Lance LeGault

William Lance LeGault Sr. (May 2, 1937 – September 10, 2012) was an American actor and musician. He was best known as U.S. Army Colonel Roderick Decker in the 1980s American television series The A-Team.

Early life LeGault was born May 2, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Mary Jean (née Kovachevich; died December 21, 1980) and Ernest Legault (1906–1941). LeGault's father was French Canadian from Moose Creek, Ontario. LeGault's mother, Mary, was born in Illinois, the daughter of Serb immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The family was poor. He lived in an orphanage for a time between his father's death in 1941 and when his mother remarried in 1943. He started working at 11, and was fired from the railroad at 13 when they discovered he was not 18 as he had claimed.

He grew up in Chillicothe, Illinois and graduated from Chillicothe Township High School in 1955. He received a full football scholarship to the Municipal University of Wichita, where he majored in business administration for two years before dropping out to pursue a music career. He performed at the Louisiana Hayride during the late 1950s, and appeared as an extra and stuntman in the John Wayne film The Horse Soldiers, deciding to pursue an acting career at Wayne's encouragement.

After hitchhiking to Los Angeles, he found work at a blues bar called the Crossbow, which was frequented by Elvis Presley, whom he would befriend and who would kickstart his acting career.

Often playing stern colonels, the low-pitched, gravelly-voiced actor portrayed Colonel Glass in the 1981 comedy Stripes, starring Bill Murray and John Candy.

He made many guest appearances on television series, his appearances ranged from The Rockford Files (episodes "Claire" and "A Deadly Maze"), Gunsmoke, Barbary Coast, Logan's Run, Police Woman, Battlestar Galactica, The Incredible Hulk (episode "The Antowuk Horror"), Wonder Woman, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Dukes of Hazzard (episode "The Runaway"), T. J. Hooker, Tales of the Gold Monkey, Voyagers!, MacGyver, Simon & Simon, Sledge Hammer!, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Renegade and Crusade. He appeared on Land of the Giants in the first-season episode "Underground" as a police officer.

He lent his deep bass voice as Junior the Buffalo in Disney's Home on the Range (2004). What’s more, he voiced Yank Justice in the nine-episode, 30-minute 1985 series Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines, part of Marvel Productions' Super Sunday block.

Filmography