David Ackroyd (born May 30, 1940) is an American actor, who first came to prominence in soap operas such as The Secret Storm and Another World. Early life On May 30, 1940, Ackroyd was born in East Orange, New Jersey; he moved to Wayne, New Jersey, when he was 12 years old. Career David Ackroyd extended his all-stage career into film and television in the early 1970s, beginning with daytime leading man outings in The Secret Storm and Another World. He progressed to work as Gary Ewing in Dallas until Ted Shackelford successfully took over the role when the character moved to the spin-off drama Knots Landing. Ackroyd later appeared on Knots Landing as a guest star, playing a different character. In the late 1970s, he appeared in the miniseries The Dark Secret of Harvest Home as Nick Constantine; The Word and the TV movies And I Alone Survived and Exo-Man. He costarred in the short-lived series AfterMASH and A Peaceable Kingdom. He had supporting roles in The Mountain Men, Dark Angel and Xena: Warrior Princess. He voiced "John Cavanaugh/Prince Corran of Dar-Shan" in the animated series Wildfire as well as several characters in The New Yogi Bear Show, The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest and The New Adventures of Captain Planet. On Broadway, Ackroyd appeared in Unlikely Heroes, a 1971 production of three plays based on the stories of Philip Roth; and Children of a Lesser God, in which he replaced John Rubinstein as the lead character James Leeds in 1981. Since the late 1990s and into the 2000s, Ackroyd has narrated documentaries on TV, including History's Mysteries and UFO Files: "Alien Engineering". Ackroyd moved to Montana in 1996. In 2003, he co-founded the Alpine Theatre Project in Whitefish, a professional acting company, where he is the artistic development director. The project has featured appearances by Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow and Kelli O'Hara. Filmography Actor 1971-1974 The Secret Storm as Kevin Kincade 1974-1977 Another World as Dr. Dave Gilchrist 1975 Kojak as Vincent Hackley 1977 Exo-Man as Dr. Nicholas Conrad / Exo-Man 1978 Lou Grant as Mike Kessler 1978 The Dark Secret of Harvest Home as Nick Constantine 1978 The Word as Tom Carey 1978 Dallas as Gary Ewing 1978 And I Alone Survived as Jay Fuller 1978 The Paper Chase, Season 1, Episode 5: "Voices of Silence" as Eric Ryerson 1978