The passing of the great Micael Ansara made me think of the other oldest living actors from TOS. Holding the title, if you will, for the last several years is super-prolific character actor Don Keefer. He worked from 1947 to 1997 and will be 97 in 2 weeks. He played the fairly bland character "Cromwell' in Asssignment: Earth, but he played roles--usually as an 'everyman' in genre TV and movies for 50 years. He appeared in Lois and Clark, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Incredible Hulk, Mission: Impossible, the movie Creepshow and his last role was in the genre comedy Liar-Liar in 1997 as the begger Jim Carrey first avoids and then hands a pocketful of money to. But without a doubt most genre fans will remember him most for playing poor Dan Hollis in the "It's a Good Life" episode of the original Twilight Zone who got his courage up after a few shots of Whiskey and encouraged the gathering too "bash him (the Billy Mumy character) over the head" while he had the kids attention. And of course he got turned into a 'jack-in-the-box' for his trouble--a truely disturbing image even 50 years later. To this day when i see that episode i just wish somebody in that group of 10 people would "pick up a heavy object and bash his head in!", but alas it never happens!
Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Do you know, say, the top five list of oldest TOS actors? Just wondering who is the most prominent, at or near Ansara's level of fame. Sir Rhosis
They weren't on the Original Series, but the two oldest living Trek performers are Olaf Pooley (a bit part in "Blink of an Eye") and Norman Lloyd (Richard Galen), both of whom were born in 1914. Pooley's a bit older, being born March 14, with Lloyd's birthday being November 9. The earliest-born Trek actor was Felix Locher, who played the prematurely aged Robert Johnson in "The Deadly Years". The only known Trek actor who lived to be a hundred was Viola Stimpson, who had the line "Maybe he's singing to that man..." in ST4. She lived from 1906 to 2008.
The current 5 oldest living guest stars are 1. Keefer 97 YO 2. Janson Wingreen--Linke in Empath--also massive genre credits, including Boba Fett's voice in Empire 94 YO 3. Harry Landers--Dr Coleman in Turnabout--not too many genre credits 92 YO 4. Joseph Ruskin--Galt--'Gamesters'. Also appeared in DS9, Voyager and with the Next Gen group in Insurection!! Many, many genre credits including the Genie in the TLZ episode "Man in the Bottle' Another Great voice! 89 YO 5. William Schallert--Baris in Tribbles. Most famous of this group with a staggering 391 movie/TV acting credits!! You name he did it and appeared in many more movies than the above actors did. Was a favorite of genre director Joe Dante and he also appeared in DS9 as well. Still acting!!! Appeared multiple times on True Blood less than 2 years ago and another show since then! 91 YO What does he eat? Whatever it is it isn't much--he was always thin.
Grant, If I'm not bugging you, in the spirit of fun, who are the oldest five female guest stars still alive from TOS? SR
This fellow is also still alive apparently, not the oldest but up there... http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Robert_Phillips