Blond and baby-faced, John Savage made a name for himself as a sensitive, vulnerable screen presence during the 1970s. The Long Island-born actor studied at NYC's American Academy of Dramatic Arts, began his stage career in the 60s and by 1971 had appeared on Broadway in the long-running "Fiddler on the Roof". He would tour the USA as the ultra-shy and stuttering Billy Bibbit in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" but not before enjoying a breakthrough of sorts as a young East Coast youth who runs off to the Wild West thus evading service in the Civil War, in Robert Benton's feature directing