Bruce McGill

Bruce Travis McGill (born July 11, 1950) is an American actor who has an extensive list of credits in film and television. He is perhaps best known for his role as Jack Dalton on the television series MacGyver and as Daniel Simpson "D-Day" Day in National Lampoon's Animal House. --- McGill was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Adriel Rose (née Jacobs), an artist, and Woodrow Wilson McGill, a real estate and insurance agent. He graduated from Douglas MacArthur High School in the northeastern part of San Antonio and from The University of Texas at Austin with a degree in drama. He is related to former Texas State Senator A.R. Schwartz. McGill has starred in many films, perhaps his most well-known role being "D-Day" in the 1978 comedy classic National Lampoon's Animal House, a role McGill was desperate to take at the time, recalling his days as a young unemployed actor sitting in a New York City casting office. In Animal House, he played the William Tell Overture by drumming his fingers on his windpipe. He duplicated this talent in MacGyver, playing "Rock-A-Bye Baby" to lull a child in his care to sleep. Some of his films include Wildcats, The Last Boy Scout, My Cousin Vinny, Cliffhanger, Timecop, Black Sheep, Rosewood, The Insider, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Ali, The Sum of All Fears, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, Matchstick Men, Runaway Jury, Collateral, Cinderella Man, Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy, and Vantage Point. McGill is a favorite of director Michael Mann, having worked with him on The Insider, Ali and Collateral. He has also appeared in four HBO TV films, first playing Yankees manager Ralph Houk in Billy Crystal's film 61* in 2001, then diplomat George Ball in the 2002 film Path to War; journalist Peter Arnett in Live from Baghdad later that year; and most recently Mac Stipanovich in the 2008 film Recount about the 2000 Presidential election in Florida. He portrayed CIA Director George Tenetin Oliver Stone's film W. and, most recently, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in Lincoln. McGill reprised his role as D-Day from National Lampoon's Animal House in the short-lived 1979 ABC TV Spinoff Delta House. His other television guest appearances range from Quantum Leap (in both the pilot and final episodes), Walker, Texas Ranger, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Crime Story, and Miami Vice (again, a Michael Mann production), to Star Trek: Voyager as Captain Braxton in the episode "Relativity". He also appeared multiple times as a regular guest star in MacGyver as the title character's comical best friend, soldier of fortune/bush pilot Jack Dalton. Echoing that role, McGill often plays friends of the lead character in film and television. In 1994 he made a guest appearance along with Jay Leno in the Emmy nominated TV series, Home Improvement. He played Willard Cates in the short-lived series Wolf Lake. He was scheduled to join the cast of Bionic Woman in the fall of 2007. He also voiced Agent Buford in the video game Mercenaries. In 2009, McGill appeared on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Gordon Garrison, a zealously bigoted anti-immigration talk-show host who, after sparking a mini-riot in court, sets up the acquittal of the killer. McGill also appeared on ABC's 2010 TV show, No Ordinary Family.