(written from a Production point of view)
David Opatoshu (30 January 1918 – 30 April 1996; age 78), born David Opatovsky, was the actor who played Anan 7 in the Star Trek: The Original Series first season episode "A Taste of Armageddon". He filmed his scenes between Wednesday 28 December 1966 and Wednesday 4 January 1967 at Desilu Stage 10.
Opatoshu enjoyed a career that spanned over five decades, almost a hundred television guest appearances, and forty-five movie and television roles. His Semitic features and knowledge of the Yiddish language led to frequent roles as Jewish or Arabic characters. Well known roles include Menachem Begin in Raid on Entebbe, and one of the lead characters in a 1980s miniseries about the Roman siege of Masada.
Early life and career[]
David Opatoshu was the son of the noted Polish author Joseph Opatoshu, who in turn had been born in 1886 Poland as Yosef Meir Opatowski. In 1907, the elder Opatoshu immigrated to New York and changed his name to Joseph Opatovsky, this being the family's legal name until the 1920s when Joseph changed the family name again to Opatoshu.
The younger David Opatoshu took up acting at an early age and in the 1930s was regularly performing in the New York Yiddish theater. Some of his early stage credits were "Night Music" in 1940, "Silk Stockings" in 1956, and "The Wall" in 1960.
Television career[]
In the fall of 1953, Opatoshu broke into the television scene when he had a leading role in the NBC situational comedy, "Bonino." This was followed with the 1958 television movie "Where Is thy Brother?". His first major film role was in the 1960 film "Exodus" as the character Akiva, a Jewish resistance leader.
In 1964, Opatoshu was considered by Gene Roddenberry for the role of Doctor Phil Boyce in "The Cage". [1] He was cast for an unspecified role in Star Trek: The Next Generation, but fell ill and the part was recast. (Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry, p. 210)
Prior to his Trek appearance, he co-starred with James Doohan in an episode of The Twilight Zone, entitled "Valley of the Shadow". He also starred in a 1981 episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century directed by Vincent McEveety in which Barbara Luna, Sid Haig, and Felix Silla also appeared, and in an episode of Ricardo Montalban's Fantasy Island. He also guest starred in an episode of The Time Tunnel, starring James Darren, Whit Bissell and Lee Meriwether. He also had a small role in The Brothers Karamazov (1958), which also featured Harry Townes and William Shatner. In addition, he starred in the TV movie Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident (1976, with William Daniels, Brooke Bundy, Nehemiah Persoff, and Charles Macaulay). In 1989 he appeared in Alien Nation along with Gary Graham and Eric Pierpoint.
Personal life[]
David Opatoshu was married with one son and was also a veteran of the Second World War, having served in the Army Air forces in the Pacific.