Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series MacGyver. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the original 1985 series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in the 2016 reboot.
In both portrayals, MacGyver is shown to possess a genius-level intellect, proficiency in multiple languages, superb engineering skills, excellent knowledge of applied physics, military training in bomb disposal techniques, and a preference for non-lethal resolutions to conflicts. MacGyver works for the fictional Phoenix Foundation in Los Angeles, which in the original series was an independent think tank, and in the 2016 reboot is a clandestine government organization using the cover of a think tank. In addition to his scientific knowledge and inventive use of common items, he always carries a Swiss Army knife and refuses to carry a gun.
MacGyver (1985–1992 original series, 1994 specials) Personality MacGyver is a non-violent problem solver and typically eschews the use of guns. His violent actions are performed in self-defense, and he takes non-fatal action when possible.
MacGyver is depicted as an ally to social and environmental causes. He aids vulnerable populations throughout the series. During vineyard worker strikes, MacGyver assists Latino protesters against vineyard owners.Season 6, Episode 9 - "Bitter Harvest " MacGyver appears to have a strong connection with children, filling the role of "big brother" at the series' inception. MacGyver demonstrates his allegiance to children by assisting a mountain excursion for delinquent youths.Season 2, Episode 5 – "Final Approach " MacGyver also conducts hearing research at a school for deaf children.Season 2, Episode 9 – "Silent World"
In regard to the environment, MacGyver strives to protect endangered species such as eagles,Season 2, Episode 8 – "Eagles " the black rhino,Season 5, Episode 8 – "Black Rhino " and wolves.Season 6, Episode 18 – "Faith, Hope & Charity " At an unspecified date during the series, MacGyver begins practicing vegetarianism.Season 7, Episode 6 – "Walking Dead "
MacGyver is persistent and spontaneous. He employs improvisation to evade anticipatory countermeasures, and his plans are difficult to thwart on account of their unpredictability. This constant spontaneity challenges MacGyver as well as his adversaries. Because MacGyver continues to operate in this manner, it is assumed the tactical advantage of spontaneity outweighs its disadvantages. This is observed by MacGyver's nemesis Murdoc.
MacGyver demonstrates mood congruence, exhibiting grief in tragedy, fear in peril, and pain in suffering.Season 5, Episode 14 – "Log Jam" This stands in contrast to exaggeratedly macho or stoic action heroes. MacGyver is introspective, and takes responsibility for personal losses and tragedies. He experiences guilt when duty prevents him from attending his mother's death and funeral. He experiences depression when his best friend suffers a fatal climbing accident.
MacGyver's most-used item is his Swiss Army knife. He usually carries a roll of duct tape in his back pocket, flattened out to make it fit. Other items he often has on hand are: an ID card, a Timex Camper watch, strike-anywhere matches, a few paper clips, chewing gum, and a flashlight. He also has a toolbox in his Jeep.Season 1, Episode 18 – "Ugly Duckling" MacGyver initially used a Jeep Cherokee and then a Jeep Wrangler beginning with Season 2, but in Season 5 he began driving his grandfather Harry's "classic" 1946 Chevrolet pickup truck.
MacGyver is proficient in Russian, German, French, Italian, Spanish,Season 2, Episode 15 – "Pirates " and American Sign Language, and knows how to use International maritime signal flags and Morse code.Season 3, Episode 8 – "The Widowmaker" He is an avid outdoorsman with skills that include skiing and outdoor survival. Despite an acute fear of heights, he is skilled at mountain/rock climbing, hang gliding, and parachuting - static line, ripcord and high-altitude military parachuting. His other hobbies include ice hockey and racing, and he has shown interest in painting and guitar.
His haircut is a mullet, in a clean-cut, lightly gelled variation on the classic hairstyle.
While never being in a long-term on-screen relationship, he has relationships with several women in individual episodes and several past long-term relationships are mentioned, from which he has one child. He is on good terms with his past romantic acquaintances.
First name MacGyver's first name was originally intended to be Stacey, as seen in a press release from Paramount. However, it was never confirmed in any episode, and remained a mystery until the seventh season. Whenever he is asked about it, he says he dislikes his first name and quickly changes the subject. His grandfather, Harry Jackson, calls him "Bud" or "Buddy". Most of his friends and colleagues call him by his last name MacGyver or simply "Mac".
In the final season, his first name is revealed to be Angus when, while knocked unconscious and hallucinating, he meets a 7th-century man named Ian M'Iver ("son of Ingmarr") whose son has the same first name. This revelation is repeated in the series finale, which introduces MacGyver's son as having the middle name Angus, as well as on the packaging of the MacGyver DVD season sets.
Biography MacGyver's birthdate is first seen as January 23, 1951January 23, 1951, per his passport in but was then revised in season 2 as March 23, 1952, the date which continued to be used for the rest of the series. However, in Series 6 Episode 12 Jerico Games, he looks at a 1968 high school yearbook when he was supposedly 18. He was raised in Mission City, Minnesota. MacGyver was in the Cub Scouts. A Den Mother by the name of Mrs. Fryfogel taught him "backwoods common sense" and the motto "Be prepared.""The Gauntlet"
At the age of 7, his grandmother Celia Jackson and father James MacGyver (Martin Milner) were killed in a car accident in which they both drowned, and MacGyver grew up with his mother, Ellen MacGyver.In MacGyver states he was 7 years old when the accident occurred, however it is later confirmed that he was 10 His grandfather, Harry Jackson (John Anderson) acted as his father, but moved away when MacGyver was 16, working for a time in Alaska while sending money to MacGyver and his mother, and eventually settled down as a farmer in Minnesota.Phoenix Under Siege, stated by MacGyver as "it's been six..seven...eighteen years"
At about 12 years of age, MacGyver had a traumatic experience of the accidental shooting death of a friend by a bullet from a falling gun. MacGyver returns to his home town and meets two childhood friends, wherein a series of flashbacks the accidental death of friend Jesse is shown when MacGyver takes his dad's revolver for the boys to play with. When their friend Neil attempted to shoot a bird, MacGyver knocked the cocked gun from his hands which resulted in it discharging and firing a bullet into Jesse's chest. MacGyver is a lifelong player of ice hockey, having played in his local hockey leagues and coached for a minor league team. He is a supporter of the Calgary Flames and believed he could have made the NHL. MacGyver has a discussion where he claims to have had a chance to join the NHL and was disappointed he did not take it. He met Jack Dalton while in high school.
MacGyver went to Western Tech where he graduated with a dual degree in chemistry and physics.Season 3, Episode 9 – "Hell Week". After graduating from college he turned down an offer to work at the nearby nuclear power plant and it is later revealed that he briefly served during the Vietnam War in a bomb-defusing team.Season 1, Episode 14 – "Countdown." Talking with his old friend Charlie about the past and other references to Vietnam in the episode. Five years before the start of the series, MacGyver worked as a "Hell Fighter," fighting oil well fires in Sumatra, Indonesia.Season 1, Episode 8 – "Hellfire" Sometime during this time MacGyver's mother died of a stroke while he was in Afghanistan on assignment, though no specifics are given other than its being after Christmas.MacGyver shares the details of the death of his mother with a runaway girl, specifically mentioning being on assignment in Afghanistan in The time frame of after Christmas comes from . Eventually he moved to Los Angeles where he held numerous jobs until he accidentally meets Peter Thornton, an agent at the Department of External Services (DXS). When MacGyver saves Thornton's life using a paper clip, a wrench and shoelaces, MacGyver is offered a job as a field agent at the DXS."
In the first episode of Season 2, Thornton takes a job as Director of Operations at the Phoenix Foundation, and MacGyver follows, where he is hired as a "sort of troubleshooter."According to Peter Thornton in several episodes throughout the series and MacGyver himself in He is assigned to a variety of tasks, usually field operations such as conducting environmental surveys and testing security systems. In the fifth season, Harry dies of a heart attack, at which point MacGyver believes he has no remaining relatives.. MacGyver reveals that Harry is his only living relative.
In the second to last episode of the show, it is revealed that MacGyver has a son, Sean "Sam" Angus Malloy. Sean's mother is the photojournalist Kate Malloy who MacGyver had met after college. Kate had been murdered in China several years prior to MacGyver's meeting their son for the first time. After discovering and reuniting with Sean, MacGyver decides to resign from the Foundation in order to spend time with his son. Sean is revealed as MacGyver's son.
Two television specials featuring the character followed, both occurring and released in 1994, two years after the series ended. In the first one (MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis), MacGyver teams up with his former college archaeology instructor, Professor Atticus (Brian Blessed), to help him prove his theories about ancient Atlantis while dodging the bullets of genocidal Yugoslav troops, a Greek revolutionary and a ruthless treasure hunter. Soon thereafter (MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday), he investigates the murder of a friend in Britain, and eventually traces it to an unscrupulous businessman who sells nuclear arms research for profit. No mention in either special is made of Pete Thornton, Jack Dalton, MacGyver's son Sean or any of the show's other regulars.
Family Harry Jackson (John Anderson) – MacGyver's maternal grandfather. Harry is introduced in season 1. Harry usually calls MacGyver "Bud", and MacGyver refers to him as "Harry", but why is never revealed until the episode "Phoenix Under Siege". Harry had cut ties with Mac and his mom, and was living a life of solitude until MacGyver came to him while trying to keep a low profile due to a bounty on his head. After this they kept in regular contact, with Harry appearing in several more episodes until he dies of a heart attack in the fifth season. MacGyver's grandmother was mentioned several times but never portrayed in the series, though her name was revealed to be Celia. James (Martin Milner) and Ellen MacGyver (Shelia Moore) – MacGyver's parents. Both of MacGyver's parents are deceased before the series begins. James MacGyver died, along with MacGyver's grandmother, when their car went off the road and they drowned in a creek when MacGyver was 7.The date is revealed to be December 14, though no specific year is given. His mother, Ellen died from a stroke the day after an unspecified Christmas, but Mac was not able to make it home to see her. James appears in two episodes. and Ellen appears in one.