SAG Challenger Daniels Elected President After Bitter Campaign

In a stunning upset, actor William Daniels was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild, defeating incumbent Richard Masur following a bitter campaign that had sharply split the union representing film and TV actors.

Results released late Friday night by SAG showed Daniels receiving 10,008 votes, to Masur’s 8,972 votes. A third candidate, actress Angeltompkins, received 2,015.

Voting was light, with about one in five actors casting ballots. In all, 99,000 ballots were mailed.

Daniels, 72, was drafted to run by a dissident anti-Masur group called the Performers Alliance even though he admitted he knew little about the issues and was not active in SAG before declaring his candidacy in September.

Daniels is well known among fellow actors, having won a best-acting Emmy twice for his role as Dr. Mark Craig on “St. Elsewhere.” He also was the voice of David Hasselhoff’s car on “Knight Rider” and currently plays Mr. Feeny on the ABC sitcom “Boy Meets World.”

Daniels’ election is a sign of the growing discontent among members of the Hollywood talent guilds, who believe that they have not shared fairly in the exploding revenues the entertainment business has reaped over the years from growth in the cable TV and foreign markets.

The election of Daniels, who called union officials “pussycats” during the campaign and vowed that he wouldn’t be intimidated by anyone during contract talks, signals that a harder line is likely to be adopted by the union in negotiations. Daniels also criticized the union for being too bloated with staff members.

Cable TV residuals for actors are likely to be one of the main issues during Daniels’ tenure. Another is the limitations on what talent agents can do under long-standing agreements with SAG. Talent agents would like to expand their powers to better compete with talent managers, who are not bound by the same restrictions and enjoy such freedoms as the ability to produce films and TV shows.

Masur, 50, who has appeared in numerous films, such as “My Girl,” and TV shows, such as “Picket Fences,” was running for his third two-year term. He accused backers of Daniels of smearing him with malicious rumors of corruption, and defended his record as one that made progress in contract talks, in legislative matters and in drawing attention to the issue of productions fleeing to Canada to save money.

Masur had lined up support from a number of high-profile actors. On the Web site promoting his candidacy were endorsement statements from Christopher Reeve and John Lithgow. Other actors lending their names to his candidacy were Billy Crystal, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis Franz, Kathy Bates and Michael J. Fox.

In a statement, Masur said “clearly the members have made a very definitive choice” in the election and wished Daniels well.