on from his former life as a criminal with his true love Maria. He...

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Monday Nights at Seven

as Charlie
Released: 2016-10-08

Monday Nights At Seven is a love story about a single father, Lazo Saroby, who is struggling...

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Every Night's a Saturday Night

as Self
Released: 2018-04-28

The Life & Times of Bobby Keys ... decades-long Sax player with The Rolling Stones, best friend...

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Talent for the Game

as Virgil Sweet
Released: 1991-04-26

Virgil Sweet is on the verge of losing his job as a talent scout with the California Angels when...

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Carlos Almaraz: Playing with Fire

as Self
Released: 2019-05-01

Mixing archival footage with interviews, this film celebrates one of Los Angeles's most...

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Miami Vice: Freefall

as Lieutenant Martin Castillo
Released: 1989-05-21

Crockett and Tubbs, figuring they're on their way out, are recruited by the government to help a...

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The Princess and the Barrio Boy

as Nestor Garcia
Released: 2000-12-08

A teenager who dreams of becoming an Olympic swimmer has a romance with a boy from the wrong...

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Mirage

as Matteo Juarez
Released: 1995-11-21

Matteo Juarez is a retired detective hired by a local businessman to follow his wife Jennifer....

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A Bridge Apart

as (Voice)
Released: 2013-01-01

The journey of the thousands of people from Central America and Mexico who leave their homes and...

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America

as Mr. Irving
Released: 2011-03-10

América, a 30-year-old mother who lives in a remote Caribbean village, suffers the hardest hit...

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Space Songs: Through the Distance

as Self
Released: 2020-04-30

"Space Songs" is a YouTube concert event, sharing songs about space and isolation to celebrate...

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Selena Remembered

as Narrator (voice)
Released: 1997-04-01

A collection of moments and triumphs that helped Selena, and her band Selena y Los Dinos, into...

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A Class Apart: A Mexican American Civil Rights Story

as Narrator
Released: 2009-02-23

Built around the landmark 1954 legal case Hernandez v. Texas, the film interweaves the stories...

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300 Miles for Stephanie

as Art Vela
Released: 1981-01-12

A San Antonio cop, as an act of faith, vows to run more than 300 miles in five days, hoping his...

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Lives in Hazard

as self
Released: 1994-04-08

Lives in Hazard is a tough, uncompromising look at kids in gangs and the men they become in...

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Seguin

as Gen. Santa Anna
Released: 1982-01-26

A dramatization of the life of Juan Seguin, a heroic Mexican-Texan who became entangled in the...

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Slave of Dreams

as uncredited
Released: 1995-01-01

The Egyptian executioner's wife tries to seduce Hebrew slave Joseph to fulfill a dream they are...

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Journey of a Female Comic

as uncredited
Released: 2014-05-16

The ups and downs of female comic Kiki Melendez.

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The Limbic Region

as Lucca
Released: 1996-06-30

Original and unpredictable thriller about a seasoned cop determined to bring down San...

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Exile Nation: The Plastic People

as Narrator (voice)
Released: 2014-10-31

The September 11th attacks began a decade-long period of anti-immigrant policies in the United...

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Roosters

as Gallo Morales
Released: 1993-01-01

Gallo Morales is the proud patriach returning home after a seven-year stint for manslaughter....

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The Eyes of Martin Castillo

as Martin Castillo (archive footage)
Released: 2018-08-20

An exploration of the faces and spaces of Lieutenant Martin Castillo, as portrayed by Edward...

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Agave is Life

as Narrator (voice)
Released: 2014-03-28

AGAVE IS LIFE is an exploration of the history of the agave plant in the cultures of Mexico and...

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The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca

as Roberto Lozano
Released: 1997-09-12

A journalist starts an investigation into the disappearance of famed poet and political...

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The Simpsons

as Pit Master (voice)
First aired: 1989-12-17

Set in Springfield, the average American town, the show focuses on the antics and everyday...

TV Show page

Dexter

as James Gellar
First aired: 2006-10-01

Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police also leads a secret...

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Dexter

as uncredited
First aired: 2006-10-01

Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police also leads a secret...

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Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

as Robert Gonzales
First aired: 2013-09-24

Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics...

TV Show page

Battlestar Galactica

as William Adama
First aired: 2004-10-18

When an old enemy, the Cylons, resurface and obliterate the 12 colonies, the crew of the aged...

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Battlestar Galactica

as Commander William Adama
First aired: 2004-10-18

When an old enemy, the Cylons, resurface and obliterate the 12 colonies, the crew of the aged...

TV Show page

The West Wing

as Roberto Mendoza
First aired: 1999-09-22

The West Wing provides a glimpse into presidential politics in the nation's capital as it tells...

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The Batman

as Chief Rojas (voice)
First aired: 2004-09-11

A young billionaire Bruce Wayne fights crime and evil as the mysterious vigilante, The Batman.

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Starsky & Hutch

as Julio Gutierez
First aired: 1975-09-10

Streetwise Detective David Starsky partners up with a more intellectual partner, Kenneth 'Hutch'...

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Miami Vice

as Martin Castillo
First aired: 1984-09-16

The story of the Miami Police Department's vice squad and its efforts to end drug trafficking...

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Hill Street Blues

as uncredited
First aired: 1981-01-15

A realistic glimpse into the daily lives of the officers and detectives at an urban police station.

TV Show page

Eureka

as First sled dog
First aired: 2006-07-18

The sleepy Pacific Northwest town of Eureka is hiding a mysterious secret. The government has...

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Hawaii Five-O

as Dancer
First aired: 1968-09-20

Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and...

TV Show page

Police Woman

as uncredited
First aired: 1974-09-13

Sergeant “Pepper"” Anderson, an undercover cop for the Criminal Conspiracy Unit of the Los...

TV Show page

Touched by an Angel

as Col. Victor Walls
First aired: 1994-09-21

Monica, an angel, is tasked with bringing guidance and messages from God to various people who...

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Cannon

as uncredited
First aired: 1971-09-14

Cannon is a CBS detective television series produced by Quinn Martin which aired from March 26,...

TV Show page

Portlandia

as Edward James Olmos
First aired: 2011-01-21

Satirical sketch comedy set and filmed in Portland, Oregon that explores the eccentric misfits...

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The Magic School Bus

as (voice)
First aired: 1994-09-10

An eccentric schoolteacher takes her class on wondrous educational field trips with the help of...

TV Show page

Kojak

as Paco
First aired: 1973-10-24

A bald, lollipop sucking police detective with a fiery righteous attitude battles crime in New...

TV Show page

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child

as Rey Emiliano (voice)
First aired: 1995-03-12

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child is an American anthology animated television series.

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Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child

as El Murcielago (voice)
First aired: 1995-03-12

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child is an American anthology animated television series.

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Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child

as Jimenez (voice)
First aired: 1995-03-12

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child is an American anthology animated television series.

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Mayans M.C.

as Felipe Reyes
First aired: 2018-09-04

Set in the aftermath of Jax Teller’s death, Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes is fresh out of prison and a...

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Faerie Tale Theatre

as Prime Minister
First aired: 1982-09-11

A live-action children's television anthology series retelling popular fairy tales.

TV Show page

Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur

as Molecule Man (voice)
First aired: 2023-02-10

After 13-year-old super-genius Lunella accidentally brings ten-ton T-Rex, Devil Dinosaur into...

TV Show page

CHiPs

as uncredited
First aired: 1977-09-15

Lighthearted look at the adventures of two Highway Patrol officers in Los Angeles. The main...

TV Show page

Battlestar Galactica

as Commander Adama
First aired: 2003-12-08

A re-imagining of the original series in which a "rag-tag fugitive fleet" of the last remnants...

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100 Years of Warner Bros.

as Self
First aired: 2023-05-25

Tracing a century of movie and TV history, these four documentary specials explore the...

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The Rosie O'Donnell Show

as Self
First aired: 1996-06-10

The Rosie O'Donnell Show was an American daytime television talk show hosted and produced by...

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Police Story

as uncredited
First aired: 1973-03-20

Police Story is an anthology television crime drama. The show was the brainchild of author and...

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George Lopez

as Mr. Vega
First aired: 2002-03-27

George raises daughter Carmen and dyslexic son Max with his wife Angie, after surviving a...

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American Family

as Jess Gonzalez
First aired: 2002-01-23

The head of the household, Jess Gonzalez (Edward James Olmos), is your average father who is...

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Dead Man's Walk

as Captain Salazar
First aired: 1996-05-12

The final chapter of Larry McMurty's popular and critically acclaimed mini-series, 'Lonesome...

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Bless This Mess

as Randy
First aired: 2019-04-16

After dropping everything to make the move from skyscrapers to farmhouses, Rio and Mike soon...

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The Real History of Science Fiction

as Himself
First aired: 2014-04-19

The series heads to the very frontiers of space and science to produce the definitive television...

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The Blue Knight

as Clemente (as Ed Olmos)
First aired: 1975-05-09

The Blue Knight is an American CBS Crime TV series, running in 1975 and 1976, starring George...

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The Fitzpatricks

as Don Vasquez
First aired: 1977-09-05

The Fitzpatricks is an American drama series which ran on CBS during the 1977–78 season. The...

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The Fortunate Pilgrim

as Frank Corbo
First aired: 1988-04-03

The saga of an Italian immigrant family in search of the American dream.

TV Show page

500 Nations

as uncredited
First aired: 1995-04-20

500 Nations is an eight-part documentary on the Native Americans of North and Central America....

TV Show page

Gun

as Father Santos
First aired: 1997-04-12

Gun is an American television anthology series which aired on ABC on Saturday night from April...

TV Show page

E! True Hollywood Story

as uncredited
First aired: 1996-08-21

E! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood...

TV Show page

The Judge

as Judge Armando Acosti
First aired: 2001-05-06

Everything brilliant and compassionate defense attorney Paul Madriani stands for is put to the...

TV Show page

La Californie !

as Self - Actor
First aired: 2023-08-01

From the 1950s to the present day, from Los Angeles to San Francisco via Berkeley University or...

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