"MacGyver" Boss Dies

[hyphenate]

"MacGyver" Boss Dies
by Joal Ryan
Jun 10, 2005, 5:30 PM PT

When Dana Elcar began to lose his eyesight during the fourth season of MacGyver, the actor became as resourceful as the TV show's gadget-handy titular hero, suggesting that his character be allowed to grow blind with him.

Elcar, the familiar prime-time face who enjoyed his longest run as MacGyver's boss Pete Thornton on the 1986-1992 adventure series, died Monday in a Ventura, California, hospital of complications from pneumonia, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was 77.

Taking up Elcar's invitation, producers wrote in vision problems for Thornton, solving a dilemma for his portrayer.

In a speech to the 1991 convention of the National Federation of the Blind, Elcar said that with glaucoma fast robbing him of sight he told MacGyver executive producer Steve Downing that something had to be done.

"We have to make Pete Thornton have the same qualities, the same visual abilities that I have, or we're going to run into trouble," Elcar said, recounting the conversation. "I can no longer jump out of helicopters. I can't run down hill at night at a fast pace over logs. It simply will not work."


http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,16736,00.html?tnews

[Swede]

1. I remember that.

RIP Mr. Elcar.

[crimson333]

2. rip

Col. Thomas A. Laird

I liked him

[sasquatch]

3. I wonder if they're gonna give MacGyver a paper clip and rubber band-

so he can build the casket.