Defiance (1980 film)

The film follows Tommy, a suspended young seaman (Jan-Michael Vincent) who takes up temporary housing in a New York neighborhood while waiting for his next orders to ship out. The neighborhood is controlled by a gang called the Souls, led by Angel Cruz (Rudy Ramos), who steal and rob at will. No one will press charges due to fear of retribution, so Tommy takes matters into his own hands to combat the growing violence, spurring his fellow neighbors to join him.

• Jan-Michael Vincent as Tommy
• Theresa Saldana as Marsha
• Art Carney as Abe
• Danny Aiello as Carmine
• Rudy Ramos as Angel Cruz
• Lee Fraser as Bandana
• Lenny Montana as Whacko
• Joseph Campanella as Karenski
• Santos Morales as Paolo
• Fernando López as Kid
• Frank Pesce as Herbie

John Flynn later said working with Jan Michael Vincent was difficult:

Jan was a drinker even then. He had Heinekens for breakfast. There was a night scene where we literally had to prop him up. Poor Jan. He latched onto Danny Aiello. Jan loved Danny and tried to give him more of his own lines in the picture. I told Jan he couldn’t mess with the script like that. But Jan was a sweet guy. He never believed that he was an actor, though. He was embarrassed to be an actor. He always thought he was doing an awful job and that people were laughing at him. You had to keep telling him he was wonderful and he would do whatever you wanted him to do. Jan was like a little kid, but he just didn’t believe in himself. Talk about actors’ egos. He was the opposite. This was an actor with a non-ego.[1]

• Defiance at IMDb