Jack Donner

Widely known and admired as Romulan Subcommander Tal in the original _Star Trek: The Original Series (1966)_ (qv), 'Jack Donner' (qv) has worked steadily in TV, film and theater since the 1950s. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he did his first professional theater and TV work there before heading for New York during the glory days of TV, appearing in many prestigious early shows like _Studio One in Hollywood (1948)_ (qv), and soap operas such as _As the World Turns (1956)_ (qv) and _Guiding Light (1952)_ (qv). He also did seven seasons of New York regional and stock theater. Returning to L.A., he worked his way up to guest star and co-star status in shows like _The Streets of San Francisco (1972)_ (qv), _Mannix (1967)_ (qv), _Kojak (1973)_ (qv), _The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964)_ (qv), the aforementioned _Star Trek: The Original Series (1966)_ (qv) episode "The Enterprise Incident", and eleven episodes (the most by any guest star in any series) of _Mission: Impossible (1966)_ (qv). He also founded, with fellow actor Lee Delano, his own theater and drama school. His students included 'Barry Levinson' (qv), 'Craig T. Nelson' (qv), 'Barbara Parkins' (qv), and 'Don Johnson' (qv). Recent TV credits include _Baywatch (1989)_ (qv), _Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)_ (qv), _Frasier (1993)_ (qv), _Charmed (1998)_ (qv), _General Hospital (1963)_ (qv), _Chicken Soup for the Soul (1999)_ (qv), _Good vs Evil (1999)_ (qv), _Malcolm in the Middle (2000)_ (qv) and _Roswell (1999)_ (qv), and as a regular in _The Privateers (2000)_ (qv). Donner has assayed a wide variety of roles in recent feature films such as _Gideon (1998)_ (qv) (with 'Christopher Lambert' (qv) and 'Charlton Heston' (qv)), and _Family Tree (1999)_ (qv) (with 'Robert Forster' (qv)). With his deep, resonant voice, silver-white hair and patrician profile, he has recently been compared with 'Vincent Price' (qv) for his roles in a run of classy horror flicks, as Afzel the sorcerer in _Retro Puppet Master (1999)_ (qv), the mysterious Father Almeida in _Stigmata (1999)_ (qv), the manipulative Dr. Bassett in _Demon Under Glass (2002)_ (qv), and the obsessed Father Lansing in _Exorcism (2003)_ (qv).::garamet