Greg Evigan

He was just an electrician's son from New Jersey but everyone wanted to make him a star. While still a teenager, Greg Evigan scored an ensemble role in the Broadway hit "Jesus Christ, Superstar" and a year later was heading the Chicago run of "Grease." Rock impresario Don Kirshner spirited the strapping newcomer to Hollywood with the promise of a starring role on a Normal Lear sitcom but "A Year at the Top" (CBS, 1977) fizzled after four episodes. Evigan rebounded with "B.J. and the Bear" (NBC, 1979-1981), winning over Nielson families and Middle America as an independent trucker with a chimpanzee copilot. Lead roles followed on a number of short-lived series, most famous among them the family-oriented "My Two Dads" (NBC 1987-1990) with Paul Reiser, while Evigan proved his movie star mettle in the entertaining B-films "Stripped to Kill" and "Deepstar Six" (both 1989) and on William Shatner's sci-fi series "TekWar" (syndicated, 1994-97). Maintaining his athletic build and youthful aspect well into middle age, Evigan navigated easily between screens big and small, contributing character work to such popular weekly series as "Melrose Place" (Fox, 1992-99), "CSI: Miami" (NBC, 2002-12), and "Desperate Housewives" (ABC, 2004-12), while taking the lead in direct-to-DVD programmers on the order of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (2008) and "6 Guns" (2010). With more than 40 years in the business, Evigan proved himself a sustainable Hollywood lifer, able to forfeit ego to get the job done, and revealing substantiality beneath the beefcake.