MacGyver or Richard Dean Anderson

by Shovon Chowdhury    May 06, 2008

When an American pilot is shot down in the Himalayas or scientists are trapped in an underground research lab, the experts called a former Special Forces agent, to save the day. He used that paper clip to short-circuit a nuclear missile; with the chocolate, he stopped an acid leak. It may be just a Snickers bar to you and me, but he saw it as a handy piece of disaccharide that will turn nice and gummy. In every Wednesday at 9 pm on BTV the series stuck the heterogeneous audience. That was in 1989.

The name of the series is MacGyver. The main role played by Richard Dean Anderson. MacGyver was a former Special Forces agent now working for the Phoenix Foundation, a "think tank" dedicated to righting wrongs and defeating bad people around the world. A clever fellow, he often slipped past the enemy's defenses and undermined their foul plans with ingenuity rather than brute force, using tidbits of scientific knowledge and ordinary items that happened to be laying around; for example, the paper clip might be used to short-circuit a nuclear missile, the candy bar to stop an acid leak, or a cold capsule to ignite a makeshift bomb, all just in the nick of time.

I can say hardly anyone knows his name; he was most popular as MacGyver. Richard Dean Anderson is 6 feet, 2 inches tall, with naturally dark brown hair and eyes. His style was followed the than young generation. The children mostly followed him. Some had the believe that the MacGyver is a real character. To imitate him some children did very dangerous work for which they had to give hard price.  To emulate his hair style youth generation kept their hair long. Sometime it creates too much problem in their social life. Let me share an experience, I was not youth at that time but I loved MacGyver so much that I kept my hair long. I was the only son that’s why my father allowed my style and said to my mom a few days after it will be normal. But it didn’t. One day a school Inspector came to my school to inspect and eventually he came to my class and bothered my hair style and he scolded me and our class teacher about to cut my hair and my dream to be MacGyver about to die. However I had a narrow escape from this situation. I told my father about the situation and he was too much angry to the class teacher. My father holds enough power in the school committee that the teacher had to say sorry. I don’t know any other story regarding the serial but I am sure in some place something also happened. 

Richard was born on January 23, 1950 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father, Stuart Anderson, taught English, drama, and humanities at a local high school, and is an accomplished jazz bassist. His mother, Jocelyn, is an artist, talented in both painting and sculpture. Richard is the eldest of four sons. He and his brothers, Jeffrey Scott, Thomas John, and James Stuart, grew up in the Minneapolis suburb of Roseville, where Richard developed early interests in sports, the arts, music, and acting. He grew up in Roseville, Minnesota and attended Roseville Area High School, then Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and St. Cloud State University. He played the eponymous hero in the television series MacGyver and, more recently, Jack O'Neill in Stargate SG-1. He currently resides in Malibu, California, with his family.

Richard came to national attention in 1976 as Dr. Jeff Webber on the popular daytime drama “General Hospital”. After five years, he appeared in two short-lived television series for CBS, as the eldest brother in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” in 1982, and as a hotshot Naval pilot in “Emerald Point N.A.S”. In 1983, as well as numerous guest appearances in other series.

In 1985, Richard was cast in his signature role as “MacGyver”, on ABC. He has told the story of how he won the role. He had been called in for an audition, and asked to "cold read" an unfamiliar script. Being very nearsighted, he asked to wear his glasses for the reading, and that simple unselfconscious gesture immediately convinced the show's producers that they had found the right man to become their unpretentious hero. MacGyver ran for seven successful years, and continues to enjoy popularity all around the world.

Richard made his TV movie debut in 1986 in “Ordinary Heroes”. In 1992, he starred as a disillusioned cop opposite Justine Bateman in the movie “In the Eyes of a Stranger”, and as a psychotic stalker pursuing Marg Helgenberger in “Through the Eyes of a Killer”. His acted as an abusive husband opposite Susan Dey in the 1994 movie “Beyond Betrayal”. In June 1995, he explored the opposite end of the acting spectrum with a powerful and touching performance as a father grieving the loss of his young son in “Past the Bleachers”, for ABC.

As MacGyver came to an end, Richard and his partner, Michael Greenburg, had signed an overall deal with Paramount Pictures to develop and produce several films and series for television for their own production company, “Gekko Film Corp”. In their first project, Richard acted as both star and executive producer of two MacGyver movies for television, both were filmed in London in 1993, “MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis” and “MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday” aired in 1994 to critical acclaim. Their next project for Gekko was the 1995 TV series “Legend” for UPN. In it, Richard portrayed Ernest Pratt, a dime novelist who reluctantly takes on the role of his literary hero, Nicodemus Legend, in a lighthearted blend of western and science fiction. Once again, Richard took on the role of executive producer, as well as demonstrating a considerable talent for comedy. Following the premature cancellation of Legend, Richard signed an agreement with CBS television, and filmed a pilot episode for a new television series “Firehouse” although the network did not pick up the series. His next appearance was as the heroic captain of a doomed airliner in the 1996 blockbuster NBC miniseries “Pandora's Clock”, which received critical acclaim and was an important ratings winner for the network. He followed this success by joining with MGM/UA and Showtime television in a joint deal with Gekko Film Corp to produce and star in the new science fiction series “Stargate SG-1”, based on the 1994 movie. His new series began production in Vancouver in February of 1997, and debuted to outstanding ratings on Showtime on July 27, 1997.

However, 17 years passed away yet the people of Bangladesh can recall “MacGyver”. Sometime we gossip about the series and became nostalgic about that time. MacGyver does not know about us if he knew that the people of Bangladesh is in manifold situation he must have come to save us because MacGyver stands beside oppressed and against crime.       

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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