Dirk Benedict
Dirk Benedict
Dirk Benedictis an American movie, television and stage actor who played the characters Lieutenant Templeton "Faceman" 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...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth1 March 1945
CityHelena, MT
CountryUnited States of America
The beef, venison and elk vibrations of my first 22 years were still very much controlling the nature of my day-to-day activities. Arthritis was my morning wake-up call, mood swings between ecstasy and despair my daily state of mind, and Scotch my release from it all.
The neurosis of all this ageism is that Harrison Ford, Eastwood, Redford, Newman, etc., etc., have been playing heartthrobs until they need more filters than a pack of Camels. And their girlfriends are in their 20s. But being a Movie Star changes all the rules.
A talented writer can write women, men, dogs, pigs. They can write old people, young people. Does a writer have to be insane to write the part of someone insane? I know he has to be insane to want to be a writer, but that isn't the point.
The trouble with most stage plays nowadays is they are written by people who grew up not reading or seeing the great theatrical literature of the day, but watching network TV. And so they are more like TV sitcoms than stage plays.
The idea of turning into a reptile fascinated me. Other than that, my role was kind of... well, I don't want to say boring, but rather ordinary. I was playing the helpless victim.
It is marketing that makes films popular. Cross-marketing. Selling movies with hamburgers and Coke.
I went from being a big TV star on the lot, with my own parking space, my own table in the commissary, to a complete nobody! When I went to get my stuff, they wouldn't let me on the lot.
If you have talent as a screenwriter, it will out. Nothing succeeds like perseverance. Never give up. Anyway, life never turns out the way you imagine, dream or plan it to. Or hadn't you heard?
My children are with me morning and night and weekends. Constantly. They are my complete priority, have been, and so they aren't suffering from lack of being with dad.
The media destroyed the show with all the hype. All the press worked against us. We didn't become the Number 1 show in the country ,and the critics destroyed us.
Over the years I've had many agents, too many to remember.
The best things in life are usually difficult.