The deep-voiced actor also appeared in a recurring role as Kane, Princess Ardala's right-hand man on Buck Rogers In The 25th Century (replacing Henry Silva, who had played Kane in the pilot), and also appeared in episodes of Irwin Allen's 60s sci-fi shows including Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Lost In Space, Land Of The Giants and Time Tunnel.
Ansara appeared three times on his then-wife's show, I Dream of Jeannie as three different chracters, including the Blue Djinn who imprisoned Jeannie in the bottle astronaut Tony Nelson found her in!
ReplyDeleteHe was also in the 'Soldier' episode of The Outer Limits.
ReplyDeleteHe was on B-5 as a Techno Mage once.
ReplyDeleteHe was also the voice of Mr. Freeze in Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, and the Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero.
ReplyDeleteYes, he was in many, many TV shows and movies. I didn't feel it necessary to list all his credits - that's what the IMDb is for. :)
ReplyDeleteAs a Klingon enthusiast, I am absolutely crushed. Ansara's Kang was the Klingon Captain that all others are measured by. Besides "Day of the Dove" on TOS, how frickin' awesome was he in the DS:9 episode "Blood Oath"? "LOOK UPON YOUR EXECUTIONERS, MURDERER OF *CHILDREN*!!"
ReplyDeleteI loved William Campbell as Koloth, and adored John Colicos as Kor, but by the beard of Kahless, Michael Ansara as Kang was and always will be the best. And now they're all gone, and I never met any of them. If it wasn't 1:40 in the AM, I'd do a Death Howl right now.
Damn. Damndamndamn.
Storm the Klingon
Kor and Koloth - as portrayed on TOS - were sly and sinister (and most other Klingons, like those seen in "Friday's Childs" and "Private Little War" were thugs), but it was Kang, due to a combination of sharp writing and Ansara's noble performance, that truly established the "honorable warrior" template for the second-generation Klingons of TNG, DS9, et al.
DeleteAs you all know, the Klingon portrayals changed over the 40some years.. They went from the sneaky cold warrior (Koloth, Kor) to noble tribal warrior-like (Ansara's somewhat native-american style), to more Japanese 'old warrior' types (big boots, etc..) in 'Undiscovered Country' and beyond.
ReplyDeleteLest we forget, Mr. Ansara also deserves our envy for bein' married to uber-babe Ms. Eden. Ah, that deserves applause as well..
Kang was my favorite Klingon, hands down. And for what it's worth, I always enjoyed Mr. Ansara's performance as John Singing Rock in the ridiculous but fun William Girdler shocker, The Manitou.
ReplyDelete