When Dirk Benedict of TV's "The A-Team." was told he had cancer of the prostate, he refused traditional treatment and set out to cure himself with a strict macrobiotic diet. A year later he was given a clean bill of health.

Dirk Benedict was only 30 when he was told he had cancer of the prostate gland. The year was 1975 and the hunky American, star of television's The A-Team was then a moderately successful actor with only one real ambition: to live a full and happy three-score-years-and-ten. Longer, if possible.

Faced with serious and possibly incurable illness, he made an unusual and, some might say, crazy decision. He would tackle the killer disease without surgery or drugs, but with diet.

"l'd grown up in the mountains of Montana on a meat-based diet of elk and deer and beef," he says. "By the time l was 16, l had arthritis, which the doctors diagnosed as growing pains.

"At 21 l was going to college and working in the hayfields of Montana in my spare time. The arthritis was so bad, l couldn't open my hands in the mornings. l had to soak them in hot water to get them moving. My knuckles are still disfigured. "The pains in my knees were so bad, l wanted to cut them off."

At 26, Benedict was acting in a Broadway play called Butterflies are Free with the late Gloria Swanson and she suggested he try a grain-based macrobiotic diet. "The arthritis was worse, l was overweight, l had acne and l was going bald," Dirk recalls. "If someone had said you can cure all that by eating light bulbs, l would have figured out a way to do it." After just 10 days on whole grains and vegetables, the arthritis was gone. Gradualty, too, the acne cleared up - and whether or not diet had anything to do with it, Benedict now has a full, healthy head of hair.

In the following four years he stuck only loosely to the macrobiotic guidelines. Then came the cancer diagnosis.

"When they told me, l thought 'Oh, my God.' But when the word had sunk in, l decided - well, if paying attention to diet worked for arthritis and acne, it's got to work for cancer. But this time the stakes are life or death."

Macrobiotics made perfect sense to Dirk. To him, the link with food as medicine is a natural one. "It's not religieus, not mystical, not magical," he says. "It's common sense, like fixing your car."

Through Gloria Swanson and her husband, he met macrobiotic expert Michio Kushi who gave him a strict whole grain and vegetable diet to follow for the next four months. "As far as my loved ones were concerned, l'd just gone bonkers over this weird diet and was trying to kill myself," he says.

To avoid distraction, he went to a friend's cabin in the mountains of New Hampshire for six weeks and then packed a duffle bag and hitch-hiked across the country, living the life of a vagabond. He feasted, if that's the word, on grain, oats, barley, rice, rye, cooked vegetables and beans, some seaweeds and Japanese misosoup (soybean paste, chunks of soybean curd, seaweed and spring onions). "There was only one thing l could find in restaurants and that was oatmeal. Oatmeal saved my life." From 121/2 stone, he dropped to just over nine. After about six months, his weight started to creep back up. "l felt l'd been through the eye of the needle," he says. There were moments of blackness still, but there was a little muscle coming back on my bones." It was, he will freely admit now, a terribly tough time. "It was a very 'alone' experience, and l wouldn't recommend it for everybody. It was not the wisest thing to do. But it was my way. But you know what was great? To have few friends, no money, nothing, and realise that you don't need anything else."

In December of 1976, Dirk headed for Hollywood. It wasn't long before he had been cast as Lieutenant Starbuck in the TV series Battlestar Galactica. During 1980 and 1981, he made three films, two films for television, a couple of episodes of Love Boat and toured the country in two musicals. "l also learned to fly and fell in love two or three times." Then along came The A-Team....

Eighteen months ago, Dirk went back to his doctor for a thorough medical examination. His tumour had gone.

"In my opinion, his recovery is remarkable," says his consultant, Dr. Keith Block.

Dirk still eats only vegetables, grains, beans, fruit and nuts and his weight has settled at around 11 stone. He says he hasn't had a headache for 10 years and seldom gets tired. "What l didn't understand when l began, was that macrobiotics would affect me emotionally as well as physically."

From being a carefree bachelor, he has now settled down with actress Toni Hudson and hopes they''ll marry one day soon. He's also writing a book about his dietary views, which he hopes to publish later in the year.

"In some ways the success of the A-Team is an interruption to my life," he says. 'The money is great - l don't deny that. But if the series runs for another two years, then after that Hollywood won't see Dirk Benedict any more. "l'll come down from the hills of Montana to do a special part, then phhhht! l'll be gone again. If l could achieve that, l'd be very grateful."

When Dirk was a child, his lawyer father advised him not to strive after success. "When l think back, l almost always did the opposite of what the professionals were telling me, in terms of health, career and relationships," he says. "But there s a kind of special power that comes into your life when you step out of the way and stop worrying. Because in the end you will eventually get what you dream of, even if it takes years."

Right now, all Dirk Benedict's dreams seem to be coming true.

The End