- Malachi Throne
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Malachi Throne Born December 1, 1928
New York City, New York USAOccupation actor Years active 1959–present Spouse Marjorie Throne (1992–present) Malachi Throne (born December 1, 1928) is an American actor, most noted for his roles on Star Trek and It Takes a Thief.
Throne was born in New York City. He first appeared on stage at the age of 10 in 1939 in the New York Parks Department production of Tom Sawyer as Huckleberry Finn.
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Television career
Throne was a popular guest star on many television shows of the 1960s and 1970s including The Defenders, Naked City, Ben Casey, The Untouchables, The Fugitive, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ("The Four-Step Affair" from 1965), Mannix (portraying Inspector Frank Kyler in "Run Sheep Run" - 1967), Hogan's Heroes and also co-starring, with Robert Wagner, in the ABC TV show It Takes a Thief. Throne also appeared in the 1965 season of Lost in Space as the Thief in the episode "The Thief of Outer Space."
He made two appearances in the CBS TV series Mission: Impossible, in seasons 1 and 4, in the late 1960s. He also appeared twice in the Irwin Allen series The Time Tunnel, most notably in the episode "The Death Merchant", as Machiavelli, lost in time at the Battle of Gettysburg as well as co-starring in the episode "Night Of The Long Knives."
Roles in Star Trek
Throne provided the voice of "the Keeper" in the Star Trek's first pilot episode, "The Cage", which did not air in its original form until 1988, though most of the episode was included within the two-part episode "The Menagerie" when it aired in 1966. Throne was hired to play another role in "The Menagerie," which was technically a dual role: a commodore in Starfleet named José I. Mendez, the officer in charge of the starbase where the story begins, and a replica of him created by Talosian illusion, who presides at Spock's court martial. Because his voice was recognizably the same as that of the Keeper, the Keeper's voice was electronically altered in pitch.[1] Earlier in The Outer Limits series he had guested in the "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" (1964) episode with William Shatner.
For the syndicated Star Trek: The Next Generation he played Pardek, a Romulan senator, in the two-part episode "Unification".
In 2004, Throne appeared in the second episode of the Star Trek Fan Series New Voyages, "In Harms Way", playing a Klingon.
Roles in Batman
One of his strangest roles was as the villain "False Face" in the ABC Batman (1966) series. The character, who used a variety of disguises to effect his nefarious schemes, wore a semi-transparent mask when not in the midst of his crimes. The mask rendered Throne's real face unrecognizable on screen. Playing off this effect, but against Throne's wishes,[citation needed] the show's producers wrote the on-screen credit as "? as False Face", which denied Throne his credit. However, at the end credits of the episode, "Holy Rat Race," his full name was finally given full credit. His portrayal was a substitution for Clint Eastwood's proposed version of Two-Face.
Later, he appeared in animation as the voice of Two-Face's superego "Judge" on The New Batman Adventures (1998), and as the voice of Fingers the Gorilla on the Batman Beyond episode "Speak No Evil" (2000).[2]
Role in Babylon 5
In the 1990s in the US TV series Babylon 5, Throne became known to a new generation of TV science fiction viewers as "Prime Minister Malachi", a high official of the Centauri government in the Hugo Award winning episode "The Coming of Shadows". (The surprising eponymous character name was not revealed until a later episode.) The Prime Minister's assassination ensured that the Centauri pursued a costly war, with tragic repercussions that drove one of the many plot lines in the series' five year story arc.
Theatre career
As of 2007[update], Malachi Throne lives in southern California and does local theatre work there. Throne is a member of the Theatre West company in Hollywood, where he is scheduled to appear in Mornings at Seven. He has also won critical acclaim for several performances with The Fountain Theatre, based in Los Angeles.
References
- ^ "The Cage Page: Behind The Scenes Of Star Trek's First Pilot". http://startrekhistory.com/cagepage.html. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
- ^ Malachi Throne imdb page
External links
Categories:- 1928 births
- Living people
- American child actors
- American stage actors
- American television actors
- Actors from New York City
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