RIP: Andreas Katsulas

Babylon 5's Katsulas Dies

Andreas Katsulas, the character actor known to SF fans as G'Kar on
Babylon 5 and a familiar face from Star Trek and other SF&F TV shows,
died Feb. 13 of lung cancer in Los Angeles, his agent, Donna Massetti,
confirmed to SCI FI Wire. He was 59.

Katsulas, a longtime resident of Los Angeles, played the Narn
ambassador G'Kar for five years in the syndicated cult TV series
Babylon 5, starting in 1993. He reprised the role in subsequent
Babylon 5 telefilms.

Katsulas was also no stranger to Trek fans, playing Romulan Cmdr.
Tomalak in Star Trek: The Next Generation. His last appearance in a
Trek series was as a Vissian captain on an episode of Enterprise.

Born in St. Louis, Katsulas held a master's degree in theater from
Indiana University, his official Web site said. After performing in
plays in St. Louis, New York and Boston, he went on to film roles in
such movies as Michael Cimino's The Sicilian, which brought him to Los
Angeles, then in Ridley Scott's Someone to Watch Over Me and Blake
Edward's Sunset.

Katsulas moved to Los Angeles permanently in 1986 and found scores of
television and film parts in everything from TV's Alien Nation and Max
Headroom to the big screen's The Fugitive, in which he played the
infamous one-armed man, and Executive Decision opposite Kurt Russell
and Steven Seagal.

Information on memorial services was pending at press time.
OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

Yeah, it's a real sad day. I'm going to miss this guy.



"OM" wrote in message
...
Babylon 5's Katsulas Dies

Andreas Katsulas, the character actor known to SF fans as G'Kar on
Babylon 5 and a familiar face from Star Trek and other SF&F TV shows,
died Feb. 13 of lung cancer in Los Angeles, his agent, Donna Massetti,
confirmed to SCI FI Wire. He was 59.

Katsulas, a longtime resident of Los Angeles, played the Narn
ambassador G'Kar for five years in the syndicated cult TV series
Babylon 5, starting in 1993. He reprised the role in subsequent
Babylon 5 telefilms.

Katsulas was also no stranger to Trek fans, playing Romulan Cmdr.
Tomalak in Star Trek: The Next Generation. His last appearance in a
Trek series was as a Vissian captain on an episode of Enterprise.

Born in St. Louis, Katsulas held a master's degree in theater from
Indiana University, his official Web site said. After performing in
plays in St. Louis, New York and Boston, he went on to film roles in
such movies as Michael Cimino's The Sicilian, which brought him to Los
Angeles, then in Ridley Scott's Someone to Watch Over Me and Blake
Edward's Sunset.

Katsulas moved to Los Angeles permanently in 1986 and found scores of
television and film parts in everything from TV's Alien Nation and Max
Headroom to the big screen's The Fugitive, in which he played the
infamous one-armed man, and Executive Decision opposite Kurt Russell
and Steven Seagal.

Information on memorial services was pending at press time.
OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

Damn. G'Kar was one of the best characters.

You did well, Andreas. Go with honour.


OM wrote:
Babylon 5's Katsulas Dies

Andreas Katsulas, the character actor known to SF fans as G'Kar on
Babylon 5 and a familiar face from Star Trek and other SF&F TV shows,
died Feb. 13 of lung cancer in Los Angeles, his agent, Donna Massetti,
confirmed to SCI FI Wire. He was 59.

Katsulas, a longtime resident of Los Angeles, played the Narn
ambassador G'Kar for five years in the syndicated cult TV series
Babylon 5, starting in 1993. He reprised the role in subsequent
Babylon 5 telefilms.

Katsulas was also no stranger to Trek fans, playing Romulan Cmdr.
Tomalak in Star Trek: The Next Generation. His last appearance in a
Trek series was as a Vissian captain on an episode of Enterprise.

Born in St. Louis, Katsulas held a master's degree in theater from
Indiana University, his official Web site said. After performing in
plays in St. Louis, New York and Boston, he went on to film roles in
such movies as Michael Cimino's The Sicilian, which brought him to Los
Angeles, then in Ridley Scott's Someone to Watch Over Me and Blake
Edward's Sunset.

Katsulas moved to Los Angeles permanently in 1986 and found scores of
television and film parts in everything from TV's Alien Nation and Max
Headroom to the big screen's The Fugitive, in which he played the
infamous one-armed man, and Executive Decision opposite Kurt Russell
and Steven Seagal.

Information on memorial services was pending at press time.
OM

OM wrote:

Babylon 5's Katsulas Dies

Andreas Katsulas, the character actor known to SF fans as G'Kar on
Babylon 5 and a familiar face from Star Trek and other SF&F TV shows,
died Feb. 13 of lung cancer in Los Angeles, his agent, Donna Massetti,
confirmed to SCI FI Wire. He was 59.


That's a real pity, he played both G'Kar and Tomalak to perfection.
That constant squabbling between G'Kar and Londo was one of the high
points of Babylon 5.
One of my favorite scenes- together in the stuck elevator:
http://www.visi.com/~wildfoto/synopsis/302.html

IN THE TUBE

Londo stirs, finally. He struggles unsteadily to his feet, while
G'Kar sits watching impassively.

Londo: Green 2. [Nothing happens.] Green 2! [Steps to the door and
touches it. Quickly draws it back with a cry of pain.] Hello? Is
there anyone out there? Can anyone hear me? [Steps to the back of
the car, while G'Kar continues to watch, apparently amused.] There's
no one out there. [G'Kar shakes his head in agreement.] It would
appear that we are on our own. [G'Kar nods. Londo puts his hand to
his forehead.] I don't know how long I have been unconscious.
G'Kar: Two standard hours.
Londo: Two hours? [G'Kar nods.] And you have done nothing? [Shakes
his head.] I would point out to you that this door is extremely hot!
There is a very good chance there is a fire out there. And even if
the fire doesn't get in here, the smoke and heat will eventually
make it impossible to breathe, and we will die in here! [G'Kar
giggles.] With enough effort, we can probably force our way through
the ceiling. [Giggles again.] Perhaps I have not made myself
sufficiently clear. There is no telling when help will come! [G'Kar
shakes his head.] Unless we get ourselves out of here on our own, we
will probably die here! [G'Kar laughs.] So we must work together!
G'Kar [laughing]: No.
Londo: No? What do you mean, no?
G'Kar: No! [Laughs louder.]
Londo: You want to live as much as I, hmm?
G'Kar [laughing]: Oh, yes, but I would much rather see you dead!
Londo: Oh, I see. Well, here I am. Come on. Kill me! Come kill me!
G'Kar [still laughing]: You forget the terms of our surrender! The
penalty for the killing of any Centauri by any Narn will be the
death of 500 Narns [the laughter turns into a snarling roar]
including the perpetrator's own family! [Softly.] But I don't have
to kill you. [Begins laughing again.] I don't have to do anything!
And I still get to watch you die! I find this most appealing! [Keeps
laughing.]
Londo: This is insane! We must work together!
G'Kar [still laughing]: No! As the humans say --- up yours! Die!
Londo: I don't believe it! [Steps forward and bangs on the door ---
once. G'Kar laughs uproariously at Londo's pain.] You are mad, do
you know that? [Bellows at the ceiling:] We're in here! Can anyone
hear us?
G'Kar [giggling, in a tiny, high voice]: I hear you!
Londo [furious]: In here!
G'Kar: We're in here!




Pat

Pat Flannery wrote:


IN THE TUBE

Londo stirs, finally. He struggles unsteadily to his feet, while
G'Kar sits watching impassively.

Delurk mode on
Damn, I loved that show. Part of the attraction for me was the
interplay between G'Kar and Londo. One of the most poignant and best
acted parts for me was the towards the end of the second series when
the Narn had surrendered after being "bombed back to the stone age".

G'Kar on learning of the Narn surrender and that he was no longer
classed as an ambassador stated:-

"No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by the
force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than
the need for freedom. Against that power governments, and tyrants, and
armies can not stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will
teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be
free"

May he rest in peace.

Bryant

Bash wrote:


Delurk mode on
Damn, I loved that show.


Yeah, that was the first science fiction show I really ever got hooked
on, to the point where I had to catch it every week (and still the only
one for that matter.) I've got a two-foot wide Shadow Battlecrab model
sitting around eight feet from me as I write this. Magnificent spaceship
designs on that show.

Part of the attraction for me was the
interplay between G'Kar and Londo. One of the most poignant and best
acted parts for me was the towards the end of the second series when
the Narn had surrendered after being "bombed back to the stone age".

G'Kar on learning of the Narn surrender and that he was no longer
classed as an ambassador stated:-

"No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by the
force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than
the need for freedom. Against that power governments, and tyrants, and
armies can not stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will
teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be
free"


Yeah, the mass driver attack was pretty terrifying. You start out liking
Londo, then realize that he is a terribly flawed individual who will do
great harm due to his flaws. G'Kar on the other hand seemed anything but
trustworthy at the beginning, and turned out to have the makings of a
superbly courageous and upstanding individual in him. In Star Trek
everyone's characters stayed fairly static.
The Tomalak character on STTNG was a continuation of an idea they had
from the original series, a enemy captain that keeps getting run into by
the Enterprise. Although in never fully panned out in either series, in
TOS this was supposed to be Captain Koloth from "The Trouble With
Tribbles", a Klingon whose greatest joy would have been getting on
Captain Kirk's nerves, and whom Kirk would be glad to return the favor to.
It's a pity neither of JMS's other series panned out as well as B5, it
was so nice to have a different universe out there than the Star Trek
one where aliens really looked and behaved in an alien manner, and
instead of everything working out for the best at the end of each
episode it sometimes went right down the tubes- just like in real life.
In Star Trek you'd have some terrible war about to start that everyone's
heroic actions would prevent; in B5 everybody would do everything they
could to try to stop something horrible from occurring, and it would
happen nonetheless, sometimes made even worse by their actions..
I still wouldn't trust anyone who offers your race half the galaxy with
the boundary between your part and theirs being illustrated by a wall of
flame. Little things like that should clue you in that they may not be
on the up-and-up. :-)

Pat

On Fri, 17 Feb 2006 19:33:14 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote:

It's a pity neither of JMS's other series panned out as well as B5

...."Crusade" had incredible potential, even if it was essentially JMS
reimaging "Star Blazers". The fault there lies in the Inbred Network -
AKA "Turner Network Television" - who decided that it needed to be
dumbed down and tweaked so that the WWF crowd could jack off to it
rather than the intelligent people JMS was targeting for - people like
us.

....On the other hand, "Legend of the Rangers" wasn't that hot of a
concept. More like a "Leper Colony" reimaging from "12 O'Clock High",
I suspect JMS did this one as a last-ditch attempt to try and get a
new B5U series going long enough to tie up the loose ends of "Crusade"
and possibly give us the answers to the Tepe War that we never got to
see.

....Still, I wonder what happened to that "Polaris" series he was
claiming was totally, radically different from any Sci-Fi TV concept
ever created that was so radically different he couldn't even hint
what it was about lest someone pull a DS9 on it.

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

On Fri, 17 Feb 2006 19:33:14 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote:

The Tomalak character on STTNG was a continuation of an idea they had
from the original series, a enemy captain that keeps getting run into by
the Enterprise.

....Katsulas hinted at conventions that it was his schedule that kept
the regular appearances down to a bare few, but about the time
Paranoidmount was about to make a serious offer, B5 came along and
that was that. Luckily, at JMS insistance, he agreed to appear one
final time as Tomalak on "All Good Things...", where he really
obviously played the character as if he were channeling G'Kar. Tomalak
*never* used those hand gestures on the other shows as G'Kar was known
to do :-)

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

On 17 Feb 2006 12:05:26 -0800, "Bash" wrote:

Part of the attraction for me was the interplay between G'Kar and Londo

....Best Londo & G'Kar moments:

- The arguement in front of the lift over whether or not pushing the
button will make the lift arrive faster. The punch line of "Now look
what *you* made me do!" is priceless, and a clip of it shown at a
convention brought the house down so hard that it had to be shown four
or five times by public demand!

- The battle over the G'Kwan'Eth.

- G'Kar actually volunteering to be Londo's bodyguard, even if it's
just to annoy him by making sure he gets the aisle seat!

- The second drink in G'Kar's quarters, where he pours the shot back
into its flask to refute Londo's request that they put aside their
differences to help Earth, only to later on agree to help so long as
both their signatures are *not* on the same page.

- "G'Kar...where is your eye?"

- The agreement that disposes of Cartagia and sets the Narns free.

- The Spoo arguement that leads to the rescue of Na'Toth.

- G'Kar's method of getting Londo out of their cell so he can find
out why the Minister has set the Centauri against everyone.

- The moment where G'Kar admits that while he can never forgive the
Centauri for both occupations and atrocities, he *can* forgive Londo.
Which sets up the real reason behind:

- The final fates of G'Kar and Londo, which JMS used to show once
again that seeing the end before the path is taken will probably mean
we won't understand the end until we go down the path.

---------------

....As for some other best G'Kar solo moments:

- Where Lord Refa learns that there ain't no hidin' place.

- "What is your pleasure threshold?"

- "I dub thee...Sir G'Kar of the Round Table!"

- G'Kar demanding that the IA constitutions all be rounded up because
he's come up with a far better version.

- "Could you tell me where is Mr. Garibaldi?" "Who?"

- "Truth is a river, and God is the mouth of the river."

- G'Kar having to deal with his newfound fame rather than face
another certain Narn's honor blade.

- Explaining to Dr. Franklin why every single copy of the Book of
G'Kar has this funny ring-shaped stain on it.

- "Dead. drip. Dead. drip. Dead. drip. Dead. drip. Dead.
drip. Dead. drip. Dead. drip. Dead. drip. Dead. drip. Dead.
drip. Dead. drip. Dead. drip. Dead. drip."

- G'Kar's use of Dust.

- How he and Na'Toth deal with the assassin sent to kill him by
placing a counter offer into his bank account and then letting the
Guild know he'd "taken" the bribe, thus placing the assassin up ****
creek without a paddle!

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

OM wrote:

...Still, I wonder what happened to that "Polaris" series he was
claiming was totally, radically different from any Sci-Fi TV concept
ever created that was so radically different he couldn't even hint
what it was about lest someone pull a DS9 on it.



According to this, Sci-Fi Channel thought it was "too science fictiony":
http://worldsofjms.com/projects.htm#polaris


Polaris

(Updated 01 April 2003)

J. Michael Straczynski developed a series for the Sci-Fi Channel called
Polaris.

This project began life in February 2001. Work on it was postponed until
late June 2001 due to Straczynski's heavy workload. The contracts were
finally signed in early September 2001. Straczynski turned in at least
two scripts including one for a two-hour pilot.

Polaris made it to the final three candidates to be picked up by the
Sci-Fi Channel. Unfortunately, Straczynski announced in January 2003
that Polaris was turned down for being "too science fictiony". After the
turnaround period has expired, Straczynski plans to take the project
elsewhere. On 01 April 2003, Straczynski said that another studio might
be showing strong interest in Polaris.

Straczynski says, "I've kept the basic story line of Polaris under lock
and key because it's the kind of thing which, once you hear it, you know
instantly why the Sci-Fi Channel picked it up to develop, even though
it's a fairly pristine area inside the genre, and I'm trying to keep
competition to a minimum for now."

Pat