Detailed Biography

Bruce Travis McGill is an American actor who has an extensive list of credits in film and television.

Early life

McGill was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Adriel Rose , an artist, and Woodrow Wilson McGill, a real estate and insurance agent. He graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a degree in drama and from Douglas MacArthur High School in the northeastern part of San Antonio.

Film work

McGill has starred in many films, perhaps his most well-known role being "D-Day" in the 1978 comedy classic National Lampoon's Animal House, a role McGill was desperate to take at the time, recalling his days as a young unemployed actor sitting in a New York City casting office. In Animal House, he played the William Tell Overture by drumming his fingers on his windpipe. He duplicated this talent in MacGyver, playing "Rock-A-Bye Baby" to lull a child in his care to sleep.

Some of his films include Wildcats, The Last Boy Scout, My Cousin Vinny, Cliffhanger, Timecop, Black Sheep, Rosewood, The Insider, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Ali, The Sum of All Fears, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, Matchstick Men, Runaway Jury, Collateral, Cinderella Man, Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy and Vantage Point.

McGill is a favorite of director Michael Mann, having worked with him on The Insider, Ali and Collateral. He has also appeared in three HBO TV films, first playing diplomat George Ball in the 2002 film Path to War; journalist Peter Arnett in Live from Baghdad later that year; and most recently Mac Stipanovich in the 2008 film Recount about the 2000 Presidential election in Florida. He also portrayed CIA Director George Tenet in Oliver Stone's film W.

Television roles

McGill's television guest appearances range from Quantum Leap , Walker, Texas Ranger, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Crime Story, and Miami Vice , to Star Trek: Voyager as Captain Braxton in the episode "Relativity". He has also appeared multiple times as a regular guest star in MacGyver as the title character's comical best friend Jack Dalton. Echoing that role, McGill often plays friends of the lead character in film and television. In 1994 he made an guest appearance along with Jay Leno in the Emmy nominated TV series, Home Improvement . He played Willard Cates in the short-lived series Wolf Lake. He was scheduled to join the cast of Bionic Woman in the fall of 2007. He also voiced Agent Buford in the video game Mercenaries.

McGill also played Major Ed Ryan in the third season Babylon 5 episode "Severed Dreams" . Babylon 5 producer J. Michael Straczynski originally intended for Everett McGill to play the role. However he did not know McGill's first name, so when he asked to have McGill contacted Straczynski was asked if he meant Bruce McGill, to which he replied yes. Even though it became apparent to Straczynski when Bruce McGill met him to discuss the role that this wasn't the McGill Straczynski had in mind, Straczynski decided to use him instead.

McGill also had a small role in a season 3 episode of Numb3rs as well as a season 3 episode of Psych.