A top bloke with a great sense of humour and a face that sees him recognised around the world, Dirk Benedict is a legend to entire generations of telly addicts. A proud and devoted father of two boys and a fan of English premiership football, the cigar-toting star talks exclusively to Blockbuster.co.uk's Mal Simons to mark the DVD release of Battlestar Galactica: The Movie.
Originally passed over for the coveted role of Lt Starbuck, Dirk Benedict was ultimately championed by Battlestar creator Glen Larson, who insisted he was a perfect fit for the character. "I had just come out of my cancer journey and I was sort of gone," says Dirk, 61. "I had a career in Hollywood in '72 and '73, but then in '74 I had my health to think about. Four years later I headed back to try to make some money, and then stumbled into this show.
"ABC didn't want me, and refused to hire me. I did five screen tests to try to satisfy them. They said I wasn't old enough, then we did another and they said I wasn't athletic enough, then I wasn't strong enough, or heroic enough, and finally the President of the Network told Glen I wasn't sexy enough.
"They started filming on my birthday - March 1st - but still hadn't cast the role of Starbuck. They were shooting around him, but eventually had no choice but to cast me. Still, they were reluctant to the bitter end. Eventually, it came down to Glen saying, 'We're hiring this actor, and if you don't let us we're just going to pull the plug on the whole thing. This is the actor who is going to do it. And if you don't like it, then, you can just.'"
Dirk considers how he altered Starbuck to match his personality. "The character was originally not intended to be so whimsical and such a reluctant hero - although Glen Larson who was writing it, loved it. We had a scene in the pilot where I think Richard's character announced what we were all going to go on this mission, and Starbuck was moaning and sighing. Not too thrilled about the idea. Glen loved that and started writing that into the character. It made Starbuck more human. And you can see that as the show went on, in later episodes, Starbuck became a more fully dimensional character. And quite comedic actually."
Taking a long, deep puff on his cigar, Dirk pauses for a moment to consider Starbuck's success with the ladies. "He certainly juggled his women, which I suppose is politically incorrect now. That's sad." On the subject of Starbuck and women, I suggest that both of the characters that Dirk is most closely associated with - Starbuck and The A-Team's Face Man - are cigar-chomping womanisers.
"I've always been a flirt," he says with a chuckle, "since I was a little kid. I've always had a twinkle. When I got older and interested in girls, I was always joking with them and teasing. So when I was an unknown, but working, actor in New York it was fine. It was ok until I started having a public persona and people then mistook it for arrogance. Which got me in trouble, so I sort of had to dampen down my flirtiness. To this day I have to be careful. Imagine. At my age."
Asking him about a rumour I'd heard, that the Daggit - Boxy's robot dog - was a monkey in a suit, Dirk laughs. "The fact that the Daggit was a monkey was kept secret, or at least not commonly known. I'm not sure if you could do that today, use a monkey - cruelty to animals. But Evie, that was the monkey's name, was very good. And she gave it a wonderful movement. It wasn't mechanical, it looked alive because it was. But they only put the head on her for filming."
Poor Evie, she was just a youngster and would often misbehave and the trainer would have to take her behind the screen where people couldn't see - just like a child, you know so you don't embarrass them in front of everybody - and he'd spank her. They'd both come back holding hands and she'd have a face like, 'Ok, I'll be good'. She'd just get so cranky and wouldn't do the scenes and he'd have to spank her. Though I must say, she was better behaved than most of the actors. Anyway, now you know.there was a lot of "spanking the monkey" on Battlestar Galactica! I told you it was a family show!"
After Battlestar Galactica, Dirk went on to star in the A-Team, the show that was, at one time, the most popular programme in the world. I asked Dirk what it was like to be part of something so huge. "It's bizarre. Everywhere in the world I go, I'm recognised, yet I haven't had as big career as many actors, been in as many films and TV Series. Some actors just go on and on doing show after show. I'm really only known for two. I've done about twenty movies and lots of theatre, but it's always comes down to those two. Battlestar Galactica and The A-Team. And the A-Team travels, translates, well because it's understandable in any country. It's universal. It has action, which is the same in any language. And it has a kind of physical, slap-stick, comedy that doesn't need translation. That makes for a show that translates well to different cultures."
"Then you have these four characters who were very strong identifiable stereotypes. Cartoon characters, almost, that you just knew straight away. There's the cute guy, the crazy guy, the muscle guy and the brainy guy. Each had their jobs, and, most importantly, they always won in the end. Always. The show was really a little morality play each week. Good vs Bad and Good always won. Simple. Just like in the real world. Right?
"I must say though, speaking objectively, we were the perfect actors for those parts. Perfect. We had chemistry off screen that was just like on screen.only better. Crazier. It was just like what you saw only better, or worse depending on whom you talk to, because there were no parameters, it was just bicker, banter, fighting and singing, laughing and joking, teasing and squabbling. It was barely controlled chaos."
Dirk wasn't actually the first actor employed to play Faceman, so I asked him how he managed to win the coveted role. "Steve Cannel, who created the show, saw me in Battlestar Galactica and thought that the actor playing Starbuck, would be perfect for Faceman. So he called my agent and I met with him about six months before the show. He told me he wanted me to play Faceman and I read the script and was thrilled. I thought the script was absolutely brilliant. And Faceman was a role I felt born to play. But thus began the torture, because it was the same story all over again, only this time it would be NBC who would refuse to hire me.
"I would go for an audition at the network, and they would say, "yeah, he's okay but we want to still keep looking" and Steven would say, 'just be patient'. So I was patient and weeks became months and finally my agent called me, it was a Friday, to give me the wonderful news that they had hired someone else to play Faceman. And they wonder why actors drink! I hung up the phone and got in my car and drove to Montana where I had a little cabin, and went duck hunting. Every duck I shot was given the name of a Network Executive. I was going to quit the business. Then my phone rang again, a month or so and many dead ducks later, and my agent told me that maybe patience was a virtue. They had fired the guy and I was to get my ass back to Los Angeles and go to work immediately playing Faceman. I was thrilled. The ducks were pretty happy too. You know, it's funny, I've always had good luck with writers, directors, even producers. Creative people. But with executives, administrative types, well.for some reason they've never taken to me."
"Re-make the A-Team? Well, you certainly couldn't make the same show today. It will have to be re-imagined. And you'd better be sitting down 'cuz I'm sure it will be very different from the original series. It will be as unrecognisable from the original as the BSG redux is from the old show. Re-imagination is a wonderful thing. Probably be four girls. Hannah-bull. Facial Girl, Howling Mad Mary Duque and ..Big Ass Baracus. One of the A-Team members will probably be the bad guy.I mean girl. And I'm sure it won't be humorous. Re-imagination will require it be violent. Violence is in. As is swearing. Lots of expletives. They certainly can't do what they did with Starsky and Hutch though, because you can't make fun of a show that made fun of itself. I just hope they offer me a cameo."
