Dirk Benedict

In 1980, Benedict starred alongside Linda Blair in an action-comedy movie called Ruckus. In 1983, Dirk gained further popularity as con-man Lieutenant Templeton "Face" Peck in 1980s action television series The A-Team. He played "Faceman" from 1982 (1982) to 1986 (1986), although the series didn't air until January 1983, and the final episode wasn't shown until 1987 rebroadcasts. The second season episode "Steel" includes a scene at Universal Studios where Face is seen looking bemused as a Cylon walks by him as an in-joke to his previous role in Battlestar Galactica. The clip is incorporated into the series' opening credit sequence from season 3 onward.

In 1986, Benedict starred as low-life band manager Harry Smilac in the movie Body Slam along with Lou Albano, Roddy Piper, and cameo appearances by Freddie Blassie, Ric Flair, and Bruno Sammartino. His character Smilac ends up managing the pro-wrestler "Quick Rick" Roberts (Piper) and faces opposition by Captain Lou and his wrestling tag-team "the Cannibals".

In 1987, Benedict took the title role of Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Abbey Theatre in Manhattan. Both his performance and the entire production were lambasted by critics.[4] Benedict starred in the 1989 TV movie Trenchcoat in Paradise.

In 1991, Benedict starred in Blue Tornado, playing Alex, call sign Fireball, an Italian Air Force fighter pilot. Benedict published an autobiography, Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy: A True Story of Discovery, Acting, Health, Illness, Recovery, and Life (Avery Publishing ISBN 0895294796). In 1993, Benedict starred in Shadow Force.

Benedict also appeared as Jake Barnes in the 1996 action-adventure film Alaska.

In 2000, Benedict wrote and directed his first screenplay, Cahoots.[5] Benedict appeared in the 2006 German film Goldene Zeiten ("Golden Times") in a dual role, playing an American former TV star as well as a German lookalike who impersonates him.

In 2006, he wrote an online essay criticizing the then-airing Battlestar Galactica re-imagined series and, especially, its casting of a woman as his character, Starbuck, writing that "the war against masculinity has been won" and that "a television show based on hope, spiritual faith, and family is unimagined and regurgitated as a show of despair, sexual violence and family dysfunction".[6]

He appeared as a contestant on the 2007 UK series of Celebrity Big Brother. He arrived on launch night in a replica of the A-Team van, smoking a cigar and accompanied by the A-Team theme tune.

In 2010, Benedict starred in a stage production of Prescription: Murder playing Lieutenant Columbo for the Middle Ground Theatre Company in the UK. Benedict also made a cameo appearance in the 2010 film adaptation of The A-Team as Pensacola Prisoner Milt.[7]

In 2019, Benedict took on the role of Jack Strange in the B movie Space Ninjas written and directed by Scott McQuaid. Dirk plays an eccentric T.V. host of a show called 'Stranger Than Fiction', which is like a hybrid of the Twilight Zone and the X-Files. The movie is a sci-fi, comedy, horror that follows a bunch of high school students trying to survive the night from a Space Ninja invasion.