Greg Evigan

The Truck and the Chimpanzee

1978. Greg Evigan sits behind a huge steering wheel while a chimpanzee occupies the passenger seat. The series is called B.J. and the Bear, and its premise is as outlandish as it is effective for television in the late seventies. Evigan plays Billy Joe McKay, an independent trucker who travels American highways accompanied by his pet (a chimp named Bear) while escaping corrupt cops.

The chemistry with the animal was real.

Before this rural success, the young man from New Jersey had already made a strong mark on the stage. In 1971, he was part of the original Broadway cast of Jesus Christ Superstar and soon after moved on to the production of Grease. He had the look of a classic leading man, but with a far more urban and direct energy than his contemporaries.

NBC found in him a goldmine for prime time. His pay per episode skyrocketed, and his face began plastering teenagers' binders across half the world. But the fame from the truck had an expiration date, and the actor needed to step away from the wheel so he wouldn't be buried by the character.

Two Dads and a Plastic Future

In 1987, the project came along that would give him a second life on the small screen. My Two Dads presented an unusual situation for the time (two men forced to raise a little girl after her mother's death). Evigan played Joey Harris, the artistic, bohemian type who contrasted with the rigid personality of Paul Reiser.

The series lasted three seasons on air and allowed him to showcase a comedic side that Hollywood didn't know he had. And that saved his bank account.

In the mid-nineties, his career took a different turn when William Shatner took notice of him. In 1994, he starred in TekWar, a science fiction bet in which he played Jake Cardigan, an ex-convict fighting a digital drug in a dystopian future. The production used cutting-edge visual effects for TV standards at the time (though today they look almost handmade).

Filming in Toronto was grueling, with workdays exceeding fourteen hours a day. But his relationship with Shatner was equal parts tense and productive.

Music and Refuge in Genre Films

Few people know that Evigan is a classically trained musician who writes his own songs. On B.J. and the Bear, he sang the main theme himself, and in 1987 he was actively involved in the soundtrack of his own sitcom. He never gave up the piano or composing, even when the major studios stopped calling him for leading roles.

There was no red carpet for the farewell.

During the first decade of the 2000s, the actor specialized in made-for-TV movies and episodic guest spots in procedural dramas. In 2008, he appeared in Desperate Housewives, and in 2011 he shot the action film Metal Spirit. His appearances became more selective but always tied to the low-budget, fast-consumption side of the entertainment industry.

In 2018, he joined the cast of the legendary soap opera General Hospital to play Jim Harvey during a multi-episode arc. In 2021, he appeared in the Christmas movie Blending Christmas, directed by Marla Sokoloff. The filming contract was closed in less than seventy-two hours due to the strict needs of the production company Lifetime.