David Ackroyd extended his all-stage career into film and television in the early 1970s, beginning with daytime leading man outings in The Secret Storm and Another World. He progressed to work as Gary Ewing in Dallas until Ted Shackelford successfully took over the role when the character moved to the spin-off drama Knots Landing. Ackroyd later appeared on Knots Landing as a guest star, playing a different character.
On Broadway, Ackroyd appeared in Unlikely Heroes, a 1971 production of three plays based on the stories of Philip Roth; and Children of a Lesser God, in which he replaced John Rubinstein as the lead character James Leeds in 1981. Since the late 1990s and into the 2000s, Ackroyd has narrated documentaries on TV, including History's Mysteries and UFO Files: "Alien Engineering".[citation needed]
Ackroyd moved to Montana in 1996. In 2003, he co-founded the Alpine Theatre Project in Whitefish, a professional acting company, where he is the artistic development director. The project has featured appearances by Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow and Kelli O'Hara. [citation needed]
^Denis, Paul.Daytime TV's Star Directory, p. 30. Popular Library, 1976. Accessed July 21, 2019. "David Ackroyd Personal Life: Born in East Orange, N.J., David's family (of Irish-English background) moved to Wayne, N.J., when he was 12."