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Marc Alaimo (born 5 May 1942; age 81) is the actor who played Gul Dukat in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also voiced the role in the video game Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars. Alaimo also appears in the documentary What We Left Behind.

Before landing in the role of Dukat, Alaimo played several other characters in Star Trek. He holds the honor of playing one of the first two Romulans seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation era as well as the first Cardassian seen in the Star Trek saga. Nicknamed "The Neck" for his prominent neck muscles, Alaimo influenced makeup supervisor Michael Westmore's design of the Cardassian makeup, as Westmore based the race's neck ridges on Alaimo's physique.

Several costumes worn by Alaimo in Star Trek were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including his Breen suit from the episode "Indiscretion", which was later worn by background performer Todd Slayton. [1]

Career[]

Television[]

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as Michael Joseph Alaimo , he started his acting career with the Marquette University Players and the Milwaukee Repertory Theater in the 1960s. Making his homebase New York City, he performed with various theatre companies in New York and with touring companies across the country. While in New York in 1971, he acquired his first television role, playing the recurring character of Frank Barton during the 1971-1972 season of the soap opera The Doctors. He followed that up with a recurring role on another soap, Somerset, from 1972-1973. Alaimo is not the only Star Trek veteran to perform on the soap opera Somerset. Others include Bibi Besch, Nicholas Coster, Bruce Gray, DS9 co-star Barry Jenner, Mark Lenard, Michael Nouri, Percy Rodriguez, and Tucker Smallwood. However, all had either left or were not yet members of the cast during Alaimo's brief tenure.

His work on Somerset was followed with guest appearances on many TV shows, usually playing the villain. Some of the shows on which he appeared include Kojak (in an episode with Yvonne Craig), The Rockford Files, Gunsmoke (with George Murdock and series regular Charles Seel), Barnaby Jones (with series regular Lee Meriwether), Baretta, Starsky & Hutch (several episodes, including one with James B. Sikking and all starring David Soul), The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (with Phillip Richard Allen, Michael Pataki, and William Schallert), CHiPs (two episodes – one with Ellen Geer and another with Deep Space Nine co-stars Michael Dorn and Barry Jenner; both also featured Robert Pine), The Incredible Hulk (several episodes, including one with Charles Napier), Wonder Woman, Charlie's Angels, Quincy M.E. (with Robert Ito and Garry Walberg), Knight Rider, The Fall Guy (two episodes, including one with Marshall R. Teague and Ian Wolfe), T.J. Hooker (two episodes – one with Lloyd Haynes, Robert O'Reilly, and series regular Richard Herd, and both starring William Shatner and James Darren), Hardcastle and McCormick (starring Brian Keith and Daniel Hugh Kelly in the title roles), Hunter (with series regular Bruce Davison), The A-Team (starring Dwight Schultz), Quantum Leap (starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell, in an episode with Ron Taylor), and Walker, Texas Ranger (with Noble Willingham).

Mark Alaimo as Tebok

In Romulan makeup and costuming

Additionally, Alaimo had a recurring role on Hill Street Blues, as Gene Scapizzi, from 1985 through 1987. Besides series regulars Barbara Babcock, Barbara Bosson, Megan Gallagher, and James B. Sikking (with whom Alaimo had worked previously), other Star Trek alumni he worked on the series include Richard Herd, Gregory Itzin, Michael Keenan, David Selburg, Lawrence Tierney, and Kenneth Tigar.

Alaimo has appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies, most notably 1976's Helter Skelter, a drama about murderer Charles Manson and co-starring fellow Star Trek actors Phillip Richard Allen, David Clennon, Bruce French, Skip Homeier, Robert Ito, Roy Jenson, Jonathan Lippe, and Alan Oppenheimer. Alaimo's other TV movie credits include A Matter of Wife… and Death (1976, with John Colicos), The 3,000 Mile Chase (1977, with Cliff DeYoung and Roger Aaron Brown), Broken Promise (1981, starring Chris Sarandon), 1982's The Ambush Murders (with Alfre Woodard, Warren Munson, and Marshall Teague), 1984's No Man's Land (with John Rhys-Davies), 1987's Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues (with Jeff Allin, Michael Berryman, Jefrey Alan Chandler, Ann Gillespie, Colm Meaney, Tony Plana, Jimmie F. Skaggs, and Dean Stockwell), Case Closed (1988, with Christopher Neame), Quicksand: No Escape (1992, with Steven Culp and Jack Shearer), and Donato and Daughter (1993, with David Gautreaux, Jenette Goldstein, Gregory Itzin, Julianna McCarthy, and Patti Yasutake).

Alaimo spent the majority of the 1990s focusing on his role as Gul Dukat for Deep Space Nine. He has not appeared in any other live-action TV role since Deep Space Nine ended in 1999; his only television performance since then was the voice of "The Dean of the Secret Order of Dirty Joke Writers" in a 2010 episode of Family Guy, created by Star Trek fan Seth MacFarlane.

Film[]

Alaimo made his feature film debut in Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976), starring fellow Deep Space Nine guest actor Bernie Casey. The following year, Alaimo appeared in Which Way Is Up?, co-starring Morgan Woodward. The year after that, Alaimo appeared in Mean Dog Blues, starring Star Trek: Insurrection actor Gregg Henry and also featuring Logan Ramsey, Gregory Sierra, William Windom, and Ian Wolfe. And still the following year, he was seen in the Paul Schrader drama Hardcore, along with Ed Begley, Jr., Bibi Besch, and Gary Graham.

In 1980, Alaimo was seen opposite Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn in Seems Like Old Times. In 1984, he had a role in The Last Starfighter, also featuring Barbara Bosson and Meg Wyllie. And in 1988, he appeared in The Dead Pool, also starring Louis Giambalvo, Ronnie Claire Edwards, and Kristopher Logan.

Alaimo co-starred with his fellow Deep Space Nine castmates Armin Shimerman and Hamilton Camp in Arena (1989). Also in 1989, he had a supporting role opposite Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell in Tango & Cash. Also starring in the latter movie were Teri Hatcher, Michael J. Pollard, Roy Brocksmith, Phil Rubenstein, Clint Howard, Henry Kingi, Sr. and Glenn Morshower.

Perhaps Alaimo's most notable film role is that of Everett in Total Recall (1990, co-starring Roy Brocksmith, Michael Champion, Robert Costanzo, Ronny Cox, Mel Johnson, Jr., Frank Kopyc, Lycia Naff, Milt Tarver, Parker Whitman and Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Picardo as the voice of the Johnnycab).

Alaimo's latest film credit to date was a brief appearance in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1989, with Bill Erwin). Since then, Alaimo has focused his attention on television (especially on his role as Dukat) and on stage.

Appearances as Gul Dukat[]

Additional characters[]

External links[]

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