Such a handsome man and soul. Loved him in Star Trek episodes.
Born in Syria, Mr. Ansara mostly played ethnic roles, Indians being a particular specialty. He became a star in the 1950s on the ABC television show “Broken Arrow,” a fictionalized account of the friendship between the Apache chief Cochise, played by Mr. Ansara, and the Indian agent Tom Jeffords, played by John Lupton.
“Broken Arrow” was on the air from 1956 to 1958. A year later, Mr. Ansara was back on television as another Apache, on the short-lived NBC series “Law of the Plainsman.” This time he played a United States marshal with a Harvard degree.
Indian roles kept coming, on shows like “Wagon Train” and “Gunsmoke” and in movies like “Texas Across the River” (1966). But he was also cast as an Egyptian taskmaster in “The Ten Commandments,” the 1956 epic with Charlton Heston; as Judas Iscariot in “The Robe” (1953), with Richard Burton and Jean Simmons; and an Arabian prince who kidnaps an American movie star, played by Elvis Presley, in “Harum Scarum” (1965).
His long résumé included characters who were Italian, Hispanic and, once in a while, even Americans of no particular ethnicity.
In one of his most memorable roles he embodied another species altogether, as the evil Klingon leader Kang in “Star Trek.” He played the part, complete with wing-like eyebrows, on the original television series in 1968 and reprised the role for two of its TV descendants: “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Voyager.” He was one of a handful of actors to play the same part on three different “Star Trek” series.
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