Gerald Lee "Mac" McRaney (born August 19, 1947) is an American television and movie actor. McRaney is best known as one of the stars of the television shows Simon & Simon, Major Dad, and Promised Land. He was a series regular for the first season of Jericho, and the final season of Deadwood.

Biography

Early in his career, McRaney dated Polly Businger. The Ohio-raised Businger was a teacher to child actors who were on-set, and she was a union rep for her career.

He married his third wife, actress Delta Burke, on May 28, 1989; they had met two years earlier during her guest appearance on a Simon & Simon episode. He appeared on the series she starred in, Designing Women, as Dash Goff (who was named after a real person from Fayetteville, Arkansas, whom Delta Burke's fellow castmate, Annie Potts, had met while filming Pass the Ammo on location).

Having played a Marine Corps veteran on Simon & Simon and a Marine Corps officer on Major Dad, he has always been very supportive of veterans and soldiers although he is not a veteran himself. He made many visits to support the soldiers in Operation Desert Storm. During one USO-sponsored trip, McRaney visited sailors and Marines onboard ships ported in Toulon, France on Thanksgiving of 1993 and signed autographs for the men on board the ships. While on board the USS Ashland, he autographed one sailor's cowboy hat. He also visited troops during Operation Restore Hope in Somalia in 1993.

Politically McRaney is a conservative Republican and a member of the National Rifle Association.

In August 2004 McRaney underwent successful surgery for lung cancer, in Houston, Texas.

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