Trek guest actors in maybe surprising roles

[Botany Bay]

Mission : Impossible
"Fakeout"

Veering off topic a little here, but this is Lloyd Bridges as he appeared at the time Star Trek began production. Hard to imagine him as Captain Kirk, but apparently he nearly got the role.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop drinking Saurian brandy!"

 

[Botany Bay]

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop drinking Saurian brandy!"

From the same episode :

Sid Haig (Return of the Archons)

Eli Behar (Dagger of the Mind)

 

[Botany Bay]

Mission : Impossible
"Elena"
This episode boasts a trio of TOS actors.

Stunning Barabra Luna (Mirror Mirror)

Barry Atwater (Savage Curtain)

Abraham Sofaer (what a cool name...Abraham was in Charlie X)

 

[Christopher]

What's wild about "Elena" is that it's basically an episode built entirely around guest stars. It's a solo mission for Rollin Hand, and Martin Landau was still officially billed as a recurring special guest at that point, even though he'd effectively become the series lead once Steven Hill was marginalized.

Wasn't Sofaer also the voice of the Melkot in "Spectre of the Gun"?

 

[Botany Bay]

Indeed he was a Melkot, too. Good pick up.

That's a good point about the "all guest star episode"! It's interesting in these early episodes to see that very few of the team are utilised some weeks, and, yes, Rollin/Landau is always a "guest star" at this point.

I really think Steven Hill makes a very cool team leader. I think Herb Solow wrote about having to fire Hill refusing to work weekends for religious reasons or something? A shame, I think he's great.

 

[EnsignHarper]

Indeed he was a Melkot, too. Good pick up.

That's a good point about the "all guest star episode"! It's interesting in these early episodes to see that very few of the team are utilised some weeks, and, yes, Rollin/Landau is always a "guest star" at this point.

I really think Steven Hill makes a very cool team leader. I think Herb Solow wrote about having to fire Hill refusing to work weekends for religious reasons or something? A shame, I think he's great.

Hill is a very conservative Orthodox Jew. So he was VERY strict about observing the Sabbath, so that of course complicated matters shooting wise. The one great story is about him refusing to continue shooting until he could do a certain prayer - which required other Jewish males. So Solow had to scurry around Desilu gathering Shatner, Nimoy (in full Vulcan makeup!), and others to please Hill. A picture of that would be priceless...

 

[Christopher]

Actually the straw that broke the camel's back wasn't about Hill's religious observances, but about his adamant refusal to do a rather simple ladder-climbing stunt. He actually walked off the set and locked himself in his trailer, and as a result he was briefly suspended (and his role dropped altogether from the episode "Action!"). For the rest of the season, his role was diminished to simply assembling and briefing the team in the opening scenes, without joining them on the missions. Although the episodes were aired out of production order so the episodes in which he played a major role are scattered throughout the season.

 

[FormerLurker]

^That actually goes a long way toward explaining Hill's important, but ultimately minor role as the DA on Law & Order for all those years. He does good work, but will only do so much of it. The shooting schedule must have been arranged around when he was willing to work.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Today's theme is 23rd-century medical officers who used to be 19th-century army officers. I almost didn't recognize John Hoyt in beard and uniform on an AMC airing of The Rifleman this morning...though I knew who he was by the time he spent some time in the jail of fellow pilot doctor Paul (series regular Micah Torrance) Fix. Now De Kelley's sporting army blues on a Me-TV airing of Bonanza. Damn you and your infernal Cartwright logic, Hoss!

 

[Forbin]

Anthony Caruso popped up in the 5th season Mannix I watched this week, "Wine from these grapes", as the head of a California vineyard. Oddly enough he didn't turn out to be the killer.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^That actually goes a long way toward explaining Hill's important, but ultimately minor role as the DA on Law & Order for all those years. He does good work, but will only do so much of it. The shooting schedule must have been arranged around when he was willing to work.

Then again, the DA (not the assistants, but the DA) on L&O never gets to do much anyway except sit in his office and say "Make the deal." None of the post-Adam Schiff DAs really deviated from this either.

 

[ToddPence]

A classic. Roger Carmel in THREE'S COMPANY.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Some, off the top of my head, that were probably already mentioned:
*Sid Haig was a gangster in the James Bond film Diamonds are Forever and is known by many of us 80s kids as the villain from Jason of Star Command. (And, he now plays characters in Rob Zombie films).

Sid Haig was also in Coffy w/Pam Grier...also playing a villain.

*Roger C. Carmel was in the Clint Eastwood film Breezy. The friend of the fifty-something protagonist portrayed by William Holden who is dating the onscreen girl of the title who is around 17 years old.

*I still find it funny that Fred Williamson was in an episode of Star Trek. Williamson was in a lot of films in the 1970s, and in later years. In That Man Bolt, he portrayed the courier Jefferson Bolt who came across a love interest in Hong Kong portrayed by another Trek performer, Miko Mayama.

*The actor who portrayed Cloud William from 'The Omega Glory' I recall was a detective (?) in Chinatown with Jack Nicholson. He was also a villain in the Paul Newman film Harper.

*Pamelyn Ferdin, who I understand was big during the 70s, voiced Lucy van Pelt in a Charlie Brown episode I used to watch frequently as a little kid - Play it Again, Charlie Brown. I also saw her - thanks to Youtube - in episodes of Vega$,Beretta, Odd Couple, Shazam, and Streets of San Francisco. (I understand that she is a big animal rights activist right now, and seems to be pretty serious about it).

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The actor who portrayed Cloud William from 'The Omega Glory' I recall was a detective (?) in Chinatown with Jack Nicholson. He was also a villain in the Paul Newman film Harper.

And in Soylent Green.

 

[Forbin]

*Pamelyn Ferdin, who I understand was big during the 70s, voiced Lucy van Pelt in a Charlie Brown episode I used to watch frequently as a little kid - Play it Again, Charlie Brown. I also saw her - thanks to Youtube - in episodes of Vega$,Beretta, Odd Couple, Shazam, and Streets of San Francisco. (I understand that she is a big animal rights activist right now, and seems to be pretty serious about it).

Si. I just saw an episode of Penn & Teller's "Bullshit" that ripped her a new one and made her look pretty crazy.

 

[Christopher]

Pamelyn Ferdin and Brian Tochi, who appeared together in "And the Children Shall Lead," were both regulars on Filmation's Space Academy.

 

[J.T.B.]

*The actor who portrayed Cloud William from 'The Omega Glory' I recall was a detective (?) in Chinatown with Jack Nicholson.

Chinatown is one of my favorite movies and I knew Roy Jenson from other shows, but for some reason it was many years before I realized it was him in "The Omega Glory."

Jenson and Ken Lynch are in an "Andy Griffith" together.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

*Pamelyn Ferdin, who I understand was big during the 70s, voiced Lucy van Pelt in a Charlie Brown episode I used to watch frequently as a little kid - Play it Again, Charlie Brown. I also saw her - thanks to Youtube - in episodes of Vega$,Beretta, Odd Couple, Shazam, and Streets of San Francisco. (I understand that she is a big animal rights activist right now, and seems to be pretty serious about it).

Si. I just saw an episode of Penn & Teller's "Bullshit" that ripped her a new one and made her look pretty crazy.

Sounds interesting. I'm going to have to catch that episode....

 

[EnsignHarper]

ME-tv just had a Hogan's from very late in its run, with Joseph (Galt) Ruskin as a particularly nasty Gestapo man.

(very late Hogan's: post Kinch, with the other black guy who suddenly showed up.)