Today’s Independence Week post is dedicated to an actor who played a character who ensured Earth’s own freedom for seven years, Don S. Davis.
Gateworld reported two days ago that veteran actor Don S. Davis died Sunday of a heart attack. Davis played Major General/Lieutenant General George Hammond on Stargate SG-1 for seven years. Expecting retirement, Hammond found himself in command of several “SG teams,” whose mission was to go to other worlds to procure technology that would serve in the defense of Earth, and to make friendly contact with the natives. Hammond was replaced with civilian expert treaty negotiator Elizabeth Weir (who would go on to be a central character in Stargate Atlantis) at the end of Season 7. In real life, Davis left the show to deal with medical issues. He reprised the character several times throughout the rest of the series’ run, and will appear in the upcoming Stargate: Continuum.
Davis also played Major Garland Briggs in Twin Peaks, and was a stunt double for MacGuyver actor Dana Elcar, which is where he met Richard Dean Anderson.
I posted this as today’s IW entry, as it was partly due to Davis’ portrayal of General Hammond (along with the rest of the actors’ respective characters) that led the U.S. military to praise the show due to its relatively positive portrayal of the military.
More shows and movies could do with this kind of attitude.