Key West television episode king fishers
Many movies and television shows have filmed in key West throughout the years.

Key West and the Movies (& Television)!

  • Post author:

Key West has some beautiful scenery as well as some outrageous places. We have history with old Conch houses, museums, Civil War forts, and a Navy Base. We also have modern buildings and great hangouts like Sloppy Joe’s. Not to mention amazing wildlife and sea life. Add the fact that the islands of the Florida Keys are surrounded by emerald waters, what a great backdrop to almost any film. And so, you would not be surprised to find that there have been many, many movies and a few television shows have been filmed in Key West and throughout the Florida Keys.

Here are some of the more interesting stories of movies that were filmed on the islands, abbreviated of course.

In 1955, Key West resident Tennessee Williams talked Paramount Pictures into filming the movie version of his play, The Rose Tattoo, in Key West rather than in Mississippi which is was the actually setting of the play. The film starred Burt Lancaster and Italian actress Anna Magnani.

In 1959 director Blake Edwards filmed Operation Petticoat starring Tony Curtis, Carey Grant, and Janet Leigh. This film went on to be Universal Pictures’ biggest grossing film of the year that year.

Years later, in 1993, Tony Curtis’ daughter Jamie Lee Curtis would come to the Florida Keys to film parts of True Lies, also starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tia Carrera, and Tom Arnold. While the actors stayed at the Pier House Resort in Key West while they were here filming, the scenes were actually shot in Marathon and Lower Sugarloaf Key.

In 1988, the James Bond film License to Kill starring Timothy Dalton, Benicio del Toro, and Cary Lowell was filmed here. Scenes for this movie were shot all over the island including Garrison Bight Marina, St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Church, and the Hemingway House. And one of the planes used in the film is still sitting in the Keys, parked right in front of the Sugarloaf Airport located at Mile Marker 17 on Lower Sugarloaf Key. I drive by this plane pretty much every day of my life and did not know until recently that it was a part of License to Kill.

And speaking of the Sugarloaf Airport, Drop Zone starring Wesley Snipes was filmed in part here.

Hollywood returned to Key West in 1990 to film Criss Cross which starred Goldie Hawn, Arliss Howard, Keith Carradine, and Steve Buscemi. Most of the filming was done at the Eden House which is where the real life woman the story was based on lived with her son, Chris back in the 1970s.

And here is a more accurate, chronological list of filming done in the Florida Keys taken from the Florida Keys and Key West Film Commission and IMDb.

  • 1912 – Oversea Celebration
  • 1912 – Key West Celebration
  • 1940 – Island City Republic (March of Time)
  • 1942 – Reap the Wild Wind
  • 1948 – Key Largo
  • 1951 – The Frogmen
  • 1953 – Hurricane Hunters 
  • 1954 – Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef
  • 1954 – Rose Tattoo
  • 1956 – Carib Gold
  • 1959 – Operation Petticoat
  • 1960 – All Fall Down
  • 1962 – PT 109
  • 1963 – Escape from Hell Island
  • 1973 – Key West
  • 1974 – 92 in the Shade
  • 1976 – Gums
  • 1976 – Mako: There Jaws of Death
  • 1978 – Hunters on the Reef
  • 1979 – Butterflies in Heat
  • 1979 – Cuba Crossing
  • 1979 – The Last Resort
  • 1979 – The Final Countdown
  • 1981 – Against the Wind and Tide: A Cuban Odyssey 
  • 1984 – Devil Fish
  • 1985 – Running Scared
  • 1986 – Blue City 
  • 1986 – Russkies
  • 1988 – License to Kill
  • 1989 – Cops (TV series)
  • 1989 – Route One USA
  • 1990 – Havana
  • 1991-92 – Criss-Cross
  • 1992 – The Real World (TV Series)
  • 1992-93 – Matinee
  • 1993 – True Lies
  • 1993 – Key West (TV Series)
  • 1994 – Drop Zone
  • 1994 – Fantasies of the Stars (TV Special)
  • 1994 – Tollbooth 
  • 1995 – Up Close and Personal
  • 1995 – Blood & Wine
  • 1995 – Executive Decision
  • 1995 – Cruel Jaws
  • 1996 – Zeus and Roxanne
  • 1996 – Spanish Prisoner
  • 1996 – Speed 2
  • 1996 – Blind Swimmer Completes Key West Marathon
  • 1997 – Assault on Devil’s Island
  • 1997 – The Spanish Prisoner
  • 1997 – Tomorrow Never Dies
  • 1997 – Murder of Crows
  • 1998 – Office Space
  • 1998 – Dance of the Dolphins
  • 1998 – Nawa Shibari: Rope Art
  • 1999 – This Old House (TV Episode)
  • 2000 – The Crew
  • 2000 – Heartbreakers
  • 2000 – Say What? Karaoke (TV Episode)
  • 2000 – Trading Spaces (TV Episodes)
  • 2000 – Stardom
  • 2001 – Going to California (TV Series)
  • 2001 – TRL Retirement Home (TV Special)
  • 2002 – Adrenaline Rush: Science of Risk
  • 2002 –  Red Dragon
  • 2002 – 2 Fast 2 Furious
  • 2002 – Playboy Exposed: Florida Flash ‘n Splash
  • 2002 – Most Haunted in America 
  • 2003 – Water for Tea
  • 2003 – Totally Hooked (TV Series)
  • 2003 – One Bad Trip (TV Series)
  • 2003 – Insomniac with Dave Attell (TV Episode)
  • 2003 – Water for Tea
  • 2004 – The Pacifier
  • 2004 – Meet The Fockers
  • 2004 – Key West: City of Colors
  • 2004 – The Opposite Sex: Jamie’s Story
  • 2004 – The Guerrero Project
  • 2005 – Miami Vice
  • 2005 – Hoot
  • 2005 – Cross Bones
  • 2005 – Confessions of a Thug
  • 2005 – The L Word (TV Episode)
  • 2005 – A Cemetary Special
  • 2005 – Official Fantasy Fest DVD
  • 2005 – 2006 – MTV’s Real World Key West (TV Series)
  • 2005 – A Cemetery Special (TV Movie)
  • 2005 – We Are Dad (TV Documentary)
  • 2006 – Jackass Number Two
  • 2006 – Chasing Silver: A Tarpon Journey (TV Mini-series)
  • 2006 – Wasted Sushi 
  • 2006 – On the Set with John Glen
  • 2006 – Nature’s Fury: Storm of the Century
  • 2006 – Taste for Adventure (TV Episode)
  • 2007 – Fantasy Fest 2006 Key Weird
  • 2007 – Bullrun (TV Episode)
  • 2007 – Fantasy Fest 2006 Key West
  • 2007 – Chasing Silver: A Tarpon Journey (TV miniseries)
  • 2007 – Underwater: The Making od the Key West Nutcracker
  • 2008 – Quizno’s Madfin Shark Series (TV Series)
  • 2008 – Repo Men
  • 2008 – I Love You Phillip Morris
  • 2008 – GilzNFinz (TV Episode)
  • 2008 – Return of the Magi: A Documentary of Authentic Astrology
  • 2008 – To Key West and Back 
  • 2008 – HGTV Dream Home (TV Special)
  • 2009 – Bridget’s Sexiest Beaches (TV Episode)
  • 2009 – A Floridian’s Guide to Climate Change
  • 2009 – The Newcomer
  • 2010 – I am Number Four
  • 2010 – Polterguys
  • 2010 – Food Wars (TV Episode)
  • 2010 – 2011 – Key West Time (TV Show)
  • 2011 – The H Race
  • 2011 – New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin (TV Special)
  • 2012 – Act of Valor
  • 2012 – Bad Kitties
  • 2012 – House Hunters (TV Episode)
  • 2012 – Travel Thru History (TV Episode)
  • 2012 – Fish Frenzy (TV)
  • 2012 – Sand Masters (TV Episode)
  • 2012 – Flagler’s Train: The Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad (TV Episode)
  • 2013 – A+
  • 2013 – Bad Seeds
  • 2013 – King Fishers (TV Episode)
  • 2013 – Making Waves (TV Series)
  • 2013 – Trip Flip (TV Episode)
  • 2013 – A Silver Bar
  • 2014 – 2016 – Bloodline (TV Series)
  • 2014 – King of Offshore: The Reggie Fountain Story
  • 2014 – Sportsman’s Adventure (TV Episodes)
  • 2014 – Swingers Anonymous
  • 2014 – Underwater Adventures 
  • 2015 – Reading Kate 
  • 2015 – Flotilla (TV)
  • 2015 – Star and Shield’s Copout Adventures (TV Series)
  • 2015 – 2017 – Bloodline (TV Series)
  • 2016 – Hair I Go Again
  • 2016 – Papa
  • 2016 – The Hushfish Project ( TV Series)
  • 2016 – Get Frank: The Movie
  • 2016 – Courier X
  • 2016 – Ride with Norman Reedus: The Keys with Peter Fonda (TV Episode)
  • 2017 – The Leisure Seeker
  • 2018 – Chasing the Sun
  • 2018 – Max Topas – Das Buch der Kristallkinder
  • 2018 – The Old Man and the Sea: Return to Cuba
  • 2018 – Renovation Realities: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (TV Episodes)
  • 2018 – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: Scarlett (Music Video)
  • 2018 – Kent Rocket
  • 2019 – Agenda 11
  • 2019 – The Laundromat
  • 2019 – The Great Food Truck Race (TV Episode)
  • 2020 – Public Enemy Number One
  • 2020 – Ocean Legacy (TV Episodes)
  • 2023 – Bad Monkey (TV Series)
Key West television episode king fishers

For More Key West Information

For more information about things to do and see in our island city, go to our Key West Web Site. You can also visit our Key West Events Calendar to see upcoming special events. And for restaurant reviews check out our restaurant review section of this blog as well as our restaurant reviews atwww.gotothekeys.com.

Island Genn – Your Key West Concierge
author avatar
Island Genn