Jon Cypher, Actor, Author
Actor, scholar, and world class baritone opera singer (several languages), played the role of Maj. General Marcus Craig on the hit CBS comedy series Major Dad for four seasons, from ’90 to’93. For 7 seasons, from ’80 to’87 he was that Master of Expediency, Chief Daniels, on the show that changed TV drama, Hill St. Blues. He was a professional actor for four and a half decades.
In NYC, his birthplace, he played in 12 Broadway shows: as the Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon in The Night of the Iguana, Wister LaSalle in The Disenchanted (with Jason Robards, Jr. and Sr.!), Dr. Carrasco in Man of La Mancha (he was Richard Kiley’s original understudy) and played Don Quixote many times on Broadway as well as in productions around the country.
He was Thomas Jefferson in the hit musical 1776, Dist. Att. Cameron in The Great White Hope, Katharine Hepburn’s father (!) in COCO, and Bert Jefferson in Sherry (the musical of The Man Who Came to Dinner). In ’96, he returned to Broadway for a year to star in Big, The Musical (based on the Tom Hank’s film). In rep and stock he’s done around 150 major roles, from Macbeth to El Gallo in The Fantasticks. He has done 5 soaps. From ’77 to ’79 he was Dr. Alex Keith on As The World Turns, Maximillian during the famous Luke and Laura madness on General Hospital, and during ’88 and ’89 he returned to a hospital as Dr. Arthur Donnelly on the daytime Emmy winner, Santa Barbara. He has starred in 20 feature films.
He was in the Warner Bros. comedy Strictly Business, was Man-at-Arms in Masters of the Universe, opposite Burt Lancaster in the Western classic Valdez Is Coming, with Hayley Mills and David McCallum in The Kingfisher Caper, and with Leigh Taylor Young And Eddie Albert in Accidents (the latter two made in South Africa).
He was opposite John Marley in Blade and Jacqueline Bisset in Believe In Me. Well over two hundred TV guest roles range from The Kaiser Aluminum Hour, U.S. Steel, Kraft Theatre, The Armstrong Circle Theatre and as the original Prince Charming opposite Julie Andrews’s Cinderella (the original Rodgers and Hammerstein made-for-TV spectacular)…all during the last years of live television in New York…to Murder, She Wrote, Law and Order, etc.
He was Robt. Loggia’s supervisor in ‘89s enormously successful mini-series Favorite Son, Priscilla Presley’s father, Col. Beaulieu, in another very successful mini-series Elvis and Me, based on Priscilla’s book. In the mini-series Malice in Wonderland, he was the husband of Elizabeth Taylor’s Louella Parsons.
He starred in one season on Knotts Landing, and two on Dynasty as Joan Collins’s nemesis. For over two years, from ’80 to ’82 he starred as Juan Peron in the record-setting LA production of Evita, returning to the stage of the Shubert Theatre a year later to star as Julian Marsh in 42nd St. In the summer of ’90 he starred as Sweeney Todd at the Pittsburg Civic Light Opera Theater, CLO, in an enormously successful production of that musical. And in ’92, he starred as Fagan in Oliver, also at the Pittsburgh CLO. Jon has a Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Counseling, and is a speaker on peace, space and defense, and environmental issues. Jon was MC at the Disclosure Project in 2001. Jon’s forthcoming book will be published soon.
Jon in MAJOR DAD singing THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM (as he did as Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha on Broadway and around the country many times…this is at a TV sitcom talent show…: Scroll to about minute 17
Jon in Cinderella with Julie Andrews…the one night LIVE TV performance…: