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Ian Wolfe (4 November 189623 January 1992; age 95) was an actor who played Septimus in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode second season "Bread and Circuses" and Mr. Atoz (as well as Atoz's replicas) in the third season episode "All Our Yesterdays".

He filmed his scenes for "Bread and Circuses" on Tuesday 12 September 1967 and Wednesday 13 September 1967 on location at Bronson Canyon, and his scenes for "All Our Yesterdays" on Friday 27 December 1968 and Monday 30 December 1968 at Paramount Stage 5.

Early life[]

Wolfe was born in Canton, Illinois, USA in 1896. At the age of twenty two, Wolfe joined the United States Army and served as a medical orderly, making him one of only a few Star Trek actors verified as a veteran of the First World War, the others being Paul Fix and William McCarter. Art Director Franz Bachelin also served in World War I, albeit on the German side.

Immediately after the war ended in 1919, Wolfe became a theater actor and spent the next fifteen years working on Broadway. In 1934, he made the transition from stage to film.

Television and film work[]

Wolfe's credits include nearly 200 films and made-for-TV movies and over 80 television guest appearances in a career which spans 56 years. One of his first major films starred Clark Gable, as Fletcher Christian, in the 1935 film Mutiny on the Bounty, where Wolfe played the ship's clerk of the HMS Bounty.

Other notable appearances during his long career were in the films On Borrowed Time (1939), Foreign Correspondent (1940, with Leonard Mudie), Rebel Without a Cause (1955, with Corey Allen, Chuck Hicks, music score by Leonard Rosenman and cinematography by Ernest Haller) and Witness for the Prosecution (1957, with Torin Thatcher), just to name a few. He also had smaller roles in such classic films as Mrs. Miniver (1942, with John Abbott), The Miracle of the Bells (1948, with Sam Bagley and Monty O'Grady), No Way Out (1950, with Frank Overton), Holiday for Sinners (1952, with William Campbell, Bill Erwin and Peter Brocco), Julius Caesar (1953, with John Hoyt, Lawrence Dobkin, Richard Hale, Morgan Farley, Michael Ansara and Vic Perrin), and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954, with Julie Newmar). He appeared in a 1957 episode of Studio One with William Shatner.

He appeared in five movies with fellow Original Series guest actor Jeff Corey: Paris Calling (1941), The Lady from Cheyanne (1941), The Moon Is Down (1943), California (1946), and Creator (1985, featuring Star Trek: The Next Generation guest actor David Ogden Stiers. He had a minor role in The Frisco Kid (1979) alongside Next Generation guest actors Vincent Schiavelli and Clyde Kusatsu.

He made several guest appearances on the TV series Bonanza, Soap, and guest-starred in an episode of Barbary Coast, which starred William Shatner and guest starred Sherry Jackson. Wolfe also appeared in The Andersonville Trial (1970, starring William Shatner and featuring Whit Bissell, Dick Miller, Harry Townes and Kenneth Tobey). Wolfe appeared as Herbert Hooper in an episode of All in the Family, a show that also featured Original Series guest stars William Windom and Jason Wingreen.

Wolfe was a principal supporting actor in THX 1138 (1970, with Sid Haig and the voice of David Ogden Stiers). Wolfe then went on to appear in Reds (1981), which co-starred Next Generation guest actor Paul Sorvino. Both Wolfe and Sorvino later appeared in Dick Tracy (1990, featuring Colm Meaney, John Schuck, Seymour Cassel, Hamilton Camp, Chuck Hicks, Mike Hagerty, Robert Costanzo, Ed McCready, Bert Remsen, Walker Edmiston, and Michael J. Pollard). Dick Tracy also proved to be Wolfe's last feature film.

Later television work[]

Towards the end of his life, Wolfe appeared primarily in guest roles on television series. He appeared in WKRP in Cincinnati, in the recurring role as the sardonic butler Hirsch, and also in a 1982 episode of Cheers which later prominently featured actor Kelsey Grammer.

Wolfe was also one of several Star Trek actors to appear on the classic '80s sitcom The Facts of Life. Other Star Trek alumni who appeared in the series included William Windom, Kenneth Tigar, Roger Perry, Paul Comi, Nehemiah Persoff, Clive Revill, Robert DoQui, Nicholas Coster, Clyde Kusatsu, Robert Hooks, and Eve Smith. Lead Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actor Armin Shimerman also made a brief appearance in the show's seventh season premiere episode.

In 1989, Wolfe returned to the screen, appearing in the film Checking Out. His last credited film role was in the 1990 film Dick Tracy, which also starred Seymour Cassel. Wolfe passed away in Los Angeles, California at the age of 95, just twenty days after Dame Judith Anderson, who starred in 1947's Pursued, in which Wolfe also appeared. He was the last surviving Star Trek actor to have been born in the 19th century.

External links[]

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