Happy birthday Melinda M. Snodgrass, born November 27, 1951
She is a science fiction writer for both print and television.
She wrote several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation while serving as the series’ story editor during its second and third seasons.
She has also contributed produced scripts for the series Odyssey 5, The Outer Limits, SeaQuest DSV, and Reasonable Doubts; she was also a consulting producer on The Profiler.
She has also written science fiction novels and short stories, notably the Circuit trilogy, and is the co-editor and a frequent story contributor to George R. R. Martin’s long-running (since 1987) shared world Wild Cards series.
Morga began stunt work in the mid-1970’s. He later began working as a stunt double for Patrick Duffy in Man from Atlantis.
Since then, Morga has doubled for several actors in feature films and television.
His work also includes stunt and non-stunt acting roles in numerous Star Trek films and television episodes.
In 1985, Morga portrayed Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning during Tommy’s hallucinations except for the opening dream sequence where he was played by stuntman John Hock who was personally selected by him to fill-in during his absence. He also stunt-doubled for Dick Wieand, who played Jason’s impostor Roy Burns during the film playing him in almost all masked scenes except for a few filmed with Hock.
He also portrayed Michael Myers in the first half of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, but was ultimately replaced by George P. Wilbur.
Morga was co-winner of a 2007 Taurus World Stunt Award for “Best Fight” in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.
He was also part of the stunt team nominated for a 2007 Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for “Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture” in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.
Remembering Stewart Moss, born November 27, 1937 and passed away September 13, 2017.
Moss’s film credits included roles in In Harm’s Way (1965), Chubasco (1968), Pendulum (1969), the Hitchcock movie Topaz (1969), Zig Zag (1970), Fuzz (1972), Stacey (1973), Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls (1973), The Bat People (1974), The Last Married Couple in America (1980) and Raise the Titanic (1980).
He made eight guest appearances on Hogan’s Heroes, starring Bob Crane, from 1965 to 1971.
He also made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, first as murder victim David Cartwell in the 1964 episode, “The Case of the Paper Bullets,” and Dan Swanson in “The Case of the Dead Ringer,” in 1966 when star Raymond Burr doubled as Mason and murderer Grimes.
Moss also appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series: “The Naked Time” as Lt. Joe Tormolen, and “By Any Other Name” as Hanar.
He has appeared in such TV shows as Wheels, Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, Riptide, Cagney and Lacey, Magnum, P.I., Barnaby Jones, Baa Baa Black Sheep episode “The Meatball Circus”, The Rockford Files, Cannon, Kojak, The Silent Force, and Bonanza.
In addition to acting, Moss has also written and directed. He wrote an episode of Trapper John, M.D. called “Old Man Liver”, and he directed a stage production of Sweet Charity starring Bebe Neuwirth.
He won a Drama-Logue Award for directing the stage production of The Shadow Box at Theater East.
Happy birthday Patricia McPherson, born November 27, 1954.
McPherson has made guest appearances in a variety of television shows including Dynasty, Starman, Murder She Wrote, MacGyver, Matlock.
She played Angel I mistress Ariel in the Star Trek: The Next Generation first season episode “Angel One”.
She retired from acting in 1991, although she made a cameo appearance as a Regent in the Syfy television series Warehouse 13 in 2009.
She is known for her role in the 1980’s TV series Knight Rider as Bonnie Barstow, KITT’s mechanic. She appeared in season one and was absent from season two, but she was subsequently asked to return to the show, which she did in the season-three opener, remaining from 1984 until the end of the series in 1986.
Happy birthday Barbara Anderson, born November 27, 1945.
Barbara Jeanne Anderson is a retired American actress who is best known for portraying police officer Eve Whitfield in the television series Ironside, for which she won an Emmy Award.
She is also known for her appearance as the secret agent Mimi Davis during the final season of the American TV series Mission: Impossible.
Anderson was born in Brooklyn, New York, Her father, George Anderson, was a Navy enlisted man. She spent her early years in New York City, but during her teenage years, she resided in the Memphis, Tennessee, area, where her parents had moved.
While she was a student at Memphis State University, Anderson won the title of Miss Memphis in 1963.
Anderson was an actress with the Front Street Repertory Theater and debuted professionally in Memphis with the Southwestern University Players.
Later, she acted with the Los Angeles Art Theater. Anderson decided to move to Los Angeles.
In 1966, one of her first TV appearances came in a first-season episode of Star Trek, “The Conscience of the King”.
Anderson also featured in the first episode of the TV series Mannix, broadcast in 1967.
Anderson became one of the four original cast members of the TV series Ironside, which began its run in the same year and was the lead actress in the series (for the first 105 episodes). Anderson played the role of one of two police officers chosen to assist Robert Ironside (Raymond Burr), former chief of detectives for San Francisco. Anderson continued in her role as Officer Whitfield for four seasons.
Later performances included the wife of a man who inherits a notoriously haunted house in the Night Gallery episode “Fright Night” and as a witness to a mob hit in the Harry O episode “Material Witness”.
She accepted a recurring role (seven episodes) in the final season of Mission Impossible.
She has acted in several made-for-TV movies, notably the 1973 pilot film for The Six Million Dollar Man.
She was paired with former Ironside co-star Don Galloway in You Lie So Deep, My Love on the CBS Late Movie in 1977.
Anderson’s last acting appearance on TV or in films was in the TV movie Return of Ironside (1993), where she reprises her role as Eve Whitfield, now the mother of a daughter.
In 1968, Anderson won the television Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in Drama Series for her work on Ironside. She was nominated for two more Emmys for her work on that program: Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series (1969) and Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Drama (1970).
Remembering James Avery, born November 27, 1945 and passed away December 31, 2013.
James LaRue Avery was a prolific television actor, he is best remembered for his portrayal of patriarch “Uncle Phil” Banks in the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Steve Yeager in The Brady Bunch Movie, and Haroud Hazi Bin in Aladdin.
Avery began his career in the 1980’s with appearances in television series such as NBC’s Hill Street Blues, Showtime sitcom “Brothers” as Bubba Dean, Amen, FM and L.A. Law.
In the 1990’s, he achieved prominence for his role as Philip Banks (Uncle Phil) in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
He played the lead role of Alonzo Sparks in the UPN comedy series Sparks that lasted for two seasons.
Other notable roles in television included Dr. Crippen in The Closer, Charles Haysbert in The Division, and Michael Kelso’s commanding officer at the police academy late in the series run of That ’70s Show.
Among his most notable voice credits are the voices of Shredder in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, and James Rhodes/War Machine in the 1990’s Iron Man series.
He also provided the voice of Junkyard Dog in Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling (1985–1986), Turbo in Rambo and the Forces of Freedom (1986), and Haroud Hazi Bin in Aladdin (1994).
He played General K’Vagh in the Star Trek: Enterprise episodes “Affliction” and “Divergence”
Remembering John Dullaghan, born November 27, 1930 and passed away on January 18, 2009.
He was an actor, known for Apollo 13 (1995), Kalifornia (1993) and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) and Battlestar Galactica.
John Dullaghan performed in over 60 stage productions, most notably “Major Barbara” at the Mark Taper Forum in New York, “Blood Knot” and “Little Sheba.”.
Happy birthday Gerrit Graham, born November 27, 1949.
Gerrit Graham is an American stage, television, and film actor as well as a scriptwriter and songwriter.
He has appeared in such films as Used Cars, TerrorVision, National Lampoon’s Class Reunion and Greetings, where he worked with Brian De Palma for the first time.
He would again work with De Palma on Hi, Mom and Home Movies, as well as Phantom of the Paradise, where he played flamboyant glam-rocker Beef.
Graham was the voice of Franklin Sherman in the animated series The Critic as well as a recurring role as Dr. Norman Pankow on the sitcom Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.
He has also appeared in two different roles on the Star Trek television series; as the alien hunter of Tosk on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and as a member of the Q Continuum (adopting the name Quinn) in the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Death Wish”.
In Babylon 5 he played Lord Kiro in the episode: “Signs and Portents”.
He also played Julian in Communicating Doors in 1998.
Graham wrote the teleplays for the episodes “Still Life” and “Opening Day” of the 1980’s version of The Twilight Zone. He did not write “Welcome to Winfield”, the only episode in which he appeared as a member of the cast.
Graham has written songs with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead.
William Sanford Nye popularly known as Bill Nye The Science Guy, is an American science communicator, television presenter, and mechanical engineer.
He is best known as the host of the PBS and syndicated children’s science show Bill Nye the Science Guy (1993–1998), the Netflix show Bill Nye Saves the World (2017), and for his many subsequent appearances in popular media as a science educator.
Nye began his career as a mechanical engineer for Boeing Corporation in Seattle, where he invented a hydraulic resonance suppressor tube used on 747 airplanes.
In 1986, Nye left Boeing to pursue comedy, writing and performing jokes and bits for the local sketch television show Almost Live!, where he would regularly conduct wacky science experiments.
Nye aspired to become the next Mr. Wizard and with the help of several producers successfully pitched the children’s television program Bill Nye the Science Guy to KCTS-TV, channel 9, Seattle’s public television station. The show—which proudly proclaimed in its theme song that “science rules!”—ran from 1993 to 1998 in national TV syndication.
Known for its “high-energy presentation and MTV-paced segments,” the program became a hit for both kids and adults. The show was critically acclaimed and was nominated for 23 Emmy Awards, winning nineteen.
Following the success of his show, Nye continued to advocate for science, becoming the CEO of the Planetary Society and helping develop sundials for the Mars Exploration Rover missions.
Nye has written two best-selling books on science, including Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation in 2014 and Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World in 2015.
Nye has made frequent media appearances, including on Dancing with the Stars, The Big Bang Theory and Inside Amy Schumer. Nye starred in a documentary about his life and science advocacy titled Bill Nye: Science Guy, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2017, and, in October 2017, was chosen a NYT Critic’s Pick.
In 2017, he debuted a Netflix series, entitled Bill Nye Saves the World.
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