High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Angus MacGyver, known as just MacGyver or Mac until the final season of the American spy television series MacGyver, is the highly intelligent, optimistic action hero played by Richard Dean Anderson. He prefers non-violent conflict resolution wherever possible and refuses to carry or use a gun. MacGyver works as a problem solver for the fictional Phoenix Foundation in Los Angeles. Educated as a scientist and with a background from a fictional United States government agency, the Department of External Services (DXS), he is used as a resourceful secret agent able to solve a range of problems. In addition to his scientific knowledge and inventive use of common items, he always carries a Swiss Army knife and duct tape.