Memory Alpha
Register
Advertisement
Memory Alpha
Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

Actor Arthur Batanides (9 April 192310 January 2000; age 76) played Lt. D'Amato in the Star Trek: The Original Series third season episode "That Which Survives".

Batanides made numerous other television appearances, having guest-starred on several episodes of Happy Days, The Odd Couple, The Wild Wild West, The Outer Limits ("Specimen: Unknown" directed by Gerd Oswald), The Twilight Zone, and Mission: Impossible (the latter of which was, like The Original Series, was originally produced by Desilu).

One of Batanides' earliest motion picture appearances was The Ten Commandments (1956, with Judith Anderson, Lawrence Dobkin, Michael Ansara, Bobby Clark, and Robert Herron). In 1960, he appeared in another epic, Spartacus. This film also featured Jean Simmons, Peter Brocco, John Hoyt, William Blackburn, Paul Lambert, Dick Crockett, Seamon Glass, and was narrated by Vic Perrin.

He had a supporting role in Violent Road (1958, opposite Brian Keith) and also appeared in Man-Trap (1961, starred Jeffrey Hunter). In 1963, he appeared on the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe" (with Leonard Nimoy). His other films include The Maltese Bippy (1969, with Julie Newmar and Fritz Weaver), Brannigan (1975) and The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976, starring Cliff DeYoung and featured Laurence Luckinbill and Bill Quinn. Another TV movie he appeared in was The Last Hurrah (1979, featuring Robert Brown, Stewart Moss, Bill Quinn, and James B. Sikking.

In the 1980s, the only film role Batanides played was that of Old Max Kirkland in four of the Police Academy sequels, beginning with 1985's Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment. All of these films starred Star Trek: Deep Space Nine/Star Trek: Voyager guest actor David Graf. Two of these films also featured Brian Tochi. Following 1989's Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, which besides Graf also featured Matt McCoy and Kenneth Mars, Batanides retired from acting.

On television, Batanides appeared as Batu Kahn in an episode of The Time Tunnel, starring James Darren, Whit Bissell, and Lee Meriwether, which was co-written by Robert Hamner. He also appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone, including "Mr. Denton on Doomsday", co-starring Ken Lynch and Bill Erwin, and a Gerd Oswald-directed episode of The Outer Limits, featuring Walt Davis, Robert C. Johnson, and Vic Perrin as the "Control Voice", and make-up by Fred Phillips. He also appeared in an episode of Land of the Giants, starring Don Marshall, and guest starring Joseph Ruskin and Arch Whiting, an episode of The Mod Squad, starring Tige Andrews, Clarence Williams III, and produced by Harve Bennett, and an episode of It Takes a Thief, directed by Oswald and guest-starring Francine Pyne. He also guest-starred in an episode of Galactica 1980, alongside Marj Dusay, Peter Mark Richman, and Ken Lynch, and was in the Perry Mason episode "The case of the Shoplifter's Shoe" with Leonard Nimoy.

Arthur Batanides passed away in Los Angeles, California on January 10th, 2000 at the age of 76. He died the same day as John Newland, the director of "Errand of Mercy".

External links[]

Advertisement