Donnelly Rhodes

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada, 'Donnelly Rhodes' (qv) trained to be a warden in the National Park Service in Manitoba and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as an airman-mechanic before finally settling into his long and successful career as an actor. Rhodes studied at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Center and was a member of the first graduating class of the National Theatre School in Canada. After making his professional debut on stage as Stanley Kowalski in Streetcar Named Desire, he became a contract player for Universal Pictures in the U.S., landing film and television roles ranging from a gunslinger in _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)_ (qv) to a country singer in _Weg ohne Ziel (1973)_ (qv) to various guest appearances in series such as _Mission: Impossible (1966)_ (qv). Later, he was popular as the suave Phillip Chancellor Sr. on _The Young and the Restless (1973)_ (qv), but left the show in 1976 to avoid devoting too much of his career to the one role. He continued to work steadily, taking roles in a wide variety of television and theatrical movies and making guest appearances on more than 100 television series. Major TV roles saw him range from dim-witted escaped con Dutch on _Soap (1977)_ (qv) to veterinarian and family man Dr. Grant Roberts on the popular Canadian family series _Danger Bay (1984)_ (qv). More recently, he has appeared in a number of TV movies as well as in guest spots on popular series such as _Sliders (1995)_ (qv) and _The X-Files (1993)_ (qv). Rhodes' diverse interests include music and horses, but his real passion is boats. He has said that if he hadn't succeeded as an actor, he would have pursued a career as a naval architect.::R. Soprovich <ryjs@axionet.com>