Lance LeGault

American actor (1935–2012)

William Lance LeGault (May 2, 1935 – September 10, 2012) was an American actor. He was best known as U. S. Army Colonel Roderick Decker in the 1980s American television series The A Team.

LeGault was born May 2, 1935 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, Canada. LeGault's mother, Mary, was born in Illinois, the daughter of 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.

LeGault's first three feature films were Elvis Presley movies, Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) in which he was a stunt double for Elvis Presley, Kissin' Cousins (1964), and Viva Las Vegas (1964). Unreliable source: date=July 2023

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. Unreliable source: date=July 2023

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.