Today, a brief break from our regularly scheduled blogging to commemorate an actor, an officer and a true gentleman of the old school, Don S. Davis, who died of a heart attack in his adopted British Columbia on Sunday. For seven seasons, Davis (along with co-star and close friend Teryl Rothery) brought heart and soul to Stargate SG-1, as Major General George Hammond. Much of the series' "family" feeling onscreen stemmed from Davis' paternal mix of sternness, compassion, experience and warmth -- not to mention a periodic exasperation that seemed to say, "I can't let you kids take that Stargate anywhere, can I?"

A true renaissance man, Davis had been a captain in the U.S. Army, had taught at SIU Carbondale (from which he held a doctorate in theatrical design) and was a painter. His distinguished acting career was a mid-life change of course. After doubling for Dana Elcar on MacGyver ("We shared the same beautiful hairline," he noted with characteristic self-deprecating humor), he came to embody the archetypal military man, whether as Major Briggs on Twin Peaks, as Capt. Scully in The X-Files or as General Hammond.

During Stargate's last two seasons, Davis' chair was filled by Beau Bridges, but the courtly man from the Ozarks could never truly be replaced. And whenever he popped up in the occasional episode here and there -- usually as a last-minute fill-in for someone else -- it brought a lump to viewers' throats. Oddly, the producers of the show never seemed quite to grasp the immense affection for Davis/Hammond that permeated the fandom.

I had the great privilege of seeing Davis give a reading of prose and poetry in Burbank, in 2005, and his fine-grained voice and unhurried delivery were things of beauty. What he could do with just the words "Doberman" or "GMC"! And his stage presence seemed to say, "I'm 63, I've got a paunch and I'm bald -- and you know what? I'm OK with that." Would that we could all age so gracefully.

Davis makes a valedictory appearance as Hammond, in this summer's forthcoming Stargate: Continuum. And embedded in the collective memory of millions of us will be the inflection with which, week upon week, he said, "SG-1, you have a 'go.'"

Now Don S. Davis knows what lies on the other side of that portal to the stars.

[