Biography
Dividing his time more or less equally between big- and small-screen work, actor Ted McGinley enjoyed a considerably successful tenure as a character player, almost always appearing as beefcake heartthrob types. He began his career in the early '80s, with small roles in
Garry Marshall's satirical farce
Young Doctors in Love (1982) and the lurid
Joan Collins telemovie
Making of a Male Model (1983), but achieved his first significant break in the sitcom venue, as English teacher-cum-basketball coach Roger Phillips on the final four seasons of
Happy Days (1980-1984). Fortuitously, at about the same time that
Days folded, the producers of
The Love Boat (on the same network, ABC) tapped McGinley to play photographer Ace Evans -- a last-ditch attempt to save the program from sagging ratings. The strategy ultimately failed when
Boat ended its lengthy run in 1986, but in the meantime, McGinley landed what became a recurring role as jock Stan in the first three installments of
Revenge of the Nerds.
Eventually, McGinley also joined the cast of the long-running Married...With Children from 1991 through 1997, playing chauvinistic layabout Jefferson D'Arcy (second husband of the Bundys' neighbor Marcy Rhoades), and essayed roles in theatrical films including
Physical Evidence (1989),
Wayne's World 2 (1993), and
Dick (1999). The late '90s and 2000s found McGinley evincing a heightened presence in television once again, first on
Aaron Sorkin's critically worshipped yet short-lived seriocomedy
Sports Night (1998-1999), then as Charley Shanowski on the sitcom Hope & Faith (2003-2006). ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide