David Garrison

Stage work is where David Garrison has earned his greatest accolades, yet most viewers know him for playing the straight man to Ed O'Neill's Al Bundy on "Married with Children." Garrison made his non-theater debut in the 1980 television adaptation of the Ring Lardner story, "A Day with Conrad Green" alongside Fred Gwynne. Garrison's television appearances were sporadic, although he was cast as a lead character whose nemesis was a young and conniving Jason Bateman in the 1984 NBC sitcom, "It's Your Move." In 1987, fame came knocking when he was cast as Steve Rhoades in the raunchy Fox series, "Married with Children." He stayed on for the first five of the show's 11 seasons, getting the network to buy out his contract so he could return to performing in live theater. Garrison did reprise the Rhoades role four more times after he left and while he appeared in a number of Broadway shows, earning a Tony nomination for the musical "A Day in Hollywood-A Night in the Ukraine." He occasionally dabbled in television. After his 1990 NBC sitcom "Working It Out" was canceled after one season, Garrison was content with recurring roles on dramas such as "The West Wing," "The Practice," and "Law & Order."