Edward James Begley, Jr. (born September 16, 1949) is an American actor and game show panelist and environmentalist who is perhaps best known for his work as Dr. Mark Craig's intern, Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the television series St. Elsewhere, for which he received six consecutive Emmy Award nominations. He currently has a reality show about green living called Living With Ed on Planet Green with his wife actress Rachelle Carson.
Begley, Jr. was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Allene Jeanne Sanders and Ed Begley, both actors (although at the time, Ed Begley was married to Amanda Huff). He grew up on Merrick, Long Island, New York where he attended Stella Niagara Education Park Cadet school in Lewiston, New York. In 1962 the family moved back to California where he graduated from Van Nuys High School, Van Nuys, California and Los Angeles Valley College in North Hollywood, California.
He married his first wife Ingrid Taylor, on October 31, 1976 and together had daughter, Amanda Begley born on October 3, 1977 and a son, Nicholas Taylor Begley born on January 4, 1979. Ed and Ingrid divorced in October 1989. He then married Rachelle Carson on August 23, 2000 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Together they had a daughter Hayden Carson born in 1999.
Begley, Jr.'s numerous works in television and film include recurring roles on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, 7th Heaven, Arrested Development and Six Feet Under, and starring roles in Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, St. Elsewhere, and Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central). He has played significant roles in the mockumentary films Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration. Additionally, Begley played Viper pilot Greenbean on the original Battlestar Galactica tv series, Boba Fett in the radio adaptation of Return of the Jedi and Seth Gillette, a fictional Democratic U.S. senator from North Dakota in the television drama The West Wing. Since 2000, he has been a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
He has guest-starred on shows such as Scrubs, Boston Legal and Star Trek: Voyager, (Future's End, parts I and II). He had a recurring guest role in season three of Veronica Mars. Most recently, he appeared in the 2008 HBO movie Recount, which profiled the 2000 Presidential Election and its aftermath, which came down to the state of Florida.
Since 1970, he has been an environmentalist beginning with his first electric vehicle, a Taylor-Dunn golf cart style vehicle, recycling, and becoming a vegan. He promotes eco-friendly products like the Toyota Prius and Begley's Best Household Cleaner.
The Begley home is a modest 1,585 square feet in size utilizing solar power and also uses wind power via a PacWind vertical-axis wind turbine; an air conditioning unit cooled by Greenway Design Group, LLC., and he pays around $300 a year in electric bills. Though he is noted for riding bicycles or uses public transportation, he owns a 2002 Toyota RAV4 EV electric powered vehicle.
His hybrid electric bicycle was often featured on his television show, Living With Ed. Begley also spoofed his own environmentalist beliefs on an episode of The Simpsons by showing himself using a nonpolluting go-cart that is powered by his "own sense of self-satisfaction". Begley is also vegan.
As of 2007, Begley and his wife Rachelle Carson star in their own reality television series, Living With Ed, on the Home & Garden Television channel and Discovery's Planet Green channel. He is receiving the prestigious "Thomas Alva Edison Award" for Energy Independence by the American Jewish Congress, the first of this award to be presented. Begley has been a leader in this field and is being recognized November 2007 for his life's work to the planet.
Begley is a part of the 9/11 Truth Movement and on September 11, 2004 he hosted a forum in NYC called Confronting the Evidence: 911 and the Search for Truth in New York City. Video of the event can be found online.
