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Captain H.M. "Howlin' Mad" Murdock Dwight Schultz
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Captain H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock is played by Dwight Schultz. The character of Murdock was almost written out of the series before it aired, as the producers found the character too "over the top". The popularity of the character among the test audience however convinced the producers to keep the part of Murdock. Murdock appeared on The A-Team from the series beginning in 1983 until its cancellation in 1987. Murdock's character biography
Murdock is almost always seen in a baseball cap, a customized A-2 leather flight jacket with a picture of a tiger and the words "Da Nang 1970" on the back, and a pair of Converse All-Star shoes. He also often wears a t-shirt with a comical caption or a picture of a cartoon character on it. Although he was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam , he is easily capable of flying anything with rotors or wings, including passenger planes, fighter jets, and even autogyros. Interestingly, unlike B.A., the initials H.M. were never explained in terms of what Murdock's actual first and middle name were, and the nickname "Howlin' Mad" were simply attributed to them (although it is rumoured that his name comes from World War II Marine Corps General Holland M. Smith, aka "Howlin' Mad", a nickname given by his troops). It was revealed in the first season that Murdock and B.A. share the same blood type—AB negative, the Due to his nature, many of the details of Murdock's life are unknown, or possibly embellished. If he is to be believed, Murdock's mother died when he was five (although they "still keep in touch"), and he was raised by his grandmother (who is supposedly named "H. Emma Murdock") and his grandfather. In one episode in the third season, B.A. says that Murdock went insane after his plane crashed. The exact state of his insanity is never made clear, though he occasionally implies that his insanity is his ticket to his "room and board". Despite his purported mental status, Murdock is a thoroughly competent member of the team, when needed to be. Indeed, because he is not actually wanted by the military, Murdock is often the only team member to evade capture by a given episode's antagonists (or the military police), and he has single-handedly rescued the other team members several times.
One particular insight into Murdock's unique world view comes during the season five episode "Trial By Fire". Murdock is asked to take the stand at the A-Team's murder trial and give testimony about his helicopter flight following the Hanoi bank mission. The testimony takes the form of a surreal flashback from Murdock's perspective in which Murdock himself (wearing a grey wig and Biggles-style flight jacket) and his female co-pilot come under attack from The Spanish Armada, a sea serpent, and a tribe of Native Americans mounted on horseback, while Murdock spouts melodramatic dialogue. His mental acumen, however had generally improved by the fifth season to the point that he agonized whether to tell team member Face that their current client A.J. Bancroft was in fact Face's real father, and that Bancroft's daughter was his half-sister. Murdock was permanently discharged from the mental institution in the fifth season, supposedly having regained his sanity. Romantic relationships
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The Man Behind Murdock
William Dwight Schultz (born 24 Novemebr, 1947 in Baltimore , Maryland ) is an American stage, television and film actor. He is best known for his roles as Captain "Howling Mad" Murdock in The A-Team , and Reginald Barclay in Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Voyager and the film Star Trek: First Contact. Personal lifeSchultz is a graduate of Calvert Hall College High School and an alumnus of Towson University , both located in Towson , Maryland . He married former actress Wendy Fulton ( Bare Essence ) in 1983 and has a daughter named Ava. CareerSchultz' breakthrough role was the mentally-unstable Captain "Howling Mad" Murdock on The A-Team. Schultz has also appeared in films including The Fan (1981), as Broadway actress Lauren Bacall's director, and Fat Man and Little Boy (1989), as J. Robert Oppenheimer. During the filming of Fat Man and Little Boy he was frequently at odds with co-star Paul Newman. Newman is well known to be a liberal Democrat who favors unilateral nuclear disarmament, while Schultz is a conservative Republican, who opposed disarming.
Schultz is also known for his voice talent. His voice credits include numerous popular video games and cartoons. He was also the host of a conservative talk radio podcast called Howling Mad Radio , which is no longer being produced. CreditsFilm
Television
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Considered the best chopper pilot of the Vietnam War, Murdock is either mentally unstable or exceptionally good at pretending to be. He is stated as having paranoid delusions and intermittent memory loss. Although he was the A-Team's pilot on the mission to rob the Bank of Hanoi (the crime for which they were convicted), he was never tried by the military. He is interned at a psychiatric hospital, although he routinely escapes (generally with the help of Face) to accompany the A-Team on their missions. The symptoms of his "insanity" vary from episode to episode, but include self-identification with fictional characters, hallucinations, and belief in the "intelligence" of inanimate objects, among others. He often "channels" a certain character for the duration of a mission (much to the chagrin of B.A.) or becomes fixated on a particular subject to the point of obsession. He also frequently refers to his invisible dog, "Billy". B.A., uneasy with Murdock's unusual behavior, is easily angered by Murdock and regularly refers to him as a "crazy fool".
rarest type. In the episode "Black Day at Bad Rock", B.A. receives a transfusion from Murdock, who was sprung from the hospital for just that, despite B.A.'s protests (fearing that Murdock's blood will make him "crazy"). This was again referenced in the second season finale "Curtain Call" when, in an unusually touching moment between the two, B.A. voluntarily offers to donate his own blood to save Murdock. However, in reality, an AB negative recipient can accept blood from any negative donor, so all this would have been unnecessary in real life.
Murdock actually has extensive knowledge of various subjects and keeps up on current events, showing a genius level aptitude. He speaks several languages including Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian(not too well though) and Mandarin Chinese. In the second season episode "The Maltese Cow", Murdock says, "What can I say? One day I had a gonzo headache and before it went away I could read and speak Chinese. And it was a bad afternoon, too, lemme tell you." He also seems capable of a photographic memory. He is also a talented actor and often accompanies Face on his scams. He is capable of impersonating the voices of famous individuals and mimicking many different foreign accents. It is also revealed in the Season 4 episode "Wheel of Fortune" that Murdock has worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on at least two occasions, once in 1969 and once in 1972. The exact extent of Murdock's missions with the CIA are not revealed.
In the early 1990s, he had a recurring role as Lieutenant Reginald Barclay in Star Trek: The Next Generation . Schultz reprised the role for Star Trek: Voyager and the film Star Trek: First Contact.