“Menagerie,” 1 and 2. … Vina the dancing girl, who was painted green and caused other green-skinned women to pop up thru decades of Trek continuity, was played by Susan Oliver. Oliver’s last role appears to have been in 1988 on Freddie’s Nightmares, which was a syndicated horror anthology spun off from the Elm Street films. She appears as “a mysteriously gloomy maid who arrives at the young title character’s home and reveals herself to Judy as seemingly her own gray-haired future self. In Oliver’s final scene, she turns away from Judy and leaves the house, disappearing into the fog.” From green dancing girl to “gray-haired future self”: Hollywood has a brutal life cycle.
Tag Archives: Wiki Trek
Elisha Cook Jr., Earl Grant Titsworth, others; or, The Star Trek Wiki tour continues
“Galileo VII.”
Star Trek actors in wiki: married to David Ogden Stiers
“Miri.” … The girl in the title was supposed to be 12 or 13, but the actress was 19. A few years later she played the girl in True Grit, who was supposed to be 14. She got married five times. “After she starred in True Grit, film critics predicted that she was at the beginning of a long career as a great actress. In fact, she has made almost no films of note since.” Still, she was John Cusack’s mom in Better Off Dead (1985); David Ogden Stiers played her husband. … Michael J. Pollard played the teen who was stirring up trouble among the kids. But he was 27. I give his name because I never saw True Grit but I did see Bonnie and Clyde, where he played the second second banana, right after Gene Hackman. He got a Supporting Actor nom for that, not bad. One of his later films was Melvin and Howard (1980).
Traces of greatness among old Wiki actors
“What Are Little Girls Made Of.” Sherry Jackson. Wiki says Jackson “is probably best remembered today for her role as Terry Williams on The Danny Thomas Show (AKA Make Room for Daddy) from 1953–58.” According to Star Trek associate producer Robert Justman, the sight of Jackson in costume caused William Shatner to sweat and become crosseyed (though I don’t have the book at hand, so maybe memory exaggerates).
Old actors from Wikipedia, “Mudd’s Women” edition
“Mudd’s Women.” Roger C. Carmel, who played Harry Mudd, “was also the voice of Smokey Bear in fire safety advertisements, as well as Decepticon lieutenant Cyclonus in the popular Transformers animated series.” (update, In comments, Joe S. Walker adds that Carmel also appeared “in one of the worst films of all time, Myra Breckenridge.”)
Ted Cassidy, Eddie Paskey … it’s more first season Star Trek actors in Wiki
“What Are Little Girls Made Of?” … Ted Cassidy. He was huge and odd looking, so he played aliens and monsters (like Lurch in The Addams Family). But he started as a radio personality in Dallas, where he did on-the-scene reporting about JFK’s death:
On November 22, 1963, shortly after the John F. Kennedy assassination, Cassidy interviewed several of the witnesses, including two very close witnesses, William and Gayle Newman, after the Newmans had appeared on WFAA-TV, but before they left to go to the Dallas Sheriff’s office (no tape exists of that interview for the radio station did not start recording their broadcasts until about 1:45 PM). He also interviewed the manager of his radio station who was in the Book Depository and saw a man run out of the building shortly after the shooting. The manager offered several times to talk to Dallas police who repeatedly refused to interview him.
First Season Wiki: more old Star Trek actors
“Charlie X”: Robert Walker Jr. was the son of Jennifer Jones. She left his father for David O. Selznick when Walker was three or so, and a year later she won Best Actress for Song of Bernadette. … The character actor Abraham Sofaer’s wife was named Psyche Angela Christian.