Dan Haggerty - Career

Career

He is best known as Grizzly Adams in the title role of the 1974 Sunn Classic Pictures feature, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams. From this feature film evolved the NBC television series which ran from 1977 to 1978, and Haggerty became famous to millions of nature-loving movie-goers for his popular portrayal of James "Grizzly" Adams. His preference in movie-making is to do outdoor films designed to entertain the entire family, although he can be seen in other feature films as a psychologist, a biker, or as in recent film, a detective.

"Grizzly Adams" was Haggerty's first starring role in a film, followed by the title role of Jacob Fremont in Sun's The Adventures of Frontier Fremont. Haggerty excels in animal pictures because of his natural ability handling all types of animals, enabling him to do scenes that other actors would find difficult.

Haggerty, began acting as a Siberian Tiger trapper in "When the North Wind Blows" and has accumulated quite a list of screen credits including Grassland, Wild Country, Tender Warrior, Easy Rider, King of the Mountain, Desperate Women, Terror Out of the Sky, The Other Side of the Mountain, The Chilling, Spirit of the Eagle', and Ordinary Killer.

Haggerty, a former animal trainer, stunt expert and animal handler for a Tarzan feature and the Tarzan (TV series), directed white tigers, wolverines, eagles and wild boar in When the North Wind Blows and worked with bears, foxes and hawks in My Side of the Mountain.

In The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, one of Haggerty's co-stars was a 500-pound grizzly bear named Ben. The true life Adams and his bear lived in the mid-1800s and accompanied each other through the trials and adventures of the western mountain wilderness.

That, in turn, led to the film, The Capture of Grizzly Adams which stars Haggerty as the legendary mountain-man who risks his freedom to return to civilization and prevent authorities from sending his daughter (Sydney Penny) to an orphanage. The world premiere aired on NBC.

Haggerty also starred in the leading role of Condominium, which also stars Barbara Eden, Ralph Bellamy and Stuart Whitman. Haggerty played a hydraulics expert trying to warn residents that their Florida condos are about to be demolished in a forthcoming hurricane. In Abducted, he is a contemporary mountain man bringing a problem son to awareness. Haggerty starred in Nightmares as a Vietnam vet who is a psychologist dealing with nightmares of his fellow veterans. Haggerty co-starred in Harder than Diamonds, The Chilling, and he cameos as an attorney in Terror Night with Alan Hale, Jr. and Ado Ray. Haggerty has also done several voice-overs and can also be seen in music videos by Hank Williams, Jr. and Rogues of the Empire. Recently, he stars as a detective in An Ordinary Killer.

Currently Haggerty is working on a new Grizzly Adams-type film and TV series, A Legendary Wind and a book on his life. He is also the celebrity spokesman for Young Adventurers, Inc., a nonprofit organization that helps special needs kids and is producing a TV show about the charities they serve called Be Someone‘s Hero! In 2003 Haggerty launched a "signature series" furniture line marketed worldwide. Haggerty has been the spokesperson for several corporations including Angel Flights SE; Nestea, Ralston Purina, WheatChex and Del Monte Foods. Most of his appearances are for various charities, including orphanages, the Special Olympics, Battered and Abused Children, and Dan Haggerty's Celebrity Ski Fest, Say No To Drugs, held in Snow Valley near Los Angeles.