John Colicos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Colicos.

John Colicos (December 10, 1928 - March 6, 2000) was a Canadian actor. He is perhaps best remembered for playing the Klingon Kor in Star Trek, as well as playing Count Baltar in the original Battlestar Galactica movie and television series.

Colicos was born in Toronto, Ontario. He has the distinction of being the first Klingon seen in the Star Trek franchise. He also appeared in countless episodes of episodic television throughout the 1960s, most notably portraying the villain on no less than three episodes of Mission: Impossible. He appeared in four episodes of the eight-episode CBC docu-drama "The National Dream", as the "railway general", William Cornelius Van Horne. Several years after his Battlestar Galactica tenure, Colicos again ventured into science fiction, but in an extremely unlikely venue. He portrayed power-mad Mikkos Cassadine, a demented scientist bent on freezing the world on the ABC soap opera General Hospital during the height of the "Luke and Laura" frenzy. He also was the voice of the X-Men villain Apocalypse in the animated FOX series in the mid-nineties.

About 30 years after his initial appearance in Star Trek, Colicos reprised his role as the 140-year-old Kor for three episodes in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also appeared in TV commercials in the 1990s for America's Best Contacts & Eyeglasses.

Colicos' final acting appearance was his reprise of Count Baltar in the concept demonstration trailer Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming, aired at many science fiction conventions in 1999.

Colicos died on March 6, 2000 at the age of 71 after a series of heart attacks.