The onetime manager of a skeet- and trap-shooting club, prematurely silver-haired leading man Steve Kanaly has thrived primarily in rugged, outdoorsy action roles. The veteran of dozens of theatrical and made-for-TV westerns, Kanaly has also been seen in Dillinger (1973, as Pretty Boy Floyd), Spielberg's The Sugarland Express (1974) and John Milius' Wind and the Lion (1975). From 1978 through 1991, Kanaly played South Fork ranch foreman Ray Krebbs in the prime time TV serial Dallas. Two years after Dallas' demise, Steve Kanaly resurfaced on another televised chapter play: the odd, African-based syndicated soap opera Okavango: The Wild Frontier.
Steve Kanaly
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- Served in Vietnam as a radio operator with the Army's 1st Air Cavalry Division.
- After leaving the Army, worked as a manager and shooting instructor at a small trap and skeet range, where he met screenwriter John Milius, who hired him as a technical adviser on Apocalypse Now.
- Milius introduced him to director John Huston, who cast him in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean; roles in Dillinger, The Sugarland Express and The Terminal Man followed.
- Big break came when cast as Southfork foreman Ray Krebbs on Dallas in 1978.
- After directing a few Dallas episodes, made the leap to directing features with Sliding Home in 1997.
- Reprised the role of Ray Krebbs for the 2012 Dallas series.
- Is a respected watercolor artist.