Dex in Film
Select films and television appearances made by Dexter Gordon on the path to becoming, and eventually starring as an Academy Award nominated actor.
Round Midnight
Round Midnight is a 1986 musical drama film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and written by Tavernier and David Rayfiel. It stars Dexter Gordon, with a soundtrack by Herbie Hancock. The title comes from Thelonious Monk's 1943 composition 'Round Midnight, which is featured in this film in a Hancock arrangement.
Gordon was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won a Grammy for the film's soundtrack entitled The Other Side of Round Midnight in the category for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Soloist. Hancock won the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The soundtrack was released in two parts: Round Midnight and The Other Side of Round Midnight. The film was reissued and remastered on blu-ray in 2022.
Visit RoundMidnight.film for film details.
Order the Blu-ray 4K Special Edition (2022).
Before Midnight
Filmmaker Jean Achache shot extensively on the set of ’ROUND MIDNIGHT. This documentary presents that material for the first time, including footage of director Bertrand Tavernier, production designer Alexandre Trauner, and other members of the cast and crew. Available for streaming on HBO Max.
Awakenings
Awakenings is a 1990 American drama film directed by Penny Marshall. It is written by Steven Zaillian, who based his screenplay on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir Awakenings. It tells the story of neurologist Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams), who is based on Sacks, who discovers the beneficial effects of the drug L-DOPA in 1969. He administers it to catatonic patients who survived the 1917–1928 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. Leonard Lowe (Robert de Niro) and the rest of the patients are awakened after decades and have to deal with a new life in a new time.
Crime Story (Season 10)
Dexter Gordon makes a brief cameo appearance in the tenth season of renowned director Michael Mann's 1988 TV show Crime Story. Dexter plays Rollie, a host at the Moulin Rouge club that sets the stage for the episode's unfolding mystery. Michael Mann is known for such blockbuster films as Heat, Collateral, Ali, Public Enemies, Miami Vice, Last of the Mohicans, and many more.