MacGyver - Cast

Cast

• Richard Dean Anderson as MacGyver, a secret agent who refuses to carry or use a gun, due to a childhood accident with a revolver that resulted in the death of a friend. There are three exceptions: in the pilot episode, MacGyver is seen firing an AK-47 on a mission in the opening gambit (7:51 into the episode); he holds two kidnappers at gunpoint in the opening scene of episode 10, season one; and, is seen using a gun in the TV movie Trail to Doomsday. He is often suspicious of militaristic attitudes within the government; he sees the Phoenix Foundation, his employer, as an alternative to more conventional (and violent) means of law enforcement.

None of MacGyver's family is seen, except a grandfather who dies in the episode "Passages." However, in the last episode, it is revealed that he has a son he never knew about, and in the end the two of them ride off into the sunset on a motorcycle.

• Dana Elcar as Pete Thornton, MacGyver's boss and best friend. He is an operative at the Department of External Services (DXS), which is where he is impressed by Mac's ingenuity while tracking down Murdoc, an international assassin. When Thornton becomes director of operations at the Phoenix Foundation several years later, he brings MacGyver into the program. In addition to sending Mac out on various tasks for the foundation, Thornton is many times forced to bail MacGyver out of the trouble he gets into. Thornton has a son named Michael. Late in the show it is learned that Pete has glaucoma, an element written in because of Elcar getting glaucoma in real life.