A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Alias:
Kenneth Edward "Ken" Olin
Kenneth Edward Olin
Birthplace:
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Born:
July 30, 1954
His dark, sincere good looks were steadily put to use on the small screen during the 80s, but, in retrospect, actor Ken Olin will probably be considered more of a major force behind the camera. Born in Chicago, Ken went to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and headed for Hollywood in the late 70s. After the typical route of bit parts, he started moving up in leaps and bounds on TV's top shows. A couple of strong, single season regular parts on both Hill Street Blues (1981)and Falcon Crest (1981) ultimately led to his casting as the introspective and quietly sexy Michael Steadman on Thirtysomething (1987), which ran for four seasons and nabbed numerous awards for its liberal writing and sensitive content. Ken co-starred with wife Patricia Wettig on the show, but the multi-Emmy winner Wettig did not play Ken's wife (actress Mel Harris did) and the public was often confused as to who Ken's wife really was. Ken also earned the chance to direct occasionally on Thirtysomething (1987) and this would have a significant impact as to the direction of his career in the years to come. Following Thirtysomething (1987), Ken pursued acting work in mini-movies as both hero ( Police Story: Cop Killer (1988) ) and villain ( Dead by Sunset (1995) ), but almost always seemed on the verge of leaving acting altogether. It was his burgeoning interest in directing that took over, and he has since found steady helming duties on such popular shows as Felicity (1998) and The West Wing (1999). His TV drama Doing Time on Maple Drive (1992)was nominated for three Emmys.
Director:
1992 Doing Time on Maple Drive
1992 The Broken Cord
1994 White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf
1995 In Pursuit of Honor
2003 Phenomenon II
Executive Producer:
1992 Doing Time on Maple Drive
1992 The Broken Cord
1994 White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf
1995 In Pursuit of Honor
1995 Kansas
2003 Phenomenon II
Director:
1987 thirtysomething
1996 EZ Streets
1998 Felicity
1998 L.A. Doctors
1999 Freaks and Geeks
1999 Judging Amy
1999 The West Wing
2001 Alias
2006 Brothers and Sisters
2008 Eli Stone
2012 The Mob Doctor
2013 Sleepy Hollow
2015 The Man in the High Castle
2015 The Slap
2016 This Is Us
2019 Grand Hotel
2024 Tracker
Executive Producer:
1987 thirtysomething
1996 EZ Streets
1998 Felicity
1998 L.A. Doctors
1999 Freaks and Geeks
1999 Judging Amy
1999 The West Wing
2001 Alias
2006 Brothers and Sisters
2008 Eli Stone
2012 The Mob Doctor
2013 Sleepy Hollow
2015 The Man in the High Castle
2015 The Slap
2016 This Is Us
2019 Grand Hotel
2024 Tracker
Producer:
1987 thirtysomething
1996 EZ Streets
1998 Felicity
1998 L.A. Doctors
1999 Freaks and Geeks
1999 Judging Amy
1999 The West Wing
2001 Alias
2002 Breaking News
2006 Brothers and Sisters
2008 Eli Stone
2012 The Mob Doctor
2013 Sleepy Hollow
2015 The Man in the High Castle
2015 The Slap
2016 This Is Us
2019 Grand Hotel
2024 Tracker
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.