John Beck is a retired American actor, perhaps best known for his role as Mark Graison in the television series Dallas during the mid-1980s. He often portrayed hard-ball businessmen.
Early career (1964–1976)
Beck grew up in Chicago. His childhood ambition was to become a veterinarian. However, following his performance in a school play at the age of sixteen, which he had been asked to take part in as a means of overcoming profound shyness, his tutors encouraged him to try to get into drama school. He moved to California in 1962 at the age of nineteen and made his living by appearing in television commercials. In 1963/1964, he attended Joliet Junior College and was in an acting class. A year later, he made his first television appearance as an actor in his own right in a 1965 episode of NBC's I Dream of Jeannie at the age of twenty-one. Beck had a regular supporting role as Ketcham in the weekly series Nichols which ran for one season on NBC from 1971 to 1972. His numerous credits as a supporting actor over the years include guest slots in such series as Death Valley Days, ', Dan August, Baywatch, Tales from the Crypt, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Mod Squad, ', Hawaii Five-O and Matlock, among numerous others. Already a household name in the United States by this point, Beck first came to the attention of international audiences in 1973 when he played an underground leader named Erno who leads a revolt against a fascist government in the Woody Allen sci-fi comedy Sleeper. That same year, he appeared as "John W. Poe" in the Sam Peckinpah western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and in 1975, he appeared opposite James Caan as "Moonpie" in the original Rollerball.
Commercial peak (1977–1986)
In the film The Other Side of Midnight in 1977, Beck played the male lead. A year later, Beck starred in an adaptation of H. G. Wells's The Time Machine, and appeared in the TV miniseries Wheels. He appeared as Dorian Blake in 1985's , a proposed revival of 1960s nighttime dramaPeyton Place. Both productions aired on NBC in the United States. After over fifteen years of being cast in supporting roles and bit-parts in various American drama and comedy series and low-budget films, he finally landed his first major starring role playing Sam Curtis in the early 1980s television soap operaFlamingo Road, followed by the role of Mark Graison on Dallas from 1983 to 1986. Although his character was killed off in 1984, he later returned after having faked his death to seek an alternative cure for a disease from which he was suffering. However, in 1986, former star Patrick Duffy was asked to return to Dallas. To accommodate this, the producers made the entire 1985–86 season a dream of character Pamela Ewing. As a result, Beck's character was written out of the show as if he had never actually returned from the dead.
Later work (1989–2009)
Over 1991 and 1992, Beck had a leading role on the daytime soap operaSanta Barbara, playing David Raymond in over 100 episodes. He returned to that genre in 2001, with a recurring role in Passions. Beck took a brief turn at voice acting, providing the voice of the Punisher in three episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Beck also guest-starred as the character Raymond Boone in the ' extended episode "Tribunal |Tribunal" in 1994. A year later, he appeared in the film Black Day Blue Night. After his third appearance on the ' series in 1997, Beck began to wind down his acting schedule due to "exhaustion". In 2009 he retired from acting.
Personal life
Beck was born in Chicago and raised in nearby Joliet, Illinois. He married Tina Carter on April 24, 1971. The couple have four children. Beck was a proficient boxer in the 1970s and won several amateur titles, most notably the heavyweight 'Golden Gloves' of Chicago in 1973. Also a one-time champion roller-skater, he was able to perform many of his own stunts in the film Rollerball without the need for a stunt double.
