Biography
Born in Clayton, Illinois, John Anderson grew up in Quincy and Adams County. Prior to a prolific acting career, Anderson served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II, when he met artist Orazio Fumagalli, who became one of his best lifelong friends.
He was known for several roles, including his recurring and best known role in MacGyver as Harry Jackson, MacGyver's grandfather.
Earlier work included appearances on many Western series, including The Californians, Gunsmoke (twelve times), Robert Culp's Trackdown, The Rifleman (eleven times), The Virginian (six times), The Big Valley in various roles, and Outlaws (twice as Simon Shaw).
In December 1959, Anderson played Fisk Madden in the episode Rebel Ranger" of CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, having appeared opposite Joan Crawford. Crawford in the lead role is cast as Stella Faring, a Confederate widow who tries to reclaim her former home and the birthplace of her son Rob, played by Don Grady, from the Unionist owner, Cass Taggart, portrayed by Scott Forbes. Anderson's character, Madden, tries to drive Taggart off his land and gain Stella's favor, but she is uninterested in Madden. The episode ends with Stella and Rob heading into a nearby town with the understanding that Taggart would call upon Stella for possible courtship.
Anderson appeared five times on NBC's Laramie, including the episode "The Violent Ones" (March 5, 1963). He played Bob Blayne, the father of two outlaws. In the story line, series character Jess Harper (Robert Fuller) is targeted by the young Blayne brothers, Bill and Larry, played by Paul Carr and Jack Chaplain, respectively. Five years earlier as a temporary deputy Jess shot Bob Blayne in the hand while foiling a robbery. The brothers seek revenge, but Jess has made every effort to avoid them. When they severely beat series character Slim Sherman (John Smith) to lure Jess into Laramie, Jess has no choice but to shoot and kill Bill Blayne. Larry sets forth for revenge too, but Jess manages to break his arm, instead of killing him. Bob Blayne ultimately must forgive Jess and join with him to stop three outlaws who with Bill and Larry committed a robbery and murder in Willow Springs. Dawn Wells is cast as the saloon girl, Millie, in this episode.
Anderson appeared in The Rat Patrol (four times, three as the same character), Perry Mason (three times), Overland Trail, and The Legend of Jesse James. He played an eccentric farmer who jealously guards his prize watermelon with a shotgun in "For the Love of Willadean: A Taste of Melon," part of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.
Other credits included Man Without a Gun, Hawaii Five-O, and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, as Wyatt Earp's brother, Virgil. He portrayed Franklin D. Roosevelt in the popular TV miniseries Backstairs at the White House (1979). He played the character Kevin Uxbridge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Survivors". Anderson played the role of Dr. Herbert Stiles on CBS's Dallas.
A recurring Twilight Zone actor, he starred in four different episodes, "The Old Man in the Cave", "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville", "The Odyssey of Flight 33", and "A Passage for Trumpet". Standing 6'5½" tall (197 cm), he bore a strong resemblance to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, whom he portrayed three times. He was also the uncredited voice of Mark Twain in the Epcot attraction The American Adventure.
Anderson also appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) as "California Charlie", the used car salesman who helps Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), and as Captain Bob Robertson on Emergency! in Season 4, Episode 16 "Smoke Eater".
Anderson also portrayed the Ebonite interrogator in the episode "Nightmare" of the original Outer Limits television series.
After his death in 1992, he was cremated, and his ashes werer taken out to sea as part of his membership with the Neptune Society.
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“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West [Cicily Isabel Fairfield] (1892–1983)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
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