John Colicos' Obituary

by Kathy Pepmiller

As children we believe we are immortal. We also believe that our heroes and their adversaries are immortal too. Yet with each passing year we say goodbye too more and more of the fine, even great actors and actresses who made our childhood dreams realities.

So it is today that I say goodbye to a man that I loved to despise. According to the Associated Press, actor John Colicos passed away in Toronto on Monday March 6 after a series of heart attacks at the age of 71. He is survived by his wife Mona and two sons.

As I was collecting information to write this obituary, I was truly surprised at the list of credits this Shakespearean trained actor had accumulated and how little of his book of work that I was familiar with. His film career began with a student film in 1950 and ran through the next five decades with over seventy film and television appearances. Including several early television films, appearances on Mission:Impossible, Wonder Woman, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and more recently War of the Worlds. Also in the films Anne of a Thousand Days, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and the TV Miniseries The Last Don.

It was his landmark appearance in 1966 on Star Trek that changed the nature of our universe forever. John Colicos has the distinction of being the first Klingon of Star Trek with his portrayal of the Klingon Commander Kor in the episode titled Errand of Mercy, A Role he would reprise some 28 years later on DS9 in the episodes Blood Oath, The Sword of Kahless and Once more into the breach.

However, it is as a 14-year-old girl that I have the most vivid memories of this wonderful actor. I was in such a state of hero worship for Battlestar Galactica's Apollo and Starbuck that Colicos' portrayal of the traitorous Baltar was easy to despise. He was the antithesis of everything they stood for and I loved to hate his character.

In one final note on his filmography it does list Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming as one of his final credits. A reprisal of Baltar in the Richard Hatch produced trailer. However, to the best of my knowledge it was only the trailer. The film has not as yet gone into production.

Sadly I feel like I have said this so often lately. He will be missed.

John Colicos: December 10, 1928 - March 6, 2000