Star Trek, Batman, Babylon 5 actor Michael Ansara dead at 91

[Wheeljack35]

http://www.blastr.com/2013-8-2/star-trek-batman-babylon-5-actor-michael-ansara-dead-91?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

One of the best voices in science fiction has passed away.

 

The hallmark of a truly great performer isn't that you immediately recognize their face, it's that you recognize their voice. And, within an instant of hearing it, you'll always know Michael Ansara's voice, even if his face isn't there to go along with it.

 

Science fiction fans know him for so many great performances -- he was the Klingon, Kang, on three separate Star Trek series, Kane on Buck Rogers, and Mister Freeze for the Batman Animated Series. He played so many roles between 1944 and 2001 that it's hard to imagine how he was able to successfully inhabit so many.

 

Long before we knew him, though, Michael Ansara was born in Syria, before emigrating with his parents to the United States at the age of two. In Lowell, Masachusetts he was a shy boy who had originally thought he'd be a physician. It was acting lessons that brought that boy out of his shell and helped him realize he had another destiny.

 

It wouldn't be easy. Acting never is. He was relegated to being a bit player mostly from the '40s and over halfway through the '50s. He was typecast because of his dark skin and played mostly Native American roles.

 

It was through that particular stereotype that Ansara found his first stand-out role as Cochise on the popular western, Broken Arrow. He'd take on another Native American character, Deputy U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart, in Law of the Plainsman.

 

The 1960s would afford Ansara the chance to break into sci-fi with roles on Outer Limits, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, and Time Tunnel. How lucky for him (and for all of us) that this path led him to discover the Klingon Dahar Master, Kang. He faced off against Captain James T. Kirk himself in the Trek classic, Day of the Dove. The struggle between these two titans cemented Ansara and Kang as one of the great characters in Trek, if not all science fiction. Kang was so popular that Ansara would reprise the role on Deep Space Nine and Voyager, making him one of a select few performers to feature on three different Star Trek shows.

 

It was also during this time that he would marry star of I Dream of Jeannie, Barbara Eden. The two would have one child together, son, Matthew.

 

Ansara snuck back behind the limelight again, flitting in and out of the many cop dramas that typified 1970s television. Naturally, we remember him for playing the sympathetic antagonist, Kane, on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. It was sadly also during this time that his marriage to Barbara Eden came to an end. A few short years later, Ansara would begin again by marrying Beverly Kushida. This marriage would last.

 

Life has a funny way of turning around on a man. The '80s didn't bring anything substantial in the way of major roles, but the '90s would see Ansara return to Kang and, more importantly, it would find him playing one of the most richly complex villains in all of fiction -- Mister Freeze.

 

For every fan of TV and film, there is a role for which a performer becomes most known, a part that it seems they were born to play. The very first time I heard Ansara's voice, it came from the mouth of Victor Fries. From that moment on, the two men, one fictional, one real, were inexorably linked.

 

And, indeed, Mister Freeze became the one role Ansara would continually return to between 1992 and 2001. It would be the last role he would play. 2001 was also the year Ansara's son, Michael, passed away from a drug overdose.

 

It's not hard to imagine a man wanting to shy away from fame after the death of his son. The tragedy of Mister Freeze, a man unable to save the one person he loves most, trapped forever in an unfeeling prison of ice, suddenly feels all too familiar.

 

And now, in a way that is much more final, Michael Ansara's deep and moving voice is silenced after battling with prolonged illness. Michael Ansara died July 31st at his home in Calabasas, California. He is survived by his wife, Beverly, his sister Rose, his niece Michelle, and his nephew Michael John.

 

He is also survived by every role he ever played, every character he ever inhabited. And in that way his voice endures, eternal, even if the man is not.

[Capt.S.G.Wiseman]

Wow. I always love to see trivia relating to obscure actors to voice actors, but this IS a surprise. I would have never pieced together that Klingon Kang and Victor Freeze were the same guy. That is amazing, yet as his real life reveals such heart-ache it is easy to see how real his voice rolls were so convincing.

 

R.I.P. Michael Ansara.

[Wheeljack35]

I knew it was him I reckognized that voice anywheres

[Mr Nobody]

This is sad news indeed. I can't believe I didn't learn about this earlier. Michael Ansara will be missed.