My Take
John Savage is one of those actors who never quite got the mainstream fame his talent deserved, and that's genuinely criminal. His work in The Deer Hunter is quietly devastating — he plays Steven with this fragile, trembling dignity that holds its own even next to De Niro and Walken at their absolute peaks. And then Hair the same year, where he's this wide-eyed innocent getting swept up in the counterculture — a completely different register, but just as convincing. The Onion Field showed he could anchor a grim true-crime drama without flinching. He kept working steadily through TV — Dark Angel, Carnivàle — never phoning it in. He's the definition of a character actor who elevated every project he touched, and I wish more people name-dropped him when they talk about the great performances of the late 1970s.
Overview
John Smeallie Youngs (born August 25, 1949), known professionally as John Savage, is an American actor. He first rose to prominence in the late 1970s for his portrayals of troubled-but-sensitive characters in films like The Deer Hunter (1978), The Onion Field (1979) and Hair (1979). His television roles include Donald Lydecker on Dark Angel (2000–2002) and Hack Scudder on Carnivàle (2003–2005).
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- John Savage
- Name (Japanese)
- ジョン・サヴェージ
- Reading
- じょん・さゔぇーじ
- Born
- August 25, 1949 (age 76)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Virgo / Ox
- Origin
- Old Bethpage, New York, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / television actor / film actor / film producer / composer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.