Skip to main content
Robert Rusler
★ Acting

Robert Rusler

Born 1965 · Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA · Active 1979–2025

Robert Rusler, born in 1965 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, made a significant mark in cult cinema with his performances in Vamp (1986) and Dangerously Close (1986). In Vamp, he plays the charming yet troubled character, while in Dangerously Close, he navigates the murky waters of teenage rebellion and crime. His ability to embody complex roles in these cult classics cements his place in the genre, appealing to fans of 1980s exploitation and horror. Rusler's work continues to resonate within the SassyFlix catalog, making him a notable figure in the realm of cult films.

▶ Watch on SassyFlix 3 films available
Vamp

Vamp

1986 ★ 6.0
as AJ

Two college students, Keith and AJ, want to hire a stripper to buy their way into a campus fraternity. They borrow a Cadillac from lonely rich student Duncan, who insists on coming with them to scope out strip clubs in a nearby city. The three boys find themselves at a club in a shady part of town, and after being impressed by a surreally artistic stripper, Katrina, AJ visits her dressing room to try and convince her to come strip for their college party. Katrina seduces AJ, then pins him down - killing him with a fatal bite to the neck. Keith becomes concerned at his friend’s delay and gets help from a waitress named Amaretto, who keeps insisting (to his confusion) that she knows him. They search the neighborhood, and Keith is separated from her while trying to escape from both a psychotic albino street gang, as well as from vampires throughout the area. While hiding in a dumpster, he finds AJ's discarded body, but when he calls the police and returns to the club to accuse the owners, the vampires have preempted him by bringing AJ back to the club as undead. AJ confesses to Keith that he's now a vampire, and after realizing that Keith will not kill him and is willing to die for him, AJ stakes himself with a piece of broken furniture. Keith, Amaretto, and Duncan flee the club, but their car is rammed by vehicles driven by vampires. After escaping, they realize that Duncan has been turned to a vampire, and they abandon him in a burning car. The pair attempt to escape through the sewers, as Amaretto breaks down and tells Keith that her real name is Allison, and she knows AJ from a game of spin the bottle when they were classmates in fifth grade. While they flee through the sewers, they discover and burn a nest of vampires, but Allison is grabbed and held hostage by Katrina. After an arrow to the face and being staked in the chest with a pipe fail to stop Katrina, Keith kills her by opening a grating, allowing the sunlight to destroy her. Before they can escape to the surface, they are trapped by Vlad, Katrina's vampire consort, until Vlad is staked from behind by a revived AJ, who sheepishly notes that the stake he tried to kill himself with turned out to be formica. As Keith and Allison climb to the surface daylight, AJ remains in the sewers calling out to him his ideas to go to night school, or work a job on a graveyard shift.  Two fraternity pledges go to a sleazy bar looking for strippers to entertain their college friends. They have problems with transportation, Biker gangs, and worst of all, the staff of the bar, all of whom seem to be vampires, with Grace Jones playing the head vampire.

Watch Now
Career Highlights Top 6 by popularity · TMDB

Filmography

57 credits
2020s 8 credits
2025
Garden of Eden as Matheo Eden
Movie ★ 3.5
2024
Movie ★ 8.3
2024
Movie ★ 7.9
2022
Movie ★ 4.0
2021
The Manor as George
Movie ★ 5.5
2021
Jakob's Wife as Tom Low
Movie ★ 5.7
2021
Pretty Boy as Edward
Movie ★ 5.1
2020
Movie ★ 7.7
2010s 12 credits
2018
Movie ★ 5.8
2018
Movie ★ 7.0
2018
Movie ★ 5.6
2018
Light as a Feather as Mr. Morris
TV ★ 7.7
2017
Movie ★ 3.8
2017
S.W.A.T. as Moretti
TV ★ 8.0
2016
Blood Feast as Fuad Ramses
Movie ★ 3.9
2015
Movie ★ 5.7
2011
Delivered as Wiggs
Movie ★ 3.3
2000s 14 credits
2008
LA LA Land as Jerry Flaxman
Movie ★ 5.5
2007
Agenda as Alec Foster
Movie
2006
The Hunt as Atticus Monroe
Movie ★ 4.8
2006
Surveillance as Ben Palmer
Movie ★ 5.0
2006
The Unit as Colonel
TV ★ 7.4
2005
Medium as David Barrington
TV ★ 7.5
2005
The Closer as Joe White
TV ★ 7.9
2005
Bones as Hunter Sherman
TV ★ 8.2
2004
The Whole Ten Yards as Policeman #2
Movie ★ 5.8
2003
Movie ★ 4.3
2003
Cold Case as Lt. Nash Cavanaugh
TV ★ 7.8
2003
NCIS as Curtis Teague
TV ★ 7.6
2001
TV ★ 7.5
2001
24 as Hank
TV ★ 7.8
1990s 9 credits
1999
Snoops as Jake Hammersmith
TV ★ 7.5
1994
Babylon 5 as Warren Keffer
TV ★ 8.0
1993
Movie ★ 4.3
1993
Angel Falls as Toby Riopelle
TV ★ 8.0
1992
Final Embrace as Kyle Lambton
Movie ★ 4.4
1992
Movie ★ 6.0
1991
Movie ★ 5.9
1990
The Outsiders as Tim Shepherd
TV ★ 7.6
1980s 8 credits
1989
Shag as Buzz Ravenel
Movie ★ 6.2
1987
Tonight's the Night as Kenny Costner
Movie ★ 3.8
1986
Vamp as AJ
Movie ★ 5.8
1986
Thrashin' as Tommy Hook
Movie ★ 6.3
1986
Movie ★ 4.9
1985
Movie ★ 6.5
1984
Murder, She Wrote as Pete Menteer
TV ★ 7.5
1970s 1 credit
1979
TV ★ 7.1
s 2 credits
The Last Days of Belle Starr as W. H. H. Clayton
Movie
Wine Thief as Tobin James
Movie
Crew Credits
2010s 3 credits
2013
Black Asylum Screenplay
Movie ★ 10.0
2013
Movie ★ 10.0
2013
Movie ★ 10.0