Baby L.J. Akarr

Was the unhappy little baby actor credited?

 

According to Memory Alpha, the name of the infant actor is unknown.

 

Wow. This episode was filmed 47 years ago in May. Assuming that the baby was around 6 months old when filmed, that means the person who portrayed Leonard James Akaar is 48 years old now!

 

Yes, his name was William Shatner and he was unhappy because Nimoy was getting a lot more fan mail.

 

Holy crap. It never occurred to me as I enjoyed this ep over the years that little Leonard James Aka'ar would have to be, at most, several months younger than I was.

Thank you very much for transforming those baby scenes from sugary-gooey embarrassing to creepy!

Ooooochie-woochie-koooochie-koo. And hand that kid off to mama 'cause it smells like changing time!

 

Awwww. Mean!

 

That little child should be very rich by now from all the royalties coming from the infinite reruns of TO$. Hey kid, I'm available for adoption!

 

I read somewhere -- possibly one of Leonard Nimoy's autobiographies -- that the actors got residuals the first FIVE times the episodes were shown. After that, they get nothing. (And even that only applies to the main actors.)

 

Shatner gave an interview once where he told of talking with a former Paramount Pictures Accountant. This person told Shatner that Paramount made a profit of at least a billion dollars off of the whole ST franchise. Not bad for a canceled 1960's TV show.

 

Oh, yeah, PARAMOUNT made loads of money! I read that they called the TOS episodes "the 79 jewels" because they'd been worth so much. But the actors (possibly aside from Shatner, who I think had a different deal than the other actors) didn't get much of that.

I'd buy so much more Star Trek stuff if I thought the money went to Gene Coon and Bob Justman and Dorothy Fontana and people like that, rather than to the suits at Paramount.

 

Filmed in May '67, when I was 1 year and 3 months old.

 

^ I would have been over negative two decades !

 

Not to mention that Shatner was counting the baby's lines and had three waaaaa waaaas cut.

 

^Sylvester Stallone had a famous quote once..."Actors are little children in adult bodies."

 

That would be so cool if little baby Akaar grew up to be an actor and was working in the new ST movies.

 

Contracts and residuals in the 1960s didn't anticipate home video or other future technology, so the actors get none of that.

 

Also, Shatner and Roddenberry's percentages were halved due to divorces. Another point to remember, TOS was not a syndication success story right out of the gate. So, it's first years in reruns were not so profitable.

This topic always brings up a fascinating factoid regarding Gilligan"s Island (another hugely successful syndication story). It seems that Dawn Wells, whose husband at the time was also her agent, did get her a percentage stake in the show because CBS didn't think the series would last beyond the first few episodes.

 

Poor Paramount profited immensely from ST, while the actors labored to pay their mortgages. After TOS ended, Shatner lived in a trailer for a while because he was dead broke. Corporate greed and divorce sure screwed Shatner.

 

They (and Desilu)also took most of the risk. (finacially)

 

Meanwhile, little baby Akaar.....if you are out there in cyberspace, log on to Trek BBS and tell us how you are! I have the feeling that he is a studio CEO or something in that capacity. Maybe Paramount?