Unexpected post-acting careers of TOS guest stars

[JonnyQuest037]

So today I was adding in information for the character of Finnegan in my Star Trek Timeline (in the absence of any birth date information, I'm continuing Michael and Denise Okuda's tradition of giving characters their actors' birthdays wherever possible), and, in double-checking actor Bruce Mars' birth date, I discovered something quite unexpected: The actor behind Finnegan has become a monk! From Mars' Wikipedia page:

Mars quit the acting profession to become a monk with the Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles and eventually took the name Brother Paramananda. He said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2004 about his spiritual awakening, "The words 'karma' and 'reincarnation' are being thrown around everywhere, even in sports - at some TV basketball game, a guy tried a shot and couldn't make it, and the radio announcer said it was his karma. I went the whole hog and became a monk and walked away. Nowadays people don't have to run away to meditate. There are doctors, lawyers, a mother with three children - anyone can do it. There's more acceptance." During his time at the Fellowship, he conversed with Elvis Presley on several occasions, who on one occasion said to Paramananda, "Man, you made the right choice. People don't know my life or that I sometimes cry myself to sleep because I don't know God."

Since Finnegan becoming a monk is THE most unexpected thing I could have imagined, I thought that this might make a fun companion thread to the Trek guest actors in maybe surprising roles thread. So who else do we know of that quit the acting game and got into another field after guest-starring on TOS back in the sixties? I remember reading in a TV Guide or Entertainment Weekly Star Trek special that Bruce Hyde (Kevin Riley) later became a college professor teaching acting. Anyone else have any other cool post-acting professions for TOS guest stars?

 

[Methuselah Flint]

I had no idea he played Charley in AE!

 

[remember...]

Arnold lessing
Who played a red shirt in a ups
Episode taught guitar for santa Monica
College for many years

 

[J.T.B.]

She acted for another 20 years after Star Trek, but in the late '80s France Nuyen got her master's in psychology and did counseling work with at-risk women and women in prison.

Harry Townes was an ordained Episcopalian minister.

Michael Barrier went into the Coast Guard as a legal officer, having gone to law school after he quit acting.
https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by-Topic/Notable-People/Celebrities-and-Famous-People/

 

[FormerLurker]

Bruce Hyde (Kevin Riley) later became a college professor teaching acting.

So did Lawrence Montaigne. Unless he taught high school. When he was a guest at Star Fest in Denver he stated he was a drama teacher.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Most of us know that Billy Blackburn was a professional ice skater.

Yvonne Craig became a real estate broker.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Most of us know that Billy Blackburn was a professional ice skater.

I'd forgotten that! Thanks for the reminder!

Yvonne Craig became a real estate broker.

I know that she started out as a ballerina, but I don't think I realized that she became a real estate broker. I guess she suffered from a lot of typecasting after her Batgirl days were over.

BTW, writer Mark Evanier has a couple of great stories about getting to know Ms. Craig at comics conventions. You can read them here.

 

[Kor]

Eddie Paskey (Lt. Leslie and others) ran an auto detailing shop in later years.

Craig Huxley aka Craig Hundley (Peter Kirk and Tommy Starnes) did some more acting roles into the 1970s, but his show biz career went in a more musical direction. He led a few jazz albums as pianist, and he has also been a studio musician, composer and soundtrack producer. He invented the "blaster beam," and he has music credits on TAS, TNG, and several Trek movies, among many other non-Trek productions.

Kor

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Deborah Downey (the blonde space hippie) is known as Deborah Lyons now, and she's an accomplished portrait artist:
http://www.deborahlyonsportraits.com/
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Deborah_Downey

 

[FormerLurker]

As stated on that Memory Alpha page, she is/was an accomplished singer, and could have made a career out of that if she had wanted to. I like her paintings.