Dirk Benedict was born in Montana on March 1st, 1945. He was raised in the country, far away from anything connected with movies or acting. He gathered his first experiences in acting (on a dare) in a college production of "Showboat" where he got the main part. His father, a lawyer, died when Dirk was 18, which was hard for him to take. While working at "Georgia, Georgia" in Sweden, he made the first contact with a macrobiotic diet and changed his eating habits drastically. He was 26 at that time. A few years later, doctors found that he had cancer of the prostate. He refused to accept the usual treatment and moved away to a secluded cottage. Dirk managed to cure himself from cancer by following the rules of his macrobiotic diet. When he got his part as "Starbuck" in Battlestar Galactica in 1978, the doctors stated that he was in good health. Dirk's main successes were "Battlestar Galactica" and the TV-Series "The A-Team" in which he played "Templeton - The Face - Peck". He was formerly married to actress Toni Hudson and has two sons (George and Roland).


Helped write the 'love scene' between his and Patsy Kensit's character in Blue Tornado (1991). A prostate cancer survivor. In 1974, medical doctors recommended surgery, but he claimed to have cured his cancer through a macrobiotic diet recommended by Gloria Swanson, his co-star on Broadway in "Butterflies Are Free," and by exercise and fasting. Over a period of 3 years and under the guidance of Michio Kushi, according to his book Confessions Of A Kamikaze Cowboy, beat the cancer. He continues the diet to this day. Divorced from actress Toni Hudson in 1995, he received custody of his boys, George and Roland. He took them home to Montana where he raised them in a 900-square-foot log cabin on his macrobiotic diet. Earned a B.A. in theatre from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.