Peter MacLean

Peter MacLean's appearances on such 1970s television staples as Starsky and Hutch and Charlie's Angels without question made the character actor one of the small screen's most recognized supporting players, and his later role as the star and director of Disneyland Paris' Buffalo Bill's Wild West attraction would help to ensure that his face would remain equally recognizable to future generations as well. A Boston native who graduated from Emerson College, MacLean later made a name for himself in repertory Shakespeare groups across the country, during which time he gained an especially solid reputation for his portrayal of Macbeth. MacLean alternated frequently between television and film following his big-screen bow in the 1963 drama The Cardinal, and by the 1970s he could be spotted virtually everywhere on the small screen. From an appearance in the pilot for Fantasy Island to a role in the enduring daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives, MacLean could always be counted upon to liven up what might otherwise have been incidental roles. In the 1976 frightener Squirm MacLean pinned a badge to his chest as the sheriff who must help to save a small community from carnivorous worms. In the 1980s MacLean's onscreen career began to slow, though in the next decade his position in front of and behind the scenes of Disneyland Paris' Buffalo Bill's Wild West found the ageing actor as in-demand as ever. MacLean would ultimately appear in a staggering 1,800 performances in Buffalo Bill mode, even performing at the base of the Eiffel Tower as the real Buffalo Bill had done 100 years previously. On May 28, 2003, Peter MacLean died of lymphoma in Los Angeles. He was 67.

~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide