Acting Career
He taught scene study at the Vancouver Film School in 1998 and 1999. In 2004, McGillion took a role on the science fiction series Stargate Atlantis as the Scottish medical doctor, Carson Beckett. He was initially cast as a recurring guest, but his character appeared so frequently in the show's first season that he was promoted to main character for seasons two and three, and reverts back to a recurring character for seasons 4 and 5 where he appears as the clone of the now-deceased Beckett. McGillion also played the part of young Ernest Littlefield in Stargate SG-1's first season episode "The Torment of Tantalus", the first Tau'ri to have passed through the Stargate after its burial.
He expressed great interest in auditioning for the role of Montgomery Scott in the eleventh Star Trek film. “I grew up watching Star Trek and Scotty was my favourite character. It would be a great honour to follow in James Doohan’s footsteps," he said. McGillion also had the endorsement of Chris Doohan, the son of original Scotty actor James Doohan, to play the role of Scotty in the film. Though the part ultimately went to Simon Pegg, McGillion still appeared in the film in a different role.
He appeared in Season 7 of 24 as Dr. Levinson, a doctor who tried to extract a dangerous pathogen from Jack Bauer's bloodstream after all the canisters containing pathogen had either been destroyed or secured by FBI, but died when Bauer was being moved to another location and Bauer broke free, killing Levinson and his orderlies.
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