Ben McCain
Encyclopedia
Ben McCain is a Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

-based actor, television host, news anchor, reporter, producer, director, writer and one half of The McCain Brothers
The McCain Brothers
The McCain Brothers is a country/rock'n'roll group that is based in the United States. The boys from Bovina, Texas are singer-songwriters, actors, broadcasters and motion picture producers. Daily Variety describes the McCain Brothers as multi-hyphenated...

, a singing and songwriting duo. In addition to network television appearances, Ben has acted in feature films, including MGM's cult classic Bio-Dome
Bio-Dome
Bio-Dome is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Jason Bloom. Bio-Dome was produced by Motion Picture Corporation of America on a budget of $15 million and was distributed theatrically by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer....

, Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...

's remake of Humanoids from the Deep
Humanoids from the Deep
Humanoids from the Deep is a 1980 science fiction monster movie, starring Doug McClure, Ann Turkel, and Vic Morrow. Roger Corman served as the film's Executive Producer, and the film was distributed by his New World Pictures. It was directed by Barbara Peeters...

, Dragonlance: Dragon's of Autumn Twilight and Bruce Campbell
Bruce Campbell
Bruce Lorne Campbell is an American film and television actor. As a cult movie actor, Campbell starred as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series of films and he has starred in many low-budget cult films such as Crimewave, Maniac Cop, Bubba Ho-tep, Escape From L.A. and Sundown:...

's My Name Is Bruce
My Name is Bruce
My Name Is Bruce is a 2007 American comedy horror film, directed, co-produced by and starring B movie cult actor Bruce Campbell. The film was written by Mark Verheiden...

. The McCain Brothers also wrote and performed the theme song for My Name is Bruce, "Guan Di Is His Name."

Ben McCain has had recurring roles on ABC's Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...

's Black Scorpion
Black Scorpion
Black Scorpion may refer to:*Scorpion, an animal of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida- Films and TV :*The Black Scorpion , a 1957 film about giant scorpions, with special effects by Willis O'Brien...

.

Ben is a host, reporter and producer for Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...

's SoCal Channel 101 in Los Angeles. In 2009, Ben was nominated for a Los Angeles Emmy for the program So-Cal's Best Iconic Movie Locations.

Personal life

Born in Muleshoe, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 and raised on a farm near Bovina
Bovina, Texas
Bovina is a city in Parmer County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,874 at the 2000 census.One of the best-known Bovina residents was John Elmo Sherrill, Jr. , who held four different public offices in Bovina and Parmer County, including Bovina alderman, mayor , school board member, and...

 in Parmer County, Texas, Ben and his younger brother, Butch McCain
Butch McCain
Butch McCain is an American actor, broadcaster, writer, producer and one half of the singing songwriting team, The McCain Brothers. Butch has appeared numerous films including MGM's cult classic Bio-Dome, Roger Corman's remake of Humanoids from the Deep, and in Bruce Campbell's My Name Is Bruce,...

, were encouraged by their parents, Rose and Leslie McCain, to pursue their interests in performing and athletics while also helping on the family farm. He continues to come home, to Bovina, to see his mother Rose. Ben and his brother, Butch, are very glad to say that Bovina, Texas is their hometown.

Ben won his first talent show at the age of 10 at a Fourth of July celebration in Muleshoe, Texas
Muleshoe, Texas
Muleshoe is a small city in Bailey County, Texas, United States. The town of Muleshoe was founded in 1913 when the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway built an line from Farwell, Texas to Lubbock through northern Bailey County. In 1926, Muleshoe was incorporated. The population was 5,158 at the 2010...

, performing the country song "Cottonfields" and the Bill Haley classic "R-O-C-K Rock, Rock, Rock!" He won $75 and figured he made the right decision not to play in an all-star baseball game that evening.

While in high school, Ben started working at a small radio station in nearby Farwell, Texas
Farwell, Texas
Farwell is a city in and the county seat of Parmer County, Texas, United States. Farwell is located on the Texas-New Mexico border with the town of Texico, New Mexico on the opposite side...

. By the time he graduated, he was working full time as a disc jockey, news reader and doing voice overs for local businesses.

Mixing radio and television

Ben worked at KLVT
KLVT
KLVT is a radio station broadcasting a Real Country format licensed to Levelland, Texas, USA. The station is currently owned by High Plains Radio Network, llc and features programing from ABC Radio as well as local sports and NASCAR coverage....

 radio while attending South Plains College
South Plains College
South Plains College is a community college located in Levelland, Texas. It operates satellite branches in Plainview and at the Reese Technology Center, formerly Reese Air Force Base, in Lubbock. SPC also has many classes in the Byron Martin Advanced Technology Center in Lubbock, as part of a...

 in Levelland, Texas
Levelland, Texas
Levelland is a city in Hockley County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 13,542. It is the county seat of Hockley County. It is located on the Llano Estacado, west of Lubbock. Major industries include cotton farming and petroleum production...

. In 1976, he took a job sweeping and mopping the floors at ABC affiliate KVII-TV
KVII-TV
-External links:** — live pictures of downtown Amarillo and surroundings from KVII's Sky Cam...

 in Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...

 while attending and graduating from West Texas State University in Canyon, Texas
Canyon, Texas
Canyon is a city in Randall County, Texas, United States. The population was 12,875 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Randall County. It is the home of West Texas A&M University and Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. Palo Duro Canyon State Park is some twelve miles east of Canyon...

. McCain started filling in on the morning TV show at KVII, and then took a full time job reporting, anchoring, and doing weather. He was on call with a 16 millimeter camera and news car and given the title of “Pro News Man in Motion."

Ben moved to Beaumont, Texas
Beaumont, Texas
Beaumont is a city in and county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 118,296 at the 2010 census. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the...

 where he anchored, reported and forecasted the weather at NBC affiliate KJAC (now Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 affiliate KBTV
KBTV-TV
KBTV-TV, channel 4, is the Fox affiliated television station serving the Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas designated market area, and is licensed to Port Arthur. The station is owned by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc., and its studios are located at Parkdale Mall in Beaumont...

) and ABC affiliate KBMT
KBMT
KBMT is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Golden Triangle area Southeast Texas that is licensed to Beaumont. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter in Mauriceville. The station can also be seen on Time Warner channel 5 and in high definition...

. Ben also started writing songs while in southeast Texas. He recorded his first single ("Memphis Lady from Texas") and was encouraged after hearing it get airplay on several Texas radio stations.

In 1980, Ben was offered a reporting position at NBC affiliate KTVY (now KFOR-TV
KFOR-TV
KFOR-TV, virtual channel 4 , is the NBC-affiliated television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. KFOR-TV is owned by Local TV, a subsidiary of the private equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners, in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate KAUT-TV ; its studios are located at 444 East Britton Road in...

) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

, and also at WKY
WKY
WKY is a radio station located in Oklahoma City and is under ownership of Cumulus Media.WKY is the oldest radio station in Oklahoma, the 28th-oldest in the nation and the third-oldest west of the Mississippi River...

 radio. Ben focused his reporting on agriculture and entertainment. He interviewed Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

 on a farm in Iowa, evangelist Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...

 and almost every entertainer that would come through Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 including Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

, Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...

, Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...

, Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks
Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...

 (who made his first TV appearance on the McCain Brothers Show), Toby Keith
Toby Keith
Toby Keith Covel , best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin, plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of...

, Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...

, Shania Twain
Shania Twain
Shania Twain, OC is a Canadian country pop singer-songwriter. Her album The Woman in Me , brought her fame and her 1997 album Come On Over, became the best-selling album of all time by a female musician in any genre, and the best-selling country album of all time. It has sold over 40 million...

, Vince Gill
Vince Gill
Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...

 and Reba McIntire.

Ben’s younger brother, Butch
Butch McCain
Butch McCain is an American actor, broadcaster, writer, producer and one half of the singing songwriting team, The McCain Brothers. Butch has appeared numerous films including MGM's cult classic Bio-Dome, Roger Corman's remake of Humanoids from the Deep, and in Bruce Campbell's My Name Is Bruce,...

, followed in his footsteps. Ben encouraged him to focus on weather. The McCain Brothers teamed up to do the morning show "AM Oklahoma" from 1981 to 1987 at KTVY (NBC affiliate) and from 1987 to 1994 the brothers hosted "Good Morning Oklahoma" and anchored the noon newscast at KOCO-TV
KOCO-TV
KOCO-TV, virtual channel 5 , is the ABC affiliate in the Oklahoma City television market. The station is owned by Hearst Television, Inc., but uses "Ohio/Oklahoma Hearst Television, Inc." as their end tag during their newscasts, the same licensing purpose corporation as sister Cincinnati, Ohio...

 (ABC affiliate). Ben anchored the news and Butch served as the weather anchor. The brothers also hosted a Sunday night country music video show called Hot Country Hits produced by Denise Snodell, now a columnist with the Kansas City Star. The McCain Brothers moved to California in 1994.

Music

The McCain Brothers have recorded four CDs on Rise and Shine Records. The country single, “If Love Was a Crime I Couldn't Get Arrested” went number one on 50,000-watt KOMA
KOKC (AM)
KOKC is a talk radio station located in Oklahoma City among a cluster of stations in the market owned by Pennsylvania-based Renda Broadcasting. KOKC is an affiliate of the CBS Radio Network.-The early years:...

 radio in 1985.

The boys and their band of Oklahoma musicians opened concerts for major acts touring through the state and for eight years played the Oklahoma State Fair
Oklahoma State Fair
The Oklahoma State Fair is a large fair and exposition in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It takes place in mid-September each year, and is one of two state fairs in Oklahoma. During an 11-day run, the Oklahoma State Fair attracts close to one million people. By a small margin, it is larger in attendance...

. For several years, the brothers hosted a favorite Sunday night music video show, Hot Country Hits. They also hosted a syndicated TV music show called "The McCain Brothers Show."

The music of the singing and songwriting brothers has been featured in films My Name is Bruce, Humanoids from the Deep and Killer Tumbleweeds.

Film and television career

While hosting their daily morning television program, the brothers appeared on the syndicated TV show Hee Haw
Hee Haw
Hee Haw is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with fictional rural Kornfield Kounty as a backdrop. It aired on CBS-TV from 1969–1971 before a 20-year run in local syndication. The show was inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the major difference being...

as well as ABC soap operas General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....

, All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...

and Loving
Loving (TV series)
Caden Grant Carlton loves Mika Ayako Ryan more.Loving is an American television soap opera which aired on ABC's daytime lineup from June 26, 1983 to November 10, 1995 for 3,169 episodes...

. They both earned their Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...

 cards while appearing in Dark Before Dawn in 1989, a film shot in Oklahoma City. Rex Linn
Rex Linn
Rex Maynard Linn is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Frank Tripp in the television series CSI: Miami.-Early life:...

 (now a regular on CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....

) was the associate producer and put in a good word for the brothers with executive producer Ed Gaylord. As a result, both landed roles as reporters (Rex, along with singer Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks
Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...

 and actor James Marsden
James Marsden
James Paul Marsden is an American actor, singer and former Versace model. He is known for playing the superhero Cyclops in the first three X-Men films and for his roles in other commercially successful films such as Hop, Superman Returns, Hairspray, Enchanted, The Box, and 27 Dresses.-Early life...

 made their TV debuts on the McCain Brothers show).

The brothers moved to Los Angeles in 1994 to combine their interest in TV, film and music. Ben had recurring roles on ABC's Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Sci-Fi Channel's Black Scorpion
Black Scorpion
Black Scorpion may refer to:*Scorpion, an animal of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida- Films and TV :*The Black Scorpion , a 1957 film about giant scorpions, with special effects by Willis O'Brien...

. Not long after their move, Ben appeared in national commercials. He shaved his head for the “funny haircut” commercial with Chris Rock
Chris Rock
Christopher Julius "Chris" Rock III is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer and director. He was voted in the US as the 5th greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Comedy Central...

 promoting HBO comedy. He also played a game show host in a commercial for Kraft Easy Mac
Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...

. The McCain Brothers appeared in regular live shots on the morning show for Los Angeles’ CBS-owned station KCBS-TV
KCBS-TV
KCBS-TV, channel 2, is an owned-and-operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Los Angeles, California. KCBS-TV shares its offices and studio facilities with sister station KCAL-TV inside CBS Studio Center in the Studio City section of Los Angeles, and its transmitter...

.

Ben and his brother Butch, have appeared in numerous films together including MGM's cult classic Bio-Dome
Bio-Dome
Bio-Dome is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Jason Bloom. Bio-Dome was produced by Motion Picture Corporation of America on a budget of $15 million and was distributed theatrically by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer....

, Roger Corman's Humanoids from the Deep
Humanoids from the Deep
Humanoids from the Deep is a 1980 science fiction monster movie, starring Doug McClure, Ann Turkel, and Vic Morrow. Roger Corman served as the film's Executive Producer, and the film was distributed by his New World Pictures. It was directed by Barbara Peeters...

and Bruce Campbell's My Name is Bruce
My Name is Bruce
My Name Is Bruce is a 2007 American comedy horror film, directed, co-produced by and starring B movie cult actor Bruce Campbell. The film was written by Mark Verheiden...

, where they wrote and performed the film's theme song, "Guan Di Is His Name" also known as "The Legend of Guan Di". In the movie, Ben plays the mayor and Butch has dual roles as the sheriff and a uni-browed simpleton. In a 1997, Daily Variety columnist Andrew Hindes described the McCain Brothers as "multi-hyphenated".

Ben currently serves a host, reporter and producer for Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...

's SoCal Channel 101 in Los Angeles. Since 1999, Ben anchors a show called "This Week in Torrance" that can be seen on Channel 3 in the City of Torrance
Torrance
-Places:*Torrance, Ontario, Canada*Torrance, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland*Torrance, California, United States*Torrance County, New Mexico, United States-People:Torrance is a surname, and may refer to:...

.

Ben is part of a family farming and cattle operation in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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