Performed in high school plays

Was an award-winning member of the school debate team

Attended college on football scholarships

Attended the Pittsburgh Steelers football training camp

After being cut from the training camp, moved to Fort Lauderdale FL; worked six months as a bellhop

Returned to Youngstown OH

Won the starring role of Randall P. McMurphy in a local production of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

Worked summers as a steel mill worker

Became a social studies teacher at age 24

Returned to Youngstown State to take acting classes

Acted in local productions (date approximate)

Feature debut, John Boorman's "Deliverance", playing a highway patrolman

Moved to NYC at age 30 (date approximate)

Worked as a waiter at O'Neal's Balloon restaurant

NY stage debut, off-off Broadway production of Rod Serling's "Requiem for a Heavyweight"

Served as an understudy to the star of the Broadway production "Knockout"

Broadway debut, "Knockout"; spotted by director William Friedkin during the run of the play

Appeared in Friedkin's film, "Cruising"

Became a regular on the NBC daytime soap, "Another World"

Primetime TV debut, "The Day the Women Got Even", an unsold pilot for an NBC comedy-drama

TV-movie debut, "When Your Lover Leaves", an NBC romantic comedy

Played his favorite stage role, Lennie in John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" at the Hartford Theater in NYC

Starred as "Popeye Doyle", the cop portrayed by Gene Hackman in "The French Connection", in an unsold NBC pilot

Cast in the star-making role of Al Bundy in the hit Fox sitcom, "Married...With Children"; show ran for ten seasons

First feature starring role, "Dutch", playing the title character in the John Hughes-produced family comedy

Returned to series TV as star of the CBS police drama "Big Apple"

Cast as Joe Friday, replacing Danny Huston, in the ABC television series "Dragnet"

Reunited with former "Married ... with Children" co-star Katey Sagal on "8 Simple Rules," (ABC) playing a former college boyfriend of Sagal's character

Cast as Gov. Eric Baker, a recurring character on NBC's "The West Wing"

Cast in David Milch's HBO series, "John From Cincinnati"