Actor Dana Elcar, who starred in "MacGyver," dies at 77

VENTURA, Calif. - Dana Elcar, the round-faced, balding actor whose real-life struggle with blindness was written into his role on the TV adventure series "MacGyver," has died. He was 77.

He died Monday of complications from pneumonia at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, his family said.

"MacGyver" ran on ABC from 1985 to 1992. Elcar played the best friend and boss of the crime-fighting title character, played by Richard Dean Anderson.

"At a time when I had very little business being called an actor, he made things so easy for me," Anderson said. "It was a learning experience that was very warm and loving for all seven years."

Elcar, who suffered from glaucoma, told producers he was going blind after four seasons with "MacGyver," so they adapted his character to match his medical condition. By the end of the show's run, he had become almost completely blind.

"The fact that you are losing your eyesight does not mean you have forgotten how to act," Elcar, in a speech to the National Federation of the Blind in 1991, recalled producers telling him.

Elcar's television career spanned 50 years. He played in other drama series, including "Baretta" opposite Robert Blake and the Robert Conrad series "Black Sheep Squadron."

Elcar also appeared in at least 40 films, including "The Sting," "2010," "All of Me" and "The Learning Tree."

He starred in off-Broadway plays, including the first American productions of Harold Pinter's "The Dumb Waiter" and "The Caretaker," Dylan Thomas' "Under Milk Wood" and Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot."

Running away from home in Ferndale, Mich., at age 13 may have led Elcar to an acting career, his son, Dane Elcar, said. He became separated from a friend in a town far from home, and spent the night watching "Citizen Kane" at an all-night theater.

"That kind of sparked him to be an actor. He watched it four or five times in one night," Dane Elcar said.

In addition to his son, Elcar is survived by three daughters, a stepdaughter, a sister, a half sister and longtime companion Thelma M. Garcia.

I did not write the following:

VENTURA, California (AP) - In another glaring example
that tragedy takes no days off, Hollywood lost an icon
Monday, bidding a final farewell to Dana Elcar, better
known as "Pete Thornton," the rotund, bald and
blinding straightman to Richard Dean Anderson's cooky
genius in the hit TV series "MacGyver."

Elcar, who was not classically trained, succumbed to
complications of pneumonia. He was 77.

"Well, pneumonia makes you cold, right?," asked former
"Good Times" star John Amos, who never met Elcar.
"Well, that's fitting then, because D-Elcs was cold as
ice. I'll be here all week."

Anderson, who proudly boasts he lost Elcar's phone
number the day ABC cancelled the long-running series,
was clearly shaken.

"This is horrifying and something I didn't see
coming," said Anderson, who also co-starred with
Morris Chestnut and Burt Young in the short-lived
"Firehouse" in 1997. "I mean, I had to cancel my
NASCAR fantasy trip to go to his funeral. I was really
looking forward to that trip. And now his crazy wife
wants me to give some sort of speech. What am I gonna
say, 'He was bald, fat and blind'? I could swear he
mumbled something once about kids or some sh#t.
Couldn't they speak? Darryl Waltrip's gonna be at this
camp!"

Anderson was not the only A-lister struggling with
Monday's news. Robert Blake, who brutally murdered his
wife before being acquitted earlier this year in Los
Angeles, co-starred with Elcar on the 1970s drama
"Baretta."

"Did he leave me any cash?", a sobbing Blake asked.
"Look, man, I killed the hell outta my wife and that
trial cost a brother some cash, y'know? If that fat,
blind a##hole had any compassion he woulda left me
some money. F#ckin' prick."

The loss of Elcar leaves Hollywood clamoring for
another blind superstar. With the deaths of Ray
Charles and now Elcar in the last year alone, Stevie
Wonder remains the lone recognizable blind bigwig in
the entertainment industry.

"Sh#t, man, toss some sulfur in my eyes if it'll get
me back on TV," said former "Charles in Charge" star
Scott Baio. "Even ChaChi's gotta eat."

While the thought of Baio's return to stardom remains
highly unlikely and equally as insulting, several
Hollywood insiders are quietly hoping former "Walker,
Texas Ranger" star Chuck Norris suffers a sudden bout
of blindness.

"That guy seems like the logical choice," said
Hollywood producer/director Ron Howard, who asked not
to be named. "Anyone who's seen 'Walker' knows that
that show woulda been even sweeter if the title
character was blind. Who wouldn't root for a lawman
dolin' out Texas justice one blind kick at a time? I'd
give one of my balls to see that."

While the rumor mill will likely continue to churn
until another icon loses his sight, for now Hollywood
will continue to mourn the loss of a legend.

"Yeah, sure, I'll miss him," Anderson said. "But I'll
miss my NASCAR weekend even more."

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