Michael George Ansara (April 15, 1922 - July 31, 2013) was a Syrian-born American stage, screen, and voice actor who portrayed Cochise in the American television series Broken Arrow, Kane in the 1979-1981 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Commander Kang on three different Star Trek television series, Deputy U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart on the NBC series Law of the Plainsman, and provided the voice for Mr. Freeze in Batman: The Animated Series and several of its spin-offs.

Early life

Michael George Ansara was born in a small village in the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon to American parents, and his family emigrated to the United States when he was two years old. They lived in Lowell, Massachusetts, for a decade before moving to California. He originally wanted to be a physician, but developed a passion for becoming a performer after he began taking acting classes to overcome his shyness. He was educated at the Los Angeles City College, from which Ansara earned an Associate of Arts degree.

Career

Early work

During the 1950s, Ansara appeared in several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He appeared in a 1951 episode of The Lone Ranger titled "Trouble at Black Rock". However, the popular television series Broken Arrow (1956), wherein he played the lead role of Cochise, raised Ansara's profile and made him a household name. While making the series, the 20th Century-Fox publicity department arranged a date between Ansara and actress Barbara Eden. The two later married and Ansara guest-starred on Eden's I Dream of Jeannie series as the Blue Djinn, who had imprisoned Jeannie in a bottle. He also played King Kamehameha in the Jeannie episode "The Battle of Waikīkī", and in the final season, he played Major Biff Jellico in the episode "My Sister, the Home Wrecker". Michael Ansara and Barbara Eden divorced in 1974. The couple had one son together, actor Matthew Ansara, who died on June 25, 2001, of a heroin overdose.

Ansara starred in his own ABC-TV series, Law of the Plainsman (1959-1960), with Gina Gillespie and Robert Harland. He performed as an Apache Indian named Sam Buckhart, who had been appointed as a U.S. Marshal. The series began as an episode of The Rifleman. In 1961, he appeared as Carl in the episode "Night Visitors" of the NBC anthology series The Barbara Stanwyck Show.

Ansara also played in the Biblical epics The Robe (1953) as Judas Iscariot, The Ten Commandments (1956) as a taskmaster (uncredited), and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) as Herod's commander. He also appeared as Belshazzar in Columbia's 1953 movie Slaves of Babylon.

Later career

In 1961, Ansara played the role of Miguel Alvarez in the film Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, co-starring with Barbara Eden and Walter Pidgeon, who played the role of Admiral Harriman Nelson. Ansara later appeared in an episode of the television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, playing the rebel sub commander Captain Ruiz in "Killers Of The Deep" (1966). He also appeared in another episode as a Soviet scientist to disarm a defective Soviet atomic satellite that has crashed off the coast of California. The episode title was "Hot Line", broadcast on November 9, 1964.

In 1962, he starred in a Broadway show with famous silent film actor Ramon Novarro.

In 1964, he made his only guest appearance on Perry Mason as Vince Kabat in "The Case of the Antic Angel". Also that year, he played the lead character of Soldier in an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It opened the second season of shows on 19 September 1964.

He starred in a supporting role in the 1965 Elvis Presley film, Harum Scarum. His wife, Barbara Eden, had starred in an earlier Elvis film, 1960's Flaming Star.

Ansara played the Ruler on episode 22, "The Challenge", of the television series Lost in Space (March 2, 1966) with a young Kurt Russell as his son Quano and, later that same year, appeared in the feature film Texas Across the River with Dean Martin. He also appeared on Daniel Boone as Red Sky in a 1966 episode. In another 1966 episode of that series, Ansara portrayed Sebastian Drake.

In 1967, Ansara guest-starred in the episode "A War for the Gravediggers" of the NBC western series The Road West starring Barry Sullivan, Andrew Prine, and Glenn Corbett, and in the episode "The Savage Street" of the ABC action drama series The Fugitive with Gilbert Roland and Tom Nardini.

In 1969, Ansara guest-starred in the episode "On a Clear Night You Can See Earth" as Murtrah in the ABC-TV series Land of the Giants.

Also in 1969, he starred as the sadistic militant Diego in the film Guns of the Magnificent Seven.

In 1973, he guest-starred in "The Western", the penultimate episode of the original CBS television series Mission: Impossible.

In 1976, Ansara starred in the movie Mohammad, Messenger of God (also titled The Message), about the origin of Islam and the message of prophet Mohammad. In 1978, he starred in the acclaimed miniseries Centennial, based on the novel by James A. Michener. Ansara played the great Indian leader Lame Beaver, whose descendants are showcased throughout the centuries alongside the growth of the West and the town that the novel and miniseries are named after.

Ansara played Killer Kane in the 1979-1980 season of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, having previously played two different characters in two episodes of the 1966 science fiction television series The Time Tunnel. In episode #11, he played Colonel Hruda and in episode #28 he played the Curator. He also played the title role in the acclaimed The Outer Limits original series episode "Soldier", written by Harlan Ellison. He narrated Paul Goble's "The Gift of the Sacred Dog" at Crow Agency, Montana, on June 17, 1983, and Sheila MacGill Callahan's "And Still the Turtle Watched" on October 21, 1993, on the PBS series Reading Rainbow.

In 1988, Ansara appeared in an episode of the television series Murder, She Wrote titled "The Last Flight of the Dixie Damsel".

In 1994, Ansara portrayed the Technomage Elric in the science fiction television series Babylon 5 in the episode "The Geometry of Shadows".

In recent years, he performed voice-acting as Mr. Freeze in Batman: The Animated Series, as well as the animated film Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, an episode of both The New Batman Adventures and Batman Beyond and the video game Batman: Vengeance.

Star Trek

He is one of nine actors to play the same character (in his case the Klingon commander Kang) on three different Star Trek television series — the original series ("Day of the Dove"), Deep Space Nine ("Blood Oath") and Voyager ("Flashback").

Awards and honors

Ansara was nominated for an Academy of Science Fiction Award, and has won a Western Heritage Award for Rawhide, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for both films and television.

Personal life

Ansara was married three times, first to Jean Byron in 1955; after a year of marriage, the couple divorced in 1956. In 1958, Ansara married Barbara Eden, who is best known for the I Dream of Jeannie sitcom series. The couple had a son named Matthew born in 1965. Ansara and Eden divorced in 1974, and he married actress Beverly Kushida in 1977. On June 25, 2001, his son Matthew died from a drug overdose in Monrovia, California.

Death

Ansara died from complications of Alzheimer's disease at his home in Calabasas on July 31, 2013, at the age of 91. His interment is at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, next to his son Matthew.

TV and filmography

• Action in Arabia (1944)
• Intrigue (1947)
• The Desert Film (1950)
• Only the Valiant (1950)
• Kim (1950)
• Soldiers Three (1951)
• My Favorite Spy (1951)
• Hill Number One (1951)
• Bannerline (1951)
• Yankee Buccaneer (1952)
• The Lawless Breed (1952)
• The Golden Hawk (1952)
• Diplomatic Courier (1952)
• Brave Warrior (1952)
• White Witch Doctor (1953)
• The Robe (1953)
• The Diamond Queen (1953)
• The Bandits of Corsica (1953)
• Slaves of Babylon (1953)
• Serpent of the Nile (1953)
• Road to Bali (1953)
• Julius Caesar (1953)
• Three Young Texans (1954)
• The Saracen Blade (1954)
• The Egyptian (1954)
• Sign of the Pagan (1954)
• Princess of the Nile (1954)
• Dragnet: The Big Rod (1954)
• Bengal Brigade (1954)
• New Orleans Uncensored (1955)
• Jupiter's Darling (1955)
• Diane (1955)
• Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
• The Ten Commandments (1956)
• The Lone Ranger (1956)
• Pillars of the Sky (1956)
• Gun Brothers (1956)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Orderly World of Mr. Appleby (1956)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Baby Sitter (1956)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Shopping for Death (1956)
• Broken Arrow (1956-1958)
• The Tall Stranger (1957)
• The Sad Sack (1957)
• Quantez (1957)
• Last of the Badmen (1957)
• The Rifleman: The Raid (1959)
• Law of the Plainsman (1959-1960)
• The Rebel as Docker Mason in "The Champ" (1960)
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)
• The Untouchables: The Jamaica Ginger Story (1961)
• The Untouchables: Nicky (1961)
• The Comancheros (1961)
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: Hot Line (1964)
• The Outer Limits: Soldier (1964)
• Quick, Let's Get Married (1964)
• Perry Mason: The Case of the Antic Angel (1964)
• The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
• Harum Scarum (1965)
• Branded: The Bounty (1965)
• Texas Across the River (1966)
• Lost in Space: The Challenge (1966)
• I Dream of Jeannie: Happy Anniversary (1966)
• Bewitched: A Most Unusual Wood Nymph (1966)
• Gunsmoke: Honor Before Justice (1966)
• ...And Now Miguel (1966)
• Star Trek (1966-1969)
• The Time Tunnel: The Kidnappers (1967)
• The Fugitive: The Savage Street (1967)
• Gunsmoke: The Returning (1967)
• The Pink Jungle (1968)
• The Destructors (1968)
• Star Trek: Day of the Dove (1968)
• Sol Madrid (1968)
• I Dream of Jeannie: The Battle of Waikīkī (1968)
• Daring Game (1968)
• Target: Harry (1969)
• The High Chaparral (1969) as Roberto Ruiz
• I Dream of Jeannie: My Sister, the Homewreker (1969)
• Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969)
• The Phynx (1970)
• Powderkeg (1970)
• I Dream of Jeannie: One Jeannie Beats Four of a Kind (1970)
• The Mod Squad: A Double for Danger, Season 3 (1971)
• The Streets of San Francisco: The Year of the Locusts (1972)
• Stand Up and Be Counted (1972)
• Dear Dead Delilah (1972)
• Hawaii Five-O: Death is a Company Policy (1972)
• The Doll Squad (1973)
• Ordeal (1973)
• Mission: Impossible: The Western (1973)
• Call To Danger (1973)
• The Bears and I (1974)
• The Barbary Coast (1974)
• It's Alive (1974)
• Nakia, episode "The Dream" (1974)
• The Rockford Files: Joey Blue Eyes (1976)
• The Message (1976)
• Kojak: Justice Deferred (1976)
• Mission to Glory: A True Story (1977)
• Day of the Animals (1977)
• The Manitou (1978)
• Centennial (1978)
• The Story of Esther (1979)
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-1981)
• CHiPs: The Poacher (1980)
• The Guns and the Fury (1981)
• Guns & Fury (1983)
• The Fantastic World of D.C. Collins (1984)
• Reading Rainbow: Gift of the Sacred Dog (1984)
• Access Code (1984)
• Knights of the City (1985)
• Hunter: Rape and Revenge, Part 2 (1985)
• Rambo: Animated Series (1986)
• KGB: The Secret War (1986)
• Bayou Romance (1986)
• Assassination (1987)
• Murder, She Wrote: The Last Flight of the Dixie Damsel (1988)
• Border Shootout (1990)
• Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995)
• Reading Rainbow: And Still the Turtle Watched (1993)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Blood Oath (1994)
• Babylon 5: The Geometry of Shadows (1994)
• Star Trek: Voyager: Flashback (1996)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Muse (1996)
• Johnny Mysto Boy Wizard (1996)
• Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998)
• The Long Road Home (1999)
• Batman Beyond: Meltdown (1999)
• Batman Beyond: The Movie (1999)
• Batman Beyond (1999-2001)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]