Star Trek, Seinfeld Actor Gene Dynarski Dies at 86

Actor Gene Dynarski has died. He was 86 years old. Dynarski died on February 27th at a rehabilitation center in Studio City. His death was not made public until it playwright Ernest Kearny announced it. Dynarski is a veteran of the Star Trek franchise. He made two appearances in Star Trek: The Original Series. In his first, he played miner Ben Childress in the episode “Mudd’s Women” in 1966. He returned in 1969 for the third-season episode “The Mark of Gideon.” He played Krodak, one of the inhabitants of Gideon, a planet up for induction into the United Federation of Planets.

In 1988, he returned to the Star Trek universe again. This time he appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Season One episode “11001001.” He played Commander Quinteros, a Starfleet officer who served at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards. Quinteros supervised the construction of the Enterprise-D ahead of its launch.

Outside fo Star Trek, Dynarski appeared in two Steven Spielberg films, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Duel. Dynarski’s television credits include playing one of Egghead’s henchmen, Benedict, in the 1966 Batman episodes “An Egg Grows in Gotham” and “The Yegg Foes in Gotham.” He also played Izzy Mandelbaum Jr. in the Seinfeld episode “The English Patient.” He reprised the role in an episode in the following season. Other credits include The X-Files, Earthquake, Airport 1975, All the President’s Men, Hill Street Blues, The A-Team, Little House on the Prairie, Starsky and Hutch, Kung Fu, Kojak, Bonanza, and The Monkees.

Dynarski was born on September 13, 1933. Before moving to Los Angeles, he worked at a bowling alley and served in the United States Navy. After moving to Los Angeles, he began getting work with the help of casting director Lynn Stalmaster. He made his on-screen debut in 1965 in an episode of the ABC medical drama Ben Casey.

Dynarkski founded The Gene Syndarski Theatre in Los Angeles, close to Sunset Boulevard and Western Avenue. The theater’s first production featured Ed Harris in Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth. In the 1990s, Tom Hanks and Elisabeth Shue performed at the theater.

Dynarski played Josef Stalin in the video game Command & Conquer: Red Alert in 1996. He earned a Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Award for his work in Among the Vipers, as produced by Kearney at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble. Dynarski is survived by two daughters.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter