Dead Star Trek Actors/Actresses
We all loved these actors and actresses . It was heartbreaking when they passed away. Here is a list to show the ones who have sadly passed on.
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- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Leonard Simon Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dora (Spinner) and Max Nimoy, who owned a barbershop. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Raised in a tenement and acting in community theaters since age eight, Nimoy did not make his Hollywood debut until he was 20, with a bit part in Queen for a Day (1951) and another as a ballplayer in the perennial Rhubarb (1951). After two years in the United States Army, he was still getting small, often uncredited parts, like an Army telex operator in Them! (1954). His part as Narab, a Martian finally friendly to Earth, in the closing scene in the corny Republic serial Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952), somewhat foreshadowed the role which would make him a household name: Mr. Spock, the half-human/half-Vulcan science officer on Star Trek (1966) one of television's all-time most successful series. His performance won him three Emmy nominations and launched his career as a writer and director, notably of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), the story of a humpback whale rescue that proved the most successful of the Star Trek movies. Stage credits have included "Fiddler on the Roof", "Oliver", "Camelot" and "Equus". He has hosted the well-known television series In Search of... (1977) and Ancient Mysteries (1994), authored several volumes of poetry and guest-starred on two episodes of The Simpsons (1989). In the latter years of his career, he played Mustafa Mond in NBC's telling of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1998), voiced Sentinel Prime in the blockbuster Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), and played Spock again in two new Star Trek films, Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).
Leonard Nimoy died on February 27, 2015 in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 83.as Mr. Spock
March 26, 1931 - February 27, 2015- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Majel Barrett (born Majel Leigh Hudec) was an American actress, known for her long association with Star Trek. She had multiple Star Trek-related roles, though she is mostly remembered for her roles as Nurse Christine Chapel in Star Trek, The Original Series (1966-1969) and as Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek, The Next Generation (1987-1994) and Deep Space Nine (1993-1999). Due to her status as the second wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991), Barrett was nicknamed "the First Lady of Star Trek".
In 1932, Barrett was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was police officer William Hudec (d. 1955), who was eventually killed while on duty. Barrett had aspirations of becoming an actress since childhood, and took acting classes as a child. She received her secondary education at the Shaker Heights High School, a public high school located in a suburb of Cleveland, and graduated in 1950 at the age of 18. She then enrolled at the University of Miami, a public research university located in Coral Gables, Florida.
Following her graduation from university, started a career as a theatrical actress. In 1955, she was on tour with an off-Broadway road company. She had her first film role in the satirical film "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" (1957), which parodied the advertising industry, among other targets of satire. Barrett appeared in an uncredited bit part in a satirical advertisement within the film. Barrett's first credited film role was that Joyce Goodwin, a novice teacher depicted in the high school drama film "As Young as We Are" (1958). The film focuses on a male student who falls in love with his young, female teacher, and resorts to kidnapping her.
In the early 1960s, Barrett had small roles in the romantic comedy "Love in a Goldfish Bowl" (1961) and the World War II-themed war film "The Quick and the Dead" (1963), and appeared in guest star roles in then-popular television series, such as "Leave It to Beaver", "The Lucy Show", and "Bonanza". She was often employed by the television production company Desilu Productions, which at the time was owned by veteran actress Lucille Ball (1911-1989).
One of the television shows she appeared in was an episode of "The Lieutenant" (1964). This short-lived series created and written by Gene Roddenberry provided his first meetings and workings with many of the actors who would later become regulars and guest stars of Star Trek, including its two pilots. Barrett and Roddenberry befriended each other, and eventually started a romantic relationship. Roddenberry was still married to Eileen-Anita Rexroat, but often pursued relationships with other women.
In 1964, Roddenberry was working on the original pilot for Star Trek. He cast Barrett in the role of "Number One", the unnamed first officer of the star-ship USS Enterprise. Number One was depicted as exceptionally intelligent and strictly rational, but seemingly unemotional. The episode hinted at a mutual attraction between Number One and her captain, Christopher Pike (played by Jeffrey Hunter). The alien Talosians try to force them to mate with each other, as part of a breeding project.
This pilot was rejected by NBC executives, who complained about several aspects of the episode. One of them was the characterization of Number One, who was disliked for being overly assertive. In the subsequent retooling of the series, Number One was written out. Her character traits were added to that of a male character, Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy). Spock went on to become one of the franchise's most popular characters, due in large part to his coldly rational behavior.
Still determined to cast Barrett in the series, Roddenberry later created a more traditionally feminine role for her. The role was that of Nurse Christine Chapel, depicted as the main assistant of Dr. Leonard McCoy (played by DeForest Kelley). Chapel was one of the main recurring characters in the series for three years. She was one of the earliest prominent female characters in Star Trek.
In 1969, "Star Trek" was canceled. Barrett and Rodenberry briefly parted ways. Later that year, Rodenberry was in Japan on business. He realized that he missed Barrett and invited her to join him in Japan. On August 6, 1969, the two had a traditional Shinto wedding ceremony. This wedding was unofficial, as Roddenberry's divorce had not been finalized yet. Following the end of the divorce process, the two were officially married on December 29, 1969. Barrett served as a stepmother to Dawn Roddenberry (b.1953), Gene's teenage daughter. Dawn moved into the new couple's residence, and Barrett helped in her upbringing.
Already known for her science fiction roles, Barrett was cast as female android Miss Carrie in the science fiction-Western "Westworld". Her character was the madame of the Westworld bordello. Barrett also had roles in the post-apocalyptic television film "Genesis II" (1973) and the science fiction television film "The Questor Tapes" (1974), both created and scripted by her husband.
Star Trek was revived with the sequel series "Star Trek: The Animated Series" (1973-1974), which used much of the main cast from the original series. Barrett voiced two of the series' main female characters, Christine Chapel and M'Ress. The new character M'Ress was depicted as a female alien in feline form, who served as an officer on the Enterprise. Barrett also voiced many of this series' female guest characters.
Barrett had a small role in the neo-noir film "The Domino Principle" (1977). The film depicted a secretive organization first helping a prisoner escape, and then trying to force him to serve as their newest assassin. When the escaped man refuses, a lethal struggle begins. This film was poorly received due to its convoluted plot.
Barrett's next notable role was the housekeeper Lilith in the horror film "Spectre" (1977). Her character is depicted as a practicing witch, who manages to cure the alcoholic tendencies of one of the main characters. The plot of film depicts the demon Asmodeus assuming a human form and identity, while two occult detectives attempt to stop the demon's scheme. The film was intended as the pilot of a television series, but was rejected.
Barrett played Christine Chapel again in the film "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979), depicting older versions of the characters from the original series. While Chapel was not one of the film's main characters, she was now depicted as a doctor instead of a nurse.
Barrett's last appearance in the 1970s was a minor role in the Christmas television film "The Man in the Santa Claus Suit" (1979). The film depicted Santa Claus (played by Fred Astaire) subtly helping a number of adult characters in resolving their personal problems. The film is mainly remembered as Astaire's last television role.
Barrett played Christine Chapel for the last time in the film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986). She had a supporting role in the film, which depicted the former nurse as having achieved the rank of Commander. A year later, a third Star Trek television series was launched: "Star Trek: The Next Generation", which featured entirely new characters. Barrett guested in a few episodes as alien ambassador Lwaxana Troi, the eccentric mother of counselor Deanna Troi (played by Marina Sirtis). Barrett would play this role several times in this and the next Star Trek series, "Deep Space Nine", from 1987 to 1996. A subplot involving the character was that Lwaxana's other daughter had died young in an accident, causing Lwaxana to be overly protective of Deanna. Another subplot centered on her love relationship with Deep Space 9's shape-shifting security chief Odo.
In 1991, Gene Roddenberry died from natural causes. Barrett never remarried. In the 90s, she lent her voice talents to several Star Trek video games and the animated Spider Man TV series, and had roles in two theatrical movies. As Roddenberry had left behind archives with unfinished projects, Barrett further developed one of these projects into the science fiction television series "Earth: Final Conflict" (1997-2002). She served as the series' executive producer and acted as one of the main characters, Dr. Julianne Belman, in 11 episodes in the first three seasons. The premise of the series was that a group of seemingly benevolent aliens share their advanced technology with the people of Earth. Many humans suspect that the aliens have ulterior motives, and consequently form a militant resistance organization which opposes the aliens. The series lasted 5 seasons and 110 episodes.
Barrett fleshed out another of Roddenberry's unfinished projects into the space opera television series "Andromeda" (2000-2005). The series started in a distant future, where three galaxies are unified under the control of the Systems Commonwealth. When the Commonwealth attempts to resolve a war with another space-faring civilization by ceding territory to them, an uprising against the Commonwealth begins. In an early part of the conflict the spaceship "Andromeda Ascendant" is frozen in time. It emerges from stasis 303 years later, to find that the Commonwealth has collapsed and civilization has considerably declined. Main character Dylan Hunt (played by Kevin Sorbo) has the mission of restoring the Commonwealth. Like the previous Roddenberry series, "Andromeda" also lasted 5 seasons and 110 episodes. It was canceled largely due to a change of ownership of the production company Fireworks Entertainment. It was Barrett's last effort as an executive producer.
In her last years, Barrett was suffering from leukemia. She died in December 2008, at her home in Bel Air, Los Angeles. She was 76-years-old. Her funeral was held in early January 2009, with about 250 people in attendance. Several of her former co-stars from Star Trek attended the funeral. Prior to her death, Barrett had recorded a number of voice roles in several Star Trek fan films and series, resulting in some posthumous releases of her last roles. She is still remembered as a major figure of Star Trek.as Christine Chapel
February 23, 1932 - December 18, 2008- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jackson DeForest Kelley was born in Toccoa, Georgia, to Clora (Casey) and Ernest David Kelley.
He graduated from high school at age 16 and went on to sing at the Baptist church where his father was a minister. At age 17, he made his first trip outside the state to visit an uncle in Long Beach, California. He intended to stay for two weeks but ended up staying a year. Upon returning home, he told his parents he was moving to California to become an actor. His mother encouraged him but the idea did not go over well with his father.
In California, Kelley was spotted by a Paramount talent scout while working on a United States Navy training film. He became a reliable character actor (often in Westerns in which he often played the villain), but hit the big time when he was offered the role of the somewhat irascible Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy on the television series Star Trek (1966). He later reprised his role for a string of successful Star Trek films: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).
DeForest Kelley died at age 79 of stomach cancer in his home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles on June 11, 1999.as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy
January 20, 1920 - June 11, 1999- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Best known as Scotty in Star Trek he was educated at High School in Sarnia, Ontario, where he acted in school productions.
When WWII began he joined the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery eventually obtaining the rank of Captain. He was wounded on D-Day, suffering severe damage to his right middle finger which was removed ahead of first knuckle, then became a flying observer for the rest of the war. His daring aerial maneuvers flying in an observation plane got him known as the craziest pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Once the war ended, he found himself on many other adventures although none of them would come anywhere close to what he experienced before.
He would become a popular voice actor who participated in thousands of CBC programs spread across both radio and television.
Later on, during the mid-1960's, he would develop into the Star Trek great we now know as Montgomery Scott, "Scotty".
In 1946 he won a 2 year scholarship to the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York City and from there went to teach for three years.
In 1953 he returned to Canada and lived in Toronto for 8 years acting on radio, television and some films before moving to Hollywood where he also appeared in a number of popular television series such as the Canadian version of The Howdy Doody Show, Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans, R.C.M.P., Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Hazel, The Gallant Men, Bonanza, The Richard Boone Show, The Outer Limits, Ben Casey, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Fugitive, Laredo, Bewitched, The Virginian, The Man from Uncle, The F.B.I., Peyton Place, Daniel Boone, Marcus Welby M.D., Fantasy Island, Magnum P.I., Danger Bay and The Bold and The Beautiful, while in between he made a return to the stage for various plays.
James Doohan departed the scene at the age of 85 on 20 July 2005.
Many current-day engineers credit Scotty with being their childhood inspiration and in honour of his memory a portion of Doohan's ashes were sprinkled in space by the rocket SpaceLoft XL.as Montgomery Scott "Scotty"
March 3, 1920 - July 20, 2005- Actress
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Grace Lee Whitney was a versatile actress and vocalist born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Beginning as a "girl singer" on Detroit's WJR radio, she soon opened in nightclubs for Billie Holiday and Buddy Rich, and toured with the Spike Jones and Fred Waring Bands. Grace debuted on Broadway in "Top Banana", and subsequently appeared in the United Artists film Top Banana (1954). Grace is probably best known for her portrayal of Yeoman Janice Rand on the original Star Trek (1966) series. She later reprised her role for a string of successful Star Trek films: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Grace continued to delight fans in personal appearances at conventions and events throughout North America and Europe. In 1998, she appeared in an episode of Diagnosis Murder (1993) with her Star Trek castmates George Takei, Walter Koenig and Majel Barrett. Grace Lee Whitney died at age 85 of natural causes in her home in Coarsegold, California on May 1, 2015.as Yeoman Janice Rand
April 1, 1930 - May 1, 2015- Mark Lenard was an American actor, primarily known for television roles. He is primarily known for playing Vulcan ambassador Sarek (Spock's father) in "Star Trek: The Original Series" and a number of its spin-offs.
In 1924, Lenard was born under the name "Leonard Rosenson" in Chicago Illinois. His father was Abraham Rosenson, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who eventually owned his own tourist resort in South Haven, Michigan. Lenard was primarily raised in South Haven.
Lenard joined the United States Army in 1943, at the age of 19. He was originally trained as a paratrooper, but was eventually given the position of a technical sergeant. He was discharged in 1946, without ever seeing combat.
During his military service, Lenard served as an an amateur actor in theatrical productions. Following the war, he sought a formal acting education at the University of Michigan. He graduated with a master's degree in theater and speech. For several years, he was primarily a theatrical actor in New York City.
In the mid-1960s, Lenard moved to to Los Angeles, where he hoped to find work in film. He made his film debut in the Biblical epic "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965), at the age of 41. He played Balthazar, the Persian magus (Zoroastrian priest, magician) mentioned in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew.
Lenard first appeared in "Star Trek: The Original Series" in 1966, playing an unnamed Romulan commander in the episode "Balance of Terror" . He first played his character of ambassador Sarek in the episode "Journey to Babel" (1967). He voiced Sarek in the 1973 episode "Yesteryear" of "Star Trek: The Animated Series". He played Sarek again in the episodes "Sarek" (1990) and "Unification: Part 1" (1991) of the sequel series "Star Trek: The Next Generation".
In the film versions of Star Trek, Lenard played Sarek in four films: "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (1984), "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986), "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989), and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country". He also played an unnamed Klingon captain in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979).
Lenard had guest star roles in several other series, such as "Mission: Impossible", The Wild Wild West", "Gunsmoke", and "Hawaii Five-O". He had a recurring role in the comedy Western television series "Here Come the Brides" (1968-1970), playing Seattle-based sawmill owner Aaron Stempel.
Possibly due to his experience in Star Trek, Lenard was often cast as an authority figure in science fiction television series. He played General Urko in "Planet of the Apes", Emperor Thorval in "The Secret Empire", Ambassador Duvoe in "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century", and camp commandant Perel Sightings in "Otherworld".
Lenard had a rare villainous role as Catholic bishop Eberhard Hoffman in the historical film "The Radicals" (1990), depicting the persecution of the then-new Anabaptist movement in the 16th century. He mostly retired from television in 1993, as he had a leading role in a theatrical play which was performed on tour, "The Boys in Autum". He played an elderly Huckleberry Finn who gets reacquainted with his childhood friend Tom Sawyer (played by Walter Koenig). It was Lenard's last significant role.
Lenard died in 1996, suffering from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells. He was 72-years-old, and had been appearing on film and television for three decades.as Sarek
October 15, 1924 - November 22, 1996 - Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jeffrey Hunter was born Henry Herman McKinnies Jr. on November 25, 1926 in New Orleans, Louisiana, an only child. His parents met at the University of Arkansas, and when he was almost four his family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In his teens, he acted in productions of the North Shore Children's Theater and, from 1942 to 1944, performed in summer stock with the local Port Players, along with Eileen Heckart, Charlotte Rae and Morton DaCosta. Hunter was also a radio actor at WTMJ, getting his first professional paycheck in 1945 for the wartime series "Those Who Serve." After graduation from Whitefish Bay High School, where he was co-captain of the football team, he enlisted in the United States Navy and underwent training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, in 1945-1946, but on the eve of his shipping out for active duty in Japan he took ill and received a medical discharge from the service.
Hunter attended and graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in 1949, where he acquired more stage experience in Sheridan's "The Rivals" and Ruth Gordon's "Years Ago". He also did summer stock with Northwestern students at Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania in 1948, worked on two Northwestern Radio Playshop broadcasts, was president of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, and was active in the campus film society with David Bradley, later acting in director David Bradley's production of Julius Caesar (1950) in 1949. He then attended graduate school at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he studied radio and drama. He was in the cast of a UCLA production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" in May, 1950; on opening night, the good-looking Hunter drew the attention of talent scouts from Paramount and 20th Century-Fox Studios.
Hunter made a screen test with Ed Begley in a scene from "All My Sons" at Paramount (where he met Barbara Rush, his future wife), but after an executive shake-up at that studio derailed his hiring, he was signed by 20th Century Fox (where he remained under contract until 1959) and within a month was sent on location in New York for Fourteen Hours (1951). Hunter was kept fairly busy in pictures, working his way from featured roles to starring roles to first-billing within two years in Sailor of the King (1953). His big break came with John Ford's classic, The Searchers (1956), where he played the young cowboy who accompanies John Wayne on his epic search for a child kidnapped by Comanches. Hunter got excellent reviews for his performance in this film and justifiably so, as he held his own well with the veteran Wayne.
Starring roles in two more John Ford movies followed, and in 1960, Hunter had one of his best roles in Hell to Eternity (1960), the true story of World War II hero Guy Gabaldon. That same year, Hunter landed the role for which he is probably best known (although it's far from his best work), when he played Jesus in producer Samuel Bronston's King of Kings (1961), which due to Hunter's still youthful looks at 33, was dubbed by irreverent Hollywood wags "I Was a Teenage Jesus." After the cancellation of his Western series Temple Houston (1963), and his decision not to continue in the lead role of the current series Star Trek (1966), his career took a downturn, and Hunter eventually wound up in Europe working on cheap Westerns, at the time a sure sign of a career in trouble.
While in Spain in November 1968 to film Cry Chicago (¡Viva América!), a story about the Chicago Mafia, Hunter was injured in an on-set explosion when a car window near him, which had been rigged to explode outward, accidentally exploded inward. Hunter sustained a serious concussion. According to Hunter's wife Emily, he "went into shock" on the flight back to the United States after filming and "couldn't speak. He could hardly move." After landing, Hunter was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, but doctors could not find any serious injuries except for a displaced vertebra and a concussion.
On the afternoon of May 26, 1969, Hunter suffered an intracranial hemorrhage while walking down a three-stair set of steps at his home in Van Nuys, California. He fell, knocked over a planter, and struck his head on the banister, fracturing his skull. He was found unconscious by Frank Bellow, an actor and a friend of Hunter's, who came for a visit, and taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital, where he underwent brain surgery. He died at about 9:30 the following morning at the age of 42.as Captain Christopher Pike
November 25, 1926 - May 27, 1969- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Yvonne Joyce Craig was born on May 16, 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois. As a young teenager, Yvonne showed such promise as a dancer that she was accepted to Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Her training progressed until she left the company in 1957 over a disagreement on casting changes. She moved to Los Angeles hoping to continue her dancing, but was soon cast in movies. At first, Yvonne had small roles in movies such as Gidget (1959) and The Gene Krupa Story (1959). After that, her film career just bumped along. As Yvonne was dating Elvis Presley at the time, she did have a supporting role in the two Elvis movies, It Happened at the World's Fair (1963) and Kissin' Cousins (1964).
But her fame would come with the cult television series Batman (1966) in which she played Commissioner Gordon's daughter, Barbara. Her secret identity was Batgirl and as the Commissioner's daughter, she had access to all the calls of trouble taking place in Gotham City. Her character, Batgirl, was part of the 1967-68 season, which was the end of the run for the series. After Batman (1966), she also appeared on other television series such as Star Trek (1966) and The Six Million Dollar Man (1974). As her career wound down, Yvonne went into the real estate business. Yvonne Craig died at age 78 of breast cancer at her home in Pacific Palisades, California on August 17, 2015.as Marta
May 16, 1937 - August 17, 2015- Roger C. Carmel, who was born September 27, 1932, was named after his grandfather, Roger Charles, who carved the horses for the carousel in New York's Central Park. He became an actor and won television immortality by appearing as Harry Mudd in two classic Star Trek (1966) episodes, "I, Mudd" and "Mudd's Women" (Carmel was one of the few guest actors on Star Trek (1966) to appear in more than one episode as the same character).
After appearing on stage, Carmel began working steadily on television in the early 1960s as a character actor, appearing on both dramas ("Route 66") and situation-comedies (The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961). In 1967, he was cast as the husband of Kaye Ballard's character on NBC's Desi Arnaz Productions' sitcom The Mothers-In-Law (1967), Desi Arnazs first production since I Love Lucy (1951). NBC was disappointed by the mediocre ratings of The Mothers-In-Law (1967), and almost canceled it. It picked the show up for a second season after rival network ABC expressed interest in the show, but NBC informed Arnaz that they would not give any additional money for the show. Traditionally, salaries are increased when a TV show is picked up for a new season, and all the actors' contracts specifically called for raises in the event of renewal. Arnaz, who was also producer, director, and writer, called together the cast and crew and told them that although the series had been renewed, there was no money for salary increases.
According to Carmel's own recollection, Arnaz was already drawing down multiple salaries on the program, and would shortly cast himself as a supporting character in the series, thus drawing another salary, although Carmel didn't know that at the time. Arnaz elicited a promise from the creative people, the crew and the actors to forgo salary increases to keep the show on the air. All the actors agreed but one. Carmel told Arnaz he would quit unless he received a raise, as per his contract. In a contemporaneous account of the incident, Carmel said, "Desi called me and put it on a personal basis. I didn't feel it should be done that way - it was very unfair of him. Then Desi and the Morris Agency threatened I would be replaced. Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden also called me and asked me to go along, but I wouldn't."
Arnaz's response to Carmel's ultimatum was dismissive. "Where else is he going to make two thousand dollars a week?", the producer asked rhetorically. If Arnaz's Desilu production company gave in to Carmel, it would be faced with giving all the cast members a raise, which was financially unviable with the money on offer from NBC. Arnaz was forced to terminate Carmel, who was replaced by Richard Deacon for the second season. The show had poor ratings and was canceled following its second season.
After leaving "The Mothers-in-Law", Carmel's acting career suffered. Other than his Harry Mudd appearances, Carmel's most memorable gig on TV was as the very campy guest villain Colonel Gumm on Batman (1966) in 1967. He made regular appearances on the syndicated quiz TV show "Stump The Stars" from 1968-70. Carmel even reprised his most famous role, that of Harry Mudd, in an episode of the animated version of "Star Trek" (1973-75), an indicator of the direction of his future career. However, during the 1970s, he could not secure another regular role as an ongoing character on a TV series, though he continued to appear regularly on sitcoms, mostly in ethnic roles, including appearances on "All In The Family", "Chico and The Man", and "Three's Company". He also appeared in B-movie bombs, including the Jerry Lewis flop "Hardly Working" (1981).
At the dawn of the new decade of the 1980s, Carmel finally got another opportunity for the first time in a dozen years, when he was cast as a regular on the network program Fitz and Bones (1981). An hour-long drama starring the TV comedy-musical duo The Smothers Brothers as investigative reporters, the show was a ratings failure, lasting only one month. After this monumental flop ("Fitz and Bones" was the lowest-rated series for the entire 1981-82 season), character parts dried up and Carmel was reduced to doing voice-over work for children's cartoons, including "The Transformers".
Carmel's last triumph as an actor was in commercials. He was a huge hit in advertising playing Senor Naugles, a faux-Mexican Colonel Sanders clone, for the West Coast region Mexican fast food chain Naugles. The commercials were a success and the chain began expanding rapidly. However, both the renewed success of Carmel and the fresh success of the chain were, sadly, to prove short-lived.
According to acquaintances, Carmel suffered chest pains on the night he died and called a cab to take him to the hospital. When the cab showed up at his Hollywood high-rise but Carmel did not come down to get it, the doorman sent the cab away, never inquiring why he failed to appear. Carmel was found dead on the floor of his apartment the next morning, November 11, 1986. While there were rumors that he committed suicide (he was rumored to be a recreational drug user), the official cause of death was listed as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle in which the organ becomes enlarged. The condition leads to congestive heart failure. Carmel was only 54 years old. He was interred in Glendale, New York.
After Carmel's death, Naugles failed to come up with another successful ad campaign, and eventually, its financial fortunes changed. It was eventually acquired by rival, Del Taco.as Harcourt "Harry" Fenton Mudd
September 27, 1932 - November 11, 1986 - Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Soundtrack
Anton Yelchin was an American actor, known for playing Bobby in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), Chekov in the Star Trek (2009) reboot, Charlie Brewster in the Fright Night (2011) remake, and Jacob in Like Crazy (2011).
He was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia, USSR, to a Jewish family. His parents, Irina Korina and Viktor Yelchin, were a successful pair of professional figure skaters in Leningrad, and his grandfather was also a professional sportsman, a soccer player. Anton was a six-month-old baby when he immigrated to the United States, where his parents settled in California and eventually developed coaching careers. He demonstrated his strong personality from the early age of four, and declined his parents' tutelage in figure skating because he was fond of acting and knew exactly what he wanted to do in his life.
Yelchin attended acting classes in Los Angeles, and eventually was noticed by casting agents. In 2000, at the age of 10, he made his debut on television, appearing as Robbie Edelstein in the medical drama ER (1994). At the age of 11, he shot to fame as Bobby Garfield, co-starring opposite Anthony Hopkins in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), and earning himself the 2002 Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film as Leading Young Actor. Over the course of his acting career, Yelchin has already played roles in more than 20 feature films and television productions, including Pavel Chekov in the hugely successful reboot Star Trek (2009), and its sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).
Outside of his acting profession, Anton loved reading, and was also fond of playing chess. He wrote music and performed with a band, where he also played piano and guitar.
Anton lived in Los Angeles, California, until his death on the evening of June 19, 2016, outside his LA home, when his parked Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled backward on his steep driveway, pinning him against a brick pillar and security fence. This was due to badly designed shifter that indicated park when it was in neutral. This death, along with reports of other near-misses, resulted in a recall of that model.as Pavel Chekov (2009 Reboot)
March 11 1989 - June 19, 2016- Actor
- Soundtrack
Malachi Throne, the character actor who became one of the more ubiquitous faces on television from the "Golden Age" of the 1950s through the 21st-century, was born in New York City on December 1, 1928, the son of Samuel and Rebecca (née Chaikin) Throne, who had immigrated to America from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He began performing at an early age.
During World War Two, he quit school to work in theater, though he later returned and got his high school diploma. He then set out upon a life as a "wandering player", as he describes it, playing in summer and winter stock companies while matriculating at Brooklyn College and Long Island University. Though he loved acting, he believed he would eventually wind up as an English teacher, which is why he doggedly kept at his studies between tours.
When he was 21 years old, the Korean conflict broke out, and Throne wound up in the infantry attached to an armored unit. When he returned to the New York theatrical scene, he found out that the revolution Marlon Brando had started in 1947 playing Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) was now the status quo. Possessed of a deep, classically trained voice, Throne was cast in the parts of characters much older than his actual age. His clear enunciation also made him a natural for live television, and he went to work on the now-defunct DuMont TV network. He continued his acting studies in New York, tutored by such luminaries as Uta Hagen and William Hickey.
In addition to TV, he continued to work on the the stage, appearing in the landmark Off-Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh", in support of Jason Robards. He also played in the famous Off-Broadway revivals of "The Threepenny Opera" and Clifford Odets' "Rocket To The Moon", as well as appeared on Broadway in such top shows as Jean Anouilh's "Becket" in support of Laurence Olivier.
In 1958-59, he found himself in California, playing a season at San Diego's Old Globe Theater. After his stint with the Globe was over, he went to Hollywood, and established himself as a major character actor in guest spots on series television during the 1960s. He had memorable appearances as "Falseface" onBatman (1966) and the Arab-styled "Thief of Outer Space" on Lost in Space (1965). He also provided the voice of "The Keeper" for The Cage (1966), the pilot episode of Star Trek (1966). He turned down an offer to be a regular cast member on that show, rejecting the part of Dr. McCoy as he did not want to play third fiddle to William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
Producer Gene Roddenberry, who had offered him the role of Dr. McCoy ("Bones"), was not offended and cast Throne as "Commodore José Mendez" in the two-part episode "The Menagerie", which included most of the original pilot, although by then The Keeper's voice had been re-dubbed by another actor, Meg Wyllie. Many years later, Throne played "Senator Pardac" in the Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) two-part episode ,"Unification", appearing with Leonard Nimoy, whose role as Spock Throne had coveted a generation earlier. In 1968, two years after "Star Trek" debuted, Throne was cast as Robert Wagner's boss on It Takes a Thief (1968) while continuing to guest star on many other television shows.
Throne remained committed to the stage, appearing as a resident actor with a variety of regional theaters, including the San Francisco Actors' Workshop, the Los Angeles Inner City Repertory Co., the Mark Taper Forum and the Louisville Free Theatre.
Throne died of lung cancer on March 13, 2013 in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, where he appeared in local theater. He also wrote historical novels. His two sons are also in show business: Zachary Throne is an actor/musician while Joshua Throne is a producer and unit production manager.as Commodore Mendez & The Keeper Voice
December 1, 1928 - March 13, 2013- Actor
- Soundtrack
A man of all mediums, this veteran, Manhattan-born character actor was named after his great-grandfather, Lincolnesque Congressman William Windom. Born in 1923, the son of Paul Windom, an architect, and the former Isobel Wells Peckham, Bill attended Williams College and the University of Kentucky, among others, before serving in the Army during WWII. After the war, he studied at both Fordham and Columbia universities in New York City before settling on an acting career. Trained at the American Repertory Theatre (1946-1961), he made his minor Broadway debut with the company in November of 1946 with revolving productions of "Henry VIII", "What Every Woman Knows", "John Gabriel Borkman" and "Androcles and the Lion". The following year, he continued building up his Broadway resume with roles in "Yellow Jack" and as the "White Rabbit" in a production of "Alice in Wonderland".
In the early 1950s, a new avenue opened up to Bill: television. For the duration of the decade, he shifted between stage, which included Broadway roles in "A Girl Can Tell" (1953), "Mademoiselle Colombe" (1954), "Fallen Angels" (1956), "The Greatest Man Alive" (1957) and "Viva Madison Avenue!" (1960), and TV drama, with stalwart work in such programs as Robert Montgomery Presents (1950) and Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951).
Major attention came Windom's way on TV moving into the following decade. In addition to hundreds of guest appearances on the most popular shows of the day (Combat! (1962), The Fugitive (1963), All in the Family (1971), Dallas (1978), Highway to Heaven (1984)), his standout work included a co-starring role opposite the luminous Inger Stevens in the popular light comedy series The Farmer's Daughter (1963). On the show, Windom portrayed widower "Glen Morley", a decent congressman who eventually falls in love with his pert and pretty Swedish governess "Katy Holstrum" (played by Stevens). Prior to this success, both he and Ms. Stevens had been singularly recognized for their sterling performances on various episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959). Following this success, Windom enjoyed critical notice as the cartoonist/protagonist whose vivid imagination causes problems on the homefront on the Thurberesque weekly series My World and Welcome to It (1969). Despite the show's critical merit and Windom's "Best Actor" Emmy win, the show, years ahead of its time, lasted only one season. Decades later, Windom would play James Thurber on stage in one-man shows.
The native New Yorker went on to essay a number of loungy Southerners and down-home types with incredible ease--both heroes and villains. He offered strong support in his film debut as Gregory Peck's opposing counsel in the Alabama-based To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), and went on to play prelate Norman Vincent Peale's father in One Man's Way (1964) starring Don Murray. Windom demonstrated the maturity to carry off the character even though he was only 5 years older than Murray. He also delivered a variety of pungent roles in such films as The Detective (1968) (as a closeted gay married man), Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud (1970) (as a political blowhard facing a series of murders) and The Man (1972) (as a racist politician).
Growing slier and stockier over the years, Windom provided TV audiences with a colorful gallery of characters, ranging from avuncular and ingratiating, to cantankerous and unscrupulous. He became a regular for over a decade on the Angela Lansbury whodunit series Murder, She Wrote (1984), joining the show in its second season as "Dr. Seth Hazlitt". He briefly left "Murder" to work on another series, Parenthood (1990), which was based on the highly popular 1989 movie starring Steve Martin. Here, Ed Begley Jr. took over the Martin part and Windom assumed Jason Robards's patriarchal role as Begley's father. The show was off the air within a few months, however, and Windom was invited back to the mystery series -- a semi-regular until the show folded in 1997.
In addition, Windom reprised a Star Trek (1966) portrayal as "Commodore Matt Decker," appeared in scores of mini-movies, has given voice to various book readings, presented a second one-man show (this time that of combat reporter Ernie Pyle), and continued to film at age 80+, his latest being Yesterday's Dreams (2005).
The five-times-married Windom was wed (for 36 years) to writer Patricia Veronica Tunder at the time of his death of congestive heart failure at age 88. A chess, tennis and sailing enthusiast, he is survived by four children: Rachel, Heather Juliet, Hope and Rebel Russell.Two step-daughters, Debora and Maggie as well as four grandchildren. He died at his home in Woodacre, California, on August 16, 2012.as Commodore Matt Decker
September 28, 1923 - August 16, 2012- William Campbell was born on 30 October 1923 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), The High and the Mighty (1954) and Star Trek (1966). He was married to Tereza Pavlovic, Barbara Bricker and Judith Campbell Exner. He died on 28 April 2011 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.as Trelane
October 30, 1923 - April 28, 2011 - Actress
- Director
- Writer
A fascinating aura of mystery seemed to surround the characters portrayed by blue-eyed blonde actress Susan Oliver, whose trademark high cheekbones, rosebud lips and heart-shaped face kept audiences intrigued for nearly three decades. She left a fine legacy of work in theater, motion pictures and television.
Born Charlotte Gercke on February 13, 1932 in New York City, she was the daughter of well-to-do George Gercke, a political reporter and journalist for the New York World, and his astrology practitioner wife, Ruth Oliver (aka Ruth Hale Oliver), both of whom divorced while Susan was still quite young (age 3). As a privileged adolescent, she went to various public and boarding schools. As a teenager, she lived with her father and traveled with him overseas to Japan, where he maintained a news post. While there (1948-49), she studied at the Tokyo International College and developed an interest in Japan's deep obsession with the American popular culture. Much later in her career (1977), in fact, Susan would write and direct Cowboysan (1978), a short film which told of Japanese actors performing in an American western.
In the spring of 1949, Susan briefly rejoined her mother, who was now remarried, residing in Los Angeles, and gaining a solid reputation as Hollywood's astrologer to the stars. However, by that fall, Susan was back East, studying drama at Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College (for four years). She then continued her training at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse, while finding stage work in both summer stock and regional theaters. Commercials and daytime/prime-time television work started coming Susan's way and, by that time, she had already changed her stage moniker to the more flowing name of Susan Oliver.
The year 1957 began with a debut ingénue role as a Revolutionary War-era daughter in the Broadway comedy "Small War on Murray Hill", which opened and closed at the Ethel Barrymore Theater after only nine days. A far more potent and substantial role fell her way in October of that same year, when she replaced British actress Mary Ure as Allison Porter in the superior kitchen sink drama "Look Back in Anger". Susan continued to find extensive dramatic work in live East coast television plays, with roles on The Kaiser Aluminum Hour (1956), The United States Steel Hour (1953), Studio 57 (1954) and Matinee Theatre (1955). At this juncture, she decided to migrate back to Los Angeles for more on-camera opportunities and attained guest roles on such popular prime-time series as Wagon Train (1957), Father Knows Best (1954), The Millionaire (1955) and The Lineup (1954).
Susan made her cinematic debut as the tough yet doomed title role in Warner Bros.' low-budget melodrama The Green-Eyed Blonde (1957). The film was shot in black and white, so it didn't matter that Susan's eyes were blue. Topbilled, she played the rebellious delinquent leader at a girls' reformatory and lent class to the rather exploitative material, which was written by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. Two years later, Susan returned to the big screen as another tough cookie in the better-received biopic The Gene Krupa Story (1959), as a jazz singer who lures the renowned drummer (played by Sal Mineo) down the road to drugs and near ruin. A brief return to the Broadway stage, with the comedy "Patate" starring Tom Ewell and Lee Bowman, would last only four days but Susan earned great notices and won New York's Theatre World Award World for her outstanding breakout performance.
On early 1960s television, Susan continued to offer a number of striking and often showy, neurotic performances on episodes of Bonanza (1959), Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958), 77 Sunset Strip (1958), Wagon Train (1957), The Virginian (1962), Adventures in Paradise (1959), Route 66 (1960), Dr. Kildare (1961) and The Fugitive (1963). Filmwise, she found a few lead and support roles in the Elizabeth Taylor-starred BUtterfield 8 (1960); as a psychiatric nurse in the all-star hospital melodrama The Caretakers (1963); in the tailored-for-the-teens romp, Looking for Love (1964), as a friend to Connie Francis; and in the hilarious Jerry Lewis slapstick vehicle The Disorderly Orderly (1964), in which she added rather heavy drama as a depressed hospital patient. During this time, her most challenging role was as the ambitious wife of doomed country music legend Hank Williams (George Hamilton, in offbeat casting) in Your Cheatin' Heart (1964).
Susan's name remained active particularly on television, where she graced such series as The Andy Griffith Show (1960), The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963), Burke's Law (1963), Dr. Kildare (1961), Ben Casey (1961), Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964), My Three Sons (1960), The Invaders (1967) and Mannix (1967). Classic television showcases includes the episode, People Are Alike All Over (1960), in which she plays the beautiful martian Teenya, who encounters astronaut Roddy McDowall, and the unsold pilot episode The Cage (1966), as Vina, the sole survivor of a crashed spaceship who charms Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter, the captain subsequently replaced by William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, when the show became a series). Footage from that pilot was later incorporated into the two-part episode "The Menagerie". In 1966, Susan made bittersweet news, when her regular role as Ann Howard in the prime-time soap opera Peyton Place (1964), was pushed off a cliff to her death. Written out after only five months of a year-long planned role, audiences (as well as Susan) were saddened by the loss of a character they had grown to care about. Subsequently, Susan starred in her own pilot for a new series, "Apartment in Rome", but that didn't sell.
Unfortunately, Susan's late 1960s work in a variety of film genres and opposite a number of formidable leading men were ultimately too few and did not help to advance her career. These included the LSD-induced drama The Love-Ins (1967) with Richard Todd and James MacArthur; the western A Man Called Gannon (1968) starring Anthony Franciosa; and the sci-fiers Change of Mind (1969) with Raymond St. Jacques and The Monitors (1969) with Guy Stockwell. The 1970s also hardly fared better with standard roles in Ginger in the Morning (1974) (donning a black wig), the Spanish-made drama Nido de viudas (1977), and Hardly Working (1980), in which she reunited with Jerry Lewis in what was supposed to be his comeback attempt. That film was ultimately shelved, before earning scant release a couple of years later.
Susan appeared as a regular for one season (1975-76) on Days of Our Lives (1965) and received a "Supporting Actress" Emmy nomination for the made-for-TV movie Amelia Earhart (1976), playing aviatrix Neta "Snookie" Snook, friend and mentor to the title character, played by Emmy-nominated Susan Clark. The role of "Snookie" was tailor-made for Susan, who, by this time, had merited attention as a licensed commercial pilot.
Susan's passion for flying had been compromised a decade earlier after a dramatic 1966 commercial plane scare. The near-death experience kept the actress on solid ground for well over a year, before she managed to overcome her paralyzing fear. In 1970, fully recovered, she co-piloted a single-engine Piper Comanche to victory in the Powder Puff Derby racing event, a victory that earned her the name, "Pilot of the Year". [Amelia Mary Earhart was the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean]. However, in her attempt to fly to Moscow, the Soviet government denied her entrance to their air space and she was forced to end her journey in Denmark. Susan would later write about her flying exploits in her autobiography "Odyssey: A Daring Transatlantic Journey" (1983).
Susan's last years were focused on the small screen, with roles in the made-for-TV movies Tomorrow's Child (1982) and International Airport (1985), and standard guest-starring on The Love Boat (1977), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Simon & Simon (1981) and Freddy's Nightmares (1988). She also moved behind the camera a few times, directing episodes of M*A*S*H (1972) and Trapper John, M.D. (1979). A longtime smoker, the never-married Susan was diagnosed with lung cancer and died with quiet dignity at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California at age 58 -- an untimely death for such a beautiful lady and strong talent.as Vina
February 13, 1932 - May 10, 1990- The daughter of Bretislav Lvovsky, a.k.a. Emil Pick (1857-1910), a minor Czech opera composer, Lovsky was born in Vienna, where she trained at the Royal Academy of Arts and Music. She was a rising stage star in Vienna and Berlin in 1929, when she met future husband Peter Lorre. Celia accompanied the Jewish Lorre when he fled Hitler's Berlin to Vienna in 1933, then to Paris, then London where they married during the filming of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), in which Celia had an uncredited bit as a Russian aristocrat.
Although she accompanied Lorre to Hollywood, she did not act professionally while married; but, after their divorce in 1945, she became a Hollywood character actress, appearing in over 40 films between 1947-73, and some 200 television appearances between 1952 and 1974. Due to her accent, she played mostly European-born characters, often dignified or aristocratic; occasionally Hispanics, once a Native American (!), and T'Pau, the ruler of the planet Vulcan on Amok Time (1967). She remained a close friend of her former husband until his death in 1964, aged 59. She died of natural causes in 1979, at age 82.as T'Pau
February 21, 1897 - October 12, 1979 - Actor
- Soundtrack
Although this pint-sized actor started out in films often in innocuous college-student roles in mid-30s rah-rahs, playing alongside the likes of a pretty Gloria Stuart or a young, pre-"Oz" Judy Garland, casting directors would soon enough discover his flair for portraying intense neurotics or spineless double-dealers. Thus was he graduated from the innocuous to the noxious. In Warners' They Won't Forget (1937), for example, he plays the role of a student whose social engagement with a young Lana Turner, debuting here in a featured role, seems to have been broken by her whereas, possibly unbeknownst to him, she has quite mysteriously been murdered. Cook becomes so enraged, venting such venom, that the movie audience can only look upon him as a prime suspect in Lana's demise. In Universal's Phantom Lady (1944), he portrays a nightclub-orchestra drummer who, under the intoxicating influence of some substance or other, encounters Ella Raines during an afternoon's band practice. Thoroughly taken with her slinky allure, he enacts a drum-solo piece that is of such crescendo, and played with such innuendo, as to suggest - glaringly - nothing except his own fantasized sexual journey from cymbal foreplay through bass-drum climax.as Samuel T. Cogley
December 26, 1903 - May 18, 1995- Actress
- Producer
Persis Khambatta was born on October 2, 1948 in Bombay, India. When aged 16, as Femina Miss India, she entered Miss Universe 1965, dressed in off-the-rack clothes she bought at the last minute. Khambatta became a model for companies such as Revlon. Her biggest acting break was getting the role of Lieutenant Ilia, the bald Deltan alien in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). This led to roles in Nighthawks (1981), Megaforce (1982) and Warrior of the Lost World (1983). She was considered for the title role in the James Bond film Octopussy (1983), but was passed over in favor of Maud Adams. Khambatta became the first citizen of India to present an Academy Award in 1980. She was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress for her Star Trek role. Khambatta also made guest appearances in many popular American television series. In the early 1980s, she was seriously injured in a car crash in Germany and had to have heart bypass surgery.
A year before her death, she wrote and published a coffee table book titled "Pride of India" which featured former Miss Indias; it was dedicated to Mother Teresa, and part of the royalties went to the Missionaries of Charity. On August 17, 1998, Persis Khambatta was taken to the Marine Hospital in South Mumbai, complaining of chest pains. She died of a heart attack on August 18, 1998 at the age of 49; her funeral was held in Mumbai.as Lieutenant Ilia
October 2, 1948 - August 18, 1998- Actress
- Soundtrack
Meg Wyllie was born on 15 February 1917 in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, USA [now Hawaii, USA]. She was an actress, known for The Last Starfighter (1984), Marnie (1964) and Dragnet (1987). She died on 1 January 2002 in Glendale, California, USA.as The Keeper
February 15, 1917 - January 1, 2002- Actor
- Soundtrack
Typical of busy character actors, Fiedler made his face (and voice) recognizable to millions. Many know the bald-pated Fiedler as therapy patient "Mr. Peterson" on The Bob Newhart Show (1972); others might first recognize him for the 1968 movie, The Odd Couple (1968), and spin-off TV show, The Odd Couple (1970), or perhaps even from the Broadway play that preceded them. Even kids would know that helium-high voice from animated Disney features like Robin Hood (1973), The Fox and the Hound (1981) and the "Winnie the Pooh" stories, in which he voiced "Piglet". The son of an Irish-German beer salesman, Fiedler knew he wanted to be an actor from his childhood days, when he had a full head of reddish-yellow hair. He made his first professional appearances onstage, branched out into live TV in New York and, then, during the 20 years he lived in Hollywood (1960-80), he turned up in many movies and an ever greater number of popular TV shows.as Mr. Hengist
February 3, 1925 - June 25, 2005- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in Campgaw, New Jersey, Jane Waddington Wyatt came from a New York family of social distinction (her father was a Wall Street investment banker and her mother was a drama critic). Jane was raised from the age of three months in New York City and attended the fashionable Chapin School and later Barnard College. After two years of college, she left to join the apprentice school of the Berkshire Playhouse at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where for six months she played an assortment of roles. One of her first jobs on Broadway was as understudy to Rose Hobart in a production of "Trade Winds"--a career move that cost her her slot on the New York Social Register. Wyatt made the transition from stage to screen and was placed under contract at Universal, where she made her film debut in director James Whale's One More River (1934). She went back and forth between Universal and Broadway (and co-starred in Frank Capra's Columbia film Lost Horizon (1937) on loan out from Universal). In the 1950s, she co-starred with Robert Young in Father Knows Best (1954), the classic sitcom chronicling the life and times of the Anderson family in the Midwestern town of Springfield. Jane Wyatt died at age 96 of natural causes at her home in Bel-Air, California, on October 20, 2006.as Amanda Grayson
August 12, 1910 - October 20, 2006- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Paul Carr was born on 1 February 1934 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Akira (1988), Star Trek (1966) and The Time Tunnel (1966). He was married to Merrily M Hirsch and Evan MacNeil. He died on 17 February 2006 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Lee Kelso
February 1, 1934 - February 17, 2006- While never one of the big names on screen, Michael Strong was one of those excellent method actors who were often compelling to watch. Unsurprisingly, many of Michael's screen characters were typical New Yorkers, whether they be cops or thugs, and he imbued them with an edgy 'in-your-face' intensity that was all his own. He was already an established stage actor, both on and off-Broadway, with an extensive resume to his name long before transferring his talents to the screen. A graduate of the Actor's Studio, he was also part of the original crew of the Lincoln Center Repertory Company, performing in key plays by Arthur Miller, S.N. Behrman and Eugene O'Neill. Usually assigned to playing military types or proletarian firebrands, Michael eventually came to note as a young burglar in "Detective Story", written and staged on Broadway by Sidney Kingsley in 1949. Director William Wyler subsequently brought him to Hollywood to recreate his role for the 1951 motion picture.
A couple of other good roles Michael later enacted for the big screen were his smarmy used-car salesman Stegman in the thriller Point Blank (1967) and Brigadier General Hobart Carver in the Oscar-winning war drama Patton (1970). For the most part, however, television became Michael's most prolific medium. His furtive looks and nervous demeanor often suggested that his characters had something to hide - and most of them did, particularly those Eastern bloc spy types with names like Malkov and Petrovich. He was at home in just about every major police series of the period, equally adept at NYPD sergeants and contract assassins. Fans of Star Trek (1966) will also remember Michael as the unhinged Dr. Roger Korby who had his consciousness transferred into an android body in the episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?". As tough as some of his characters, Michael continued to act right up until the end.as Dr. Roger Korby
February 8, 1918 - September 17, 1980 - Actor
- Editor
- Producer
New York-born James Gregory gave up a career as a stockbroker for one as an actor, and began on the Broadway stage. He made his film debut in 1948. Gregory specialized in playing loud, brash, tough cops or businessmen. One of his better roles was as the detective out to get Capone in Al Capone (1959). He also played Dean Martin's boss in three of the four cheesy "Matt Helm" spy films. Memorable as the opinionated, loudmouthed Inspector Luger in the television series Barney Miller (1975).as Dr. Tristan Adams
December 23, 1911 - September 16, 2002- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Legendary actor Ricardo Montalban was the epitome of Latin elegance, charm and grace on film and television and in the late 1940s and early 1950s reinvigorated the Rudolph Valentino / Ramon Novarro "Latin Lover" style in Hollywood without achieving top screen stardom. Moreover, unlike most minority actors of his time, he fought to upscale the Latin (particularly, Mexican) image in Hollywood. His noted militancy may have cost him a number of roles along the way, but he gained respect and a solid reputation as a mover and shaker within the acting community while providing wider-range opportunities for Spanish-speaking actors via Los Angeles theater.
He was born in Mexico City on November 25, 1920, the youngest of four children to Castilian Spanish immigrants, Ricarda Merino and Jenaro Montalbán. His father was a dry goods store owner. Montalbán moved to Los Angeles as a teen and lived with his much older brother Carlos Montalbán, who was then pursuing show business as both an actor and dancer. Ricardo attended Fairfax High School in Hollywood and was noticed in a student play but passed on a screen test that was offered. Instead, he traveled with his brother to New York, where he earned a bit part in the Tallulah Bankhead stage vehicle "Her Cardboard Lover" in 1940, and won subsequent roles in the plays "Our Betters" and "Private Affair".
Returning to Mexico to care for his extremely ill mother, his dark good looks and magnetic style helped propel him into the Spanish-language film industry. After nearly a dozen or so films, he was on the verge of stardom in Mexico when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer took an interest in him and he relocated back to Los Angeles. Making his Hollywood leading debut as a robust bullfighter and twin brother of MGM star Esther Williams in the "B"-level musical Fiesta (1947), he attracted immediate attention. His second film with Williams, On an Island with You (1948), led to a contract with the studio, where he routinely ignited "Latin Lover" sparks opposite such prime female stars as Cyd Charisse, Shelley Winters, Anne Bancroft, Pier Angeli, Laraine Day and (once again) Esther Williams, this time in Neptune's Daughter (1949) (one of his MGM extravaganzas opposite gorgeous Lana Turner was actually called Latin Lovers (1953)). His strongest Hispanic competition in films at the time was Argentine-born fellow MGM player Fernando Lamas, who wound up eventually marrying Esther Williams after divorcing another MGM beauty, Arlene Dahl.
Although Montalban was the epitome of the "Latin lover" type, it actually damaged his cinematic career, pigeonholing him and hurting his momentum. He was seldom able to extricate himself from the usual portrayals of bandidos and gigolos, although he did manage to find an interesting film from time to time, such as his turn as a Mexican undercover policeman in the gritty Border Incident (1949), Mystery Street (1950), the classic war film Battleground (1949) and the hard-edged boxing drama Right Cross (1950). Occasionally, he was handed ethnic roles outside the Latino realm, such as his villainous Blackfoot Indian chief in Across the Wide Missouri (1951) starring Clark Gable, his heroic, bare-chested rebel warrior in the steamy Italian sword-and-sandals costumer The Queen of Babylon (1954) alongside Rhonda Fleming and his Japanese Kabuki actor in the Oscar-winning feature Sayonara (1957). It was during the filming of Across the Wide Missouri (1951) that he suffered a serious injury to his spine after he slipped and fell off a running horse, which resulted in a permanent limp.
Well established by this time, Montalban returned to the stage in 1954 with varied roles in such fare as "Can-Can", "The Inspector General", "South Pacific" and "Accent on Youth", before making his Broadway debut as Chico in the original musical "Seventh Heaven" (1955) with Gloria DeHaven, Kurt Kasznar and Bea Arthur. He then earned a Tony Award nomination as the only non-African-American actor in the tropical-themed musical "Jamaica" (1957) co-starring Lena Horne. He also toured as the title role in "Don Juan in Hell" in the 1960s, returning to Broadway with it in 1973 with Agnes Moorehead, Paul Henreid and Edward Mulhare, and touring once again with the show in 1991.
His strong work ethic and reservoir of talent enabled him to continue on television long after his exotic beefcake status in films had waned. He had married Loretta Young's half-sister Georgiana Young in 1944, and appeared on his sister-in-law's television series (The New Loretta Young Show (1962)) several times. He also showed up in a number of television dramatic anthologies (Playhouse 90 (1956) and Colgate Theatre (1958)) and made guest appearances on the popular series of the day, such as Death Valley Days (1952), Bonanza (1959), Burke's Law (1963), Dr. Kildare (1961), The Defenders (1961) and, more notably, a first-season episode of Star Trek (1966) in which he memorably portrayed galaxy arch-villain Khan Noonien Singh. He resurrected this character memorably in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).
Over the years, he continued to appear occasionally on the big screen, typically playing continental smoothies, in such films as Love Is a Ball (1963), Madame X (1966) and Sweet Charity (1969), but it was television that finally made him a household name. Montalban captivated audiences as the urbane, white-suited concierge of mystery Mr. Roarke in the Aaron Spelling series Fantasy Island (1977). He stayed with the series for six seasons, buoyed by his popular "odd couple" teaming with the late Hervé Villechaize, who played Mr. Roarke's diminutive sidekick, and fellow greeter, Tattoo. While it may have seemed a somewhat lightweight and undemanding role for the talented Montalban, it nevertheless became his signature character. The series faltered after Villechaize, who had become erratic and difficult on the set, was fired from the series in 1983. Corpulent Britisher Christopher Hewett, as Lawrence, replaced the Tattoo character but to little avail and the series was canceled one season later. The troubled Villechaize committed suicide on September 4, 1993.
An Emmy Award winner for his role in the miniseries How the West Was Won (1976) and a noteworthy villain in the Dynasty (1981) spin-off series The Colbys (1985), Montalban was also famous for a series of television commercials in which he returned somewhat to his "Latin lover" persona, primarily in a series of slick commercials for Chrysler's Cordoba automobile, pitching the elegant auto with its "rich, Corinthian leather" (it later came to light that this phrase had been conjured up as a marketing tool, and that there was no such product from Corinth or anywhere else!). As for film and television work in his later years, he good-naturedly spoofed his Hollywood image in a number of featured roles, including a hilarious send-up of himself in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988). Two of his final, larger-scaled film roles were as the grandfather in the two "Spy Kids" sequels: Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002) and Spy Kids 3: Game Over (2003). His deep, soothing, confident tones could also be heard in animated features and television series.
Frustrated at Hollywood's portrayal of Mexicans, he helped to found, and gave great support, attention and distinction to, the image-building "Nosotros" organization, a Los Angeles theatre-based company designed for Latinos working in the industry. Nosotros and the Montalban foundation eventually bought the historic Doolittle Theater in Hollywood and renamed the theatre in his honor in 2004. It became the first major theater facility (1200 seats) in the United States to carry the name of a Latino performing artist. In 1980, along with Bob Thomas, he published his memoir, entitled "Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds".
A class act who was beloved in the industry for his gentle and caring nature, the long-term effects of his spinal injury eventually confined him to a wheelchair in his later years. He died in his Los Angeles home of complications from old age on January 14, 2009 at age 88. His wife having died on November 29, 2007, he was survived by their two daughters and two sons: Laura, Anita, Victor and Mark.as Khan Noonien Singh
November 25, 1920 - January 14, 2009- Actor
- Soundtrack
His tall stature, tough looks and commanding manner belied an often thoughtful and introspective screen personality. Not that acting had necessarily been Robert Lansing's only career choice - there had been jazz. As a youngster, he played drums with various dance bands and was bitten by the acting bug after performing in and directing high school plays, winning the Southern California Shakespearean Festival for dramatic acting at the age of fifteen. Then came two years of army service in Japan where he worked with the Armed Forces Radio Service. After his discharge, he hitched a ride to New York but stopped over in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to spend two years as a radio announcer and act in local theatre.
Once finally arrived in the 'Big Apple', he became just another struggling hopeful, frequenting the soup kitchen on 6th Avenue and travelling to auditions. Like countless others in the same position, he had to do in-between jobs to make ends meet. In his case this meant working in a plastics factory and as a hat check attendant at a Latin Quarter nightclub. His first big break came about, when he was hired to play the part of Dunbar in 'Stalag 17' on Broadway in May 1951. This was followed by roles in several prestige plays, including 'Cyrano de Bergerac' and 'Richard III', but neither resulted in recognition or financial reward. By 1956, Lansing was still living with his wife and child in a vermin-infested tenement on Second Avenue. Considering himself the last 'no-name leading man' in New York, he decided to return to California and try his luck in films.
After a few small parts in TV anthology dramas he landed his first leading role on the big screen as a scientist who stumbles upon a method to penetrate solid matter (needless to say, with predictably dire consequences) in the low budget -- but slickly made -- sci-fi potboiler 4D Man (1959). A throwback to earlier genre classics about man transformed into monster through scientific experimentation, it offered some innovative special effects and clever make-up in the deterioration of Lansing's latter-day Dr. Jekyll. More television work followed, including a lead in the short-lived detective series 87th Precinct (1961) which resulted in the Lansing family settling permanently on the West Coast. His next milestone did not eventuate until four years later, when he was cast as Brigadier General Frank Savage in 12 O'Clock High (1964). His performance was entirely convincing: of a military man attempting to balance duty with humanity and compassion. At the height of his popularity, Lansing's character was suddenly killed off at the beginning of season two. Given the show's new time slot at 7.30 P.M., the sponsors clamored for a younger actor to woo the teen audience (ironically, his replacement, Paul Burke, was actually two years his senior!). They put forward another spurious argument in that audiences could not relate to a military man above middle-echelon rank. Understandably a little bitter from this experience, Lansing moved on to playing the dual lead in the espionage drama The Man Who Never Was (1966). Filmed on location in Europe, this was yet another series destined to be axed after a brief run. In-between his regular series work, Lansing had also essayed George Armstrong Custer in three episodes of Branded (1965) (not without incident: on one occasion, he was thrown off his horse and landed in hospital with a broken hip) and starred as the sympathetic lead of the family feature Namu, the Killer Whale (1966).
In 1968, Lansing guested as Gary Seven in 'Assignment: Earth', one of the most likeable and well-written episodes of Star Trek (1966) . His self-assured performance effectively stole the show. It was slated to be the pilot for a spin-off series. Sadly, by this time, the original series was already on the verge of cancellation and the project never got off the ground. Luck was not to be Bob Lansing's middle name. Nonetheless, he kept busy during the next two decades acting on the stage, where he enjoyed rather more critical, if not financial, success (frequently performing at the Long Wharf and Cherry Lane Theatres). He received much praise for his one-man shows 'Damian' and 'The Disciple of Discontent'. His final Broadway appearance was as Benjamin Hubbard in a revival of 'The Little Foxes' in 1981. He also continued regular screen work, notably as Edward Woodward's 'Control' in The Equalizer (1985) and as the laconic lead of mutant bug monster movies like Empire of the Ants (1977) and The Nest (1987). A heavy smoker, Bob Lansing died from lung cancer one year into his last regular series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993).as Gary Seven
June 5, 1928 - October 23, 1994- An American lead actor and supporting actor, rugged and commanding Glenn Corbett's background didn't seem like it would lead to Hollywood stardom. The son of a garage mechanic, Corbett served a hitch in the navy and later met Judy, the woman who would become his wife, while she was working at a college. With her encouragement, Corbett began to get parts in campus theatricals, and it was while he was in one of these that he came to the attention of the powers-that-be at Columbia Pictures, which signed him to a contract.
His film debut was in The Crimson Kimono (1959). That was followed by supporting roles in The Mountain Road (1960) and Man on a String (1960). He eventually got the lead role in William Castle's suspense thriller Homicidal (1961) and appeared in the TV series Route 66 (1960). His work in "Route 66" got him attention and he was cast in a new series, The Road West (1966), but that was short-lived.
Corbett was also busy making major theatrical films in the 1970s. He snagged substantial supporting parts in two of John Wayne's westerns, playing good guy Pat Garrett in Chisum (1970) and one of the gang who kidnaps Wayne's son in Big Jake (1971), but he took the lead role in Nashville Girl (1976) and Universal's war epic Midway (1976). Throughout the '80s Corbett stayed busy with a regular part in the cast of the long-running television series Dallas (1978) up until his death in 1993 from lung cancer.as Zefram Cochrane
August 17, 1933 - January 16, 1993 - Actor
- Additional Crew
Perpetually serious-looking New York-born character actor, who showed up to good effect in many TV shows of the 1950s and '60s. His quietly authoritarian demeanor lent itself ideally to portraying characters with badges or uniforms: Sheriff Heck Tate in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), General Bogan of Strategic Air Command in Fail Safe (1964) and Major Harvey Stovall of Bomber Group 918 in 12 O'Clock High (1964). The latter was his only recurring role on television and he made the most of it, being strongly featured in several of the episodes. Prior to his well-remembered role as Elias Sandoval on the Star Trek (1966) episode, This Side of Paradise (1967), he had made notable appearances on two other science fiction series.
He was twice featured on The Twilight Zone (1959). On the episode, Walking Distance (1959), he played the father of advertising executive Martin Sloan (Gig Young), who, unhappy with his life such as it is, has somehow time-traveled back to his hometown. Sloan finds, to his delight, that everything has remained unchanged from the time of his childhood. In a superbly-acted and touching scene, the elder Sloan (having come to terms with the identity of the stranger), asks his son to leave, because there can only ever be "one summer per customer". In contrast, Overton's chill, austere Sheriff Harry Wheeler on Mute (1963) was the antithesis of his character on "Walking Distance", devoid of compassion or understanding. Overton also appeared as an unsympathetic physician on The Invaders (1967) episode, Genesis (1967).
Overton's characterizations on stage largely paralleled those on screen. He made his first stab at Broadway as a lieutenant in Elia Kazan's comedy 'Jacobowsky and the Colonel', written by S.N. Behrman. The play ran for 417 performances from 1944 to 1945. He played another sheriff in 'The Trip to Bountiful' (1953) and replaced James Gregory as deputy Jesse Bard in the original stage version of 'The Desperate Hours' (1955). His most successful performance was as Morris Lacey in 'The Dark at the Top of the Stairs' (1957-59), a role he reprised for the film version of 1960.
An actor who always looked older than his years, Frank Emmons Overton died of a heart attack in April 1967, aged only 49.as Elias Sandoval
March 12, 1918 - April 24, 1967- Liam Sullivan was schooled at Illinois College while having his first fling with the acting profession in regional theater. He then studied drama at Harvard, made his way to New York and first appeared on Broadway in "The Constant Nymph" in 1951. He later returned to the West Coast to perform in an LA stage production of "Mary Stuart". By the early 1950s, he began appearing in television, his Romanesque features and precisely modulated voice ideally suited to smoothly roguish, arrogant or cynical gents, adept at caustic or witty repartee. He was a familiar presence across all genres, from western to science fiction.
Among his many TV credits two stand out above all: his sadistic philosopher-king Parmen from the Star Trek (1966) episode "Plato's Stepchildren",; and his obnoxious social-climbing upstart Jamie Tennyson in "The Silence" (The Twilight Zone (1959)) who unwisely accepts a bet for a half-million dollars that he can remain silent for a year (based on a short story by Anton Chekhov, entitled "The Bet"). Liam appeared in another Twilight Zone episode, "The Changing of the Guard", but this time was overshadowed by Donald Pleasence, who delivered arguably the most poignant performance of his career.
During the latter stages of his life, Liam combined acting with writing and, just prior to his death, was working on a novel. He was also in the process of compiling a biographical history of the Eli Bridge Company who built the innovative 'Big Eli' Ferris Wheel in Jacksonville, Illinois in May 1900. Founded by his ancestor W.E.Sullivan, the business is still run by members of the Sullivan family.as Parmen
May 18, 1923 - April 18, 1998 - Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Charles Napier was born in the tiny community of Mt. Union, near Scottsville, Allen County, Kentucky, to Linus Pitts Napier, a tobacco farmer and postman, and his wife, Sara, on April 12, 1936. He attended public school in Scottsville. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the Army in 1954. He rose to the rank of E-5 (Sgt.) while serving as company clerk with Company A 511th Airborne Infantry, 11th Airborne Division. He was a lively character actor who usually played edgy military types and menacing bad guys. His film debut was in Russ Meyer's Cherry, Harry & Raquel! (1969).
Napier went on appearing in other Meyer movies, including the homicidal Harry Sledge in Supervixens (1975) and also became a regular playing smaller roles for Jonathan Demme. His memorable portrayals of tough guys included the scheming intelligence officer in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and the short-tempered front man in The Blues Brothers (1980).as Adam
April 12, 1936 - October 5, 2011- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Ted Cassidy was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in Philippi, West Virginia. He was a well respected actor who portrayed many different characters during his film and television career. His most notable role was Lurch, the faithful butler on the television series The Addams Family (1964). His most memorable dialogue as Lurch would be, "You rang?", whenever someone summoned him. Due to his large size, (6ft. 9in.) he portrayed larger than life characters. His deep voice, was used for narrations and for dubbing certain character's voices. His acting career spanned three decades. Ted Cassidy died in 1979 from complications following open-heart surgery. His live-in girlfriend had his remains cremated, then buried in the backyard of their Woodland Hills home.as Ruk and Balok (Voice)
July 31, 1932 - January 16, 1979- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Jill Ireland was a British-American actress best known for her appearance as "Leila Kalomi," the only woman Mr. Spock ever loved (in the Star Trek (1966) episode, This Side of Paradise (1967)) and for her many supporting roles in the movies of Charles Bronson. She is also known for her battle with breast cancer, having written two books on her fight with the disease and serving as a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society.
Jill Dorothy Ireland was born in London on April 24, 1936, to wine merchant Jack Ireland and his wife Dorothy, who were fated to outlive their daughter. Young Jill started her entertainment career at age 16 as a dancer, and made her screen debut in 1955, in Michael Powell's Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955). On May 11, 1957, she married actor David McCallum, whom she met on the set of the Stanley Baker action picture Hell Drivers (1957). In the mid-'60s, they moved to the United States so McCallum could star as agent "Ilya Kuryakin" in the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). She got steady work on American television and would co-star with her husband in five episode of the series in 1964, 1965 and 1967.
Ireland separated from McCallum, with whom she had two biological sons and one adopted son, in June 1965. He filed for divorce in August 1966, and it was finalized in February 1967. On October 5, 1968, she married Charles Bronson, who was 15 years her senior and still several years away from coming into his own as a leading man. They had first met when McCallum introduced them on the set of The Great Escape (1963). With Bronson, she had two children, a daughter born to the couple in 1971, and an adopted daughter. They first co-starred together in the 1970 French movie Rider on the Rain (1970), which made Bronson a major star in Europe (she had first played an uncredited bit part in his movie London Affair (1970), released that same year). They starred in 13 more pictures over the next 17 years, a period during which Bronson and Ireland rivaled Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke as the most prolific screen couple. During her marriage to Bronson, Ireland appeared in only one TV episode, one TV movie and one theatrical picture that didn't star her husband.
She was diagnosed with cancer in her right breast in 1984 and underwent a mastectomy. She wrote about her battle and became an advocate for the American Cancer Society, which led to the organization giving her its Courage Award. Ireland was presented with the award by President Ronald Reagan. Tragically, she lost her battle with the disease after it metastasized and died at her home in Malibu, California, on May 18, 1990, aged only 54. She was survived by her husband, children, stepchildren, parents, brother, and extended family.as Leila Kalomi
April 24, 1936 - May 18, 1990- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Bradshaw, disillusioned and working at his Father's Life Insurance Company, applied his singing talents on the "Ted Mack Family Hour" (1951). After this he studied at Harvard to earn a degree in English. At Harvard he met Joan Baez and played at Carnegie Hall, he also honed his acting skills at Harvard. In the early sixties he was given a full Scholarship to study at the Royal Academy in London. He is also an accomplished writer and has written material for TV Shows such as Planet of the Apes and Columbo.Dr. M'Benga
May 21, 1940 - April 1, 2003- Warren Stevens was born in Pennsylvania and joined the Navy at age 17. His interest in acting was piqued while he was attending Annapolis, and this resulted in 12 weeks of summer stock in Virginia. His friends, Gregory Peck and Kenneth Tobey, later arranged interviews for Stevens at the renowned Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. Following service as an Army Air Corps pilot in Europe during World War II, Stevens began concentrating on his acting career, working in radio and summer stock and joining New York's Actors Studio.. His break came via a key role in Broadway's "Detective Story", which in turn led to offers from Hollywood studios and a contract with 20th Century-Fox. In the half-century since his movie debut, he has acted in dozens of features and hundreds of TV episodes.as Rojan
November 2, 1919 - March 27, 2012 - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Signifying intelligence, eloquence, versatility and quiet intensity, one of the more important, critically acclaimed black actors to gain a Hollywood foothold in the 1970s was Paul Winfield. He was born in 1939 in Dallas, Texas, where he lived in his early years before moving with his family to Los Angeles' Watts district. He showed early promise as a student at Manual Arts High School, earning distinction with several performance awards. As a senior, he earned his first professional acting job and extended his theatrical education with a two-year scholarship to the University of Portland in Oregon. Subsequent scholarships led to his studies at Stanford and Los Angeles City College, among other colleges. He left U.C.L.A. just six credits short of his Bachelor's degree.
Paul's first big break came in 1964 when actor/director Burgess Meredith gave him a role in Le Roi Jones' controversial one-act play "The Dutchman and the Toilet". Director Meredith cast him again four years in "The Latent Heterosexual" with Zero Mostel. Although he won a contract at Columbia Pictures in 1966 and built up his on-camera career with a succession of television credits, he continued to focus on the legitimate stage. A member of the Stanford Repertory Theatre, he concentrated on both classic and contemporary plays. In 1969, Paul joined the Inner City Cultural Center Theatre in Los Angeles for two years, which offered a drama program for high school students.
In the late 1960s, Paul redirected himself back to performing on television and in films with guest work in more than 40 series on the small screen, including a boyfriend role on the first season of the landmark black sitcom Julia (1968) starring Diahann Carroll. In films, he was given a featured role in the Sidney Poitier film The Lost Man (1969), and earned comparable roles in R.P.M. (1970) and Brother John (1971) before major stardom occurred.
1972 proved to be a banner year for Paul after winning the male lead opposite Cicely Tyson in the touching classic film Sounder (1972). His towering performance as a sharecropper who is imprisoned and tortured for stealing a ham for his impoverished family earned him an Oscar nomination for "Best Actor" -- the third black actor (Sidney Poitier and James Earl Jones preceded him) to receive such an honor at the time.
From there a host of films and quality television roles began arriving on his doorstep. In mini-movies, Paul portrayed various historical/entertainment giants including Thurgood Marshall, Don King and baseball's Roy Campanella, and was Emmy-nominated for his portrayal of Martin Luther King, Jr. in King (1978) with Sounder co-star Cicely Tyson as wife Coretta. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he earned solid distinction in such prestige projects as Backstairs at the White House (1979), Roots: The Next Generations (1979) (another Emmy nomination), The Sophisticated Gents (1981), The Blue and the Gray (1982), Sister, Sister (1982), James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain (1985), Under Siege (1986) and The Women of Brewster Place (1989).
Although the big screen did not offer the same consistent quality following his breakthrough with Sounder, he nevertheless turned in strong roles in Conrack (1974), Huckleberry Finn (1974), A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich (1977) (again with Ms. Tyson), Damnation Alley (1977), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and White Dog (1982).
Surprisingly, Paul never achieved the promise of a Sidney Poitier-like stardom and his roles diminished in size. Relegated to character roles, he still appeared in such quality television as Breathing Lessons (1994), although he was not the major focus. After two nominations, he finally won the Emmy for a guest performance as a judge on Picket Fences (1992). Paul's showier work at this period of time included the film Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (1999) and a surprise cross-dressing cameo as Aunt Matilda in Relax... It's Just Sex (1998).
On stage, Paul graced such productions as "Richard III" (at New York's Lincoln Center Theatre), "Othello", "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "The Seagull", "A Few Good Men", "Happy Endings" and "Checkmates", which became his sole Broadway credit. Paul also served as Artist in Residence at the University of Hawaii and subsequently at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
In his final years, Winfield narrated the A&E crime series City Confidential (1998), appeared as a teacher in a television adaptation of his earlier success Sounder (2003), and enjoyed a recurring role as Sam for many years on the series Touched by an Angel (1994).
Suffering from obesity and diabetes in later life, Paul Winfield passed away from a heart attack at age 64 in 2004, and was survived by a sister, Patricia. His longtime companion of 30 years, set designer and architect Charles Gillan Jr. predeceased him by two years.as Captain Clark Terrell
May 22, 1939 - March 7, 2004- Actor
- Additional Crew
Merritt Butrick was an American actor from Gainesville, Florida. He is primarily remembered for portraying Dr. David Marcus in the science fiction films "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982) and "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (1984). His character was depicted as a son of the Starfleet officer James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk (played by William Shatner) and the leading scientist Dr. Carol Marcus (played by Bibi Besch). Butrick also portrayed the one-shot character of Captain T'Jon in a 1988 episode of the science fiction series "Star Trek: The Next Generation". His character was depicted as a ship's commanding officer who had been tasked with transporting medication, but had become addicted to the drug felicium.
Butrick received his high school education at the Tamalpais High School, located in Mill Valley, California. The city is part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Butrick graduated from high school in 1977, and subsequently attended the California Institute of the Arts with the intent of becoming an actor. He dropped out, as his instructors thought that he did not have the necessary skills to become an actor. He subsequently found steady work as an actor throughout the 1980s.
In his television debut, Butrick portrayed a recurring rapist in two episodes of the police procedural "Hill Street Blues". His first major role in television was portraying the supporting character Johnny Slash in the sitcom "Square Pegs" (1982-1983). His character was depicted as a geeky high school student. Johnny demonstrated eccentric behavior, but insisted that he was not on drugs. He hung out with the social misfit Patty Greene (played by Sarah Jessica Parker), and was hinted to be attracted to her. The series was praised for its realism, but it was canceled prematurely. The production company received several complains concerning drug and alcohol abuse by teenage members of the cast, and decided to pull the plug to avoid further controversy.
Butrick's other films included the telekinesis-themed comedy "Zapped! (1982)", the corporate corruption-themed black comedy "Head Office" (1985), the dysfunctional family-themed drama "Shy People" (1987), the vampire-themed horror film "Fright Night Part 2" (1988), and the ghost-themed horror film "Death Spa" (1989). He received praise in 1988 for his portrayal of a ditzy male prostitute in the stage play "Kingfish".
In March 1989, Butrick died at the age of 29. His death was caused by toxoplasmosis, complicated by an AIDS infection. Two panels were dedicated to him as part of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, both referencing his role as David Marcus. A few of his former co-stars have recorded anecdotes about his life and career in DVD featurettes, though Butrick had few confidants.as Dr. David Marcus
September 3, 1959 - March 17, 1989- Actress
Karen Steele was born on March 20, 1931, in Honolulu, Hawaii. A former cover girl and model, she was one of the most strikingly beautiful actresses to ever work in film and television. She went to the University of Hawaii and to Rollins College in Florida before gracing our film screens with her first film in 1952. Rumor has it she was mistaken for another actress by producer Delbert Mann when he cast her as a hard case in the drama film Marty (1955). Like many actresses, as she got older, she turned to television commercials for income. She also became involved in charitable causes and community service. Karen Steele died of cancer in Kingman, Arizona, on March 12, 1988, little more than a week before her 57th birthday.as Eve McHuron
March 20, 1931 - March 12, 1988- Madge Sinclair was born Madge Dorita Walters on April 28, 1938 in Kingston, Jamaica, married young and had two sons. Madge worked as a teacher in Jamaica until she was 30. She left her two boys with their father and moved in 1968 to New York City to be an actress.
She began modeling and later acted with the New York Shakespearean Festival and at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre. In 1974, Madge made her film debut, playing Mrs. Scott in Conrack (1974). She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance as Bell Reynolds in the miniseries Roots (1977).
In 1982, shortly after joining the cast of Trapper John, M.D. (1979), Sinclair was diagnosed with leukemia. She continued to work, outliving the doctors' predictions by several years. On December 20, 1995, Madge Sinclair died at age 57 in Los Angeles, California, after a 13 year battle with leukemia.as Saratoga Captain
April 20, 1938 - December 20, 1995 - Actor
- Soundtrack
John Colicos was born on 10 December 1928 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Changeling (1980), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) and Battlestar Galactica (1978). He was married to Mona McHenry. He died on 6 March 2000 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.as Klingon Commander Kor
December 10, 1928 - March 6, 2000- Actor
- Soundtrack
For more than three decades Hollywood defaulted to a small core group of actors when it came to casting convincing mobsters, gamblers and racketeers. These often typecast individuals included Joseph Ruskin, Bruce Gordon, Neville Brand, Robert Loggia and...Anthony Caruso. Square-jawed, broad-shouldered and gravelly-voiced, Caruso provided a reliable source of menace and was amply utilised in films and in countless television episodes beginning in 1941.
The son of Italian-American parents, Caruso decided to forgo a career as an opera singer and instead took up acting with a stock company in Long Beach, California. A year later, in 1935, he joined the Pasadena Playhouse. He began in films as a bit player, commenting later that "MGM was the place to be, offering us extras a higher quality of lunch". In his first film, Johnny Apollo (1940), he played a henchman named Joe and there were to be many more of these to come with names like Fingers, Dapper Dan Greco, Chips Malloy, Pinky Luiz and Lucky Grillo. These dastardly nemeses came in a variety of ethnic types, ranging from Italians, Mexicans and Latinos to Greeks and Russians. A close personal friend of the actor Alan Ladd, Caruso featured in eleven of the star's films (the first as a hitman in Lucky Jordan (1942) ). In 1954, he became a member of Ladd's newly formed stock company, Jaguar Films. Whenever Caruso was not gleefully portraying underworld figures (The Iron Mistress (1952) , Hell on Frisco Bay (1955), The Asphalt Jungle (1950)) he was effectively employed as Native American chiefs (Drum Beat (1954), Cattle Queen of Montana (1954), The Lawless Eighties (1957)). On television, he had a popular recurring role as the charming but lethal Comanchero El Lobo on The High Chaparral (1967). Even on a planet (far, far away) in the Star Trek (1966) universe, Caruso -- as crime boss Bela Oxmyx -- was up to his old tricks using James T. & company to eliminate a rival gang and assume control of the government.
In stark contrast to his screen image, Caruso was the consummate family man in private life, happily married for 63 years, and enjoying the simple pleasures of gardening and cooking.as Bela Oxmyx
April 7, 1916 - April 4, 2003- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Vic Tayback was born on 6 January 1930 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Alice (1976), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) and All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989). He was married to Sheila McKay Barnard. He died on 25 May 1990 in Glendale, California, USA.as Jojo Krako
January 6, 1930 - May 25, 1990- Bibi Besch, a talented actress, was born in Vienna, Austria, to Gotfrid Köchert, a renowned race car driver, and actress Gusti Huber. She had a busy career, especially as a supporting actress on TV, spanning over twenty years. Her exceptional performance in the TV series, Doing Time on Maple Drive (1992), earned her an Emmy award nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actress. Later in 1993, she was again nominated for her guest appearance in the TV series, Northern Exposure (1990).
Besch was a veteran of numerous television movies between 1976 and 1995. Despite her success on TV, she also appeared in several feature films, including the iconic role of Dr. Carol Marcus in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). She also delivered remarkable performances in movies like Steel Magnolias (1989), Tremors (1990), and Who's That Girl (1987). Besch was equally phenomenal on stage and acted in plays such as Fame, The Chinese Prime Minister, Here Lies Jeremy Troy, and Once For the Asking. She also made guest appearances on popular network shows like ER (1994) and Murder, She Wrote (1984).
Besch's acting talents knew no bounds, and her TV work ranged from the soap opera Somerset (1970) to Backstairs at the White House (1979) to The Hamptons (1983). Sadly, Bibi Besch passed away at the young age of 54 on 7 September 1996, after a long battle with breast cancer. Her remarkable contributions to the entertainment industry continue to inspire many aspiring actors and actresses.as Dr. Carol Marcus
February 1, 1940 - September 7, 1996 - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Frank John Gorshin, Jr. was born on April 5, 1933 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father was a railroad worker and his mother, Frances (Preseren), was a seamstress. His family was originally from Novo Mesto, Slovenia. While in high school, young Frank worked as an usher at the Sheridan Square Theatre and began doing impressions of some of his screen idols: Al Jolson, James Cagney, Cary Grant and Edward G. Robinson. At age 17, he won a local talent contest. The prize was a one-week engagement at Jackie Heller's Carousel nightclub, where Alan King was headlining. It was young Frank's first paid job as an entertainer and launched his show business career. Frank attended local Catholic schools and, later, Carnegie-Mellon Tech School of Drama. He acted in plays and performed in nightclubs in Pittsburgh in his spare time.
In 1953, at age 19, he was drafted into the United States Army and was posted in Germany. Frank served for two years, 1953-1955, as an entertainer attached to Special Services. In the Army, Frank met Maurice A. Bergman, who would introduce Frank to a Hollywood agent when his hitch with Uncle Sam was up. Frank quickly landed a role in The Proud and Profane (1956) and other roles in television dramas followed.
In 1957, while visiting his family in Pittsburgh, his agent phoned him to rush back to Hollywood for an audition for Run Silent Run Deep (1958). For some odd reason, instead of catching a plane, Frank decided to drive his car to Los Angeles. Driving 39 consecutive hours, he fell asleep at the wheel, crashed, suffered a fractured skull and woke up in the hospital four days later. To add insult to injury, a Los Angeles newspaper reported he was killed, and the plum movie role of Officer Ruby went to Don Rickles.
Frank appeared in a number of lovable B-movies for American-International Pictures: Hot Rod Girl (1956) and Dragstrip Girl (1957), and everybody's favorite, Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957). Frank finally got a substantial role in the A-movie, Bells Are Ringing (1960), with Dean Martin and Judy Holliday. He did a thinly-disguised Marlon Brando impression. he also appeared in Hollywood nightclubs, including the Purple Onion. He did Las Vegas engagements, opening for Bobby Darin at The Flamingo. On television, Frank appeared on The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (1956) and had a dozen guest shots on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948).
In 1966, he gave his breakout performance, performing what has become his best-known role: The Riddler on Batman (1966), for which he received an Emmy nomination. He also played The Riddler in the movie, Batman: The Movie (1966), based on the television series. "I could feel the impact overnight", he recalled later. Because of his nationwide recognition, he was given headliner status in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand, Sahara and Aladdin Hotels. He received more good reviews for his performance in Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (1969).
In 1970, Frank made his Broadway debut as the star of "Jimmy", for which he got rave reviews. He also starred in many touring company productions, such as "Promises, Promises", "Peter Pan", "Prisoner of Second Street" and "Guys and Dolls". In the 1980s, Frank served as Honorary Chairman, Entertainment Division, for the American Heart Association. Perhaps recalling his early AIP films, Frank worked with the legendary Roger Corman, appearing as Clockwise on the television series Black Scorpion (2001) and on Corman's The Phantom Eye (1999). He had appeared in over 70 movies and made over 40 guest appearances in television series.
Gorshin died at age 72 in Burbank, California on May 17, 2005. He had suffered from lung cancer, emphysema and pneumonia.as Bele
April 5, 1933 - May 17, 2005- Kellie Waymire was born on 27 July 1967 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for Star Trek: Enterprise (2001), Star Trek: Voyager (1995) and Playing by Heart (1998). She died on 13 November 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Elizabeth Cutler
July 27, 1967 - November 13, 2003 - Actor
- Director
- Producer
Born in a small village in Syria, Michael Ansara came to the United States with his American parents at the age of two, living in New England, until the family's relocation to California ten years later. He entered Los Angeles City College with the intention of becoming a doctor, but got sidetracked into the dramatics department. A stint at the Pasadena Playhouse (where fellow students included Charles Bronson, Carolyn Jones and Aaron Spelling) led to roles on stage and in films; the starring role (as Cochise) on the popular television series Broken Arrow (1956) elevated Ansara to stardom.
During the series' run, he met actress Barbara Eden on a date arranged by the 20th Century-Fox publicity department; the two later married. He played the Klingon commander Kang on three Star Trek television series: Star Trek (1966), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and Star Trek: Voyager (1995). He also played Buck Rogers' evil adversary Kane on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), and provided the voice of Mr. Freeze on Batman: The Animated Series (1992) and its spin-offs. Michael Ansara died at age 91 from complications of Alzheimer's disease in his home in Calabasas, California on July 31, 2013.as Kang
April 15, 1922 - July 31, 2013- Actress
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Born Dorothy Lee Perrins in Los Angeles, California on March 11, 1943, Angelique Pettyjohn began modeling at a very young age. She also took advantage of her living in the locus of "American Dreams" by studying acting. Pettyjohn made her movie debut at age 21, under the name "Angelique", in the low-budget The Love Rebellion (1967), before tasting the big-time, co-starring opposite "The King", Elvis Presley, in Clambake (1967). This was her first appearance in an A-list movie, and this led to small roles in other big-budget films.
However, her fame as a thespian lies with her work on the small screen, appearing in memorable roles on Get Smart (1965) and Star Trek (1966). In 1967, she appeared on the former in two appearances as "Charlie Watkins", (Charlie was a male CONTROL agent who disguised himself as a gorgeous woman). After testing for the role of Nova in Planet of the Apes (1968), she won the role that made her an immortal among fans of science fiction: Shahna in the episode The Gamesters of Triskelion (1968).
The episode is a favorite of Star Trek fans and, although Pettyjohn would later reap the benefits of the role by appearing in countless Star Trek fan conventions in the distant future, at the time, this led exactly nowhere for her career. She continued in the bimbo sexual desire in such cinematic horrors as Hell's Belles (1969), The Curious Female (1969) and Bordello (1974). Her career was strictly in movies churned out for drive-ins and the exploitation circuit. In the early 1980s, she appeared as a stripper in Las Vegas, Nevada but soon abandoned her avocation as a stripper and softcore star for hardcore porn. Titillation (1982), Stalag 69 (1982) and Body Talk (1982) featured Pettyjohn, billed as either "Angel St. John", "Heaven St. John", or under her old moniker, "Angelique".
The burgeoning Star Trek cult, bolstered by the series of movies released by Paramount beginning in 1979, allowed Pettyjohn to quickly ditch her hardcore career. She began working Star Trek conventions to earn her keep, selling posters of herself, in and out of her sexy outfit from "The Gamesters of Triskelion". Her appearance on the circuit raised her profile in the movie industry. Indie film directors, who knew of her earlier work in low-budget exploitation fare, began hiring her for small roles in their films. She appeared in such indie features as Repo Man (1984), Biohazard (1985) and The Wizard of Speed and Time (1988).
Eventually, Pettyjohn's fame grew and she began headlining science fiction conventions as the main guest of honor. She overcame alcoholism and drug abuse to put her life on an even keel, overcoming the low self-esteem that had led her to her pornographic appearances. Pettyjohn appeared at her last science fiction convention in autumn 1989. Las Vegas had offered her a chance to cash in on her cult notoriety as an exotic dancer, and she took this; she was 46 years old, but still beautiful and vivacious, doing what made her happy, performing for a live audience.
Angelique Pettyjohn died of cervical cancer at age 48 on February 14, 1992 in Las Vegas, Nevada.as Shahna
March 11, 1943 - February 14, 1992- Casting Director
- Actress
- Casting Department
American actress, casting director, teacher, and theatrical director. The daughter of nightclub singer Adelaide Adams and Get Smart (1965) star Don Adams, she was born in Queens, New York, several months after her parents' divorce. Raised in peripatetic fashion by her mother, she survived a particularly Dickensian Catholic boarding school as a toddler, and grew up primarily in Silver Spring, Maryland. The fourth of her mother's four daughters, she had a poor upbringing, despite her father's growing fame and wealth. She was frequently farmed out to friends and extended-family members while her mother embarked on various ventures. She spent a good deal of time in Costa Rica with a family friend, and lived for a year in Italy while her mother attended medical school there. Later, she spent summers with her father and stepmother (dancer Dorothy Bracken) in Beverly Hills and, as a teenager, lived there with her own mother. She attended Beverly Hills High School with the children of such stars as Robert Cummings and Shirley Jones, and with future stars like Nicolas Cage. She studied at the University of California, Irvine, focusing on theatre. Her classmates included future comic star Jon Lovitz and television writer-producer Nancylee Myatt. Following college, she worked as a waitress and as a professional clown while attempting to break into film and television. Encouraged by her aunt Alice Borden and uncle Dick Yarmy, she joined the prestigious Theatre West company in Hollywood and remained there as an actor and director for the rest of her life. Even without the assistance of her father, she managed to break into television in small roles in the 1980s, while appearing in numerous plays. A chance offer of an internship with casting director Reuben Cannon led to a parallel career as a casting assistant and then associate with Cannon, Carol Dudley, Marc Hirschfeld, and Meg Liberman. Branching out on her own, she occasionally partnered with casting directors Robert J. Ulrich and Eric Dawson. She cast a number of feature films and television series. Simultaneously, she maintained her acting career (although refusing to accept offers or auditions for projects she herself was casting). She made notable Los Angeles stage appearances, particularly in Nancylee Myatt's "Two On the Aisle For Murder", Barbara Beery's "Loretta I'm Sorry" and "Pressing Engagements" by actor Jim Beaver, whom she had married in 1989. A starring role in Little Secrets (1991) helped that feature film win a Silver Medal at the Houston Film Festival. Later, she replaced Andrea Martin in what would be her most famous role, that of the acerbic Ferengi feminist "Ishka" (or "Moogie") on the outer space series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993). At the same time, she was active in improvisational comedy programs with The Groundlings and the Acme Comedy Theatre. A brilliantly talented acting coach, she taught extremely popular courses in audition technique. Despite equal brilliance as a lyricist (usually with composer partner David Burke), she preferred to devote her energies to stage and screen performing. In 2001, her only child was born. Barely two years later, Adams, a non-smoker and health-advocate, was diagnosed at age 45 with advanced lung cancer. Hoping to survive to raise her infant daughter, she accepted a variety of experimental and innovative (though painful) treatments, but succumbed to the disease only four months after its discovery. She was cremated and her ashes scattered in Fern Canyon, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California.as Ishka "Moogie"
February 6, 1958 - March 3, 2004- Arlene Martel was likely best-known (if not by name) to Star Trek (1966) fans, and possibly most television viewers of a certain age, as Spock's treacherous Vulcan betrothed, T'Pring, in the episode, Amok Time (1967).
Born Arline Greta Sax to Austrian Jewish immigrants on April 14, 1936 in New York City, she spent her early years in one of the poorest slums in the Bronx. When her mother's boss saw her poor living conditions, he personally underwrote her attendance at an upper-crust boarding school in Connecticut. At age 12, she assumed personal responsibility to audition for New York's famed High School of the Performing Arts. Not only did she gain entrance, she went on to excel at the school and graduated with the school's top drama award. Her professional career began in her teens when she landed the role of Esther in the Broadway production of 'Uncle Willie', also starring Norman Fell.
After heading to Hollywood, Martel began making guest appearances on television series such as The Untouchables (1959), Route 66 (1960) and The Twilight Zone (1959). She had the recurring role of Tiger on the situation comedy Hogan's Heroes (1965). Her facility with accents and dialects enabled her to play a wide variety of characters, earning her the nickname of "The Chameleon". Her relationship with James Dean was chronicled in Joe Hyams's biography, "The James Dean Story".
Married and divorced three times, Arlene had three children: Adam Palmer, Avra Douglas, and Jod Douglas.
Martel died at age 78 of a heart attack on August 12, 2014 in Santa Monica, California. She had battled breast cancer some years earlier.as T'Pring
April 14, 1936 - August 12, 2014 - Actor
- Art Department
- Script and Continuity Department
Keye Luke was born in Canton, China. He grew up in Seattle, Washington, and entered the film business as a commercial artist and a designer of movie posters. He was hired as a technical advisor on several Asian-themed films, and made his film debut in The Painted Veil (1934). It seemed that he appeared in almost every film that called for Chinese characters, usually in small parts but occasionally, as in The Good Earth (1937), in a meatier, more substantial role. In addition, he played Dr. Kildare's rival at the hospital in the Dr. Kildare series at MGM, but it was as Charlie Chan's #1 son in that series that Luke achieved his greatest recognition. In the 1970s a new generation was made aware of his talents by virtue of his recurring role in the TV series Kung Fu (1972).as Donald Cory
June 18, 1904 - January 12, 1991- Actor
- Writer
Paul Fix, the well-known movie and TV character actor who played "Marshal Micah Torrance" on the TV series The Rifleman (1958), was born Peter Paul Fix on March 13, 1901 in Dobbs Ferry, New York to brew-master Wilhelm Fix and his wife, the former Louise C. Walz. His mother and father were German immigrants who had left their Black Forest home and arrived in New York City in the 1870s. (The name "Fix" is of Latin/Germanic origin, and is derived from St. Vitus and means "animated" or "vital").
Besides Peter Paul, the Fix family consisted of two girls and three boys, the youngest of whom was six years older than the future actor. Peter Paul's childhood was a happy one. He and his family lived on the 200-acre property on which the Manilla Anchor Brewery, where his father was brew-master, was situated. Such was the importance of the senior Fix to the brewery that when he died at the age of 62 on the eve of America's entry into the First World War (two years after his 54-year old wife had died), the brewery closed.
The orphaned Peter Paul, who kept to himself a lot and had a vivid imagination, was sent to live with his married sisters, first one who lived nearby in Yonkers, and then to another in Zanesville, Ohio. The just-turned-17-year-old Peter Paul Fix joined the U.S. Navy on March 12, 1918, and spent his state-side service time during World War I in Newport, Rhode Island and Charleston, South Carolina. He first tread the boards as an actor while a sailor stationed in Newport, when the baby-faced salt (who looked much younger than his age) was one of six gobs chosen to play female roles in the Navy Relief Show "HMS Pinafore". The Navy staging of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta was a big hit and chalked up a run of several weeks in Providence and Boston.
Fix was assigned as an able-bodied seaman to the troopship U.S.S. Mount Vernon, which was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of France but did not sink as it was run aground. The rest of Fix's naval career was less exciting, and he was demobilized on September 5, 1919. After his discharge, Fix went back to his girlfriend Frances (Taddy) Harvey, whom he had left behind in Zanesville. He and Taddy were married in 1922 and they moved to California as Fix had always wanted to live in a warm climate.
Fix and his bride settled in Hollywood, not so much because he had set ideas about becoming an actor but because he didn't know what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He liked writing and acting in local plays, and soon became friends with the fellow tyro actor Clark Gable, who was his own age. Fix and Gable were discovered by the stage actress Pauline Frederick, who hired them to be members of her touring troupe that traveled by train the length of the West Coast putting on plays. In all, Fix - who had informally renamed himself Paul Peter - appeared in 20 plays with Gable.
Paul Fix had one of his earliest acting roles on celluloid in the mid-1920s, appearing in a silent Western starring William S. Hart. The Western genre eventually would become the one he was most identified with. He played uncredited bit parts and small roles in silents before getting his first credited role in an early talkie (which was part-silent and part-talking), The First Kiss (1928), which starred future Hollywood superstar Gary Cooper and the dame that drove King Kong ape, Fay Wray. In all, Fix appeared in 300-400 films. The Western programmers of the silent and early talkie days could be shot in less than a week.
In 1925, Taddy gave birth to their daughter Marilyn Carey, who eventually would marry Harry Carey Jr., the son of one of the first great Western superstars. They would have three more children and become part of the extended family gathered around the director John Ford. In his career, Paul Fix would appear with another Western legend, John Wayne, in 26 films, starting in 1931 with Three Girls Lost (1931). Urged on by Loretta Young, Fix became an acting coach for the young actor, and Wayne later paid him back when he became a star by having Fix appear in his movies. (The Duke also was a part of the close-knit group that collected around John Ford). With the Duke's patronage, the kinds of roles that Fix played changed. He had been typed as villains in the 1930s but, in the 40s, he began assaying a better class of character.
Paul Fix was also a screenwriter, and is credited as the writer on three films: Tall in the Saddle (1944), Ring of Fear (1954) and The Notorious Mr. Monks (1958). His favorites parts included playing the stricken passenger in the John Wayne picture The High and the Mighty (1954), Elizabeth Taylor's father in George Stevens' classic Giant (1956), the grandfather of the eponymous The Bad Seed (1956) and the judge in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). His last screen appearance was in the Brooke Shields movie Wanda Nevada (1979), but he is most famous for appearing in the recurring role of "Marshal Micah Torrance" in the popular Western TV series The Rifleman (1958). As of 1981, the 80-year old Fix was still getting mail from all over the world from "Rifleman" fans.
Paul Fix died October 14, 1983 of kidney failure. He was survived by his daughter Marilyn Carey and son-in-law Harry "Dobe" Carey, three grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.as Dr. Mark Piper
March 13, 1901 - October 14, 1983- Actress
- Script and Continuity Department
- Soundtrack
American character actress Madlyn Rhue was one of television's most prolific actresses and has starred in everything from sitcoms to soap operas to drama series and films for nearly 40 years. Her beautiful looks, natural red hair and brown eyes got her the attention of television producers and she found herself guest starring on such series as Rawhide (1959), Cheyenne (1955), Star Trek (1966), Hawaii Five-O (1968), Charlie's Angels (1976) and Fantasy Island (1977). She did several theatrical motion pictures, most notably Operation Petticoat (1959), He Rides Tall (1964), Kenner (1968) and It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). In 1977, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which she battled for nearly 25 years. However, the disease never got her down; she continued to work in numerous television films and was co-starring on such series and soap operas as Executive Suite (1976), Fame (1982) and Days of Our Lives (1965) and had a recurring role on Murder, She Wrote (1984). By 1997, Rhue was unable to work, and she spent her last years at the Motion Picture and Television Country Home retirement center in Woodland Hills, California. She passed away from pneumonia and multiple sclerosis there at age 68 on December 16, 2003.as Marla McGivers
October 3, 1935 - December 16, 2003- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Michael Dunn was born Gary Neil Miller in Oklahoma. His parents were Mr. and Mrs. Fred Miller. They moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1938. Dunn was 5 years old when he knew he'd be a dwarf but was determined not to let it stop him or make him dependent. He graduated from Detroit's Redford High School in 1951, where he had been active in many school activities, including the student council, and was captain of the cheer-leading team. At 18 he enrolled as a student at the University of Michigan, but a leg injury incurred when he was accidentally knocked down a flight of stairs forced him to leave. Later he transferred to the University of Miami, where he acted, was a cheer leader and editor of the college newspaper, and he received his degree in 1956. He'd supported himself during school by singing at local bars, and knew by graduation that he wanted to be an actor. "Frankly", he told a reporter, "I knew there wouldn't be too much competition for roles. There are a great many professional midgets, but there aren't too many dwarfs who can act". Waiting for his big break, he found employment as a sports reporter, a hotel detective and a missionary. When he hit New York he finally got some acting parts in off-Broadway plays--and when he was nominated for a Tony Award in 1963 (for his role in Edward Albee's "Ballad of A Sad Cafe"--his luck changed for the better. He even landed an Oscar nomination for his role as narrator in Ship of Fools (1965). Still, Dunn was frustrated by the lack of variety in the parts he was offered. While filming The Abdication (1974) on location in England in 1973, the 3'11" actor died. He was 38.as Alexander
October 20, 1934 - August 30, 1973- Actor
- Soundtrack
John was a commercial artist when he substituted for a sick friend in an amateur production which was seen by the actress Sybil Thorndike who recognized his potential. After repertory work at Watford and Crewe he was invited to join London's Old Vic in 1936 by Tyrone Guthrie and appeared in 'Love's Labours Lost' and 'Twelfth Night'. In 1937 He was in the production of 'Hamlet' that was performed at Elsinore with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. He made his film debut in 1937 in The Conquest of the Air (1931) and in a early BBC television production of 'The Harmfulness of Tobacco'. At the outbreak of war he was attached to the British Embassy in Stockholm where he was in coding and decoding. In 1941 he was in California and about to return to England when he was offered a role in The Shanghai Gesture (1941) which was the prelude to a long film career that included Mrs. Miniver (1942), Jane Eyre (1943), Madame Bovary (1949), Gigi (1958), and Gambit (1966). In 1946 he made his Broadway debut in 'He Who Gets Slapped' which was followed by 'Montsarrat' (1948) and 'The Waltz of the Toreadors' (1957) among others. He was also prolific in television work appearing in episodes such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) ("First Class Honeymoon", 1962), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) ("The Birds and the Bees Affair", 1966), and Bewitched (1964) (as Leonardo da Vinci in "Samantha's da Vinci Dilemma", 1967).as Ayelborne
June 5, 1905 - May 24, 1996- Actor
- Soundtrack
Don Keefer was born on 18 August 1916 in Highspire, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Twilight Zone (1959) and Death of a Salesman (1951). He was married to Catherine McLeod. He died on 7 September 2014 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.as Mission Control Director
August 18, 1916 - September 7, 2014- Actor
- Soundtrack
Whit Bissell came to Hollywood in the 1940s, and by the time he retired he had appeared in more than 200 movies and scores of TV series. He is best known for playing the evil scientist who turned Michael Landon into a half beast in the 1957 cult classic film I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). Bissell specialized in playing doctors, military officers and other authority figures. On television he was a regular on Bachelor Father (1957) and The Time Tunnel (1966). He also served on the Screen Actors Guild board of directors for 18 years and represented the actors branch in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences board of governors.as Mr. Lurry
October 25, 1909 - March 5, 1996- Actor
- Producer
Joseph Ruskin was born on 14 April 1924 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Smokin' Aces (2006), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and The Scorpion King (2002). He was married to Barbara Greene and Patricia Herd. He died on 28 December 2013 in Santa Monica, California, USA.as The Master Thrall
April 14, 1924 - December 28, 2013- Actor
- Stunts
Roy Jenson was born on 9 February 1927 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He was an actor, known for Chinatown (1974), Soylent Green (1973) and Every Which Way But Loose (1978). He was married to Marina Petrova and Barbara Ann Dionysius. He died on 24 April 2007 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Cloud William
February 9, 1927 - April 24, 2007- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Melvin Belli was born on 29 July 1907 in Sonora, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Tokyo File 212 (1951), Star Trek (1966) and Ground Zero (1973). He was married to Nancy Ho, Lia Triff, Pat Montandon, Betty Ballantine, Toni Nichols and Joy Turney. He died on 9 July 1996 in San Francisco, California, USA.as The Gorgan
July 29, 1907 - July 9, 1996- Ed Peck was born on 26 March 1917 in New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Bullitt (1968), The Last Unicorn (1982) and Star Trek (1966). He died on 12 September 1992 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Colonel Fellini
March 26, 1917 - September 12, 1992 - Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Jeff Corey was a film and television character actor, as well as one of the top acting teachers in America.
Corey was born Arthur Zwerling on August 10, 1914 in New York City, New York, to Mary (Peskin), a Russian Jewish immigrant, and Nathan Zwerling, an Austrian Jewish immigrant. He was an indifferent student, but after taking a drama class in high school, young Corey became hooked. His talent earned him a scholarship to the Feagin School of Dramatic Arts, the top acting school in New York City at the time. Corey then became a professional actor, a career choice which saved him from a life selling sewing machines, he later said.
His first gig after acting school was with a Shakespearean repertory company, after which he became a member of a traveling troupe that entertained children. After Leslie Howard closed his Broadway production of Hamlet in December 1936, he took the play on the road with Corey cast as Rosencrantz in 1937. In 1939, Corey appeared as part of the Federal Theater Project's (FTP) Living Newspaper dramatic showcase in the Life and Death of an American, co-starring with Arthur Kennedy, and featuring the music of Alex North. He made his film debut in a bit part in the Federal Theater's sole movie production, ...One Third of a Nation... (1939). Starring Sylvia Sidney, Leif Erickson and future Oscar-winning director Sidney Lumet, the movie, which was released by Paramount, was a progressive exegesis on the hazards of tenement slum conditions. Congress terminated FTP funding on June 30, 1939, mainly due to objections to the leftist political tones of many FTP productions (see Tim Robbins' movie Cradle Will Rock (1999) about the pressures faced by the FTP in 1939).
In 1940, Corey, who had married his wife Hope in 1938, moved to Hollywood, where he appeared in studio productions through 1943, including The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), My Friend Flicka (1943) and Joan of Arc (1948). He also had a hand in establishing the Actors Lab, where he appeared in a wide variety of plays, including "Abe Lincoln in Illinois", "Miss Julie" and "Prometheus". He also produced "Juno and the Paycock" for the Lab. He joined the United States Navy Photographic Service in 1943 and was assigned to the aircraft carrier Yorktown as a motion picture combat photographer. He earned three citations while serving during the war, including one for shooting footage on the Yorktown during a kamikaze attack on the ship. The citation, which was awarded in October 1945, read: "His sequence of a Kamikaze attempt on the Carrier Yorktown, done in the face of grave danger, is one of the great picture sequences of the war in the Pacific, and reflects the highest credit upon Corey and the U.S. Navy Photographic Service."
After the war, Corey returned to Hollywood and resumed his acting career, specializing in character parts and playing heavies in films such as The Killers (1946) and Brute Force (1947), both of which starred another returning war vet, Burt Lancaster. His appearance as the psychiatrist in Home of the Brave (1949), one of his best screen performances, promised a long and productive career in Hollywood, but the first phase of his cinema career was cut short in 1951 when he was subpoenaed to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) after being named as a former Communist Party member by actor Marc Lawrence.
HUAC had scheduled hearings in Los Angeles as part of its crusade to ferret out Communist influence in Hollywood. Appearing before HUAC in Los Angeles in September 1951, the 37-year-old Corey refused to testify, instead invoking his 5th Amendment rights. The movie industry ruled that anyone invoking their constitutional right not to testify would be blacklisted, and Corey was, missing out on an entire decade of work in films and television during the 1950s. Ironically, Lawrence, whom Corey despised for the rest of his life, pointing out that he had remained stateside on a health deferment while Corey risked his life during the war, was virtually absent from American films and television during the same decade, having to make his living in Italy along with American expatriates who had been blacklisted.
In the book on Hollywood blacklistees "Tender Comrades", Corey explained that he had been a member of the Communist Party, and that while he no longer was in 1951, he could not in good conscience turn informer. "Most of us were retired reds," Corey said. "We had left it, at least I had, years before. The only issue was, did you want to just give them their token names so you could continue your career, or not? I had no impulse to defend a political point of view that no longer interested me particularly. They just wanted two new names so they could hand out more subpoenas."
After being blacklisted, Corey used his G.I. Bill benefits to study speech therapy at UCLA while supporting his family as a common laborer. At the request of a fellow student, Corey organized a class in speech that he taught in the garage of his home in Hollywood Hills home. He expanded his curriculum to acting, accepting $10 a month in "tuition" per month from each student that allowed them to attend weekly classes. Eventually, he expanded the garage to create a small theater where his students performed scenes. Corey's reputation as a teacher grew, and by the mid-1950s, he had become the premier acting coach in Hollywood. Although studios refused to hire the blacklisted Corey as an actor, they did send contract players to study with him.
Corey's class, which became known as the Professional Actors Workshop, attracted directors, screenwriters and established actors seeking insight into the craft. Corey's Workshop has been described by the National Observer as "A major influence in the motion picture industry." Corey was a Stanislavskian teaching the popular Method technique of sense-memory popularized by such other acting gurus as Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler, which sought to tap into the actor's own emotions and psyche. Corey's own teaching technique was eclectic: He focused on one-on-one work with an individual actor, seeking through improvisational exercises to get the actor to tap into his/her subconscious and to use their imagination to come up with a theme that would elucidate their character.
His students included Robert Blake, pop singer Pat Boone, Richard Chamberlain, singer/actress Cher, director-producer Roger Corman, James Dean, Kirk Douglas, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Michael Forest, Sally Kellerman, Irvin Kershner, Shirley Knight, Penny Marshall, Rita Moreno, Jack Nicholson, Leonard Nimoy, Anthony Perkins, Rob Reiner, singer/actress/director Barbra Streisand, future Academy Award-winning screenwriter Robert Towne and Robin Williams. Of Corey the teacher, three-time Oscar-winner Jack Nicholson said after he had become a major movie star, "Acting is life study, and Corey's classes got me into looking at life as an artist."
Corey also tutored experienced actors who had trouble with a role, or who just needed insight into playing a character. One of the already-established actors Corey tutored was three-time Oscar nominee Kirk Douglas, who came to Corey for help in playing the title role in Spartacus (1960). It was Douglas who, along with Otto Preminger, ended the blacklist by hiring Dalton Trumbo to write the screenplays for Spartacus (1960) and Exodus (1960), respectively. Two years after the Trumbo-penned films debuted on the big screen, Corey again was working in films and television. In 1962, he was cast in the film The Yellow Canary (1963) when one of his acting students, pop singer Pat Boone, pressured 20th-Century Fox into hiring him. Now off the blacklist, Corey became a busy character actor in movies and on television. Corey made his reputation as an actor's actor whom other actors loved to work with. Always good with actors, Corey also directed some episodes of television series.
In addition to his acting work, Corey continued teaching. He was Professor of Theater Arts at California State University in Northridge, and was artist in residence at Ball State, in Indiana, the University of Illinois in Bloomington, Chapman College's World Campus Afloat, the University of Texas in Austin, and at the Graduate School of Creative Writing at New York University. He also conducted acting seminars at Emory University in Atlanta, and for the Canadian Film Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia.
On August 16, 2002, six days after his 88th birthday, Corey died in a Santa Monica, California hospital, of complication from a fall. He was survived by his wife of 64 years, Hope, three daughters, and grandchildren.as Plasius
August 10, 1914 - Augsut 16, 2002- Actor
- Soundtrack
Respected character actor whose on-screen work included everything from Shakespeare to Dick Tracy (1990) (his last film). After a long apprenticeship in the theatre, the 38-year-old Wolfe finally debuted in films in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), recreating his Broadway role. He then toiled away steadily in Hollywood for the next several decades, working as a supporting player in literally hundreds of film and TV productions well into his 90s. Though capable of a wide range of parts, Wolfe's gentle, patrician manner found him most often cast as a butler, a minister or a kindly doctor. He finally gained his greatest fame at the age of 85, effortlessly stealing scenes as Mama Carlson's doddering yet feisty butler "Hirsch" in several episodes of the MTM sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati (1978).as Septimus/Mr. Atoz
November 4, 1896 - January 23, 1992- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Kathie Browne was born Jacqueline Sue Browne on September 19, 1930 in San Luis Obispo, California. She got her break in TV after appearing in a Los Angeles production of Tennessee Williams's play, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", making her TV debut in 1957 in The Gray Ghost (1957), The Sheriff of Cochise (1956), and Gunsmoke (1955). The following year, she made her movie debut in the B-movie, Murder by Contract (1958), but it was mostly television that was her métier. She made numerous guest appearances on a plethora of TV shows. The blonde haired, blue-eyed beauty played mainly ingénue parts, and was a very busy TV actress of the 1960s and 1970s.
One of her most famous acting role was as the prospective bride of "Adam Cartwright", during the 1963-64 season of Bonanza (1959). She had appeared on the series twice before, as different characters, in 1961 and 1962, but was cast as the pretty widow, Laura Dayton, in 1963, appearing in 4 episodes broadcast between December 8, 1963 and May 17, 1964, which was the penultimate show of the season. Laura was supposed to marry Adam and ride off with him into the sunset as Pernell Roberts was unhappy with the show and threatening to leave. The producers, at the demand of NBC (which owned the show), hired Guy Williams as a potential replacement for Roberts. Instead of leaving after the 1963-64 season, Roberts signed on for one more year on the Ponderosa, and Browne (as Laura) rode off with Adam's cousin, Will Cartwright, instead (played by Williams). A year after her turn as a regular on the short-lived western series, Hondo (1967), Browne gave another memorable performance, in the Star Trek (1966) episode, Wink of an Eye (1968), in which she played the beautiful Scalosian who (what else?) falls in love (or at least lust) with Captain Kirk.
Browne married actor Darren McGavin in 1969, and they were frequent co-stars, including his starring series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), during the 1970s. She retired from acting in 1980.
Kathie Browne (legally Jacqueline K. McGavin) died on April 8, 2003 in Beverly Hills, California, aged 72.as Deela
September 19, 1930 - April 8, 2003- Actor
- Additional Crew
Biff Elliot was born on 26 July 1923 in Lynn, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for The Enemy Below (1957), I, the Jury (1953) and Planet of the Apes (1974). He was married to Constance Karen Bandy and Elizabeth Alice Dole. He died on 15 August 2012 in Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA.as Schmitter
July 26, 1923 - August 15, 2012- If ever there was an actor born to play a tough Irish cop, it was Ken Lynch, and he played so many of them in his long career that he could probably do it in his sleep. His suspicious manner, aggressive attitude, steely eyes and snarling voice broke down many a quavering suspect. He also played military officers, business executives and private eyes, and every so often he'd be a sheriff in a western, but it was as a street cop or detective that most people remember him.
Born in Albany, NY, he started his acting career in radio dramas, and after gaining experience there he headed to Los Angeles, making his film debut in 1950. He appeared in quite a few movies over his career, but he also did an enormous amount of television work, and that's where most probably remember seeing him, as he turned up on pretty much every cop show, detective show and private-eye series ever made (he even showed up in an episode of the Jackie Gleason comedy series The Honeymooners (1955)--as a tough Irish detective!).
He died in 1990 in Burbank, CA.as Vanderberg
July 15, 1910 - February 13, 1990 - Richard Hale was born on 16 November 1892 in Rogersville, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor, known for Julius Caesar (1953), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Star Trek (1966). He was married to Fiona O'Shiel, Kathryn Hamill and Temple Duncan. He died on 18 May 1981 in Northridge, California, USA.as Goro
November 16, 1892 - May 18, 1981 - Born in Ohio, Charlene graduated from Youngstown University, in the mid-1960s, where she married her first husband, poet Frank Polite. Following graduation, she acted in regional theater, including the Pittsburgh (PA) Playhouse, where she had a post-graduate scholarship. Later, she moved to San Francisco, CA to work at the American Conservatory Theater, formed by provocative stage director and Tony Award nominee William Ball, whom she met in Pittsburgh.
She divorced her first husband in the late 1960s and remarried, to actor Ramon Bieri (1929-2001). They lived in Northridge, in the San Fernando Valley. Following the end of her film career in 1976, she divorced Bieri, moved to San Diego, with her stepson, and acted again in regional theater.
In the late 1980s, her health declined. She moved back to Youngstown, Ohio, to be near the family of her first husband, where she died from complications of breast cancer.
Variously described as "a true child of the 1960s", "spiritual", "extravagant" and "eccentric" with a great sense of humor, she was a strikingly gorgeous red brunette who gave up her film career to devote her life raising her stepson.as Vanna
June 30, 1943 - June 21, 1999 - Actor
- Director
- Producer
Excellent, prolific and versatile character actor Michael Pataki had a long, varied and impressive career in both movies and TV shows, alike, that spanned a little over 50 years. Pataki was born on January 16, 1938 in Youngstown, Ohio. He attended the University of Southern California as a double major in Drama and Political Science. Michael made his film debut with an uncredited small part in the 1958 feature, Ten North Frederick (1958). However, it was his acclaimed acting on stage in 1966 at a summer stock festival in Edinburgh that really launched Pataki's career. Although usually cast as mean and unlikable antagonistic characters, Michael on occasion portrayed more appealing folks with equal skill and conviction. Pataki gave a superbly chilling and compelling performance as vicious bloodsucker "Caleb Croft" in the creepy horror winner, Grave of the Vampire (1972). Other memorable roles included nasty biker "Snake" in The Dirt Gang (1972), Marianna Hill's weak masochistic boyfriend "Dennis" in the perverse The Baby (1973), the lecherous "Sergeant Ward" in the crummy, The Bat People (1974), hi-jacker "Wilson" in Airport '77 (1977), Dracula's modern-day descendant "Michael Drake" in the hilariously horrible Dracula's Dog (1977), sleazy bounty hunter "Harry Iverson" in The Glove (1979), hard-nosed "District Attorney Dino Fulgoni" in the splendidly gritty The Onion Field (1979), oddball cemetery caretaker "Sam" in the offbeat zombie doozy Dead & Buried (1981), ramrod Russian sports official "Nicoli Koloff" in Rocky IV (1985) and the stern "Dr. Hoffman" in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988). Pataki had a recurring role on the TV series, The Amazing Spider-Man (1977); he also appeared in the two spin-off theatrical pictures, Spider-Man (1970) and Spider-Man Strikes Back (1978). Among the numerous TV shows Michael made guest appearances on are The Twilight Zone (1959), Star Trek (1966), Combat! (1962), Rawhide (1959), My Favorite Martian (1963), Ben Casey (1961), Batman (1966), Mission: Impossible (1966), The Flying Nun (1967), Baretta (1975), Happy Days (1974), McCloud (1970), Barney Miller (1975), Little House on the Prairie (1974), Charlie's Angels (1976), T.J. Hooker (1982), WKRP in Cincinnati (1978), Laverne & Shirley (1976), The Jeffersons (1975), The Fall Guy (1981), Airwolf (1987), St. Elsewhere (1982) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). Moreover, Pataki provided voices for cartoon television programs; he was especially notable as the voice of the demented "George Liquor" on The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991). Michael directed two low-budget 70s drive-in exploitation features for producer Charles Band: the potently unnerving horror shocker, Mansion of the Doomed (1976), and the amusingly silly soft-core comedy musical, Cinderella (1977). In addition, Pataki also worked as an acting coach. Michael died of cancer at age 72 on April 15, 2010 in North Hollywood, California.as Korax
January 16, 1938 - April 15, 2010- Actor
- Stunts
- Soundtrack
Diminutive American actor Billy Curtis avoided the usual onus of freak-show employment as a youth, opting for a mainstream job as a shoe clerk. Encouraged by stock company actress Shirley Booth to take a little person role in a stage production, Curtis soon became a professional actor, with numerous Broadway musical productions to his credit. Curtis' big movie season was 1938-39: he was cast in The Wizard of Oz (1939) (albeit with voice dubbed by Pinto Colvig) and as the cowboy hero of the all-dwarf western The Terror of Tiny Town (1938). This last epic was one of the few instances that Curtis was cast as a good guy; many of his screen characters were ill-tempered and pugnacious, willing to bite a kneecap if unable to punch out an opponent. Seldom accepting a role which demeaned or patronized little people, Curtis played an obnoxious vaudeville performer compelled to sit on Gary Cooper's lap in Meet John Doe (1941), a suspicious circus star willing to turn Robert Cummings over to the cops in Saboteur (1942), and one of the many fair-weather friends of The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). Billy Curtis' career thrived into the 1970s, notably with solid parts in the Clint Eastwood western High Plains Drifter (1973) and the crime-caper melodrama Little Cigars (1973), in which he had second billing as a diminutive criminal mastermind. Billy Curtis retired in the 1980s, except for the occasional interview or Wizard of Oz cast reunion.as The Copper Skinned Ambassador
June 27, 1909 - November 9, 1988- A symbol of intelligence, leadership and moral strength in his various 1960s and 1970s roles, African-Canadian actor Percy Rodrigues rose in Hollywood stature during the late 1960s following a couple of earlier Broadway appearances. The serenely handsome, distinguished-looking actor also became notable for helping to break racial barriers on television and went on to become a voice of great distinction behind the camera.
Born to a Montreal couple on June 13, 1918 (some references list 1924 as his birth year), Percy was the oldest of four children and was of African and Portuguese descent. His father abandoned the family while he was a youth and Percy started working as a teenager to help provide for his family. By his late teens, he had become a professional boxer and started scouting out acting jobs at the same time. He joined Montreal's Negro Theater Guild and although winning a Canadian Drama Festival acting award in 1939, found job offers scarce, prompting him to work as a machinist and toolmaker for the next decade or so in order to supplement his income.
His distinctive, booming voice commanded early attention and he narrated several Canadian documentary shorts and appeared on television. He finally made his Broadway debut in middle age with Lillian Hellman's drama "Toys in the Attic" starring Jason Robards, Maureen Stapleton and Anne Revere. He followed that with a stronger role in "Blues for Mister Charlie" (1964) in which he shared the stage with African-American actors Al Freeman Jr., Lincoln Kilpatrick, Rosetta LeNoire, Otis Young and Tony nominee Diana Sands.
This attention eventually led to film and television offers and he settled permanently in Los Angeles. From the beginning, he sought out dignified roles following Sidney Poitier's emboldening Hollywood ascension and became one of just a small vanguard of 1960s black actors who was able to circumnavigate around such restrictive and negative stereotypes throughout most of his career. With just a brush of grey at his temples, he applied and projected quiet authority and inner calm to his many roles. He broke into American television with episodes of The Nurses (1965), Naked City (1958), The Wild Wild West (1965), Route 66 (1960) and (especially) Star Trek (1966) (as Commodore Stone) before making big news in 1968 for his casting as a neurosurgeon during the final season of the popular nighttime soap opera Peyton Place (1964). Co-starring with Ruby Dee as his wife, it was a breakthrough white-collar role for a black actor in a series. In the same year, Percy had an excellent supporting role in the critically-heralded film adaptation of Carson McCullers tender drama The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), in which he carried his own story line as an embittered physician at odds with daughter Cicely Tyson.
Other imposing roles came his way in the form of detectives, mayors, commissioners, lawyers, politicians, scientists, captains, ambassadors, lieutenants and doctors, which seemed to be a growing specialty. More interesting roles came with the mini-movies The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1970), Ring of Passion (1978), Angel Dusted (1981) and Roots: The Next Generations (1979). He also had recurring roles on Sanford (1980), the one-season extended series of "Sanford and Son" (minus the son) that again starred Redd Foxx, and in Benson (1979), in which he played a judge.
He continued to remain visible in the 1980s with episodes of The Fall Guy (1981), T.J. Hooker (1982) and Dynasty (1981), but after playing a doctor in the mini-movie whodunit Perry Mason: The Case of the Sinister Spirit (1987), Percy refrained from on-camera work and focused instead on his image as "The King of Voiceovers". Among his more notable vocal projects were his eerie voicings for the ads and trailers of the film Jaws (1975) and his narration of Michael Jackson's sci-fi musical Captain EO (1986) for Disney.
Percy's marriage to his first wife Alameda produced daughter Hollis and son Gerald. Following her death, he married Karen Cook in 2003. He died of kidney problems at age 89 at his home in Indio, California on September 6, 2007.as Commodore Stone
June 13, 1918 - September 6, 2007 - Janet MacLachlan was born on 27 August 1933 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Thirteenth Floor (1999), Tick, Tick, Tick (1970) and Tightrope (1984). She died on 11 October 2010 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Charlene Masters
August 27, 1933 - October 11, 2010 - Born in Brooklyn, Bergere began his career in 1936 as understudy to Danny Kaye in the Broadway production of "Lady in the Dark", with Gertrude Lawrence. His television debut was with James Dean in the live production of "Thunder on Sycamore Street". A World War II veteran, he was in charge of entertainment services for soldiers serving in North Africa. Best known for his role as majordomo "Joseph Anders" in the 1980s television series Dynasty (1981), he also briefly appeared in the rival soap opera Falcon Crest (1981) as "Justin Nash". He appeared in more than 200 television shows, including an original Star Trek (1966) episode in which he played Abraham Lincoln He died at the age of 88 in New Hampshire where he lived for over a decade.as Abraham Lincoln
April 10, 1918 - January 31, 2007 - Katherine Woodville was born on 12 March 1938 in Ewell, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Star Trek (1966), Mission: Impossible (1966) and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1960). She was married to Edward Albert, Jerrold Freedman, Patrick Macnee and Michael Julian Anderson Wenn. She died on 5 June 2013 in Portland, Oregon, USA.as Natira
December 4, 1938 - June 5, 2013 - Richard Webb was born on 9 September 1915 in Bloomington, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Out of the Past (1947), Sullivan's Travels (1941) and Captain Midnight (1954). He was married to Florence Pauline Mendelsohn and Elizabeth Regina Sterns. He died on 10 June 1993 in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA.as Ben Finney
September 15, 1915 - June 10, 1993 - Actor
- Writer
- Director
Steve Ihnat was born on 7 August 1934 in Jastrabie, Czechoslovakia [now Jastrabie pri Michalovciach, Slovak Republic]. He was an actor and writer, known for Countdown (1967), The Honkers (1972) and Do Not Throw Cushions Into the Ring (1970). He was married to Sally Carter-Ihnat. He died on 12 May 1972 in Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France.as Garth of Izar
August 7, 1934 - May 12, 1972- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Born on June 9, 1931 in Chicago, Joan Marshall attended St. Clement's School. Looking far more mature than her age would indicate, when she was just 14 years old she auditioned for, and was hired, as a showgirl at Chicago's Chez Paree, one of the country's foremost nightclubs in the 1940s and 1950s. Two years later, she was appearing in Las Vegas productions. Vegas was where she met her first husband and her son, Steven, was born. Her daughter Shari was born three years later. Moving to Beverly Hills, she starred on the television series Bold Venture (1959) (1959-60 season). She made around 10 feature films, liking only a few of them. In 1961, she starred in Homicidal (1961) (billed as "Jean Arless"), playing two roles, one male and one female. This small film has developed a cult-like following.
She was signed by CBS and appeared often on such television shows as The Jack Benny Program (1950) and The Red Skelton Hour (1951). She had a gift for comedy, which often was overlooked because of her beauty. Possessing a flair for writing, in the 1970s, she collaborated with her old school friend, the award-winning writer Dirk Wayne Summers, co-scripting sitcoms.
She married film director Hal Ashby and, over the first six months of their marriage, and at his insistence, she related personal experiences of her life. Ashby (and Robert Towne) turned these details of her life into the romantic comedy film Shampoo (1975). She was reportedly displeased her husband had used such personal details in creating this film.
Her real-life wedding (to Ashby) can be seen in the opening scenes behind the credits in Ashby's romantic comedy film The Landlord (1970). Ashby died in 1988 and, two years later, Joan married business executive Mel Bartfield. Although there were many rumors that Joan was secretly wed to Richard Chamberlain, this was not the case. She and Chamberlain were -- and remained -- very close friends. After visiting Jamaica, West Indies, she fell in love with the island nation, where she had a home, and where she died of lung cancer on June 28, 1992, at the age of 61. Her ashes were spread under her favorite tree on the property.as Lt. Areel Shaw
June 19, 1931 - June 28, 1992- Actor
- Soundtrack
The son of Edwin Schallert, drama editor of the "Los Angeles Times" and the dean of West Coast critics, William Schallert became interested in an acting career while at UCLA in 1942. After graduation, he became involved with the Circle Theater (eventually becoming one of its owners) and made his film debut in The Foxes of Harrow (1947). He then became ubiquitous in movies and TV ever since, and from 1979 to 1981, he was president of the Screen Actors Guild. He stayed active with SAG projects and said he never gave retirement a thought.as Nilz Baris
July 6, 1922 - May 8, 2016- Actor
- Soundtrack
Barry Jenner was born on 14 January 1941 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Family Matters (1989), Enough Said (2013) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993). He was married to Suzanne Hunt and Susan Harney. He died on 9 August 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Admiral William Ross
January 14, 1941 - August 8, 2016- Don Marshall's heyday was on the small screen in the 60's and 70's. The athletic and clean cut actor is best remembered as first officer and co-pilot Dan Erickson in Irwin Allen's ground-breaking science-fiction series Land of the Giants (1968). Having excelled at football, pole vaulting and other sports at college, he happily undertook most of his own stunt work. Along with Nichelle Nichols (Star Trek (1966)) and Greg Morris (Mission: Impossible (1966)), Don was one of the precious few African-American actors of that period to be regularly featured as a prime time lead on screen. 'Land of the Giants' ran for a mere two seasons (51 episodes in all) and went off the air simply because the props became too expensive to produce. Over the years it acquired a steady cult following among science-fiction aficionados.
Don had started out as an engineering student in the mid-50's and took up acting on the advice of a friend. He studied drama at the workshop of Hollywood acting coach Robert Gist and pursued theatre arts at Los Angeles City College. Following brief stage experience, he then segued into television. His acting career still nascent, he landed a small role (as a marine engaged to Nichelle Nichols) in an episode of The Lieutenant (1963), a short-lived venture produced by Gene Roddenberry. A few years later, he was again recruited by Roddenberry to play the part of astrophysicist Boma for the Star Trek episode "The Galileo Seven" (reuniting him with Bob Gist who served as director). Don was given the chance to show his acting credentials in several powerful scenes interacting with Leonard Nimoy.
In subsequent years, he busied himself with roles on many diverse kinds of TV shows ranging from Daktari (1966) and Ironside (1967) to Julia (1968). On the big screen, he acted in the violent 'blaxploitation' prison drama Terminal Island (1973) and was one of the leads in the schlock sci-fi outing The Thing with Two Heads (1972). By the mid-70's, plum roles became relatively scarce and Don focused on running his own production company (DJM Productions) which specialized in turning out commercials and documentary subjects. Latterly, Don became a regular attendee of sci-fi conventions who always spoke appreciatively of the genre and of Roddenberry in particular. He died on October 30, 2016 in Los Angeles, Calif. aged, 80.as Lt. Boma
May 2, 1936 - October 30, 2016 - Actor
- Producer
- Director
David Huddleston was born on 17 September 1930 in Vinton, Virginia, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Big Lebowski (1998), Blazing Saddles (1974) and The Producers (2005). He was married to Sarah C. Koeppe and Carole Ann Swart. He died on 2 August 2016 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.as The Conductor
September 17, 1930 - August 2, 2016- Actor
- Soundtrack
Richard Libertini was born in E. Cambridge, Massachusetts, to parents who had come to America from southern Italy. Having grown up in a household where both Italian and English were spoken, he developed an ear for foreign accents. A facility he would later use to advantage on stage and in films.
He graduated from Emerson College in Boston, and for a while earned a living as a trumpet player in the Boston area. Later, he moved to New York, where he teamed up with two former college classmates, MacIntyre Dixon and Lynda Segal, to create an off-Broadway revue called "Stewed Prunes." (This was during the coffee house revolution in the 1960s. Bob Dylan was playing around the corner.) The show was quite successful and after running a year in New York they took it on the road. While playing Chicago, he was asked to join the renowned Second City Improvisational Theatre Group, an association which continues to the present.
After a number of years doing stage work in New York (Woody Allen's Don't Drink the Water (1969) and Paul Sills' Story Theatre (1971) among many others) he eventually moved to L.A. where he began doing films. Three of his most memorable characters are the Spanish-American dictator in The In-Laws (1979) with Alan Arkin and Peter Falk, the Tibetan Mystic in All of Me (1984) with Steve Martin, and Lily Tomlin and the justice of the peace in Best Friends (1982) with Goldie Hawn and Burt Reynolds. Other films include Fletch (1985) with Chevy Chase and Popeye (1980) with Robin Williams.as Akorem Laan
May 21, 1933 - January 7, 2016- Actor
- Director
Larry Drake was born on 21 February 1949 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Darkman (1990), L.A. Law (1986) and The Karate Kid (1984). He was married to Ruth de Sosa. He died on 17 March 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Chellick
February 21, 1949 - March 17, 2016- Actor
- Stunts
Janos Prohaska was born on 10 October 1919 in Budapest, Hungary. He was an actor, known for Bewitched (1964), Star Trek (1966) and The Outer Limits (1963). He was married to Irene M . Knoke. He died on 13 March 1974 in Bishop, California, USA.as The Horta/Mugato
October 10, 1919 - March 13, 1974- Associated with gritty, flashy film villainy, veteran character actor Torin Herbert Erskine Thatcher was born in Bombay, India to British parents on January 15, 1905. The son of a police officer (who died when Torin was 10) and a voice/piano teacher, he was educated in England at the Bedford School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
A former schoolteacher, he appeared on the London stage, notably the Old Vic, in 1927 before entering British films in 1934. He would be notable for his stage prowess in the works of Shaw, Shakespeare, and the Greek tragedies. Among his earlier stage plays was a 1937 version of "Hamlet" which starred Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. During World War II he served with the Royal Artillery and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was an extremely imposing, powerfully built specimen and it offered him a number of tough, commanding, often sinister roles over the years primarily in larger-than-life action sequences.
Thatcher began in minor roles and progressed to better ones in a number of classic British films in the late 1930s and 1940s as the years went on. They included Sabotage (1936), Dark Journey (1937), Night Train to Munich (1940), Major Barbara (1941), I See a Dark Stranger (1946), The Captive Heart (1946), Great Expectations (1946), as Bentley ("The Spider") Drummle, Jassy (1947) and The Fallen Idol (1948).
In Hollywood from the 1950s on, the actor's looming figure and baleful countenance were constantly in demand, gnashing his teeth in a slew of popular costumers such as The Crimson Pirate (1952), Blackbeard, the Pirate (1952) as reformed pirate Sir Henry Morgan, The Robe (1953), Helen of Troy (1956) as Ulysses, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) as the evil, shaven-domed magician Sokurah who shrinks the princess to miniature size, Witness for the Prosecution (1957) as the prosecuting attorney, The Miracle (1959) as the Duke of Wellington, the Marlon Brando/Trevor Howard remake of Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), and Hawaii (1966).
Thatcher returned to the stage quite frequently, notably on Broadway, in such esteemed productions as "Edward, My Son" (1948), "That Lady" (1949) and "Billy Budd" (1951). In 1959 he portrayed Captain Keller in the award-winning play "The Miracle Worker" with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke.
Also a steady fixture on American TV from the mid-1950's on, Torin appeared in a number of quality TV anthologies ("Omnibus," "Playhouse 90, "Zane Grey Theatre") before making fairly steady guest appearances on such shows as "The Millionaire," "Ellery Queen," "Peter Gunn," "Wagon Train," "Bonanza," "Perry Mason," "The Real McCoys," "The Untouchables," "My THree Sons," "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," "Perry Mason," "Get Smart," "Lost in Space," "Star Trek," "Gunsmoke," "Daniel Boone," "Mission: Impossible," "Night Gallery," "Search" and "Petrocelli." He also showed up in support in the TV movies The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968) starring Jack Palance and Brenda Starr (1976), his final on-camera appearance, starring Jill St. John.
Diagnosed with cancer, Thatcher died on March 4, 1981, in Thousand Oaks, California (near Los Angeles). The widower of TV actress Rita Daniel, he was long married to second wife, Anne Le Borgne, at the time of his death.as Marplon
January 15, 1905 - March 4, 1981 - Actor
- Sound Department
Barry Atwater was born on 16 May 1918 in Denver, Colorado, USA. He was an actor, known for Star Trek (1966), One Step Beyond (1959) and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964). He died on 24 May 1978 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Surak
May 16, 1918 - May 24, 1978- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Ron Glass was born on 10 July 1945 in Evansville, Indiana, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Serenity (2005), Barney Miller (1975) and Firefly (2002). He died on 25 November 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Loken
July 10, 1945 - November 25, 2016- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ronnie Claire Edwards was born on 9 February 1933 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. She was an actress, known for The Dead Pool (1988), The Waltons (1972) and The American Parade (1974). She was married to Bill Record and Robert K. Sands. She died on 14 June 2016 in Dallas, Texas, USA.as Talur
February 9, 1933- June 14, 2016- Actor
- Writer
David Opatoshu was born on 30 January 1918 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Exodus (1960), Torn Curtain (1966) and One Spy Too Many (1966). He was married to Nancy Judith Rigler, Peggy O'Shea and Lillian Weinberg. He died on 30 April 1996 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Anan 7
January 30, 1918 - April 30, 1996- Actor
- Soundtrack
Blond, good looking Jason Evers played many seemingly ordinary men who often turned out to harbor malign tendencies. Although probably best known for playing Dr. Bill Corter in the 1962 cult film The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), Evers did much more than meets the eye. He quit school to join the army during WWII, and later decided to act after seeing such Hollywood stars as John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart. His first big break was in 1960 in the TV series Wrangler (1960) and he followed that with roles in Pretty Boy Floyd (1960), House of Women (1962), and another TV series, Channing (1963).
His career began to decline in the 1970s. He appeared with Roddy McDowall in Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), one of the sequels to the smash Planet of the Apes (1968), and in the made-for-TV thriller Fer-de-Lance (1974). He was a vengeful hunter out to kill a murderous grizzly bear in Claws (1977) and a biologist out to stop man-eating fish (with Wayne Crawford) in Barracuda (1978).
He made more than 65 appearances in TV series and made-for-TV films during the 1980s, and returned to the big screen in 1990 for Basket Case 2 (1990). He died of heart failure in New York City in 2005.as Rael
January 2, 1922 - March 13, 2005- Actress
- Director
Paton was described as a "natural comic" and one of the "legends of the local stage" of San Francisco. She is a veteran of the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), and also one of A.C.T.'s leading actresses in its first few seasons. After leaving A.C.T. in the early 1970s, Paton and her husband founded and ran the Berkeley Stage Company for a number of years.
Since then, she and her husband, theatre director Robert Goldsby, moved to Malibu, CA, where they lived until 2015. Paton appeared in 38 films and over 50 TV series. She also continued her decades-long run of regional theatre work across the country, including her 2014 role in the Broadway play, Harvey.as Aunt Adah
January 11, 1930 - May 26, 2016- Fritz Weaver, the American actor, was born on January 19, 1926, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He served in Civilian Public Service as a conscientious objector during World War II, breaking into acting in the early 1950s. He made his Broadway debut in October 1955 in "The Chalk Garden," which garnered five Tony Award nominations, including one for Weaver as Best Featured Actor in a Play. He also won a 1956 Theatre World Award for his performance.
The first of literally scores of television appearances came in 1957, in "The Playwright and the Stars" broadcast as part of the drama omnibus Studio One (1948). He continued to appear on Broadway, winning a Tony Award for Best Actor in Play his performance as Jermome Malley in Robert Marasco's "Child's Play." Though Weaver has appeared in many movies, it generally was as a supporting actor or in small parts, and the role of Malley was given to James Mason in the 1972 film version (Child's Play (1972)) of the play.
His most memorable role, arguably, was that of the doomed German Jewish patriarch Dr. Josef Weiss in the watershed TV mini-series Holocaust (1978), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series. Since 1995, Weaver is known as the narrator of programs on the History Channel.as Kovat
January 19, 1926 - November 26, 2016 - Actor
- Additional Crew
Brian Demonbreun was the producer and director of the three episodes of Into Thin Air 1 - 3 (1998, 2002, and 2012, respectively). The Sci-Fi adventure was praised for its excellent F/X's and amazing acting and directing, especially where the child actors were used.
Brian's career also included acting work in more than 50 episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and also a few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). Other works included The Hanoi Hilton (1987), NCIS (2003), Even Money (2006), Balls of Fury (2007) and Year of the Dog (2007), along with David Hasselhoff photo-double work in Ted 2 (2015).
Brian was also the founder and main artist for "Art Patrol" which specializes in black and white and color renderings of houses as well as real life architectural models. Much of Brian's brilliant work can be seen in Into Thin Air.as Lt. Andrew Powell/Various Background Officers
November 19, 1959 - November 29, 2016- Born on October 1, 1896, in Rangoon, Burma, to Burmese-Jewish parents, and the son of a well-to-do merchant, distinguished veteran character actor Abraham Isaac Sofaer was a one-time schoolteacher in both Rangoon and London. He switched gears to acting after a short time and made his stage debut in 1921 as a walk-on in William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice."
Sofaer scored his first prominent London appearance with "The Green Goddess" in 1925 and, from the 1930s on, alternated between the London and Broadway repertory stages playing an assortment of Shakespearean roles (Othello, Lear, Cassius, etc.) among other classical plays. He scored a personal triumph in New York as Benjamin Disraeli opposite Helen Hayes in "Victoria Regina" in 1936. The following year, he directed Ms. Hayes in "The Merchant of Venice", in which he played the title role of "Shylock". A theatre repertory player of note, he soon focused on the big screen and made his British film debut with The Dreyfus Case (1930). Subsequent noteworthy British film roles included his judge in A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and as Disraeli in The Ghosts of Berkeley Square (1947). Recognized for his bulgy, wide-eyed stare, resonant tones and imposing stance, he built up a solid reputation over the years playing odd and interesting Eastern ethnics -- sultans, swamis, high priests, witch doctors, foreign dictators and dignitaries, he was even convincing playing Indian chiefs on occasion. His characters ranged from wise and warm-hearted to cunning and wickedly evil.
In the mid-1950s, Sofaer settled in Hollywood wherein he became a main staple in exotic dramas and costumed adventure, appearing almost exclusively in movies and TV. Some of his better known U.S. films include Quo Vadis (1951), His Majesty O'Keefe (1954), Elephant Walk (1954), Taras Bulba (1962) and Chisum (1970). Throughout the 1960s, he could be counted on for guest appearances on all the popular shows of the day including Perry Mason (1957), Wagon Train (1957), Gunsmoke (1955), Daniel Boone (1964) and Star Trek (1966). On TV, he may be best remembered for his recurring role of Haji, the master of all genies, on I Dream of Jeannie (1965).
Married to wife Angela for nearly seven decades and affectionately called "Abe" to closer friends, Sofaer was the father of six children. Retiring from acting in 1974, Sofaer died of congestive heart failure at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California at the age of 91 in 1988.as The Thaosian/Melkotian
October 1, 1896 - January 21, 1988 - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Born Jimmie Bartell LaRue, "Bart LaRue" was born in Foard County, Texas on January 23, 1932 to James Blair LaRue (July 17, 1908-August 29, 1963) and Iva Pearl Teague LaRue (March 3, 1911-December 15, 2010). His father worked for the railroad and died from a heart attack shortly after the birth of his grand-daughter Kristin. Bart's mother died less than three months before her 100th birthday.
Bart graduated from High School in Sweetwater Texas At age 17, he attended McMurry College. He left college before graduating to perform as a clown in the circus. Eventually, he attended and received a BA in Theatre Arts from Boston University, where he met and married Valrie Erickson. Their first daughter, Alecia, was born in 1955 in Sweetwater, Texas. Bart and Valrie, both actors, established the LaRue Theatre in Abilene, Texas. He also taught at McMurry University. Bart and Valrie had 3 more children, Erin (1960) Devin (1962) and Kristin (1964).
The LaRues moved their young family to Southern California in the early 1960s, where Bart worked steadily as a character actor. He wrote, directed, and produced independent films until the time of his death from a heart attack in January 1990 in Sweetwater, Texas, aged 57. Bart's mother died at the age of 99 in 2010, just 3 months shy of her 100th birthday.as The Guardian of Forever, Trelane's Father, Provider 1, Yarnek, Roman announcer, and the Ekosian announcer
October 30, 1932 - January 5, 1990- Logan Ramsey was born on 21 March 1921 in Long Beach, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Walking Tall (1973), Part 2: Walking Tall (1975) and Scrooged (1988). He was married to Anne Ramsey. He died on 26 June 2000 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Claudius Marcus
March 21, 1921 - June 26, 2000 - Actor
- Writer
- Director
Phillip Pine was born on 16 July 1920 in Hanford, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Cat Ate the Parakeet (1972), Star Trek (1966) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He was married to Madelyn Conner Keen (Lynn Kenton). He died on 22 December 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.as Colonel Phillip Green
July 16, 1920 - December 22, 2006- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Vic Perrin was born on 26 April 1916 in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Watchmen (2009), Mission: Impossible (1966) and Gunsmoke (1955). He was married to Rita Singer and Evelyn Held. He died on 4 July 1989 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Nomad
April 26, 1916 - July 4, 1989- Sarah Marshall was born on 25 May 1933 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Dave (1993), The Long, Hot Summer (1958) and Star Trek (1966). She was married to Karl Held and Mel Bourne. She died on 18 January 2014 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Dr. Janet Wallace
May 25, 1933 - January 18, 2014 - Richard Tatro was born on 1 July 1939 in Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Pandora and the Magic Box (1965), Star Trek (1966) and Sin in the Suburbs (1964). He died on 26 July 1991 in San Joaquin, California, USA.as Norman
July 1, 1939 - July 26, 1991 - Actress
- Producer
Kay Elliot was born on 14 May 1929 in Illinois, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Star Trek (1966), Bewitched (1964) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). She was married to Joel Mondeaux. She died on 3 December 1982 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.as Stella Mudd
May 14, 1929 - December 3, 1982- Alyce Andrece was born on 5 September 1936 in Thornton, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Star Trek (1966), Hell's Bloody Devils (1970) and Occasional Wife (1966). She died on 14 May 2005 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.as Alice Series #1-#250
September 5, 1936 - May 14, 2005 - As the son of radio, TV and film character actor Carleton G. Young, dark, dexterous and good-looking Tony Young was exposed early on to the machinations of the Hollywood industry. Born in New York in 1937, he was raised in Hollywood after his father's on-camera character work increased. Although Tony was offered some film roles in the early 1950s while still a teen, his father insisted that Tony receive a proper education first before putting together any kind of acting career.
Following a hitch with the US Air Force, Tony attended Los Angeles City College. Working initially as an NBC page, his interest in acting had not flagged after all this time and the virile, brawny wannabe began landing TV roles in 1959 with such western shows as Overland Trail (1960), The Deputy (1959), Bronco (1958) and Laramie (1959), not to mention bit parts in the films Walk Like a Dragon (1960) and The Marriage-Go-Round (1961).
In 1961, Tony was handed his own weekly series as a cavalry undercover agent in the TV western Gunslinger (1961). While the program was short-lived, it managed to basically pigeonhole him as a western player. Such low-budget films as He Rides Tall (1964) (in which he played a U.S. marshal) and Taggart (1964) (in which he is accused of murder and must clear his name) followed.
On the TV front, reliable guestings occurred on such popular shows as Star Trek (1966), The Virginian (1962), Medical Center (1969), Bonanza (1959) and The Streets of San Francisco (1972).
From there Tony moved more into to character work supporting Elvis Presley in his non-musical western Charro! (1969) and James Garner in the Italian "spaghetti western" A Man Called Sledge (1970). Roles in action-adventure and blaxploitation flicks also came and went in the early 70s, including Chrome and Hot Leather (1971), Play It As It Lays (1972), Black Gunn (1972), Superchick (1973) and The Outfit (1973).
Thrice married and divorced to actresses, he was first briefly married to Playboy playmate Connie Mason, then to Madlyn Rhue who bore him one child and co-starred with him on both film and TV before and after their divorce, and finally to Sondra Currie. Tony's father died of cancer in 1971 at age 64. Tony, who retired from acting in the early 1990s, later succumbed to lung cancer in 2002 at the very same age as his father.as Kryton
June 28, 1937 - February 26, 2002