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Jay Robinson (14 April 193027 September 2013; age 83) was an actor who played Petri in the Star Trek: The Original Series third season episode "Elaan of Troyius". He filmed his scenes between Tuesday 4 June 1968 and Thursday 6 June 1968 at Desilu Stage 9.

Robinson's most well-known role is that of Caligula in The Robe (1953), which also marked his film debut. Jean Simmons starred in this film, as well, while Michael Ansara and Anthony Jochim made uncredited appearances. Robinson would reprise the role of Caligula the following year in Demetrius and the Gladiators, co-starring William Marshall and featuring an uncredited Julie Newmar.

In 1955, Robinson co-starred with Original Series guest actresses Joan Collins and Leslie Parrish in The Virgin Queen (which, like The Robe, was directed by Henry Koster). The following year, he co-starred with Nehemiah Persoff in The Wild Party.

After recovering from a drug addiction and a career-ruining jail sentence, Robinson returned to acting on television in the late 1960s, and in 1971, he co-starred in the film Bunny O'Hare, directed by Gerd Oswald. He went on to have roles in such movies as Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972, with Stanley Adams), Nightmare Honeymoon' (1973, with David Huddleston, Roy Jenson, and Original Series star Walter Koenig), Shampoo (1975, with Joan Marshall), The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982, with Richard Lynch, Anthony De Longis, Jeff Corey, Joseph Ruskin, and George Murdock), and Big Top Pee-wee (1988, with Kenneth Tobey). Robinson's more recent films included Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992, starring Winona Ryder) and Skeeter (1993, featuring fellow Original Series guest stars Charles Napier, Michael J. Pollard, and Barbara Baldavin, and Richard Herd).

Besides The Original Series, other television series on which Robinson appeared include Mannix, Bewitched, The Wild Wild West, Kolchak: The Night Stalker (with fellow Original Series guest actor John Fiedler), The Waltons, Barney Miller (with another Original Series guest star, Lee Meriwether), and Murder, She Wrote (with Michael Sarrazin, Ed McCready, and directed by Vincent McEveety). In 1974 he appeared in an episode of Planet of the Apes entitled "Tomorrow's Tide", which was directed by Don McDougall and photographed by Jerry Finnerman. It was later edited into the television movie Farewell to the Planet of the Apes, (which also featured Mark Lenard and John McLiam in footage from other episodes). From 1976 through 1977, Robinson was a regular on The Krofft Supershow, along with Malachi Throne, and during the 1988-89 television season, Robinson was a regular on Days of Our Lives; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine guest star Bumper Robinson was also a part of cast during this time.

Robinson appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies, including She Lives! (1973, with Anthony Zerbe), and Sinatra (1992, with Bob Gunton, Jeff Corey, Don Stark, Jack Shearer, Marc Adams, and Christopher Carroll). He starred in several direct-to-video productions of plays by William Shakespeare throughout the early 1980s, including Othello (1981, with William Marshall in the title role), Macbeth (1981, with Alan Oppenheimer), and The Taming of the Shrew (1983, with Bruce Davison, Larry Drake, and Bill Erwin). Additionally, from 1997 through 2000, Robinson hosted Beyond Bizarre.

Robinson died at his home in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, on 27 September 2013. He was 83 years old. [1]

Other Trek connections[]

Additional projects in which Robinson appeared with other Star Trek performers include:

External links[]

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