The first Klingon has died

Locutus

Locutus

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Star Trek’s original Klingon, Michael Ansara, dies

The actor, who played the villainous Kang, died Wednesday at his home in Calabasas, Calif. after a long illness. He was 91.


Star Trek’s original Klingon, Michael Ansara, dies | Toronto Star

 
WLDB

WLDB

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Unfortunate. I quite liked his character. I was surprised when they brought him back for an episode of DS9. I enjoyed that one.
 
coldstream

coldstream

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Ohh yeah.. i remember the episode.. one of the best in the original series imho. The series was noted for its solid script writing, accomplished acting, the tightly knit interplay of its characters.. and a wry humour.

AND it wasn't filled with the politically correct preaching, especially of the feminist vein.. that marred the later series.. and sapped them of their energy.

I don't think anyone played the ruthless pragmatism of the Klingon character better than Ansara. RIP.
 
WLDB

WLDB

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coldstream said:
Ohh yeah.. i remember the episode.. one of the best in the original series imho. The series was noted for its solid script writing, accomplished acting, the tightly knit interplay of its characters.. and a wry humour.

AND it wasn't filled with the politically correct preaching, especially of the feminist vein.. that marred the later series.. and sapped them of their energy.
Click to expand...

Indeed. I find the writing has held up surprisingly well for the most part even though the effects and sets havent.

As for the PC stuff they would have if they could have. In the first pilot they had a strong female character as the first officer but apparently the network wasnt "ready" for such a character. They still managed to get away with a lot of social commentary by vaguely disguising it with aliens and sci-fi.

The later series didnt really bother me in anyway. I liked some more than others. DS9 was my personal favourite.

petros said:
Klingons are space Muzzies.
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I believe they were based off the Japanese actually.
 
coldstream

coldstream

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WLDB said:
Indeed. I find the writing has held up surprisingly well for the most part even though the effects and sets havent.

As for the PC stuff they would have if they could have. In the first pilot they had a strong female character as the first officer but apparently the network wasnt "ready" for such a character. They still managed to get away with a lot of social commentary by vaguely disguising it with aliens and sci-fi.

.
Click to expand...


The network was right.. a female lead would have completely destroyed the chemistry between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. As for the social commentary.. i didn't mind it.. it wasn't anywhere near as grating as the posturing, whining and gush of the later series.. which had none of the rich irony of the original. I'm not sure i watched more than an episode or two and never went back to any of them.
 
L Gilbert

L Gilbert

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91 is pretty good. A friend who is a stuntartist/standin says he met Ansara a couple times off screen and he seemed to be a friendly, bright, tall, open type guy.
I've seen him doing character parts in quite a few things and a couple years ago, the history channel or some retro channel of some sort had a tv duster series on that starred Ansara called The Law of the Plainsmen, I think. Did a lot of voices for cartoons and other stuff. Pretty distinctive voice.
Sympathies to his family, friends, n fans.

Couple quotes of his:
"That has been one of the best, most rewarding things about being an actor -- traveling throughout the world, meeting all kinds of different people and learning about other cultures."

"We're all human. We have our foibles, we've made mistakes and yet there is still greatness."
 
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