Dirk Benedict

Actor Dirk Benedict played the womanizing, cigar-smoking, card playing and incredibly skilled Colonial Warrior known as Lieutenant Starbuck in the Original Battlestar Galactica series.

Born in Montana in 1945, Benedict (his last name a stage name given to himself after a serving of Eggs Benedict) was a excellent high school athlete and aspiring musician.

His acting career began with an odd bet with his college football team members, which landed him in a leading role in a show at Whitman College in the state of Washington, and starring in many other productions. Graduating from college with a degree in Music, Benedict decided to pursue acting as a career, under the tutelage of John Fernald. Benedict played many roles in summer stock, performing many roles in classic plays by Shakespeare and Ipsen.

Benedict moved to New York and found supporting roles in several Broadway shows, including the leading role in the play, "Butterflies Are Free" with the late Gloria Swanson, who portrayed his mother.

Benedict found himself in small but interesting roles in some TV series, including work in "Hawaii Five-O" and the lead in a one-season show by TV show mogul Aaron Spelling called "Chopper One." Benedict left acting for a few years in a lifelong desire to visit every state in the U.S.

Benedict's casting as "Starbuck" in "Battlestar Galactica" made him nationally famous. He made an appearance on the final episode of "Galactica 1980", entitled "The Return of Starbuck". This episode is considered by fans of the Original Series as the only significant contribution from "Galactica 1980", a show otherwise considered noncanonical by many.

After these series, Benedict found popularity again as the character of Templeton "Faceman" Peck on the long-running early-1980s TV series, "The A-Team", produced by "Galactica"'s owner, Universal. In the show's opening credits in later seasons, a Centurion is shown walking by Benedict's character, who gives an peculiarly humorous look of recognition of the robot as an in-joke to the actor's past role as Starbuck.

Benedict returned to the stage after "Galactica" as well, gaining fame in many popular roles there, and played guest and starring roles in a handful of TV movies and series.

As casting for the Singer/DeSanto Continuation Project of a new "Battlestar Galactica" series in 2001 began, Benedict was slated to play an older Starbuck in the new series. However, the project folded due to Bryan Singer's movie directing committments and delays on the TV industry caused by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Benedict (with fellow Original Series actor Richard Hatch) loaned his voice talents as the Original Series Starbuck to the Battlestar Galactica video game that appeared in 2003. The characters of Starbuck and Apollo are available as wingmen pilots for the game player, using a game cheat.

Benedict has yet to see a casting in the Re-imagined Series. He was considered for the role of the Armistice Officer, but passed on the project. In another instance, he was considered to play a cigar-smoking God of the Cylons in a dream sequence with Gaius Baltar in a Season 1 episode, but the idea was later dismissed. The original 'good mood' between Katee Sackhoff and Dirk Benedict resulted in a meeting at a Starbucks coffeeshop [1], proving that he knew that Starbuck was going to be re-cast as a woman.

In May 2004, in an article in Dreamwatch magazine, titled 'Starbuck: Lost in Castration' [2], Dirk expresses his negative feelings toward the re-imagining (or un-imagining as he puts it). The article starts by painting a picture of the 1970's Starbuck — a rogue, womanizer, cigar-smoking 'macho' — that was going against the corporate TV mentality (the 'Suits'). It then states that the "war against Masculinity has been won" and everything has been turned into its opposite. The re-imagined series, with its "despair, sexual violence and family dysfunction" is set against the original "show based on hope, spiritual faith, and family" as just another effect of this war. He then attacks the new 'Stardoe' as a problem to the 'Suits' as he suggests that it would not have been possible to re-cast Starbuck as a guy and keep him with the same character traits. The change to a woman would have been to way to solve this 'dilemma', portraying the rogue, 'manizer', cigar-smoking Starbuck without the problem of the 'macho' image. Another of his points is that: "In the new un-imagined, re-imagined world of Battlestar Galactica everything is female driven. The male characters, from Adama on down, are confused, weak, and wracked with indecision while the female characters are decisive, bold, angry as hell, puffing cigars (gasp) and not about to take it any more."

Those who disapprove of his views should take into account that Dirk Benedict was raised in Montana in the 50s, and that he probably likes 'his' Starbuck as much as Richard Hatch liked his Apollo.

Dirk lives in Montana with his sons, George and Roland.

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