Acting
Jan 30, 1947
Washington, D.C., USA
Jonathan Banks
Acting
Biography
Jonathan Ray Banks (born January 31, 1947) is an American character actor in film and television. Banks dropped out of Indiana University to join a touring company as a stage manager. He went to Australia with the company and stayed on working in theatre there. In 1974, he moved to Los Angeles and performed on stage before picking up bit parts on television. Probably his best-known movie roles are in two films starring Eddie Murphy: 48 Hrs. and Beverly Hills Cop. In 48 Hrs. he plays a character who is a friend of the lead and is killed by the villain, beginning the lead characters' story. In Beverly Hills Cop, he plays a villain who kills the lead characters' friend and begins his story. Other movie roles include appearances in Armed and Dangerous, Freejack, Flipper, Airplane!, Gremlins, Murder Me, Murder You, and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. His biggest break on television, came with the series Wiseguy, in which he played Frank McPike for four years, a role which led to an Emmy award nomination. Although his character was primarily the hero's mentor, stories occasionally featured McPike as hero. In 1981 he appeared as Dutch Schultz on the NBC series the Gangster Chronicles. He also starred on the short-lived science fiction TV series Otherworld, as Kommander Neveen Kroll and in the sitcom Fired Up. Banks has also made guest appearances on TV shows including Alias, CSI, Day Break, Highlander: The Series, Matlock, SeaQuest DSV, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Women of the House and Walker Texas Ranger. Most recently, Banks appeared in the final Season Two episodes of Dexter, and in episodes of ER, Cold Case, and Shark, Modern Family. In the second season finale of Breaking Bad, Banks appeared as a mysterious character named Mike. Banks was made a series regular for the third season.
Feature Films (86)
Fast-talking, quick-thinking Detroit street cop Axel Foley has bent more than a few rules and regs in his time, but when his best friend is murdered, he heads to sunny Beverly Hills to work the case like only he can.
Beverly Hills Cop
A hard-nosed cop reluctantly teams up with a wise-cracking criminal temporarily paroled to him, in order to track down a killer.
48 Hrs.
An ex-fighter pilot is forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning.
Airplane!
A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.
Reign Over Me
The true story of Frances Farmer's meteoric rise to fame in Hollywood and the tragic turn her life took when she was blacklisted.
Frances
After policeman Frank Dooley is framed for theft and loses his job on the force, he joins a security guard agency and teams up with inept former defense lawyer Norman Kane. When the two botch a job guarding a local warehouse, they begin to uncover corruption within the company and their union.
Armed and Dangerous
Television & Series (86)
The trials of a former television station manager turned newspaper city editor, and his journalist staff.
Lou Grant
Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced. The series revolves around the feuding factions of the wealthy Gioberti/Channing family in the Californian wine industry. Jane Wyman starred as Angela Channing, the tyrannical matriarch of the Falcon Crest Winery, alongside Robert Foxworth as Chase Gioberti, Angela's nephew who returns to Falcon Crest following the death of his father. The series was set in the fictitious Tuscany Valley northeast of San Francisco.
Falcon Crest
Hardcastle and McCormick is an American action/drama television series from Stephen J. Cannell Productions, shown on ABC from 1983 through 1986. The series stars Brian Keith as Judge Milton C. Hardcastle and Daniel Hugh Kelly as ex-con and race car driver Mark "Skid" McCormick. The series premise was somewhat recycled from a previous Cannell series, Tenspeed and Brown Shoe.
Hardcastle and McCormick
Many lawyers consider themselves prophets, but Eli Stone may be the real deal. Eli has built a successful career at a top law firm in San Francisco representing only the biggest and richest corporations that make a habit of screwing over the little guy. But after experiencing a series of odd hallucinations, Eli seeks to find a deeper meaning to life while trying not to lose his job and destroy his relationship with the bosses' daughter. When Eli discovers an aneurysm in his brain, he wonders if his condition is truly medical or if perhaps he now has a higher calling.
