Stephen Macht

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Stephen Macht
Born	May 1, 1942 (1942-05-01) (age 67) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Occupation	Actor
Spouse(s)	Suzanne Victoria Pulier (1964-present)

Stephen Macht (born May 1, 1942) is an American television and film actor.

Biography

Early life

Macht was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[1] Macht was raised in Brooklyn Heights, NY, until his father's death. At age nine, he moved with his mother and older brother to live with his maternal grandfather, a haberdasher, in Mystic, CT. After graduating from Dartmouth College (where he roomed with future actor Michael Moriarty), Macht obtained two graduate degrees (including a Ph.D.) and became adept in Aristotelian concepts. Macht studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and wrote his Ph.D. Dissertation on the History of Acting Training at L.A.M.D.A. He has also trained with Milton Katselas at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. While teaching at Queens College, he received approval by his department chair to appear in plays in New York in lieu of publishing scholarly articles as part of the tenure track.

Career

Spotted by a Universal Studios talent scout while starring at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada in 1975, Macht was signed to a contract and by the mid 1970s had left teaching and was making frequent appearances in TV episodes and movies.

Dark, with a solid build, Macht was often cast in ethnic roles (i.e., Jews, Italians and Native Americans) such as Raid on Entebbe (NBC, 1977), where he portrayed Yonni Netanyahu, the Israeli officer killed in the rescue of hostages in Uganda. In 1978 Macht had a big break as the lead in The Immigrants a syndicated miniseries about the rise of the son of Italian immigrants in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. The following year he portrayed a Hopi in Nightwing.

The success of the TV-movie American Dream (ABC, 1981) led to a critically acclaimed short-lived series which cast Macht in the role of a family man who chucks the suburban life to set up home in the inner city of Chicago. The following season, he landed the role of the brother of Karen MacKenzie (Michele Lee) on Knots Landing (CBS, 1982-83). The actor, however, found more challenging roles in TV longforms. Notable roles included playing Nancy McKeon's father in Strange Voices (NBC, 1987). He was Benedict Arnold in the 1984 CBS miniseries George Washington and one of the survivors of Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac (NBC, 1984). Macht spent three seasons (1985-88) in the recurring role of David Keeler, love interest to Det. Chris Cagney (Sharon Gless), on Cagney & Lacey (CBS). During his run on the show, he moved behind the cameras to make his directorial debut.

In 1993, Macht played Krim Aldos in an early Season 2 episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "The Siege". This was after he was seriously considered for both the roles of Captain Picard and Commander Riker during the casting of Star Trek: The Next Generation.^[2][3]

More recent credits have included playing an Austrian Jew who must be baptized along with his wife and daughter in order to escape the Nazis in A Friendship in Vienna (The Disney Channel, 1988); a doctor helping Jane Seymour in the syndicated miniseries Sidney Sheldon's Memories of Midnight (1991); and cult member Joan Van Ark's suffering husband in Moment of Truth: A Mother's Deception (NBC, 1994). In 1996 he did a six-month stint on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live as Elliot Durban, a psychiatrist and gambling addict blackmailed into hypnotising Victoria Lord Buchanan (Erika Slezak). As of August 24, 2007 he is playing Trevor Lansing, attorney of organized crime boss Anthony Zacchara and father of attorney Ric Lansing, in the soap opera General Hospital for which Soap Opera Digest nominated him Best Villain of 2007.

Macht's work in feature films has been more sporadic, beginning with a turn as one of The Choirboys (1977). He also had roles in The Mountain Men (1980), The Monster Squad (1987), Stephen King's Graveyard Shift (1990), and Watchers Reborn (1998). Macht has also played Dr. Harris in three entries in the Trancers series.

Personal life

Macht has been married to archivist/museum curator Suzanne Victoria Pulier since 1964.^[1] He has four children: Julie, Ari Serbin, actor Gabriel Macht and musician Jesse Macht.^[1] Macht has studied to be a rabbi.^[4]

Education

• Dartmouth College: B.A., 1963: Drama Major
• Tufts University: M.A., 1967: Drama Major
• Indiana University: Ph.D., 1970: Dramatic Literature/Criticism/Theatre History

References

External links

• Stephen Macht at the Internet Movie Database
• Stephen Macht at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)

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