David Hoyt Canary (born August 25, 1938 in Elwood, Indiana) is an Emmy Award-winning American actor, who starred in both soap operas and prime time television. He is best known for his roles as the ranch foreman, Candy Canaday on Bonanza (a role he played from 1967-1970; 1972-1973) and Adam & Stuart Chandler on All My Children (1983-present).
David Canary grew up and attended high school in Massillon, Ohio, playing football for the famed Massillon Tigers of Washington High School before earning a football scholarship to the University of Cincinnati, where he trained as a singer and became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Soon acting became his goal, following college performances and summer stock shows.
After a semi-regular 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 and Cameron Mitchell, 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", "The Cowboys", and "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 a contract dispute with the show's producers. He would return after co-star Dan Blocker's May 1972 death. Canary said that he loved "Bonanza", except for the on-location Nevada filming in over 100 degree heat.
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 -- perhaps developmentally-challenged -- 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, "Hawaii Five-0", 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. He has been nominated again in 2008 for a Daytime Emmy for Best Lead Actor. A baritone, Canary has performed in such musicals as, "Man of La Mancha", "Sweeny Todd", "Kismet" and "Carousel", as well as performing in dramatic pieces such as "The Seagul", and the one man play "Clarence Darrow". Canary's favorite stage performance was when he did Tennessee Williams' Broadway production of "Clothes for a Summer Hotel" with Geraldine Page.
Canary is known to be most affable and accessible to fans of both "All My Children" and "Bonanza". At Disney resorts, he has done "meet and greet" appearances signing autographs for AMC fans. The actor has also made several appearances at the Lake Tahoe site of the Ponderosa ranch, a tourist attraction from 1967-2004.
The actor also appeared as the locomotive engineer in the movie: Atomic Train.
In 2004, he appeared as mathematical genius Robert in a well-reviewed production of David Auburn's Proof (play) in Canton, OH, near his hometown of Massillon.
Canary is married to actress Maureen Maloney, with whom he has a son and daughter. Canary also has an older daughter from a previous marriage. He is the brother of actor John Canary, who once had a role on All My Children. The brothers are descended from folk figure Calamity Jane, also known as Martha Jane Canary ("Bonanza Gold", April 2006).
