Dirk Benedict
Dirk Benedict was born in Helena, Montana, United States on March 1st, 1945 and is the TV Actor. At the age of 79, Dirk Benedict biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, TV shows, and networth are available.
At 79 years old, Dirk Benedict has this physical status:
Dirk Benedict (born Dirk Niewoehner on March 1, 1945) is an American film, television, and stage actor and writer.
He is best known for his role as Lieutenant Peck in The A-Team television series and Lieutenant Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica film and television series.
He is the author of Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy and And Then We Went Fishing.
Early life
Benedict was born in Helena, Montana, as the son of Priscilla Mella (née Metzger), an accountant, and George Edward Niewoehner, a solicitor. He grew up in White Sulphur Springs, Montana. In 1967, Whitman College was founded. Benedict is accused of choosing his stage name from an Egg Benedict serving before his acting career. He is of German descent.
Personal life
Benedict recovered from a prostate tumor in the 1970s, but he refused to have blood tests for malignancy. He credited his recovery to actress Gloria Swanson's recommendation of a macrobiotic diet.
In 1986, he married Toni Hudson, an actor with whom he has two sons George and Roland. In the fourth season A-Team episode titled "Blood, Sweat, and Cheers," Hudson had previously appeared as Dana. In 1995, the couple divorced.
Benedict discovered in 1998 that he had another son, John Talbert (born 1968), from an earlier relationship who had been rejected for adoption. Talbert discovered and contacted his birth parents with the support of his adoptive parents.
Career
Benedict's film debut was in the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia. When the New York run for Butterflies Are Free ended, he received an offer to repeat his performance in Hawaii, opposite Barbara Rush. While there, he appeared as a guest lead on Hawaii Five-O. The producers of a horror film called Sssssss (1973) saw Benedict's performance in Hawaii Five-O and promptly cast him as the lead in that movie. He next played the psychotic wife-beating husband of Twiggy in her American film debut, W (1974). Benedict starred in the television series Chopper One, which aired for one season in 1974. He made two appearances in Charlie's Angels. He also appeared on the Donny & Marie variety show.
Benedict's career break came in 1978 when he appeared as Lieutenant Starbuck in the movie and television series Battlestar Galactica. The same year Benedict starred in the TV film Cruise into Terror, and appeared in the ensemble movie Scavenger Hunt the following year.
In 1980, Benedict starred alongside Linda Blair in an action-comedy movie called Ruckus. In 1983, Dirk gained further popularity as con man Lieutenant Templeton "Face" Peck in 1980s action television series The A-Team. He played "Faceman" from 1982 (1982) to 1986 (1986), although the series didn't air until January 1983, and the final episode wasn't shown until 1987 rebroadcasts. The second season episode "Steel" includes a scene at Universal Studios where Face is seen looking bemused as a Cylon walks by him as an in-joke to his previous role in Battlestar Galactica. The clip is incorporated into the series' opening credit sequence from season 3 onward.
In 1986, Benedict starred as low-life band manager Harry Smilac in the movie Body Slam along with Lou Albano, Roddy Piper, and cameo appearances by Freddie Blassie, Ric Flair, and Bruno Sammartino. His character Smilac ends up managing the pro-wrestler "Quick Rick" Roberts (Piper) and faces opposition by Captain Lou and his wrestling tag-team "the Cannibals".
In 1987, Benedict took the title role of Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Abbey Theatre in Manhattan. Both his performance and the entire production were lambasted by critics. Benedict starred in the 1989 TV film Trenchcoat in Paradise.
In 1991, Benedict starred in Blue Tornado, playing Alex, call sign Fireball, an Italian Air Force fighter pilot. Benedict published an autobiography, Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy: A True Story of Discovery, Acting, Health, Illness, Recovery, and Life (Avery Publishing ISBN 0895294796). In 1993, Benedict starred in Shadow Force.
Benedict also appeared as Jake Barnes in the 1996 action-adventure film Alaska.
In 2000, Benedict wrote and directed his first screenplay, Cahoots. Benedict appeared in the 2006 German film Goldene Zeiten ("Golden Times") in a dual role, playing an American former TV star as well as a German lookalike who impersonates him.
In 2006, he wrote an online essay criticizing the then-airing Battlestar Galactica re-imagined series and, especially, its casting of a woman as his character, Starbuck, writing that "the war against masculinity has been won" and that "a television show based on hope, spiritual faith, and family is unimagined and regurgitated as a show of despair, sexual violence and family dysfunction".
He appeared as a contestant on the 2007 UK series of Celebrity Big Brother. He arrived on launch night in a replica of the A-Team van, smoking a cigar and accompanied by the A-Team theme tune.
In 2010, Benedict starred in a stage production of Prescription: Murder playing Lieutenant Columbo for the Middle Ground Theatre Company in the UK. Benedict also made a cameo appearance in the 2010 film adaptation of The A-Team as Pensacola Prisoner Milt.
In 2019, Benedict took on the role of Jack Strange in the B movie Space Ninjas, written and directed by Scott McQuaid. Dirk plays an eccentric TV host of a show called Stranger Than Fiction, which is like a hybrid of The Twilight Zone and The X-Files. The movie is a sci-fi comedy horror that follows a bunch of high school students trying to survive the night of a Space Ninja invasion.