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David Graf
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Graf (April 16, 1950 – April 7, 2001) was an American actor, best known for his role as Sgt. Eugene Tackleberry in the Police Academy series of films. He married Kathryn Graf in 1985.
He died of a heart attack at a family wedding in Phoenix, Arizona on April 7, 2001, nine days before his 51st birthday. His father and great grandfather both also died of sudden heart attacks at the age of 51. He was survived by his wife of 17 years, and his two sons - Daniel and Sean.
Graf was born in Lancaster, Ohio and fell in love with the stage when he starred in his senior class play, then studied theatre at Otterbein College in Westerville, a suburb of Columbus where he graduated in 1972. He attended graduate school at Ohio State University until 1975, when he dropped out to pursue his acting career.
Graf made his first television appearance on the game show The $20,000 Pyramid in December 1979, where he teamed with actress Patty Duke. (He would later appear on subsequent versions of the show as a celebrity guest, twice with Duke.) As a struggling actor in the early 1980s, he also took small roles in popular sitcoms, including M*A*S*H, The Dukes of Hazzard, and The A-Team.
He made his film debut in 1981 when he played Gergley in the drama Four Friends. Graf later played the trigger-happy Cadet Eugene Tackleberry (later Sgt. Tackleberry) in the 1984 comedy Police Academy, and starred in each of six sequels. In 1992, Graf returned to play a minor role as a police officer again for the comedy series, Seinfeld, during it's fourth season episode, The Ticket.
Graf also made notable guest appearances following his role in the Police Academy series, including a repeating part in The West Wing, and several appearances in Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In the latter series, he played a Klingon called Leskit in the fifth season episode "Soldiers of the Empire". He had a guest appearance on Night Court. He also appeared in Seinfeld (1994), as a cop. In 2000, he made an appearance on "The Amanda Show" as a paramedic who accidentilly swapped pagers with Amanda Bynes.