As the year starts off, yet another actor from my childhood has died. Wednesday, Ricardo Montalban passed away at the age of 88. Mr. Montalban had a long and storied career on stage and screen. He played a couple of great characters on Hawaii 5-0, first as a crooked Japanese businessman, and later as a crazy and narcissistic Spanish race car driver. He also starred in a run of Chrysler commercials back in the 80s, and as the title points out, was the great Mr. Roarke, hosting guests on Fantasy Island.
But beyond that, the thing that probably landed him immortality was the part he played in the 1967 Star Trek episode "Space Seed" Montalban played the genetically enhanced uber-smart super human Khan Noonien Singh, sent into space by humanity in suspended animation, and left adrift for hundreds of years until happened upon by the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.
Kirk and crew resurrected Khan and his fellow super-humans, and as a thanks, Khan and crew tried to take over the Enterprise. Finally, Kirk set them down on a planet called Ceti Alpha V to start their own colony. Khan was a manly man, warrior and survivor and natural born leader.
Later on, Khan got new life as the nemesis in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Arguably one of the best (my favorite) Star Trek movies ever made. ST II was dirty and gritty, and involved a complex cat and mouse game between Kirk and Khan, ultimately ending in the birth of the Genesis planet and the death of Spock. That movie created two of the best and most quoted lines from a Star Trek movie ever. "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" screamed by James Kirk as Khan left him marooned on a barren moon, and "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one" uttered by Spock as he died, just after saving the crew of the Enterprise one last time.
Also said during Spock's shipboard funeral was "Of all the souls I've encountered in my travels, his was the most... human" a scene, one of the very few that actually moved me to tears.
Outside of Star Trek, I watched him almost religiously on Fantasy Island, where he, as Mr. Roarke, greeted guests to a mysterious island that made dreams come true, often with a reality that showed "you should be careful what you wish for."
So I say to you, Mr. Ricardo Montalban, thank you for being our host, and may you find the peace you deserve among the stars.
Das Aggregator!