Trek guest actors in maybe surprising roles

[J.T.B.]

You have to wonder why Rockford didn't move the trailer more often to avoid various bad guys. I mean, it's a mobile home.

Well, once you have a prime spot right on a Malibu beach, you probably don't want to give it up!

Although I do remember one episode where he took it out to the woods to hide out from someone.

If it's the one I'm thinking of, a great two-parter called The House on Willis Avenue, I'm pretty sure they took it to Franklin Canyon (AKA the Miramanee planet):

I never watched Murder, She Wrote back in the day, because I thought it was for "old" people, but now I've been catching it on CoziTv and it is a bonanza for guest stars from earlier generations. Plus William Windom had a recurring role, how can you go wrong. Here's a two-for-one from 1989, Marj "What is Brain?" Dusay about to be questioned by Morgan Woodward (Gene Barry/Bat Masterson is a non-Trek bonus):

 

[Nerys Myk]

Looks like Jim and Rocky were fishin' at Myers Lake in Mayberry.

 

[inflatabledalek]

Not so much a Trek actor but a Trek name...

My rewatch of Knight Rider has reached the one with James (or "Jamie" as he was credited then) Cromwell in it. But what really stands out is that the evil villain of the week he's working for is called... Shatner.

Now, I'm sure it's not that uncommon a name but I don't recall ever seeing a fictional character called that before (and whilst it might be coincidence presumably the writer would have been aware they were co-opting the name of a pop-culture icon even if they had another inspiration for it). And because this character doesn't seen to have a first name the entire episode is full of everyone going around snarling "SHAT-NER!" over and over again. It becomes quite hypnotic, especially how they all make it sound as if it's the worst possible word to say on television.

Frankly it winds up feeling, however unintended, as if the writer had some sort of a grudge against old Bill.

Does anyone know if George Takei ever wrote any televison?

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, I've often found it interesting that I've never heard of anyone else named Shatner, Nimoy, Doohan, or Takei except for family members of those Trek actors. I think I came across a Schattner once, but that was as close as it got. I don't think I've come across any unrelated person named Roddenberry either.

 

[mb22]

A Schattner family (second or third cousins to Bill) lived in my neighborhood about 30 years ago.

 

[Forbin]

My weekly Mannix this week was the season 7 finale faeturing the obligatory 1970s "hero gets strung out on heroin" plot line. Once again Paul Carr shows up:

And Roger Perry for a twofer!

Dooming the first Saturn probe, Kelso shoots Captain Christopher!

And, since it's Paul Carr, gets shot himself. Again.

 

[Christopher]

Dooming the first Saturn probe, Kelso shoots Captain Christopher!

Is that the moment when the Mannix timeline diverged from the Star Trek timeline?

 

[FormerLurker]

William Campbell's coolness factor is higher than I thought...he was in Love Me Tender in 1956, when Elvis was the coolest thing on the planet.

Being relief pilot to John Wayne and Robert Stack was pretty cool, too.

]

When the ZAZ guys said Robert Stack's character flew in the war in "Airplane", they weren't kidding, were they?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ And he wasn't kidding: flying a plane is no different from riding a bike. It's just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes.

 

[Christopher]

When the ZAZ guys said Robert Stack's character flew in the war in "Airplane", they weren't kidding, were they?

That's pretty much what the joke in Airplane was -- that so many of its cast members were the exact actors you'd cast in a totally serious version of the same story.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ And the other part of that joke was that they never said which war it was, so they could just use it as a throwaway line...

 

[Push The Button]

I love this thread, it never disappoints.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Hello there
Long time lurker first time poster. I don't know if this has been mentioned upthread but I just watched the first season of 'The Six Million Dollar Man', and there in the first episode is Paul Carr playing a police officer. Later in the first season Gary Lockwood shows up playing an assassin, and I just recently watched the movie 'The Devil at 4 O'clock' with Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra and there was a young Barbara Luna playing a native girl suffering from leprosy.

 

[FormerLurker]

Gary Lockwood showed up more than once on 'The Six Million Dollar Man', playing a set of identical twins who were both assassins, con men, and 'foreign spies'. Steve Austin had dealings with both of them, until one was killed off and the other sought revenge, resulting in his own death.

Kind of cool, I guess. Gets two death scenes playing essentially the same character.

 

[ToddPence]

Hello there
Long time lurker first time poster. I don't know if this has been mentioned upthread but I just watched the first season of 'The Six Million Dollar Man', and there in the first episode is Paul Carr playing a police officer. Later in the first season Gary Lockwood shows up playing an assassin, and I just recently watched the movie 'The Devil at 4 O'clock' with Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra and there was a young Barbara Luna playing a native girl suffering from leprosy.

In that first episode ("Popoulation Zero") also appearing along with Carr is his "Where No Man Has Gone Before" co-star Paul Fix (Dr. Piper).

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Just watched an episode of Laramie and there was Peter Duryea as a cowboy. Had to wait for the credits to be sure. Then just the other night I caught an old Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone and there was Ian Wolfe, Mr. Atoz himself, looking almost exactly as he did when he appeared on Star Trek 20 years later. He's like Patrick Stewart in that he went bald at an early age and never seemed to grow older after that.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Yeah, I think I saw Wolfe on an episode of Hopalong Cassidy from the early 50s, and my reaction was, "Was that guy ever young?"

 

[mb22]

Wolfe in Mad Love (1935) at age 39:

http://threestooges.net/albums/cast/Ian_Wolfe.jpg

He played the father of Colin Clive who was 35.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"ERROR 403 - FORBIDDEN"

Did an image search, though, and the guy was still no spring chicken.

 

[Stevil2001]

Not a "guest" actor, but I had to rewind and rewatch when James Doohan put in a fifteen-second appearance in 1965's 36 Hours as a junior officer. Was not expecting that!