Saturday, July 03, 2010
The Cult-TV Faces of: Mark Lenard
award-winning creator of Enter The House Between and author of 32 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).
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Ok....here we go.....
ReplyDelete#1; Romulan Commander, Star Trek "Balance of Terror"
#2:Sarek, Star Trek "Journey to Babel"
#3:Aristo Skora, Mission:Impossible 'Nitro"
#4:Urko, Planet of the Apes, Unknown episode
#5:Mr Slater, Incredible Hulk, "Captive Night"???
#6:Commander Perel Sightings, otherworld, "The Zone Troopers Build Men"
I am confidant for my first 3 and for Urko, but the 5th and 6th ones are real shots in the dark.
I do miss This fine character actor. I always enjoyed his appearances in Mission, as well as Star Trek. Mission also had several other top notch character actors, including:
John Vernon
John Larch
Lloyd Bochner
Albert Paulsen
Pernell Roberts
Barry Sullivan
Ruth Roman
Anthony Zerbe
John Colicos
Logan Ramsay
and many many others......
Damn, now i know why I don't watch too many newer shows, all the character actors I grew up with are gone:-(
1. Romulan Commander from "Star Trek: Balance of Terror"
ReplyDelete2. Sarek in "Star Trek: Journey To Babel"
3. Mission Impossible
4. Urko from "Planet of the Apes"
5. Ambassador Duvoe from "Buck Rogers: Journey to Oasis"
6. Commander Perel Sightings from "Otherworld: The Zone Troopers Build Men"
Mark Lenard was a very good actor and a nice guy. You can hear interviews with him from 1985 and 1988 at www.captphilonline.com/EssentialDestinies.html
1. Romulan Commander: Star Trek (OS), BALANCE OF TERROR.
ReplyDelete2. Sarek: Star Trek (OS), JOURNEY TO BABEL.
4. Urko: Planet of the Apes (t.v. series). Can't name the episode, though.
5.Duvoe: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, OASIS two parter.
Top picture Star Trek:Balance of Terror as the Romulan Commander.
ReplyDelete2nd phot as Sarek from Star Trek the original series.
I'd say picture 3 looks like an episode of Mission Impossible.
4 is Urko from Planet of the Apes. % is from Buck Roger's in the 25th Century and the last one is from Otherworld:The Zone Troopers Build Men I think !!
If only there was some sort of clue as to the origin of picture No.4.
ReplyDeleteSome special make-up or something that the actor was wearing ;-)
Hi everybody,
ReplyDeleteGreat job recognizing the various roles/episodes of Mark Lenard.
Dan Briggs: you were the first to get all the roles save for # 5. Congrats.
Howard - you got all the roles right, including # 5, which was Duvoe from Buck!
But everydone did a fantastic job!!!
best,
John
I never noticed before how similar Mark Lenard looks to Martin Landau.
ReplyDeleteNate:
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you mention that. I've always thought there was a similar appearance/physicality among Lenard, Landau, Leonard Nimoy and Jonathan Frid. They are all the same type; with similar coloring even.
And they are all awesome...
Thanks for the comment!
best,
JKM
John and Nate,
DeleteI never thought of it, either, but those four definitely bear resemblances to each other.... and, whether by coincidence or not, I've always liked all four in just about every role they've played. And yep, I was one of those kids hooked on "Dark Shadows" (along with my sister and mother) from 1967 to 1971. Barnabas Collins will always be "our favorite vampire"! Regards,
Mike Douglas
Great character actor, who I'll always think of first and foremost in the Screen Gems TV series "Here Come the Brides" (1968-70). Lenard played a "good bad-guy" named Aaron Stempel, who owned a sawmill in tiny 1870s Seattle. He and Jason Bolt (Robert Brown), who along with his two brothers, had the biggest logging operation in the area, were usually at "loggerheads" over the future of Seattle, and who would run things. While early episodes showed Stempel as a rather greedy and unpleasant sort, he did "mellow" as the series progressed, and often ended up siding with the Bolts when the future of Seattle was at stake.
ReplyDelete"Star Trek" fans who've never seen "Here Come the Brides" may still remember his Aaron Stempel character from the "Star Trek" book "Ishmael" by Barbara Hambly (1985). This strange installment brought the "Star Trek" characters together with the "Here Come the Brides" characters, in a surprising, but ultimately enjoyable plot. The USS Enterprise has to do some "time travel" back to the past, and ends up in the 1870's Seattle of "Here Come the Brides". The book suggests that Spock's mother Amanda was a descendent of Aaron Stempel! Thus, in a sense, Mark Lenard was both Spock's father, and an ancestor of Spock's on his mother's side!
Other strange tie-ins are Jane Wyatt, who plays Amanda, also appeared in a "Here Come the Brides" episode. And Robert Brown, who was the star of "Here Come the Brides" as logger Jason Bolt -- guest starred in "Star Trek" as Lazarus! Hmmm.... maybe Jason Bolt was an ancestor of Lazarus?
Both seasons of "Here Come the Brides" are now available on DVD, and I would recommend it to anyone, "Star Trek" fan or not! It's a whimsical mixture of comedy and drama, based (very very loosely!) on an actual event in Seattle's history, when an enterprising young man named Asa Mercer went back East (actually he made 2 trips) to induce young women to move to the wilds of Seattle, where men greatly outnumbered women. Seattle-ites of today would recognize Mercer's name, given to a main street downtown, and to Mercer Island in Lake Washington. The show also starred teen idol Bobby Sherman, and future TV star David Soul, as Jason Bolt's younger brothers. Henry Beckman, who had a small but pivotal role in 1965's "The Satan Bug" as the director of the secret biolab, is a comic joy as the drunken, reprobate sea captain who brings the brides to Seattle and decides to stay.