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.
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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".
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.
In the years following his co-founding of the Alpine Theatre Project (ATP) in Whitefish, Montana, Ackroyd remained active with the company’s productions and education programs. In 2024, ATP announced a leadership transition to a “next generation” of leaders, naming Tracy McDowell as artistic director and Cynthia Benkelman as executive director, while retaining the founders to assist with the transition.
Filmography
Actor
1971-1974 The Secret Storm as Kevin Kincade
1974-1977 Another World as Dr. Dave Gilchrist
1975 Kojak as Vincent Hackley
1977 Exo-Man as Dr. Nicholas Conrad / Exo-Man
1978 Lou Grant as Mike Kessler
1978 The Dark Secret of Harvest Home as Nick Constantine
1978 The Word as Tom Carey
1978 Dallas as Gary Ewing (2 episodes)
1978 And I Alone Survived as Jay Fuller
1978 The Paper Chase, Season 1, Episode 5: "Voices of Silence" as Eric Ryerson
1978 Little Women as Professor Friedrich Bhaer
1979 Women in White as Dr. Mike Rayburn
1979 Mind Over Murder as Ben Kushing
1980 The Yeagers as John David Yeager
1980 The Mountain Men as Medicine Wolf
1981 A Gun in the House as Joe Cates
1982 The Sound of Murder as
1982 Knots Landing as Bill Medford
1982 Trapper John, M.D. as Dr. Frank Langtry
1982 McClain's Law as
Self
1998 In Search of History: The Heretic King
1998 The Mysteries of Amelia Earhart
1998 In Search of History: The First Americans
1999 History's Mysteries: The First Detective
1999 History's Mysteries: The Inquisition
2000 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
2001 History's Mysteries: Vikings, Fury from the North
2005 Meteors: Fire in the Sky
2006 UFO Files: Alien Engineering
2006 In Search of History: Dragons
2007 The Universe
Archive footage
2002 Intimate Portrait