Lorne Hyman Greene O.C., LL.D. (February 12, 1915 - September 11, 1987) was a Canadian actor, best known in the United States for his roles on two American television programs: the long-running western Bonanza and the shorter-lived cult classic science fiction program Battlestar Galactica.
Canadian-born Lorne Greene began acting while attending Canada's Queen's University, and after graduation got a job in radio broadcasting. His rich, deep, authoritarian voice quickly propelled him to prominence as Canada's top newscaster. He left Canada in the early 1950s for a film career in Hollywood, and soon began appearing regularly in television, films and on radio. His greatest successes came in two television series, the long-running Western "Bonanza" (1959), in which he played the patriarch of a wealthy frontier family, and the sci-fi series "Battlestar Galactica" (1978).
