John Colicos

File:Kor2266.jpg

As Commander Kor in TOS: "Errand of Mercy"

John Colicos (December 10, 1928 – March 6, 2000) was a Canadian actor, one of many with training and experience at the Stratford Festival (as was William Shatner and Christopher Plummer).

who played Kor, the first major Klingon seen on Star Trek. As such, Colicos defined the look of the Original Series Klingons – mustachioed menaces in the Genghis Khan mold. Originating the role in the first season episode "Errand of Mercy", Colicos was to also return as Kor in both "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "Day of the Dove", but scheduling conflicts made this impossible. Regardless, he would be able to reprise the role of Kor several more times on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Outside of Star Trek, Colicos is well-known for his role in another popular science fiction series, Battlestar Galactica. Fans of this series remember Colicos as the traitorous Baltar, who sold out humanity to the evil Cylons. Soap opera fans from the eighties may recall him as Mikkos Cassadine, a madman bent on destroying General Hospital' Port Charles. He was also among the regulars of the earlier soap opera The Secret Storm. Others who have starred in this later show include fellow Trek alumni as Bibi Besch, Cliff deYoung, Laurence Luckinbill, and Diana Muldaur.

But Colicos has many other television appearances to his credit. In 1957, he appeared with fellow TOS guest star David Opatoshu in an episode of Studio One, and in 1962, he co-starred with fellow future Klingon actor Christopher Plummer (General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of "Cyrano De Bergerac". (He would co-star with Plummer again in the 1988 film Shadow Dancing.) These early appearances were followed by three guest spots on Mission: Impossible, including one episode which also guest-starred Michael Forest (1967) and another guest-starring Ed McCready, John McLiam, Jason Wingreen, and Charles Napier (1968). The third, in 1970, occured when his TOS co-star Leonard Nimoy was a regular on the series. That same year, he and Morgan Woodward guest-starred in an episode of The High Chaparral, a series starring Henry Darrow, and also guest-starred with Phillip Pine in an episode of Then Came Bronson and with Keye Luke and Kenneth Tobey on It Takes a Thief.

Colicos would go on to guest-star in a 1972 episode of The F.B.I. with Barbara Babcock, and, in 1975, he would appear in an episode of Hawaii Five-O with George Takei, an episode of Petrocelli starring Susan Howard and David Huddleston, and a production of Harry O with Henry Darrow, Sabrina Scharf, and Anthony Zerbe. Colicos' later TV guest appearances include Charlie's Angels (with Perry Lopez), Vega$ (with Stephen Brooks and Alex Henteloff), Scarecrow and Mrs. King (with Kenneth Tigar), Beyond Reality (starring Nicole de Boer), and Fast Track (with Duncan Regehr).

He also starred in the role of Porthos in the 1960 TV movie adaptation of The Three Musketeers, co-starring Mark Lenard. Other TV movie credits include Goodbye, Raggedy Ann (1971) with Walter Koenig, Portrait: A Man Whose Name Was John (1973) with David Opatoshu and Henry Darrow, and A Matter of Wife... and Death (1976) with Marc Alaimo. He also appeared in the 1978 mini-series The Bastard with Ian Abercrombie, Kim Cattrall, John de Lancie, [[James Gregory], Alex Henteloff, and "Errand of Mercy" co-star William Shatner; the 1997 mini-series The Last Don with Kirstie Alley, Seymour Cassel, Joseph Ruskin, and Mike Starr.

Colicos had also been extremely active in film. Among his most notable works in the media were Anne of the Thousand Days (1969, with Geneviève Bujold and Whit Bissell), Doctors' Wives (1971, with Jon Lormer), Red Sky at Morning (1971, with Kim Darby, Nehemiah Persoff and Gregory Sierra), The Wrath of God (1972, co-starring Frank Langella and Gregory Sierra), Scorpio (1973, with Joanne Linville, James B. Sikking, William Smithers, and Celeste Yarnall), and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981). He had his largest film role in the latter, which also featured an appearance by fellow Klingon actor Christopher Lloyd (Kruge in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

In a career that spanned nearly five decades, Colicos has performed in nearly 100 film and television projects. His appearance as Kor in the Deep Space Nine episode "Once More Unto the Breach" in 1998 was among his last acting roles. Less than two years afterwards, Colicos passed away in his hometown of Toronto following a series of heart attacks. He was 71 years old.

Appearances

• TOS
  • "Errand of Mercy"
• DS9
  • "Blood Oath"
  • "The Sword of Kahless"
  • "Once More Unto the Breach"

External Links

• Template:IMDb-link
• John Colicos at Wikipedia