Who Is Dirk Benedict?
Dirk Benedict is a Montana-born actor and writer best known for playing Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica and Templeton ?Face? Peck in The A?Team.
Early Life in Montana
Dirk Benedict was born Dirk Niewoehner on March 1, 1945, in Helena, Montana.
He grew up in the small town of White Sulphur Springs, where he spent much of his time hunting, fishing, and playing sports, especially football.
His father, George Edward Niewoehner, worked as a lawyer, and his mother, Priscilla Mella Niewoehner, was an accountant, giving him what he later described as a typical small-town Montana upbringing.
As a teenager and college student he did not plan on becoming an actor, but he enjoyed stories and performing once he tried it.
Training and Stage Career
Dirk attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where friends dared him to audition for the spring musical ?Show Boat? during his freshman year.
He surprised himself by winning the lead role, which helped him discover how much he enjoyed acting on stage.
After graduating from Whitman in 1967, he entered a two-year training program led by British director John Fernald, who had previously been head of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
This training included classical theater, and Benedict performed roles such as Edmund in Shakespeare?s ?King Lear? and the lead in Neil Simon?s ?The Star-Spangled Girl? in repertory theaters in Seattle and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Choosing the Name ?Benedict?
He was born with the last name Niewoehner but began searching for a shorter, catchier stage name when he started his acting career.
According to his biographies and interviews, he chose ?Benedict? after his agent noticed he ordered Eggs Benedict for breakfast and suggested the dish?s name as his new last name.
Famous Screen Roles
Benedict?s first major film role came in the 1972 movie ?Georgia, Georgia,? written by American author and poet Maya Angelou.
He also appeared on Broadway in the play ?Butterflies Are Free,? where he eventually took over the male lead role from actor Keir Dullea.
When that Broadway run ended, he continued the role in a production in Hawaii and made a guest appearance on the television series ?Hawaii Five-O? while he was there.
Battlestar Galactica
His big break came in 1978 when he was cast as Lieutenant Starbuck, a daring and charming fighter pilot, in the science-fiction movie and television series Battlestar Galactica.
He later returned as Starbuck in the follow-up series Galactica 1980, appearing in the episode ?The Return of Starbuck,? which became a fan favorite.
The A?Team
In 1983, Benedict began playing Lieutenant Templeton ?Face? Peck, a smooth-talking con-man and soldier, on the action-adventure TV series The A?Team.
He appeared in 96 episodes of The A?Team until the show ended in 1987, and this role, along with Starbuck, remains one of his most famous characters.
Many years later, he made a brief cameo appearance as a prison inmate in the 2010 film version of The A?Team.
Health, Books, and Macrobiotics
Dirk Benedict is also a writer who has shared his personal story, including his experience with cancer and diet.
In his memoir ?Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy,? he describes growing up in Montana, moving into acting, and being diagnosed with prostate cancer in his early thirties.
He chose to follow a strict macrobiotic diet, which emphasizes whole grains, vegetables, and balance, instead of standard medical treatments, and he believes this diet helped him recover.
Doctors and scientific organizations consider his approach to be controversial and not supported by medical research, and modern cancer guidelines still recommend evidence-based treatments such as surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy for prostate cancer.
His book has still inspired some readers to think more about food, lifestyle, and how they respond to illness, even if they make different medical choices.
Benedict has continued to promote vegetarian and macrobiotic eating in interviews and writings and has also written another reflective book, ?And Then We Went Fishing,? about family, memories, and life lessons.
Family Life and Montana Today
In 1986, Dirk Benedict married actress Toni Hudson, who had appeared in a fourth-season episode of The A?Team.
They had two sons together, George (born 1988) and Roland (born 1991), and later divorced in 1995.
Biographical sources say that after the divorce he gained custody of his sons and returned to Montana, where he raised them in a log cabin while continuing to act and write.
Public information and fan biographies indicate that he has kept a home in Montana in later life, maintaining a strong connection to the state where he was born and raised.
For Montana sixth-grade students, Dirk Benedict?s story shows how someone from a small town in their state can act in famous TV shows, write books about his life, face serious health challenges, and still choose to live close to the mountains and countryside where he grew up.
