Gary Sandy

Gary Lee Sandy, born December 25, 1945, in Dayton, Ohio, is an American actor best known for his role as program director Andy Travis on the CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, which ran from 1978 to 1982. The son of Austin and Dolores Sandy, he grew up in Moraine, Ohio and attended Fairmont High School in Kettering, Ohio. He went on to study at Wilmington College in Wilmington, Ohio, before training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

Sandy launched his professional acting career in 1969 with a debut on the soap opera Another World, and subsequently appeared on The Secret Storm, As the World Turns, and Somerset. His early television work also included guest appearances on primetime series such as Medical Center, Barnaby Jones, CHiPs, and Starsky and Hutch, as well as roles in several television movies. His casting as Andy Travis on WKRP in Cincinnati marked a significant shift from his earlier typecasting as a soap opera villain, and he credited the role as well-written. Sandy has noted, however, that the show's success ultimately limited his opportunities, including a film career he had pursued in part for greater creative control over his material. He has also expressed pride that the role inspired viewers to pursue careers in radio broadcasting. Following the end of WKRP in 1982, Sandy turned down several series regular offers, finding the characters offered to him lacking in substance, while continuing to make guest appearances on shows including The Young and the Restless, L.A. Law, Murder She Wrote, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Martial Law. In 2004 he appeared in the Hallmark Channel television movie A Place Called Home, and in 2024 he appeared in A Very Carillon Christmas, a local television special filmed at Dayton's Carillon Historical Park that earned an Ohio Valley Regional Emmy Award.

Sandy's film credits include Some of My Best Friends Are... (1971), Hail to the Chief (1972), The Last of the Cowboys (1977), Troll (1986), and The Insider (1999).

Sandy's stage career spans more than 100 theatrical productions. He made his Broadway debut in 1974 in Saturday Sunday Monday, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, and his off-Broadway work dates to 1969, when he appeared in Pequod, followed by The Children's Mass in 1973 and Lone Star Love in 2004. In 1982, he stepped into the role of the Pirate King on Broadway in The Pirates of Penzance, replacing Kevin Kline. In 1986, he succeeded Tony Roberts as Mortimer Brewster in the 50th-anniversary Broadway production of Arsenic and Old Lace, appearing opposite Jean Stapleton, Marion Ross, Larry Storch, and Jonathan Frid, and continued in the role on the subsequent North American tour. In 1992, he played Billy Flynn in the Los Angeles production of Chicago alongside Juliet Prowse and Bebe Neuwirth. Beginning in 2001, Sandy starred opposite Ann-Margret in a touring production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which ran for two years. His Broadway credits also include Breaking Legs. In regional theater, Sandy has taken on roles including Elliot Garfield in The Goodbye Girl and Harold Hill in seven separate productions of The Music Man. In the 2010s and 2020s, he performed the role of Mike Hammer in Encore for Murder, a stage production presented in the style of a golden age radio drama, and appeared in similar onstage radio drama recreations of Agatha Christie mysteries.