David Canary

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David Hoyt Canary (born August 25, 1938) is an American actor, who starred in both soap operas and prime time television. He is best known for his roles as the ranch foreman, Candy Canaday on Bonanza (a role he played from 1967-1970 and 1972-1973) and identical twins Adam Chandler from 1983 to present and Stuart Chandler from 1984 to May 2009 on the daytime soap opera All My Children.

Biography

Early life

Although Canary was born in Elwood, Indiana, he grew up and attended high school in Massillon, Ohio. He knew Charles M. Alcorn. He played football for the famed Massillon Tigers of Washington High School before earning a football scholarship to the University of Cincinnati, where he trained as a singer and became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Soon acting became his goal, following college performances and summer stock shows.

Career

After a semi-regular role as a doctor in the prime time serial Peyton Place, Canary first came to prominence in 1967 on the Western series Bonanza.

The year 1967 was very good to Canary and his resume. Canary did the classic western movie Hombre with Paul Newman and Cameron Mitchell, guest starred in a two-part Gunsmoke episode, and played a mobster with Jason Robards in the movie, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

A contract dispute that year between Leonard Nimoy and the producers of Star Trek forced Herb Solow, Robert H. Justman and Gene Roddenberry to compile a list of candidates for consideration as replacements for Mr. Spock. As revealed in Solow and Justman's book, Star Trek - The Inside Story, Canary was one of the "A List" candidates. When David Dortort ("Bonanza", "High Chaparral", "The Cowboys", and "Ponderosa" creator/ producer) was looking for a new Ponderosa foreman, he saw Canary in Hombre and cast him in the role. Canary left Bonanza in 1970 after a contract dispute with the show's producers. He would return after co-star Dan Blocker's May 1972 death. Canary said that he loved "Bonanza", except for the on-location Nevada filming in over 100 degree heat.

In 1981, he assumed the role of Steve Frame on the soap opera Another World. However, the effort to revive the Steve/Alice/Rachel triangle was largely unsuccessful and Canary left the show in 1983, after the character of Steve Frame was killed off in a car crash.

That same year, he joined the cast of All My Children in the role of the cunning Adam Chandler. The following year, he was also cast as Adam's meek—perhaps developmentally-challenged—twin brother, Stuart (until the character's death in May 2009). He has played the twins since (and as per SAG stipulations, gets paid double for performing two parts).

Additional daytime television roles have included the part of a cult leader on The Doctors and a role on Search for Tomorrow. Other prime time guest appearances include: Alias Smith and Jones, Kung-Fu, Hawaii Five-0, S.W.A.T., Primus, Remember WENN, and Touched By An Angel.

Canary is known to be most affable and accessible to fans of both "All My Children" and "Bonanza". At Disney resorts, he has done "meet and greet" appearances signing autographs for AMC fans. The actor has also made several appearances at the Lake Tahoe site of the Ponderosa ranch, a tourist attraction from 1967-2004.

The actor also appeared as the locomotive engineer in the movie Atomic Train.

In 2004, he appeared as mathematical genius Robert in a well-reviewed production of David Auburn's Proof (play) in Canton, OH, near his hometown of Massillon.

Credits

• "All My Children"
• "Touched by an Angel"
• "One Life to Live"
• "Law & Order"
• "Remember WENN"
• Secret Santa
• "Another World" (as Steve Frame)
• "Search for Tomorrow"
• "The Dain Curse"
• "S.W.A.T."
• "Primus"
• Johnny Firecloud
• Posse
• Sharks' Treasure
• "The Rookies"
• Melvin Purvis G-MAN
• "Kung-Fu"
• "Police Story"
• Incident on a Dark Street
• "Bonanza"
• "Alias Smith and Jones"
• "Bearcats!"
• "Hawaii Five-0"
• "The F.B.I."
• The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
• "Cimarron Strip"
• "Dundee and the Culhane"
• The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
• "Gunsmoke"
• Hombre
• "Peyton Place"

Awards/Nominations

He has won five Daytime Emmy Awards as 'Outstanding Lead Actor', and has been nominated an additional eleven times, most recently in 2008 for Best Lead Actor. A baritone, Canary has performed in such musicals as, "Man of La Mancha", "Sweeny Todd", "Kismet" and "Carousel", as well as performing in dramatic pieces such as "The Seagull", and the one man play "Clarence Darrow". Canary's favorite stage performance was when he did Tennessee Williams' Broadway production of "Clothes for a Summer Hotel" with Geraldine Page.

Personal life

Canary is married to actress Maureen Maloney, with whom he has a son, Chris, and a daughter, Kate. He is the middle son of Hilary and Lorena Canary. His brothers are actor John Canary, who once had a role on All My Children and writer H. Glenn Canary (1934-2008). The brothers are descended from folk figure Calamity Jane, also known as Martha Jane Canary ("Bonanza Gold", April 2006).

External links

• David Canary at the Internet Movie Database
• David Canary web page