David Ackroyd (born May 30, 1940) is an American actor, who first came to prominence in soap operas such as The Secret Storm and Another World.
Early life
On May 30, 1940, Ackroyd was born in East Orange, New Jersey; he moved to Wayne, New Jersey when he was 12 years old.
Career
David Ackroyd extended his all-stage career into film and television in the early 1970s, beginning with daytime leading man outings in The Secret Storm and Another World. He progressed to work as Gary Ewing in Dallas until Ted Shackelford successfully took over the role when the character moved to the spin-off drama Knots Landing. Ackroyd later appeared on Knots Landing as a guest star, playing a different character.
In the late 1970s, he appeared in the miniseries The Dark Secret of Harvest Home as Nick Constantine; The Word and the TV movies And I Alone Survived and Exo-Man. He costarred in the short-lived series AfterMASH and A Peaceable Kingdom. He had supporting roles in The Mountain Men, Dark Angel and Xena: Warrior Princess. He voiced “John Cavanaugh/Prince Corran of Dar-Shan” in the animated series Wildfire as well as several characters in The New Yogi Bear Show, The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest and The New Adventures of Captain Planet.
On Broadway, Ackroyd appeared in Unlikely Heroes, a 1971 production of three plays based on the stories of Philip Roth; and Children of a Lesser God, in which he replaced John Rubinstein as the lead character James Leeds in 1981. Since the late 1990s and into the 2000s, Ackroyd has narrated documentaries on TV, including History’s Mysteries and UFO Files: “Alien Engineering”.[citation needed]
Ackroyd moved to Montana in 1996. In 2003, he co-founded the Alpine Theatre Project in Whitefish, a professional acting company, where he is the artistic development director. The project has featured appearances by Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow and Kelli O’Hara.[citation needed]
Filmography
Actor
The Secret Storm (1971–1974)
Another World (1974–1977) as Dr. Dave Gilchrist
Kojak (1975)
Exo-Man (1977) as Dr. Nicholas Conrad / Exo-Man
Lou Grant (1978)
The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978)
The Word (1978)
Dallas (1978)
And I Alone Survived (1978)
The Paper Chase, Season 1, Episode 5: “Voices of Silence” (1978)
Women in White (1979)
Little Women (1979)
Mind Over Murder (1979)
The Yeagers (1980)
The Mountain Men (1980)
A Gun in the House (1981)
The Sound of Murder (1982)
Knots Landing (1982)
Trapper John, M.D. (1982)
McClain’s Law (1982)
The Facts of Life (1982)
Cocaine: One Man’s Seduction (1983)
Deadly Lessons (1983)
Dynasty (1983)
Whiz Kids (1983)
When Your Lover Leaves (1983)
AfterMASH (1983)
The Sky’s No Limit (1984)
Hunter (1984)
Cover Up (1984)
Riptide (1984)
Hardcastle and McCormick (1985)
Picking Up the Pieces (1985)
St. Elsewhere (1985)
The Nativity (1986)
Murder, she wrote, Season 2, Episode 13: “Trial by error” (1986)
The Children of Times Square (1986)
Stark: Mirror Image (1986)
The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible (1986)
Wildfire (1986)
The A-Team (1986)
A Smoky Mountain Christmas (1986)
Nutcracker: Money, Madness and Murder (1987)
Tales from the Hollywood Hills: Natica Jackson (1987)
Cagney & Lacey (1985–1987)
Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story (1987)
Hotel (1988)
Windmills of the Gods (1988)
MacGyver (1985–1988)
Memories of Me (1988)
Highway to Heaven (1988)
The New Yogi Bear Show (1988)
Studio 5-B (1989)
A Peaceable Kingdom (1989)
Wrestling with God (1990)
I Come in Peace (1990)
History’s Mysteries: Drake’s Secret Voyage (1991)
Hell Hath No Fury (1991)
Stop at Nothing (1991)
Breaking the Silence (1992)
The Fear Inside (1992)
The Round Table (1992)
Dead On (1993)
Love, Cheat & Steal (1993)
The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993)
Murder, She Wrote (1986–1994)
Against the Wall (1994)
Fortune Hunter (1994)
Walker, Texas Ranger (1994)
The Cosby Mysteries (1995)
Xena: Warrior Princess (1996)
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (1996)
No Strings Attached (1997)
Raven (1997)
Prison Life (2000)
Self
In Search of History: The Heretic King (1998)
The Mysteries of Amelia Earhart (1998)
In Search of History: The First Americans (1998)
History’s Mysteries: The First Detective (1999)
History’s Mysteries: The Inquisition (1999)
History’s Mysteries: Chain Gangs (2000)
History’s Mysteries: Body Snatchers (2000)
Horror or Hoax (2000)
History’s Mysteries: Ghost Plane of the Desert – Lady Be Good (2000)
History’s Mysteries: Amityville -The Haunting (2000)
History’s Mysteries: Vikings, Fury from the North (2001)
Meteors: Fire in the Sky (2005)
UFO Files: Alien Engineering (2006)
In Search of History: Dragons (2006)
The Universe (2007)
External Links
Actor David Ackroyd – Wikipedia
