For Pete’s Sake

The Curse of the Maltese Bippy strikes again. Dana Elcar, who turned his struggle with glaucoma into a cottage industry, has died at the age of 77. While co-starring on MacGyver, as Pete Thornton, head of The Phoenix Foundation, Thornton was diagnosed with glaucoma. Rather than writing him off both literally and figuratively, the illness and Elcar’s blindness was written into the show, including an episode where Thornton underwent glaucoma surgery. Elcar milked his condition for plum guest appearances on ER and Law & Order as blind guys. Before adding visual impairment to his resume, Elcar had established a career as a solid character actor, with notable stints as Robert Blake’s boss on Baretta, Pappy Boyington’s petty vindictive boss on Baa Baa, Black Sheep, Agent 86’s boss in the Get Smart movie The Nude Bomb, and as a con man who helps pull together the big score on Doyle Lonnegan in The Sting.