JUNE 22, 2022 - Star Trek: Voyager introduced the first Vulcan character to be a series regular since The Original Series’ Spock. Tuvok may have been a new character, but Tim Russ, the actor who played him for the following seven years, wasn’t new to Trek. Today we celebrate his 66th birthday.

Russ was born in Washington, DC to a government-employed mom and a dad who was an Air Force officer. The result of having a father in the U.S. Armed Forces was that young Tim moved around frequently. He spent most of his childhood in Turkey, returning to the U.S. to attend his senior year of High School in Rome, New York. From there, he moved to Austin, Texas, where he earned a degree in theater arts from St. Edward’s University in 1974. Next he attended graduate school at Illinois State University, where he was inducted into its Hall of Fame.

Early in his career, Russ appeared in the 1980s Twilight Zone reboot as Officer #2 in the episode “Kentucky Rye” and, later, as Archer in “Voices in the Earth.” He also made guest appearances in iconic television shows of tghe 1980s and ‘90s like Hill Street Blues, Amazing Stories, Jake and the Fatman, Thirtysomething, and 21 Jump Street. He was also in the Christmas special Roots: The Gift, which starred LeVar Burton (who beat him out for the role of Geordie LaForge), plus he made a guest appearance on the short-lived show Alien Nation, which starred future VOY guest and recurring Enterprise Vulcan Gary Graham.

And speaking of short-lived, Russ twice played a juror during the 11-episode run of 1990’s Cop Rock. Though it was quickly cancelled, Cop Rock is worthy of an entire article by itself (though perhaps not via a Star Trek news outlet.) It was a weekly half-hour television show which, in essence, was a Broadway musical version of Hill Street Blues, with Captain Edward Jellico himself, Ronny Cox, among the cast of regulars. This author vividly recalls viewing the pilot episode and then actively choosing not to watch the second one.

Back to Tim Russ, he made a brief appearance in Mel Brooks’ comic take on Star Wars, Spaceballs, as the trooper who is combing the desert (with a giant comb) in search of the characters Lone Star and Vespa. He was also seen in Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, Mr. Saturday Night and Star Trek: Generations, where he can be spotted on the bridge of the USS Enterprise-B on the shakedown cruise that went a little wonky and resulted in the presumed death of Captain James T. Kirk, late of the starship USS Enterprise-A.

That wasn’t his first appearance in Star Trek, however. A year earlier, in the Next Generation episode “Starship Mine,” he played Devor, a member of a crew of what amounted to space pirates, determined to steal trilithium resin from the warp engines. Things do not end well for any of the pirates, including, presumably, Devor, although his probable death takes place off-screen.

That same year, Tim Russ made a visit to Deep Space Nine, as T’Kar, a Klingon helping the unjoined Trill Verad to steal the Dax symbiont from inside Jadzia’s belly in the episode “Invasive Procedures.” After this guest appearance, Russ took some time away from Trek to appear in the TV film Journey to the Center of the Earth and guest on shows like Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, Melrose Place, and SeaQuest DSV. He was fated to return to the franchise, however, when he was cast as Lieutenant Tuvok on VOY.

Tuvok was introduced to the world as a Vulcan Maquis agent under the command of Chakotay. It was only later in the episode that the audience would discover that he was actually undercover and was, in fact, a Starfleet security chief acting on Captain Janeway’s orders. He spent the next seven years wandering around the Delta Quadrant with the USS Voyager, trying to find a way back home. He had a wife and kids and a penchant for solving more than his share of shipboard mysteries. Russ also played Tuvok’s Mirror Universe counterpart in the DS9 episode “Through the Looking Glass,” the only VOY character to appear in that parallel universe onscreen.

Post-VOY, Russ continued to appear in TV and film, including Star Trek: Renegades, a fan film which he also directed and featuring actors from across the Trek franchise, including Walter Koenig, Manu Intiraymi, Gary Graham, Robert Picardo, and Cirroc Lofton, as well as Madison Russ, Tim’s daughter.

Russ is also an accomplished musician and singer, with four album releases under his belt. A full list of his credits would fill more than a single history article, so you can read up on him at Wikipedia. In the meantime, grab yourself a snifter of Vulcan brandy and take a swig in honor of Tim Russ, who was born on this day in 1956.