The Doctor is a
1991The year 1991 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*April 28 - Bonnie Raitt marries actor Michael O'Keefe in New York*Terminator 2: Judgment Day, became one of the landmarks for sci-fi action films.-Top grossing films :...
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
directed by
Randa HainesRanda Haines is a notable film and television director and producer. She is perhaps most famous for directing the critically acclaimed feature film Children of a Lesser God , which starred William Hurt and Marlee Matlin, for which Matlin won the 1987 Academy Award as best actress.Haines received a...
and starring
William HurtWilliam M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
as a
doctorA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
who undergoes a transformation in his views about life, illness and human relationships. It is loosely based on the book
A Taste Of My Own Medicine by Dr. Edward E. Rosenbaum.
Dr. Jack MacKee (
William HurtWilliam M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
) is a successful surgeon at a leading hospital. He and his wife have all the trappings of success and generally lead a comfortable life, although Jack works such long hours that he rarely has time to see their son and has become somewhat emotionally detached from his wife.
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The Doctor is a
1991The year 1991 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*April 28 - Bonnie Raitt marries actor Michael O'Keefe in New York*Terminator 2: Judgment Day, became one of the landmarks for sci-fi action films.-Top grossing films :...
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
directed by
Randa HainesRanda Haines is a notable film and television director and producer. She is perhaps most famous for directing the critically acclaimed feature film Children of a Lesser God , which starred William Hurt and Marlee Matlin, for which Matlin won the 1987 Academy Award as best actress.Haines received a...
and starring
William HurtWilliam M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
as a
doctorA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
who undergoes a transformation in his views about life, illness and human relationships. It is loosely based on the book
A Taste Of My Own Medicine by Dr. Edward E. Rosenbaum.
Plot
Dr. Jack MacKee (
William HurtWilliam M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
) is a successful surgeon at a leading hospital. He and his wife have all the trappings of success and generally lead a comfortable life, although Jack works such long hours that he rarely has time to see their son and has become somewhat emotionally detached from his wife. His "bedside manner" with his patients, who are in many cases seriously ill, is also quite lacking.
One day while on a drive home from a dinner party, Jack has a coughing fit. His wife is shocked when he coughs up blood particles all over her and the car. In an examination, Jack has a sample of a growth removed from his throat. The biopsy comes back positive for cancer.
He then experiences life as a patient, including the coldness and detachment of hospitals, some doctors, and his own colleagues. He begins to empathize with patients, which is a new experience for him. He befriends June Ellis, a fellow cancer patient who has an inoperable brain tumour.
Although Jack's cancer is treated and cured, June dies. The experience changes Jack forever. When he returns to work, he begins to teach his new medical interns about the importance of showing compassion and sensitivity towards their patients, which in turn will make them better doctors.
Primary cast
- William Hurt
William M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
: Dr. Jack MacKee
- Christine Lahti
Christine Lahti is an American actress and film director.-Early life:Lahti was born in Birmingham, Michigan, the daughter of Elizabeth Margaret , a painter, homemaker and nurse, and Paul Theodore Lahti, a surgeon. Lahti has Finnish ancestry. Her surname means "a gulf", "a bay" or "a cove" in...
: Anne MacKee
- Elizabeth Perkins
-Early life:Perkins was born in Queens, New York City, the daughter of Jo Williams, a drug treatment counselor and concert pianist, and James Perkins, a farmer, writer and businessman. Her paternal grandparents were Greek immigrants from Salonika who anglicized their surname from "Pisperikos" to...
: June Ellis
- Mandy Patinkin
Mandel Bruce "Mandy" Patinkin is an American actor of stage and screen and a tenor vocalist. Patinkin is known for his roles in television series such as: Chicago Hope, Dead Like Me and the first two seasons of Criminal Minds...
: Dr. Murray Kaplan
- Adam Arkin
Adam Arkin is an American television, film, and stage actor and director. He is best known for playing neurosurgeon Aaron Shutt on Chicago Hope. He is also one of the three actors to portray Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck on Monk. he stars in the NBC drama Life...
: Dr. Eli Blumfield
- Charlie Korsmo
Charles Randolph "Charlie" Korsmo is an American former child actor turned lawyer and political activist.Korsmo was born in Fargo, North Dakota, the son of Deborah Ruf, an educational psychologist, and John Korsmo, a hospital administrator and chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board...
: Nicky MacKee
- Wendy Crewson
-Life and career:Crewson was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the daughter of June Doreen and Robert Binnie Crewson. She attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where she won the prestigious Lorne Greene Award for outstanding work in the theater. She then studied at The Webber Douglas Academy...
: Dr. Leslie Abbott
Trivia
Adam Arkin and Mandy Patinkin went on to play doctors (Neurologist Aaron Shutt, and Cardiologist Jeffrey Geiger, respectively) in the
David E. KelleyDavid Edward Kelley is an American screenwriter and television producer, best known as the creator of Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Public and Boston Legal, as well as several films...
series "
Chicago HopeChicago Hope is an American medical drama series created by David E. Kelley that ran from September 18, 1994 to May 5, 2000. It takes place in a fictional private charity hospital.-Premise:...
", and were joined in later seasons by Christine Lahti (Dr. Kate Austin).