Stephen Macht Biography

Stephen Robert Macht (born May 1, 1942) is an American television and film actor.

Early life

Macht was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was raised in Brooklyn Heights, NY, until his father's death. At age nine, he moved with his mother, Janette, and older brother, to live with his maternal grandfather, a haberdasher, in Mystic, Connecticut. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1963 (where he roomed with future actor Michael Moriarty), Macht attended Tufts University, receiving an M.A. in Drama in 1967. He later enrolled at Indiana University and obtained a Ph.D. in Dramatic Literature and Theatre History in 1970. Macht studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the history of acting training there. He has also trained with Milton Katselas at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. While teaching at Queens College he received approval by his department chair to appear in plays in New York in lieu of publishing scholarly articles as part of the tenure track.

Career

Spotted by a Universal Studios talent scout while starring at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada in 1975, Macht was signed to a contract and by the mid 1970s had left teaching and was making frequent appearances in TV episodes and movies.

Dark, with a solid build, Macht was often cast as Jews, Italians and Native Americans; such as in Raid on Entebbe (NBC, 1977), where he portrayed Yonni Netanyahu, the Israeli officer killed in the rescue of hostages in Uganda. In 1978 Macht had a big break as the lead in The Immigrants a syndicated miniseries about the rise of the son of Italian immigrants in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. The following year he portrayed a Hopi in Nightwing and Quincy M.E..

The success of the TV-movie American Dream (ABC, 1981) led to a critically acclaimed short-lived series which cast Macht in the role of a family man who chucks the suburban life to set up home in the inner city of Chicago. The following season, he landed the role of Joe Cooper, the brother of Karen MacKenzie (Michele Lee), on Knots Landing (CBS, 1982"83). The actor, however, found more challenging roles in TV longforms. Notable roles included playing Nancy McKeon's father in Strange Voices (NBC, 1987). He was Benedict Arnold in the 1984 CBS miniseries George Washington and one of the survivors of Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac (NBC, 1984). Macht spent three seasons (1985"88) in the recurring role of David Keeler, love interest to Det. Chris Cagney (Sharon Gless), on Cagney & Lacey (CBS). He was also the third-billed star of The Last Winter. During his run on the show, he moved behind the cameras to make his directorial debut.

In 1993, Macht played Krim Aldos in an early Season 2 episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "The Siege". This was after he was seriously considered for both the roles of Captain Picard and Commander Riker during the casting of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He also appeared in Highlander: The Series, The Sea Witch.

More recent credits have included playing an Austrian Jew who must be baptized along with his wife and daughter in order to escape the Nazis in A Friendship in Vienna (The Disney Channel, 1988); a doctor helping Jane Seymour in the syndicated miniseries Sidney Sheldon's Memories of Midnight (1991); and cult member Joan Van Ark's suffering husband in Moment of Truth: A Mother's Deception (NBC, 1994). In 1996 he did a six-month stint on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live as Elliot Durban, a psychiatrist and gambling addict blackmailed into hypnotising Victoria Lord Buchanan (Erika Slezak). As of August 24, 2007 he is playing Trevor Lansing, attorney of organized crime boss Anthony Zacchara and father of attorney Ric Lansing, in the soap opera General Hospital for which Soap Opera Digest nominated him Best Villain of 2007.

Macht's work in feature films has been more sporadic, beginning with a turn as one of The Choirboys (1977). He also had roles in The Mountain Men (1980), The Monster Squad (1987), Stephen King's Graveyard Shift (1990), and Watchers Reborn (1998). Macht has also played Dr. Harris in three entries in the Trancers series.

Personal life

Macht has been married to archivist/museum curator Suzanne Victoria Pulier since 1964. He has four children: Julie, Ari Serbin, actor Gabriel Macht and musician Jesse Macht. Macht has studied to be a rabbi.