Steve Inwood

Steve Inwood is a versatile, underrated character actor who was a common background player in New York-based cinema and television productions of 1970s and 1980s. Directors recognized his ability to portray distasteful characters. He played a sleazy, predatory fashion photographer in Alan Parker's 1980 high-school musical, "Fame." In "Staying Alive," the 1983 sequel to disco classic "Saturday Night Fever," he was a hot-headed Broadway producer. Playing a game of the "Six Degrees of Steve Inwood" results in a list of highly acclaimed, New York-based performers and filmmakers. Classic New York director Sidney Lumet casted him in two internal affairs dramas: with Oscar-winner Al Pacino in "Serpico" (1973) and with police-procedural regular Jerry Orbach in "Prince of the City" (1981). Inwood also appeared with John Cassavetes' collaborator Ben Gazzarra in veteran TV director Jud Taylor's small-screen police corruption yarn "A Question of Honor" (1982). Cult movie fans may know Inwood as the gallant park ranger who must stop a massive wild bear from lunching on his daughter, a group of rock musicians, and unsuspecting concert-goers at a Woodstock-esque outdoor music festival in 1983's obscure, shelved sequel "Grizzly II: The Predator." He also played maniacal Iraqi Ali Dallal in Gulf War-era action film "The Human Shield" (1991).