Fans of a late 1970s TV medical drama that starred Jack Klugman will find Dirk Greineder's DNA expert Marc Scott Taylor a familiar face.

Taylor, a former criminalist in the Los Angeles Medical Examiner's Office, played Mark, the assistant medical examiner, on the hit NBC series "Quincy M.E.," which spanned seven seasons starting in 1976 until 1983, when it was cancelled. He was also a technical adviser to the show.

He assisted chief deputy medical examiner Quincy — whose sense of social responsibility drove him to solve cases no matter what the cost — and his deputies, on the autopsy table from 1977 until the series' end.

Taylor has consulted about forensic evidence in a number of criminal trials, but his most notable was his work with O.J. Simpson's defense team in the football star's 1995 double-murder trial. Taylor, along with DNA experts Peter Neufeld, Herbert MacDonnell and Henry Lee, was on hand to examine the bloodied socks found in Simpson's bedroom.

On Thursday, Taylor testified in the trial of the Boston allergist, who is accused of killing his wife, May Greineder, in a Wellesley, Mass., park to pursue a secret life of porn and prostitutes. Taylor testified for the defense, attempting to bolster the defense theory that DNA could have been transferred from Greineder to his wife, and then to the killer, during the attack.

Taylor, who currently runs his own forensic science company, called Technical Associates, Inc., in Ventura, Calif., stumbled upon the Quincy gig more than two decades ago by accident, according to the Web site mysterynet.com, which contains a section devoted to the series.

One day when production staff from the series came through Taylor's office to get a better idea of what a medical examiner does for a living, he offered his consulting services. Instead of going through the trouble of teaching an actor how to operate the equipment, producers cast Taylor in the part.

Taylor, who has degrees in zoology and cell biology, also served as technical consultant for "Murder, She Wrote," and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, according to The Boston Globe.