David Ackroyd

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.

David Ackroyd
Born (1940-05-30) May 30, 1940
East Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1969–present
Spouse(s)Ruth Liming (1963–present)
ChildrenJessica Ackroyd
Abigail Ackroyd
Parent(s)Arthur Ackroyd
Charlotte Henderson

Early life

On May 30, 1940, Ackroyd was born in East Orange, New Jersey, a suburb of Newark; he moved to Wayne, New Jersey when he was 12 years old.[1][2]

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 prime time work as Gary Ewing in Dallas until Ted Shackelford successfully took over the role when the character moved front and center with the spin-off drama Knots Landing, though Ackroyd himself would later appear on Knots Landing as a guest star, playing a different character. Coincidentally, Shackelford's last recurring role prior to Dallas was on Another World.

His prime on-camera work occurred in the late 1970s with a series of strong co-star roles 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 began to find supporting roles in such movies as 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 documentary television series like History's Mysteries and UFO Files: "Alien Engineering".

Ackroyd moved to Montana in 1996. In 2003, he co-founded the Alpine Theatre Project in Whitefish, a professional acting company, of which he is the Artistic Development Director. The project has featured appearances by such notable performers as Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow and Kelli O'Hara.

Filmography

Actor

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)

Archive footage

References
  1. Denis, Paul.Daytime TV's Star Directory, p. 30. Popular Library, 1976. Accessed July 21, 2019. "David Ackroyd Personal Life: Born in East Orange, N.J., David's family (of Irish-English background) moved to Wayne, N.J., when he was 12."
  2. "Interview with David Ackroyd". YouTube. August 7, 2017.
  3. The Paper Chase, Season 1, Episode 5: "Voices of Silence" (YouTube)
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