David Canary

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Emmy Awards
David Canary
David Canary as Adam Chandler, in a still from the opening sequence of All My Children.
Born	August 25, 1938 (age 68) Elwood, Indiana, USA
Notable roles	Candy Canaday in Bonanza Adam and Stuart Chandler in All My Children

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series - Daytime 1986, 1988, 1989, 1993, 2001 All My Children

David Canary (born August 25, 1938 in Elwood, Indiana) is an American actor.

Canary won a football scholarship to the University of Cincinnati, where he trained as a singer. Soon acting became his goal, after college performances (most notably as Curly in "Oklahoma") and summer stock shows.

After a fairly small role as a doctor in the prime time serial Peyton Place, Canary first came to prominence in 1967 on the Western series Bonanza.

The year 1967 was very good to Canary and his resume. Canary did the classic western movie Hombre with Paul Newman, guest starred in a two-part Gunsmoke episode, and played a mobster with Jason Robards in the movie, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

A contract dispute that year between Leonard Nimoy and the producers of Star Trek forced Herb Solow, Robert H. Justman and Gene Roddenberry to compile a list of candidates for consideration as replacements for Mr. Spock. As revealed in Solow and Justman's book, Star Trek - The Inside Story, Canary was one of the "A List" candidates. When David Dortort ("Bonanza", "High Chaparral", "Ponderosa" creator/ producer) was looking for a new Ponderosa foreman, he saw Canary in Hombre and cast him in the role. Canary left Bonanza in 1970 after his own contract dispute with the show's producers.

In 1981, he assumed the role of Steve Frame on the soap opera Another World. However, the effort to revive the Steve/Alice/Rachel triangle was largely unsuccessful and Canary left the show in 1983, after the character of Steve Frame was killed off in a car crash.

That same year, he joined the cast of All My Children in the role of the cunning Adam Chandler. The following year, he was also cast as Adam's meek twin brother, Stuart. He has played the twins since (and as per SAG stipulations, gets paid double for performing two parts).

Additional daytime television roles have included the part of a cult leader on The Doctors and a role on Search for Tomorrow. Other prime time guest appearances include: Alias Smith and Jones, Remember WENN, and Touched By An Angel.

He has won five Daytime Emmy Awards as 'Outstanding Lead Actor', and has been nominated an additional ten times. A baritone, Canary has toured in such musicals as, "Man of La Mancha", "Sweeny Todd" and "Carousel", as well as performing in dramatic pieces such as "The Seagul", and the one man play "Clarence Darrow".

He is the brother of actor John Canary, who also had a role on All My Children. The brothers are descended from folk figure Calamity Jane - aka Martha Jane Canary ("Bonanza Gold", April 2006).