good guest actors

Probably an ancient question on here, but every once in a while, to this day, I'll watch an episode and the realization/reminder that "Hey, so-and-so is a good actor!" still occurs.

My latest is Harry Townes, from Return of the Archons. He really makes the episode worthwhile to me. Next time you watch it, specifically watch him. He really utilizes every second of time to accentuate his character. From gestures, eye movements...it's a really good performance!

 

Harry Townes was one of those actors who was all over TV in the 1960's. He was in almost every dramatic series of the period, and he's memorable in everything he's in. After retiring from acting in the 1980's, he became a preacher in his hometown of Huntsville, AL.

 

Interesting. And appropriately enough, I could just envision him playing that kind of role, too!

 

Ahhh, yes! I always enjoyed his work. He was on Perry Mason several times, and I remember him fondly from the movie Fitzwilly too - just to mention a couple of items.

ME

 

I loved Frank Gorshin in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield". Very eccentric performance.

 

In "The Corbomite Maneuver," watch Bailey (Anthony Call) when the cube is approaching the ship and Kirk is about to destroy it. Call portrays Bailey's panicky fear with rapidly twitching facial muscles. It looks totally involuntary.

Call took the part very seriously and delivered big time.

 

I've never seen Michael Forest in anything else so I can't really appraise his skills or versatility as an actor, but he made a totally believable Apollo. So it was at least a good bit of casting.

 

He's rather good in a pre-Star Trek independent film (directed by Vic Morrow) called Deathwatch (co-starring Leonard Nimoy).

 

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_SCmV3qnxY&list=PLEE8CB1890DDE822D[/yt]​

Voila. Someone was naughty and scanned a screener.

It's also got Robert Ellenstein (the Federation Predident from TVH) as the guard.

 

same here.

 

I have great respect for Logan Ramsey as Claudius in Bread and Circuses. I felt he had a somewhat bigger presence as a guest star than many of the other fine actors we saw over the course of TOS. I'm glad they didn't try and pull one over us, having him appear somewhere again as another character in the 3rd season. His impact (to me) as Claudius would have made such an appearance all the less believable.

We got to see some of his comedic range in 'The Incubator'......an excellent early MASH episode

 

You've never seen the Twilight Zone episode "Black Leather Jackets?"

 

Always enjoyed Morgan Woodward as Captain Tracy in The Omega Glory. Great performance as he declines from rational to deranged through the ep.
In a similar vein, the all-time best guest actor award simply must go to William Windom. We're all familiar with his honest interpretation of a broken man in shock over the death of his entire crew at his inadvertent order. Acting really doesn't get much better than that in TOS.

 

I second william Windom. His portrayal of Decker is excellent and powerful.

I'd also nominate Mark Lenard as the Romulan commander in Balance of Terror. His performance really gives the episode a lot of the gravitas needed to sell the story.

 

^^Y'know, I'd agree with Leonard in BOT. A great example of a villain played with subtlety, not over-the-top looniness.

 

Evidently not.

Curiously, Ramsey played a very similar character to Claudius (a kind of second-in-command on a parallel-Earth planet) in a 1979 episode of Battlestar Galactica.

 

I think Claudius is enhanced by the fact that he "gets away with it". Most shows wouldn't leave the antagonist* alive and in charge at the end.

*Even if he does have the whole "I have the utmost respect for you Kirk" thing going.

 

Veteran villain (worked for Hitchcock) Reggie Nalder was suitably creepy as the fake Andorian in Journey to Babel.

 

Just happened to have re-watched JtB last night. Actually he was the real Andorian delegate Shras. The fake Andorian (really an Orion) was Thelev, played by William O'Connell.

 

Okay, thanks. I guess I haven't watched it recently enough!