John Savage

Blond and baby-faced, John Savage made a name for himself as a sensitive, vulnerable screen presence during the 1970s. The Long Island-born actor studied at NYC's American Academy of Dramatic Arts, began his stage career in the 60s and by 1971 had appeared on Broadway in the long-running "Fiddler on the Roof." He would tour the USA as the ultra-shy and stuttering Billy Bibbit in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" but not before enjoying a breakthrough of sorts as a young East Coast youth who runs off to the Wild West thus evading service in the Civil War, in Robert Benton's feature directing debut, "Bad Company" (1972). After joining the anti-establishment misfits (i.e., Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and Peter Boyle) of "Steelyard Blues" (1973), he took his first crack at the small screen, acting in the TV-movie "All the Kind Strangers" (ABC, 1974), and later played "Eric" (NBC, 1975), a terminal cancer patient fighting to the very end. He also made his debut as a series regular, portraying the cub reporter lead of the short-lived "Gibbsville" (NBC, 1976).