Bios Of The Actors/Actresses in MacGyver
Bios of the actors/actresses in MacGyver
RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON
Anderson is internationally known for his title role in the television series MacGyver, which ran for seven successful seasons on ABC and now airs in syndication worldwide. Anderson and his producing partner, Michael Greenburg, operating under their production company banner, Gekko Film Corp., executive produced the two MacGyver television movies that followed, Trail to Doomsday and Lost Treasure of Atlantis.
Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Anderson's first career goal was to become a professional hockey player. However, after breaking both arms in separate collisions on the ice, he decided to seek other career options. As the son of a jazz musician father and contemporary artist mother, his interests naturally turned to the humanities.
After completing a grueling cross-country bicycle trip to Alaska, Anderson began studying drama at St. Cloud State College and Ohio University. Relocating to Los Angeles, he "paid his dues" working as a street mime, a writer/director/performer at Marineland and a jester-singer-mime-juggler at a 16th Century Renaissance-style cabaret.
In 1976, Anderson was cast as Dr. Jeff Webber on ABC's daytime drama General Hospital. This role, which he played for five years, helped launch his career. He subsequently starred in the series Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Emerald Point, N.A.S. Just prior to STARGATE SG-1, Anderson executive produced and starred in his favorite project to date, the highly acclaimed television series Legend.
Anderson made his television movie debut in 1986 in Ordinary Heroes. His other television credits include Past the Bleachers, Eyes of a Stranger, Beyond Betrayal and Through the Eyes of a Killer. He also starred in the successful NBC miniseries Pandora's Clock.
Anderson is the co-founder of the Celebrity All-Star Hockey Team, which raises funds for charities in conjunction with the NHL. He is also an active fund-raiser and board member for the Challengers Club, a children's recreational center in South Central L.A. His most recent association is with the Water Keeper Alliance, an environmental agency dedicated to the protection and preservation of the world's waterways.
DANA ELCAR
Also known as Ibson Dana Elcar brusque character actor Dana Elcar was usually assigned roles calling for blunt imperiousness. He became especially handy in films and TV shows of the 1970s, portraying curt, dour, meticulously groomed authority figures at odds with dishevelled "hippie" and "gonzo" types. Elcar's first film after many years' stage work was 1968's Pendulum; other film credits include Soldier Blue (1969), W.C.Fields and Me (1976), and The Nude Bomb (1980). In 1985, Dana Elcar was cast as Peter Thornton, boss of troubleshooting Richard Dean Anderson, on the TV series MacGiver; Elcar continued playing the role into the 1990s, at which time the actor's real-life blindness (from Glaucoma circa) required him to incorporate dark glasses and a cane into his characterization.
