Peter Thornton (MacGyver)

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Peter Thornton
MacGyver character
First appearance	"Nightmares"
Created by	Lee David Zlotoff
Portrayed by	Dana Elcar
Information
Nickname(s)	Pete
Gender	Male
Age	53 - 59
Date of birth	December 18, 1933
Occupation	Special agent Director of Operations
Spouse(s)	Connie Thornton
Children	Michael Thornton
Address	Los Angeles, United States
Nationality	United States

Peter Thornton is a fictional character in the MacGyver television series played by Dana Elcar. He is Angus MacGyver's best friend and boss at both the Department of External Services (DXS) and the Phoenix Foundation. Along with MacGyver, Thornton is the only regular character in the series.

Little is revealed about Pete's youth and background before the show starts, but he has been married to Connie Thornton who he has a son with, Michael Thornton. It is also clear that he has extensive background working for the U.S. government. He was a war veteran with service in Vietnam.^[1] At an unknown time, he left the military and joined the Department of External Services (DXS), a U.S. government agency involved in intelligence and black ops work. He met MacGyver there in 1980 while tracking the international assassin Murdoc, and was so impressed that he recruited him into the DXS. He reaches the position of Deputy Chief of the Department in 1986 before leaving later that same year. He then goes to work for the Phoenix Foundation as Director of Operations, and takes MacGyver with him as a troubleshooter. Pete settles down with a desk job, but still is involved in many field operations along with MacGyver.

In 1991, actor Dana Elcar began to develop glaucoma, a degenerative condition of the eyes that causes blindness. This condition was written into the show, and Elcar's character also develops the disease. A number of public service announcements were composed and shown at the end of many of the later episodes, encouraging viewers to get checked early and often for the condition.

In the first episode of MacGyver, "Pilot", Dana Elcar plays the role of a completely different character named Andy Colson. The Pete Thornton character doesn't appear until episode 1.11 "Nightmares". In this episode Pete is portrayed simply as a contact, and no indication of a closer relationship between the two is indicated.

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