Cliff De Young

Cliff De Young, born Clifford Tobin DeYoung on February 12, 1945, in Los Angeles, California, is an American actor and musician. He graduated from California State University, Los Angeles in 1968.

Before pursuing acting, De Young served as the lead singer of the 1960s rock group Clear Light, which performed alongside acts including The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. Following the band's dissolution, he transitioned to the stage, appearing on Broadway between 1968 and 1972. His Broadway credits include Hair and the Tony Award-winning production Sticks and Bones. After four years in New York, De Young returned to California.

His early screen work included the 1973 television film Sunshine, in which he played Sam Hayden and performed songs by John Denver. The song "My Sweet Lady" from that project reached number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, number 14 in Canada, and number 42 in Australia. A television series based on the film followed, and a sequel, Sunshine Christmas, was produced in 1977.

De Young subsequently built a career spanning more than 80 film and television productions. His film appearances include Harry and Tonto (1974), The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976), Blue Collar (1978) in which he played an FBI agent, Shock Treatment (1981) in which he portrayed twin characters who performed a duet together, Flight of the Navigator (1986) as Bill, the father of the protagonist, and the 1989 Civil War film Glory, in which he played Union Colonel James Montgomery. Additional film credits include Suicide Kings (1997), Last Flight Out (2004), Road to Nowhere (2010), and Wild (2014), in which he played Ed, a summer resident of the Kennedy Meadows Campground on the Pacific Crest Trail.

His television work includes the miniseries Captains and the Kings (1976), Centennial (1978–1979) as John Skimmerhorn, and King (1978) as Robert F. Kennedy. He appeared in the pilot episode of The X-Files (1993) as Dr. Jay Nemman, and in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the season one episode "Vortex" as Croden. Other television credits include recurring appearances on Murder, She Wrote, four episodes of JAG as reporter Chuck DePalma, a guest role on The West Wing as Rep. Kimball, and a 2007 storyline on The Young and the Restless as kidnapper John Bonacheck.