Saturday, August 3, 2013

MICHAEL ANSARA (1922 - 2013) - KANG!


Syrian-born American actor Michael Ansara died on Wednesday, at the age of 91.

Late last night before going to bed, I thought I would check the news headlines. I was just thinking of Mr. Ansara a few weeks ago since something reminded me of the third-season Star Trek episode "Day of the Dove" where he played just about the meanest Klingon to appear in that classic series. The actor's portrayal of Commander Kang ran the gamut from scary to charming.

He will probably always be identified most with that role, even though he acted in hours of films and television.


With Michael Ansara's passing, all the actors who played the key Klingons are gone: John Colicos (Kor, from "Errand of Mercy"), William Campbell (Koloth, from "The Trouble With Tribbles"), and Tige Andrews (Kras, from "Friday's Child").

Obituary from Variety...
http://variety.com/2013/tv/news/michael-ansara-obit-1200573026/

4 comments:

Greg Woods said...

I guess only Bob Herron remains (Kahless from "The Savage Curtain").

Barry Smight said...

Of course, Bob Herron! (The stuntman/actor.) I forgot about Kahless, from one of my favourite episodes, "The Savage Curtain". I was thinking of key Klingons but he is definitely one... to the viewer, and his people.

There is also the actor who played the unnamed Klingon from "A Private Little War", but his 'weight' was smaller. And I don't know who played him.

Thanks for your comment, and clarification!

Greg Woods said...

http://space-doubt.blogspot.ca/2013/03/a-private-litttle-war.html

According to this, the unnamed Klingon is called "Krell" (which keeps in thinking with the names always strarting with K); thus according to the IMDB, he is played by Ned Romero. This fits, as the actor has multi-cultural heritage, and has played many ethnic parts, especially Natives.

Barry Smight said...

Yes! I did look that up on the IMDB and saw Ned Romero as "Krell". I thought he was probably the Klingon character. (I was going to post that but wanted to be sure; there is so much bad info on the Internet.)

And, yes, Romero had quite the career.

Thanks!