Everything about Richard Dean Anderson totally explained
Richard Dean Anderson (born
January 23,
1950, in
Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American television
actor. He played the
eponymous hero in the television series
MacGyver and, more recently,
Jack O'Neill in
Stargate SG-1. He currently resides in
Malibu, California, with his family.
Biography
Early life
Anderson was born in
Minneapolis, Minnesota to Stuart Jay Anderson and Jocelyn Rhae Carter, and has
Scottish,
Swedish,
Norwegian and
Mohawk Native American ancestry. He grew up in
Roseville, Minnesota and attended
Roseville Area High School, then
Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and
St. Cloud State University.
Career
After college, Anderson participated with friends in a cross-country bike ride from Minnesota to Alaska. The adventure opened his mind to what he wanted to do, which was become an actor. He moved to
Los Angeles, where he did many menial jobs such as work as a mime and a stagehand at a marina. He started his acting career appearing on
General Hospital as
Dr. Jeff Webber from 1976 to 1981 . He also starred as Adam in the CBS television series
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (based very loosely on the movie of the same name) from 1982-1983. In the 1983-1984 season, he played a lieutenant, Simon Adams, on the 22-week
Dennis Weaver series
Emerald Point NAS on CBS. In the story line Adams steals away Celia Warren (
Susan Dey), the wife of naval
lawyer Jack Warren (
Charles Frank).
Anderson came to fame with the hit television series
MacGyver which lasted from 1985 to 1992 and was highly successful throughout its entire run, with the lead role of
Angus MacGyver.
In 1995 he starred in
Legend, a comic series of only twelve episodes about a
dime novel writer within the Wild West who against his will has to play the role of his own fictional character. Although Richard Dean Anderson co-starred with
John de Lancie in Legend, two 1990 episodes of MacGyver (Serenity (Season 5, Episode 12) and
MacGyver's Women (Season 6, Episode 8) ) featured Wild Wild West storylines with the same quirky style evidenced within Legend.
From 1997 to 2005, he starred as
Colonel/General Jack O'Neill in
Stargate SG-1, based on the movie
Stargate starring
Kurt Russell and
James Spader. In season six, he chose to have a reduced role in the series due to his desire to spend more time with his young daughter. His role was continually reduced until he left as a regular cast member at the end of season eight semi-retiring from acting for personal reasons, preferring instead to make a few guest appearances. He has appeared in two episodes of season nine of SG-1, two episodes of season ten, three episodes of season three of
Stargate Atlantis and the second direct-to-DVD film
Stargate Continuum.
He was presented with an award at the Air Force Association's 57th Annual Air Force Anniversary Dinner in
Washington, D.C. on
September 14 2004 because of his role as star and executive producer of
Stargate SG-1, a series which has portrayed the Air Force in a positive light since it first premiered. It was presented by the then-
Air Force Chief-of-Staff,
General John P. Jumper. The last recipient of the award was
James Stewart in 1987. At the same dinner, Anderson was made an honorary
Brigadier General.
Richard Dean Anderson and The Simpsons
Anderson has always been a great fan of the television show
The Simpsons and in 2005, he was invited to guest star on the show, which he'd continually referenced during his time on
SG-1. He voices himself in an episode called "
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore" in which he's kidnapped by
Selma and
Patty Bouvier; Anderson's MacGyver character is a longstanding heartthrob for the sisters of
Marge Simpson.
Dan Castellaneta, the voice actor who portrays
Homer Simpson (among other characters), made a guest appearance on
Stargate SG-1 ("
Citizen Joe") and, in describing his unnatural ability to see the life events of Jack O'Neill, made reference to O'Neill's fondness for
The Simpsons.
Other appearances
He also appears in the
1997 PC game Fallout as the voice of Killian Darkwater, who was the clever head of the city made entirely of post-nuclear junk (Junktown).
Anderson briefly reprised his role as Angus MacGyver in 2006 when he appeared in a MasterCard commercial during
Super Bowl XL. While the plot follows the "MacGyver Formula", it's somewhat
satirical of the series, showing unlikely if not impossible solutions to the obstacles faced by Anderson's character (in one shot, he cuts through a thick rope with a
pine-scented air freshener). The official MasterCard website for the commercial refers to it as "the Return of MacGyver".
Private life
Anderson has never married. He has a daughter named Wylie Quinn Annarose who was born August 2, 1998 by his ex-partner, Apryl Prose. He has also dated
Teri Hatcher,
Sela Ward,
Lara Flynn Boyle, and the famous German ice-skater
Katarina Witt.
Anderson is also an avid
ice hockey player and
skier. He is so much of a fan of the sports that he's deliberately appeared playing these sports in several of his TV shows, including MacGyver.
Anderson is an advocate of
gun control, a trait he's in common with his role on
MacGyver, as his character mostly avoided using firearms during the series.
Filmography
Starring roles
Guest-starring roles
Producer
| Year |
Title |
Role |
Other notes |
| 1994 |
MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis |
Executive Producer |
TV |
| 1994 |
MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday |
Executive Producer |
TV |
| 1997 |
Stargate SG-1 |
Executive Producer |
TV Series |
| 1997 |
Firehouse |
Executive Producer |
TV |
| 2004 |
From Stargate to Atlantis: Sci Fi Lowdown |
Executive Producer |
TV |
Composer
| Year |
Title |
Other notes |
| 1988 |
MacGyver |
TV Series (song "Eau d'Leo" in episode "The Negotiator") |
Further Information
Get more info on 'Richard Dean Anderson'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://richard_dean_anderson.totallyexplained.com">Richard Dean Anderson Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
