John Beck (actor)

John Beck
Born (1943-01-28) January 28, 1943
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation Actor
Years active 1965–2009

John Beck (born January 28, 1943) is an American actor. Reared in Joliet, Illinois, he became known for his role of Mark Graison in CBS's Dallas during the middle 1980s. He often portrayed hard-ball businessmen.

Early career (1964–76)

Beck grew up in Chicago. His childhood ambition was to become a veterinarian. However, following his performance in a school play at the age of sixteen, which he had been asked to take part in as a means of overcoming profound shyness, his tutors encouraged him to try to get into drama school. He moved to California in 1962 at the age of nineteen and made his living by appearing in television commercials. In 1963/1964, he attended Joliet Junior College and was in an acting class. A year later, he made his first television appearance as an actor in his own right in a 1965 episode of NBC's I Dream of Jeannie (entitled 'Russian Roulette') at the age of twenty-one. Beck had a regular supporting role as Ketcham in the weekly Nichols (TV series) also known as James Garner as Nichols which ran for one season on NBC from 1971 to 1972. His numerous credits as a supporting actor over the years include guest slots in such series as Death Valley Days, Diagnosis: Murder, Dan August, Baywatch (Beck was a good friend of Baywatch star David Hasselhoff during the 1980s), Tales from the Crypt, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Mod Squad, Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O and Matlock, among numerous others.

Already a household name in the United States by this point, Beck first came to the attention of international audiences in 1973 when he played an underground leader named Erno who leads a revolt against a fascist government in the Woody Allen sci-fi comedy Sleeper. That same year, he appeared as "John W. Poe" in the Sam Peckinpah western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and in 1975, he appeared opposite James Caan as "Moonpie" in the original Rollerball.

Commercial peak (1977–86)

In the film The Other Side of Midnight in 1977, Beck played the male lead. A year later, Beck starred in an adaptation of H. G. Wells's The Time Machine (with future Three's Company actress Priscilla Barnes), and appeared in the TV miniseries Wheels. He appeared as Dorian Blake in 1985's Peyton Place: The Next Generation, a proposed revival of 1960s nighttime drama Peyton Place. Both productions aired on NBC in the United States.

After over fifteen years of being cast in supporting roles and bit-parts in various American drama and comedy series and low-budget films, he finally landed his first major starring role playing Sam Curtis in the early 1980s television soap opera Flamingo Road, followed by the role of Mark Graison on Dallas (his best-known role) from 1983 to 1986. Although his character was killed off in 1984, he later returned after having faked his death to seek an alternative cure for a disease he was suffering from. However, in 1986, former star Patrick Duffy was asked to return to Dallas. To accommodate this, the producers made the entire 1985-86 season a dream of Pamela Ewing (Victoria Principal). As a result, Beck's character was written out of the show as if he had never actually returned from the dead.

His other credits as a leading performer include Santa Barbara and, more recently, a recurring role in Walker: Texas Ranger.

Recent career (1989–present)

The 1990s saw Beck turn to voice acting for the first time in his career when he provided the voice of the Punisher in three episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, although to date this remains the only role as a voice actor in his career. Beck also guest-starred as the character Raymond Boone in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine extended episode "Tribunal" in 1994. A year later, he appeared in the film Black Day Blue Night. His increasingly hectic workload between the early 1970s and the mid-1990s wore Beck down to the extent that after leaving the Walker: Texas Ranger series in 1997, he began to wind down his acting schedule due to "exhaustion".

Still a favourite of American critics, Beck's last appearance on screen to date was in the 2005 television movie Crash Landing.

Outside of acting

Beck was a proficient boxer in the 1970s and won several amateur titles, most notably the heavyweight 'Golden Gloves' of Chicago in 1973. Also a one-time champion roller-skater, he was able to perform many of his own stunts in the film Rollerball without the need for a stunt double.

Selected filmography

External links

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