Actor / Director Profile

Actor David Selby, highly regarded for his villainous work on both daytime and nighttime soap classics, was born in Morgantown, West Virginia. He attended West Virginia University and graduated with both B.S. and M.A. degrees from West Virginia University, then earned a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Following many years on the stock stage (from 1961), David finally attracted infamous attention when he signed on as Quentin Collins, a werewolf, on the gothic daytime drama "Dark Shadows" in 1968. He inherited heartthrob status briefly with the role and even recorded two songs during the show's run, "Quentin's Theme" and "I Wanna Dance With You." After the series' demise, he made his movie debut with Night of Dark Shadows (1971), the second film based on the cult series. He broached top film stardom in the early 1970s after co-starring with Barbra Streisand in Up the Sandbox (1972) and Ron Leibman in The Super Cops (1974), and continued his high-profiled pace with New York theatre productions of "The Heiress" (1976), with Jane Alexander and Richard Kiley, and "Eccentricities of a Nightingale" (1976) with Betsy Palmer, but things didn't quite pan out. In the 1980s, however, steady TV work helped put an extra shot of adrenalin back into David's career, notably as the cunning Richard Channing on the nighttime soap "Falcon Crest," a role he played from 1982 until 1990. David has graced most of the popular series over the years including "The Waltons," "Police Woman," "Kojak," "Family," "Touched by an Angel," and "Ally McBeal." He has also appeared sporadically in white-collar film support with roles in Dying Young (1991), White Squall (1996) and Surviving Christmas (2004) to his credit. David continues to perform on stage as well. He portrayed Abraham Lincoln in his own play "Lincoln and James" in 1997 and 1998, and penned the play "Final Assault" which premiered in 2003. He is a staple player in radio drama with the L.A. Theatre Works these days. David and longtime wife Chip have three children.