Ted McGinley

Early life

McGinley was born in Newport Beach, California, the son of Bob and Emily McGinley. He was a surfer and worked as a lifeguard in high school. In college at USC, he began modeling and was also the captain and two time MVP of the water polo team as well as a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He was also the team leader of his Little League Baseball team, the Newport Bunnies.

Career

McGinley began his career in modeling. After a casting director spotted a picture of him in GQ, he was cast on the comedy series Happy Days as Roger Phillips (nephew of the Cunninghams), a role he played from 1980-1984. During the run of Happy Days, he landed a role in the comedy film Young Doctors in Love (1982).

After Happy Days ended in 1984, McGinley appeared in Revenge of the Nerds where he played Stanley Gable, the head of the jock-run Alpha Beta fraternity and the primary antagonist of the Lambda Lambda Lambda nerd fraternity; he reprised the role in the third and fourth movies in the "Nerds" franchise, both produced for television. He went on to appear in regular roles on television series including The Love Boat and Dynasty. He then went into the role of Jefferson D'Arcy on Married... with Children from 1989 to 1997, describing it as a "great, great gig". He had recurring roles on Aaron Sorkin's television series Sports Night, as Dana's boyfriend Gordon, and The West Wing as a television newsanchor. From 2003-2006, he played Charley Shanowski on Hope & Faith.

Two years later, he was selected for a role in Charlie Lawrence, a situation comedy about a freshman congressman from New Mexico, played by Nathan Lane. McGinley played Graydon Cord, the neighbor of Lane's title character, who was a member of the opposing political party. McGinley was also in the pilot for the 2002 CBS show Life of the Party, playing a senator. McGinley was called "the patron saint of shark-jumping" by jumptheshark.com founder Jon Hein. This is a reference to the popular and enduring shows which have featured him in their declining years often to replace a departing regular castmember. Hein writes that this is not a comment "on Ted's fine acting skills" and that "he has a great sense of humor about it, too." In one episode of Married... with Children (a show that stayed on the air for six seasons after McGinley's addition to the cast) McGinley himself spoofed this fact by asking Al, "Another picture, captain? I mean, Fonzie? ....Al?". A 2003 issue of People that focused on McGinley's casting on Hope & Faith was titled "Ted McGinley is Not a Killer", referencing his reputation for causing shows to jump the shark, though his long involvement with Married... with Children may have had the opposite effect: As Jefferson D'Arcy, a charming scam artist, and Marcy D'Arcy's husband, McGinley's contributions may have enabled the series to have a longer and more successful run with some fans preferring him to his predecessor, played by David Garrison. McGinley told Melanie McFarland of the Seattle Post–Intelligencer, "I've had a lot of fun with it. To be honest with you, it's meant people are still talking about me. It's kind of doing me a favor. And people keep hiring me, so I know that I'm okay, shark-jumping.

His guest star roles include series such as Fantasy Island (1982), The Love Boat (1983), Hotel (1985–87), Perfect Strangers (1988), BBC Sports Ted's wonderful adventure (1988), B.L. Stryker (1989), Married … With Children (1989), Evening Shade (1990) Dream On, 1991; CBS, The wonderful world of surfing, 1995; The John Larroquette Show (1995–96; 1997-1998), Bozo the Clown (1997), The Practice (2001), and Justice League (2002). During and shortly after the run of Married … With Children, McGinley was a part of many film and television movies, playing different types of characters.

In 1993, he played Mr. Scream in Wayne's World 2. That same year, McGinley used a Southern accent in his role in the miniseries Wild Justice which did not go over well with critics. Some of his television movie roles were very dark. In 1996, he was the star of Deadly Web, a movie that aired on NBC in 1996 and co–starred his wife, Gigi Rice. The movie was about a woman who was stalked on the Internet. One of McGinley's darkest roles came in 1998 in the television movie Every Mother's Worst Fear. He played Mitch Carson (also known as Scanman), a sexual predator who lures a teenage girl upset by her parents' divorce into his lair where he holds her captive and tortures her.

More recently, in 2011, McGinley again made fun of his "shark-jumping" abilities in "Mitefall", the final episode of the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold on Cartoon Network. In the episode, Bat-Mite (voiced by Paul Reubens) wants the show cancelled to usher in a new, darker Batman TV show. To that end, he starts replacing aspects of the show, including switching Aquaman's regular voice actor (John DiMaggio) with McGinley. Ambush Bug (voiced by McGinley's Happy Days co-star Henry Winkler) helps to reverse the situation, in part by getting McGinley to break character (and mention his 6-year stint on Married... with Children) and leave, forcing DiMaggio's voice back into Aquaman.

In 2008, McGinley became a contestant on the seventh season of Dancing with the Stars, and was paired with pro dancer Inna Brayer. Ted was the second contestant to be eliminated in the competition. In a 2010 Los Angeles Times article, former Happy Days writer Fred Fox, Jr., who wrote the episode that later spawned the phrase, said, "Was the [shark jump] episode of Happy Days deserving of its fate? No, it wasn't. All successful shows eventually start to decline. We feel "Ted the Show Killer" was the reason Happy Days  was canceled."

Personal life

McGinley married actress Gigi Rice in 1991 and has two sons, Beau (born 1994) and Beast McGinley. They reside in Los Angeles.