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Willie Garson (20 February 196421 September 2021; age 57) was the actor who played Riga in the Star Trek: Voyager fifth season episode "Thirty Days".

Garson was born in Highland Park, New Jersey. A graduate of Weslayan University where he majored in theater, he is best known for his recurring role as Stanford Blatch in the HBO series Sex and the City, starring Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country actress Kim Cattrall. He reprised this role for the feature films Sex and the City and Sex and the City 2, again with Cattrall in both films and with stuntman Buddy Joe Hooker in the former. He also had recurring roles on Mr. Belvedere, Boy Meets World, Party of Five, the science fiction series Stargate SG-1, and NYPD Blue. In the latter series, he worked alongside the likes of Gordon Clapp, Sharon Lawrence, Steve Rankin, and Don Stark.

Garson also co-starred twice with future Star Trek: Enterprise actors Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell in Quantum Leap, most notably a 1992 two-parter in which he played Lee Harvey Oswald. Garson's many other television credits include Cheers (starring Kelsey Grammer and Bebe Neuwirth), Twin Peaks (with Mädchen Amick, Richard Beymer, Carel Struycken, and Ray Wise), L.A. Law (with Daniel Benzali, Corbin Bernsen, and Larry Drake), The X-Files (one episode with Thomas Kopache and another with Nicholas Worth), Mad About You (with Anne Elizabeth Ramsay and Alan Ruck), The Practice (with Charles Cooper, Robin Gammell, Natalia Nogulich, and Craig Wasson), Ally McBeal (two episodes, including one with Bob Gunton and Albert Hall), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (in an episode with Richard Herd), Friends, Spin City (starring Alan Ruck), Monk (with Stanley Kamel), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and CSI: Miami. Garson also appeared in Taken (2002, with Matt Frewer, Gwynyth Walsh, Anton Yelchin, Emily Bergl, Brian Markinson, Roger Cross, Andrew Jackson and Karen Austin).

Garson was seen in three films directed by Bobby and Peter Ferrelly: Kingpin (1996, with Googy Gress), There's Something About Mary (1998), and Fever Pitch (2005, with Jack Kehler and James B. Sikking). He also appeared in many other popular films, including Soapdish (1991, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Teri Hatcher), Groundhog Day (1993), Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995, co-starring Christopher Lloyd, Bill Cobbs, Don Stark, Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jr., Bill Bolender, and Bill Erwin), The Rock (1996, with Tony Todd and Marshall R. Teague), Mars Attacks! (1996, with Paul Winfield, Michael Reilly Burke, and Jeanne Mori), and Being John Malkovich (1999). He later appeared in Freaky Friday (2003) and Just Like Heaven (2005), both co-starring Rosalind Chao (with the latter also featuring Ron Canada).

He also appeared White Collar (TV series) on White Collar from 2009 to 2014. Also, he played a recurring role as Gerard Hirsch on the Hawaii Five-0 reboot from 2015 to 2019.

He died on 21 September 2021. [1]

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