Trek guest actors in maybe surprising roles
- Thread starter Maurice
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Watching 'Quincy' on MeTV and there's Robert Walker Jr. playing twenty-something accused of murder. Although I'm having a harder time believing him as twenty-something when he was probably pushing 40 than I did when he was twenty-something playing Charlie Evans at 17.
Would it be Kras of me to mention that DECADES is running a Mod Squad Weekend Binge...?
While we're talking about Celia Lovsky, how many times did I watch 'Soylent Green' before I realized she was the 'book' that Edward G. Robinson goes to speak to learn about Simonson and the Soylent Corporation?
Mannix, season 8 opener -
"But Mr. Mannix, why can't I pay you in Tribbles?"
About two years before his suicide, too.
My Man From UNCLE watch reached a milestone this week: the Shatner/Nimoy episode! It really didn't disappoint. Great, well thought out fun that really gave David McCallum a chance to show off for the first time.
The surprising thing was Shatner himself. The received wisdom seems to be he was much more of a "Proper" (to use an unfair term) character actor before Trek and it's only during and after than show the full hamosaurus we all now know and love fully emerged. This isn't the case here, he gets to play drunk, drugged and stressed and pretty much goes exactly as large as you'd expect, especially during the drunk scene that contains his first meeting with Nimoy (mind, he's actually playing a man who is only pretending to be drunk and scared--though he is really drugged at one point--so he may in fact very cleverly be conveying how a non actor would play those things. But considering that he does this in exactly the way you'd expect William Shatner to play a scene like that for real, perhaps not).
However, and all credit to the man, his star quality shines through. The over the top moments are fun rather than cringe inducing and he completely and utterly dominates every single scene he's in, even against the two power houses of charisma that are Vaughn and McCallum. If you caught this episode randomly without having heard of William Shatner you'd expect him to go on and do great things, and would probably IMDB him out of curiosity.
Nimoy on the other hand is perfectly fine in his supporting henchman role, but even with his last scene allowing some grandstanding, if you'd not heard of him before he wouldn't really stand out to you.
The only downside was how bad Shatner's wig was, vastly inferior to his Trek ones and actually less convincing that the brunette wig David McCallum had to wear in-story as a disguise and which we see get pulled off!
The surprising thing was Shatner himself. The received wisdom seems to be he was much more of a "Proper" (to use an unfair term) character actor before Trek and it's only during and after than show the full hamosaurus we all now know and love fully emerged. This isn't the case here, he gets to play drunk, drugged and stressed and pretty much goes exactly as large as you'd expect, especially during the drunk scene that contains his first meeting with Nimoy (mind, he's actually playing a man who is only pretending to be drunk and scared--though he is really drugged at one point--so he may in fact very cleverly be conveying how a non actor would play those things. But considering that he does this in exactly the way you'd expect William Shatner to play a scene like that for real, perhaps not).
However, and all credit to the man, his star quality shines through. The over the top moments are fun rather than cringe inducing and he completely and utterly dominates every single scene he's in, even against the two power houses of charisma that are Vaughn and McCallum. If you caught this episode randomly without having heard of William Shatner you'd expect him to go on and do great things, and would probably IMDB him out of curiosity.
Nimoy on the other hand is perfectly fine in his supporting henchman role, but even with his last scene allowing some grandstanding, if you'd not heard of him before he wouldn't really stand out to you.
The only downside was how bad Shatner's wig was, vastly inferior to his Trek ones and actually less convincing that the brunette wig David McCallum had to wear in-story as a disguise and which we see get pulled off!
Was watching "Two on a Guillotine," an old haunted-house thriller from 1965, when who should pop up as a lawyer but John Hoyt from "The Cage." Alas, he only sticks around lone enough to conduct a reading of a will before disappearing from the plot.
Fun old movie, though, that also stars Connie Stevens, Dean Jones, and Cesar Romero.
Fun old movie, though, that also stars Connie Stevens, Dean Jones, and Cesar Romero.
Ok first no haters but I was watching Rocky 4 (can't say how many times I have seen it but thought I had seen this character before - Nicoli Koloff, Drago's manager. It is Michael Pataki - Korax the Klingon in "Trouble with Tribbles."
"I meant to say that the Italian Stallion should be hauled away AS GAR-BAGE."
Recently watched an old science fiction movie called 'Gog' (which by the way I would recommend watching just for the design of the title robots 'Gog' and 'Magog') and there was a young William Schallert in probably one of his first movie roles as a assistant lab technician who helps with the programming of the robots. He's only in the movie for two scenes but he's unmistakable.
I remember Gog, and not fondly. It's stuck in the first act for nearly the entire film. Very dull stuff, basically a faux documentary about space science with a really tenuous plot to justify it.
@ Christopher
While I'll agree with you that it's all build up to a rushed final act and the science behind some of it is terrible, I'll give them points for trying something different; rather than the giant insects or bug eyed monsters that dominated the screen in the fifties it was a more 'down to earth' threat about an unknown power (possibly Soviet) trying to disrupt the space program. That and the underground bunker with its color coded levels being a potential influence on 'The Andromeda Strain'.
While I'll agree with you that it's all build up to a rushed final act and the science behind some of it is terrible, I'll give them points for trying something different; rather than the giant insects or bug eyed monsters that dominated the screen in the fifties it was a more 'down to earth' threat about an unknown power (possibly Soviet) trying to disrupt the space program. That and the underground bunker with its color coded levels being a potential influence on 'The Andromeda Strain'.
^Well, as I said in my blog review linked above, I think it's the weakest of the three science-oriented films from the same producers. Riders to the Stars is the best one. (The other, The Magnetic Monster, is bizarre in the way it tries to pass off a story about a totally inanimate hazardous substance as if it were a monster movie.)
The Magnetic Monster sounds like an episode of Jonny Quest.
@ Christopher
My apologies, I didn't realize that was a link to your blog post in your reply. I read it and agree with your conclusions. (Still figuring out how posts work on this board.)
P.S.
Not to derail the thread, but if you're interested in old sci-fi movies Christopher, if you don't already have them I would recommend 'Keep Watching The Skies!' by Bill Warren. It's a two volume set of movie reviews and observations covering 1950-1962. They were printed in 1982 and 1986 respectively.
My apologies, I didn't realize that was a link to your blog post in your reply. I read it and agree with your conclusions. (Still figuring out how posts work on this board.)
P.S.
Not to derail the thread, but if you're interested in old sci-fi movies Christopher, if you don't already have them I would recommend 'Keep Watching The Skies!' by Bill Warren. It's a two volume set of movie reviews and observations covering 1950-1962. They were printed in 1982 and 1986 respectively.
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With punch tape:
That used to be shown on the local TV station's "science fiction theater" movie program in the '70s. As a kid I thought it was pretty good, and a little scary. It also features a fairly rare (and ugly) McCulloch tandem rotor helicopter, which probably looked quite futuristic at the time.
But that reminds me that Schallert, with kind of a scientist/beatnik beard, had a pretty big part in a slightly older movie that they also used to show on that program: The Man From Planet X.
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