Star Trek guest actor Gregory Itzin dies
Gregory Itzin as Ilon Tandro in STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE's "Dax"
JUNE 11, 2022 - He is well known for his portrayal of President Charles Logan in 24, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award, but his career of more than forty years included many stage, film, and other television appearances, including Star Trek. Actor Gregory Itzin has died at the age of 74, due to complications during emergency surgery, according to Deadline.
Itzin was born in Washington, D.C., and moved to San Francisco to study acting. His early television appearances ranged from Mork & Mindy to Hill Street Blues, and his career included films such as Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. His stage career also included many appearances, and he was nominated for a Tony Award for his Broadway performance in The Kentucky Cycle.
Star Trek fans will know Itzin for his five different characters in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise: Ilon Tandro in DS9’s “Dax”; Hain in DS9’s “Who Mourns for Morn?”; Dysek in Voyager’s “Critical Care”; Sopek in Enterprise’s “Shadows of P’Jem”; and Admiral Black in Enterprise’s “In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II”. According to Memory Alpha, he was also cast for a role in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season one episode, "The Big Goodbye" but opted instead for a role on L.A. Law, to his later regret.
Itzin’s son, Wilke, said of his father, “My dad was known in the world as a phenomenal actor with a body of work that would trump most famous actors’ resumes… But what many people truly knew him for was his incredible performances on the stage. I remember watching him in the one-man show Shipwrecked by Donald Margulies and being blown away, in awe that the man on stage was my dad. He was in love with the theater, and even on his dying breath he could recite Shakespeare like he made the words up himself.”
For more on Itzin’s life and career, see the full obituary in Deadline.
Please join all of us at Daily Star Trek News in offering our condolences to the friends and family of Gregory Itzin.
David is a contributing writer for Daily Star Trek News on the Roddenberry Podcast Network. He is a librarian, baseball fan, and book and movie buff. He has also written for American Libraries and Skeptical Inquirer. David also enjoys diverse music, but leans toward classical and jazz. He plays a mean radio.
