Dummy **** (1979, Paul Sorvino, LeVar Burton, Brian Dennehy, Rose Gregorio, Gregg Henry) – Classic Movie Review 12,252

Paul Anthony Sorvino (April 13, 1939 – July 25, 2022).

‘Two Men. One Damned to a World of Silence. The Other Crying Out to Save Him.’

Director Frank Perry’s 1979 Warner Bros TV movie drama Dummy stars Paul Sorvino, LeVar Burton, Brian Dennehy, Rose Gregorio, and Gregg Henry.

Paul Sorvino and LeVar Burton are outstanding in director Frank Perry’s rivetingly handled, exceptionally moving 1979 true story film about a deaf lawyer called Lowell Myers (Paul Sorvino) and the African American deaf and dumb teenager, Donald Lang (LeVar Burton), he is appointed to defend on a charge of murdering a prostitute.

Dummy is a top-quality TV movie with a winning script by Ernest Tidyman, the author of The French Connection.

Also in the cast are Steven Williams, Henry Martin and Paul Butler.

Paul Sorvino died at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, on July 25, 2022, aged 83.

He recalled in 2014: ‘Most people think I’m either a gangster or a cop or something because of the success of GoodFellas. But the reality is I’m a sculptor, a painter, a best-selling author, a poet, an opera singer. People forget that I was also Dr Kissinger in Nixon, the deaf lawyer in Dummy, and a lot of things that I’ve done. It would be nice to have my legacy more than that of just tough guy.’

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,252

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