John Quade, who played Dolan (a Comtron heavy) in the 1982 Knight Rider pilot, passed away on August 9th. He was 71.

Quade had a long and successful career as a character actor, appearing in several Clint Eastwood movies, such as Every Which Way But Loose, Any Which Way You Can, High Plains Drifter and The Outlaw Josey Wales. TV credits included guest spots on Kung Fu, The A-Team, The Rockford Files, CHiPs and Hill Street Blues. He was also a member of the ‘Glen Larson stock company’, appearing in several of the Larson’s other offerings The Fall Guy, Buck Rogers, The Highwayman, Manimal, BJ and the Bear, and Quincy ME. He worked again with David Hasselhoff on Baywatch in 1990.

Most of Quade’s characters were bad guys, but his wife Gwen Saunders said the reality was much different. “He was one of the nicest men you’d ever want to know, but he looked mean and nasty… He looked like he could do murder and mayhem at any moment, but he was a big teddy bear — the kind that he just loved little kids, but they were always afraid of him.”

Knight Rider fans will remember Quade fondly for his performance as Dolan, who laughed when Michael Knight warned him that he was “heavily trained in martial arts”, and was later shocked after Michael and K.I.T.T. turbo-boosted through the side of his semi trailer.