There were several recurring characters in the 1985 television series MacGyver and its 2016 reboot.
MacGyver's producers had a tendency to use an actor in multiple roles throughout the series. Several recurring characters were added throughout the series run, appearing as guest-stars in the opening credits.
Character | Portrayed by | Seasons | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Original | Reboot | |||||||||||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | TV films | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
Angus MacGyver | Richard Dean Anderson | Main | ||||||||||||
Lucas Till | Main | |||||||||||||
Jack Dalton | Bruce McGill | Recurring | R | |||||||||||
George Eads | Main [lower-alpha 1] | |||||||||||||
Riley Davis | Tristin Mays | Main | ||||||||||||
Wilt Bozer | Robin Mossely | R | ||||||||||||
Justin Hires | Main | |||||||||||||
Matty Webber | Meredith Eaton | Main [lower-alpha 2] | ||||||||||||
Peter Thornton / Patricia Thornton | Dana Elcar | R | Main | |||||||||||
Sandrine Holt | M [lower-alpha 3] | |||||||||||||
Samantha Cage | Isabel Lucas | M [lower-alpha 4] | ||||||||||||
Desiree "Desi" Nguyen | Levy Tran | R | Main | |||||||||||
Russell "Russ/Rusty" Taylor | Henry Ian Cusick | Main | ||||||||||||
Recurring cast | ||||||||||||||
Nikki Carpenter | Elyssa Davalos | R | ||||||||||||
Tracy Spiridakos | R | |||||||||||||
Dennis "Murdoc" | Michael Des Barres | Recurring | ||||||||||||
David Dastmalchian | Recurring | G | ||||||||||||
Jill Morgan | Kate Bond | G | R | G | ||||||||||
Billy Colton | Cuba Gooding Jr. | R | R | |||||||||||
Lance Gross | Guest | R | ||||||||||||
Cassandra Glover | Lauren Vélez | R | ||||||||||||
Leanna Martin | Reign Edwards | Recurring | ||||||||||||
Elwood Davis | William Baldwin | R | G | |||||||||||
James MacGyver/"Oversight" | Martin Milner | G | ||||||||||||
Tate Donovan | G | Recurring | ||||||||||||
Parker | Alexandra Grey | R |
MacGyver is a troubleshooter [1] who prefers non-violent conflict resolution wherever possible. He refuses to carry or use a gun due to a childhood accident with a revolver that resulted in the death of a friend. [2] MacGyver is an outspoken advocate of gun control, as well as a supporter of environmental preservation, racial equality, and assisting the poor. Even in cases where his improvised devices are used to attack hostile opponents, he is always doing so in self-defense and, if possible, subduing or disabling rather than killing. He is often suspicious of militaristic attitudes within the government; he sees his Phoenix Foundation employer as an alternative to the more conventional (and violent) means of law enforcement.
In the 2016 reboot, MacGyver is a U.S. operative who works for the Phoenix Foundation, a covert agency operating under the guise of a think tank. Trained as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician for the Army, he prefers to use non-lethal means to stop his enemies. Mac spends the majority of the first and second seasons searching for his father James, who abandoned him as a child shortly after losing his mother. He eventually finds him in the season 2 finale, where he learns James has been watching over him all his life, and is now his boss codenamed 'Oversight'. Unable to work for people he doesn't trust, Mac quits the Phoenix and refuses to rejoin as he cannot trust his father. Maddy convinces James to quit, which leads Mac to rejoin.
Peter Thornton [3] [4] (portrayed by Dana Elcar) is MacGyver's boss and best friend. Pete is divorced from Connie Thornton (portrayed by Linda Darlow). [5] Pete is an operative at the Department of External Services (DXS) which is where he is impressed by Mac's ingenuity while tracking down Murdoc, an international assassin. [6] When Pete takes the position of Director of Operations at the Phoenix Foundation several years later, he brings MacGyver into the program. In addition to sending Mac out on various tasks for the Foundation, Pete is many times forced to bail MacGyver out of the trouble he gets into. Pete has a son, Michael, who has always been resentful that he was never around when he was growing up. In the sixth season Thorton begins going blind as a result of glaucoma. (Elcar was diagnosed with glaucoma.) [7] [8] [9]
In 2016 reboot, Patricia Thornton is an ex-field agent & director of operations for the Department of External Services and Phoenix Foundation. In the 12th episode, "Screwdriver", she is discovered to be a mole working for the Organization and arrested.
In the original series, Jack is an aviator and old friend of MacGyver's with a weakness for get-rich-quick schemes that invariably get both of them into trouble. He always wears a peaked cap and his left eye twitches when he is lying.
In the 2016 reboot, Jack Dalton (played by former CSI star George Eads) is Mac's partner in the field and a former Delta Force soldier and CIA operative. Jack's history with Mac goes back to his days in the Army and unlike Mac, he is not afraid to use guns in the field. He also has history with Riley, because he was once in a relationship with her mother and had an altercation with her abusive father. While mostly easy-going and laid-back, Jack can get serious when the situation calls for it and often calls upon his special forces training to help the team get out of a tight spot.
In the original series, Wilt Bozer appears in a handful of episodes of Season 5 and 6: "Serenity", "The Lost Amadeus", "Hearts of Steel", and "MacGyver's Women".
In the 2016 reboot, Wilt Bozer is an aspiring filmmaker, prosthetic makeup artist, and MacGyver's best friend and roommate. At first, he doesn't know about MacGyver's real job. Bozer later joins the Phoenix Foundation after discovering MacGyver's secret, and uses his talents to create lifelike masks and facial prosthetics as well as a humanoid robot.
A computer systems expert and skilled hacker recruited by Phoenix Foundation. She was in a Super Max prison for hacking the National Security Agency. Davis was recommended to Director Thorton by Jack Dalton, one of her mother's boyfriends due to Nikki Carpenter being allegedly killed in action. Her sentence was cut short by request of the DXS and continued working with the Phoenix.
Matt Webber was a field operative who replaced Pete in "Early Retirement". At the end of the episode it was revealed that he was working against Pete.
Matilda "Matty" Webber is the new Director of Operations at Phoenix Foundation and Jack's ex-boss at the CIA. She takes over after Patricia Thornton is outed and arrested.
Samantha Cage is a CIA officer and formerly SASR 4th Squadron. After she is discharged from the CIA for her unsanctioned actions to save a MIA SEAL, in the second-season premiere, Matty recruits her into the Phoenix Foundation.
Desi Nguyen is the Phoenix Foundation's newest agent, who uses her skills to protect MacGyver and his team on their global missions. She replaced Jack Dalton as the team's muscle.
Russ Taylor is an Ex-MI6 Agent-Turned-Private Military Contractor described as a master manipulator and salesman, Russ is skilled in propaganda and lie detection, and boasts an extremely high emotional intelligence. He is also very wealthy, and thus is used to both getting his way and enjoying the spoils of war (including expensive suits, fast cars, private jets and a house in Monte Carlo).
Murdoc (portrayed by Michael Des Barres) is MacGyver's most frequent opponent. He is a master assassin who never fails—except when MacGyver gets involved. Murdoc is a master of disguise, as well as highly skilled and creative in the use of booby traps. Murdoc's signature for each hit is to take photographs of his victims at the moment of their deaths. His first appearance in the series is presented as his second run-in with MacGyver. Murdoc returns for revenge for their first encounter—to the surprise of MacGyver, as Murdoc had apparently been killed. Murdoc's revenge scheme not only fails, but results in him apparently being killed again. This became a recurring theme: each of Murdoc's subsequent appearances ends in another apparently certain "death", which he incredibly survives, to return in a later episode.
In the 2016 reboot, Murdoc (played by David Dastmalchian) is a hired hitman known as Suspect 218 to the CIA whose targets are enemies and MacGyver. After being captured by the Phoenix Foundation in season 1, in season 2 he escapes and becomes obsessed in finding his lost son, Casian. Michael Des Barres, who played Murdoc in the original series, plays Murdoc's mentor, Nicholas Helman, in the reboot.
Nikki Carpenter [10] [11] (portrayed by Elyssa Davalos) joins the Phoenix Foundation in the third season. She often has differences of opinion with MacGyver, although the two eventually come to respect each other as professionals.
In the 2016 reboot, the character (played by Tracy Spiridakos) is a former agent for the DXS and MacGyver's former girlfriend who went rogue but later revealed to be an undercover agent for the CIA.
Harry Jackson (portrayed by John Anderson) is MacGyver's grandfather, who helped raise MacGyver after his grandmother and father were killed in a car accident when MacGyver was aged nine. Seven years later, Harry left MacGyver to work in Alaska, sending money to MacGyver and his mother. At this time, MacGyver and Harry lost contact, but beginning in season one, MacGyver and Harry meet again, after eighteen years without contact, [12] in the episode "Target MacGyver", in which MacGyver and his grandfather work together to defeat an assassin named Axminster (D'Mitch Davis). Harry appears in the five episodes "Target MacGyver" (season 1), "Phoenix Under Siege", "Friends" (both season 2) "Passages" (season 5) and "Harry's Will" (season 6). Harry dies of a heart attack in the fifth-season finale episode "Passages".
In the 2016 reboot, the character (played by Michael O'Keefe) first appears in a flashback in the fourth episode of season 2.
The Coltons [13] [14] (portrayed by Della Reese, Cleavon Little, Richard Lawson, and Cuba Gooding Jr.) are a family of bounty hunters (Mama Colton, Frank, Jesse and Billy), introduced one at a time—the only episode in which more than one appears is their collective final appearance in the final season, on which occasion they (and their bulldog, Frog) took over the episode entirely, relegating MacGyver to a cameo appearance. This episode, called "The Coltons", was actually intended as a backdoor pilot for a spin-off starring the Coltons, but ABC network officials decided that series would not be picked up.
In the 2016 reboot, they are played by Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lance Gross, Javicia Leslie, & Jermaine Rivers and first appear in the first-season episode 16, "Hook", when they get the upper hand on Mac and Jack several times, until a Foundation team retrieves the fugitive from them. Mac, Jack, Bozer & Riley end up saving the Coltons' lives from their criminal employers. They reappear in the second-season episode "Riley + Airplane", after which Billy Colton (Gross) becomes Riley's love interest.
Charlie Robinson (portrayed by Steven Williams) is MacGyver's Army Bomb disposal EOD Specialist with EOD Tech Specialist MacGyver sent by DXS to work with him. He appears in Episode: "Countdown"
In the 2016 reboot, he is portrayed by Emerson Brooks as an old friend of EOD Tech Specialist MacGyver; he's another EOD Specialist in Army Bomb disposal. He appears in season 1: Episode: "Wrench", season 2: Episode: "Mac & Jack" & Season 3: Episodes: "Revenge + Catacombs + Le Fantome" and "Mason + Cable + Choices".
Penny Parker [15] [16] [17] (portrayed by Teri Hatcher): Penny Parker and MacGyver meet in line at an airport in Bulgaria when she tries to smuggle some jewels out of the country in his pocket. [18] With little talent, but big dreams, her pursuit of a show business career gets her into trouble more than once; she was once used by Murdoc as an unwitting pawn in an attempt to eliminate MacGyver. She was also the spitting image of her late aunt Betty Parker, who was murdered in 1958 by her boyfriend, and was suffering from lead poisoning., [19] Like the somewhat impulsive identically named female-sleuth character of author Mildred Benson, Penny isn't exactly stupid, but she tends to act without thinking things through, and has only a shaky grasp of how the world works. Thus, the long-suffering MacGyver often has to bail Penny out of trouble and otherwise assist her in handling life situations.
In the 2016 reboot, she's played by Bianca Malinowski.
James "Jimmy" MacGyver is MacGyver's father. He is portrayed by Martin Milner in the original series.
In the 2016 reboot, where he is portrayed by Tate Donovan, he is Angus' long lost father. After losing his wife and Angus' mother, James abandoned his family not long after, leaving Angus in the care of his grandfather. It is revealed in the season 2 finale that the unseen and enigmatic head of the Phoenix Foundation (and every name it went by before this) codenamed 'Oversight' is in fact James: a fact Angus learns when Matty forces a face-to-face meeting when Angus quits the Phoenix. James reveals that he left his family to protect Angus from the enemies he'd made around the world, many of whom wouldn't hesitate endangering a child's life, but also because the pain of losing his wife made James scared of what he might do around Angus.
MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff and starring Richard Dean Anderson as the title character. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The series follows the adventures of Angus MacGyver, a secret agent armed with remarkable scientific resourcefulness to solve any problem out in the field using any materials at hand.
Richard Dean Anderson is a retired American actor. He began his television career in 1976, playing Jeff Webber in the American soap opera series General Hospital, and then rose to prominence as the lead actor in the television series MacGyver (1985–1992). He later appeared in films such as Through the Eyes of a Killer (1992), Pandora's Clock (1996), and Firehouse (1997).
Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series MacGyver. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in the 2016 reboot.
Ibson Dana Elcar was an American television and film character actor. He appeared in about 40 films as well as in the 1960s television series Dark Shadows as Sheriff George Patterson and the 1980s and 1990s television series MacGyver as Peter Thornton, MacGyver's immediate supervisor at the Phoenix Foundation. Elcar had appeared in the pilot episode of MacGyver as Andy Colson before assuming the role of Thornton.
Bruce Travis McGill is an American actor. He worked with director Michael Mann in the films The Insider (1999), Ali (2001), and Collateral (2004). McGill's other notable film roles include Daniel Simpson "D-Day" Day in John Landis's Animal House, Sheriff Dean Farley in My Cousin Vinny, and Lt. Brooks in Ride Along and its sequel Ride Along 2.
Sandrine Claire Holt is a British-born Canadian model and actress.
Murdoc is a fictional character that appears in the ABC television series MacGyver and in the CBS reboot series of the same name. In both portrayals, Murdoc is an assassin and frequent antagonist of both series.
There are various fictional organizations in the 1985–1992 American television series MacGyver.
Tristin Mays is an American actress. Mays portrayed Riley Davis in the reboot of the MacGyver series on CBS who works as a covert operative for the Phoenix Foundation.
Justin Hires is an American actor and stand-up comedian. Hires is known for portraying Detective James Carter on the CBS television series Rush Hour, Juario in 21 Jump Street, and Wilt Bozer in the 2016 reboot series of MacGyver.
MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series developed by Peter M. Lenkov that ran on CBS from September 23, 2016 to April 30, 2021, comprising five seasons and 94 episodes. The series stars Lucas Till as the title character, an undercover government agent who prefers to fight crime with ingenious feats of engineering rather than lethal force. It is a reboot of the original series of the same name created by Lee David Zlotoff, which aired from 1985 to 1992. CBS cancelled the show in April 2021; the series finale aired on April 30, 2021.
Magnum P.I. is an American action drama television series developed by Peter M. Lenkov and Eric Guggenheim. It stars Jay Hernandez as Thomas Magnum, the titular private investigator and former Navy SEAL who solves crimes in Hawaii. It is a reboot of the original series of the same name created by Donald P. Bellisario and Glen A. Larson, which aired from 1980 to 1988. The series co-stars Perdita Weeks, Zachary Knighton, Stephen Hill, Amy Hill, and Tim Kang.
The first season of the action-adventure series MacGyver premiered on September 23, 2016, on CBS, for the 2016–17 American television season. The series centers on the fictional Phoenix Foundation which is a covert organization masquerading as a think tank. The series stars Lucas Till, George Eads, Tristin Mays, and Justin Hires. Sandrine Holt was also cast in the series but departed in the twelfth episode, "Screwdriver". Meredith Eaton replaced Holt, Eaton debuted in the thirteenth episode, "Large Blade," and began receiving main billing in the eighteenth episode, "Flashlight". CBS announced the series on October 1, 2015. It was ordered to series on May 13, 2016, and received a full season order of twenty-two episodes on October 17, 2016. Only twenty-one episodes were produced when the season concluded on April 14, 2017. The season contained a fictional crossover with Hawaii Five-0 which occurred in episode eighteen.
The third season of the CBS action-adventure series MacGyver premiered on September 28, 2018 for the 2018–19 television season. The series centers on the fictional Phoenix Foundation which is a covert organization masquerading as a think tank. The series stars Lucas Till, George Eads, Tristin Mays, and Justin Hires. Eads departed in "Father + Bride + Betrayal". CBS announced the series on April 28, 2018 for a twenty-two episode third season. The season premiere, "Improvise", brought in 5.77 million viewers.
The fourth season of the CBS action-adventure series MacGyver premiered on February 7, 2020, as a mid-season replacement for the 2019–20 television season. CBS renewed the series for a fourth season in May 2019. The season contained thirteen episodes and concluded on May 8, 2020. The series continues to center on the fictional Phoenix Foundation which is a covert organization masquerading as a think tank. It stars Lucas Till, Tristin Mays, Justin Hires, Meredith Eaton, Levy Tran and Henry Ian Cusick.
"Flashlight" is the eighteenth episode of the first season of MacGyver. It aired on March 10, 2017. The episode was written by Lindsay Allen and directed by Jonathan Brown. The episode was a crossover with Hawaii Five-0. Daniel Dae Kim, Grace Park, and Taylor Wily, crossed over as Chin Ho Kelly, Kono Kalakaua, and Kamekona, respectively.
The Lenkov-verse is a media franchise that consists of a group of three interconnected television reboots that share a fictional universe, and their related media. All three of the television series, Hawaii Five-0, MacGyver, and Magnum P.I., were developed by Peter M. Lenkov who also served as the showrunner on the series. They are each American crime dramas that aired on CBS. Hawaii Five-0 revolves around a task force, led by Steve McGarrett, that investigates crimes in Hawaii. MacGyver centers around Angus MacGyver who uses nonviolent methods to keep the world safe, with the help of a team of undercover government agents. Magnum P.I. follows private investigator Thomas Magnum, who solves crimes in Hawaii with the help of his friends. The universe is also connected to the so-called Bellisario-verse, which consists of the entire NCIS franchise and JAG, via two direct crossovers between Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS: Los Angeles.
"The Rising" is the first episode of the first season of the 2016 reboot of MacGyver. It aired on September 23, 2016. The story for the episode was written by Peter M. Lenkov and Paul Downs Colaizzo. The teleplay was also written by Peter M. Lenkov. The episode was directed by James Wan.
The fifth and final season of the CBS action-adventure series MacGyver premiered on December 4, 2020 for the 2020–21 television season. CBS renewed the series for a fifth season in May 2020 and announced it would be the final season in April 2021. The season contained fifteen episodes and concluded on April 30, 2021. MacGyver, a remake of the 1985 series of the same name, centers on the fictional Phoenix Foundation which is a covert organization masquerading as a think tank. The series stars Lucas Till, Tristin Mays, Justin Hires, Meredith Eaton, Levy Tran and Henry Ian Cusick. Jorge Garcia appeared in the eighth episode of the season as his Hawaii Five-0 character.
[[ |thumb|Aina Dumlao at the Next Gen Indie Film Awards]]