Friday, February 17, 2006
R.I.P. G'kar
Bit of an odd blog for me to write, but I needed to post at least a few words about the wonderful Andreas Katsulas who sadly passed away this week after a lengthy illness.
Many people will not know him by name, but I'll wager many of those people have actually seen him perform, be it in what hollywood insisted was his ideal role, the stereotypical bad guy, such as the 'one-armed man' in the 1993 remake of 'The Fugitive', or under many layers of prosthetics, as two of probably his mode widely known roles; the Romulan Tomalak in the Star Trek franschise, and as the Narn Abmassador G'Kar in Babylon 5.
G'Kar was such a wonderfull character for Andreas, as he got to shed the bad-guy routine that was starting to become all too routine for him, although of couse, due to Babylon 5's insistance that 'No one is exactly what they seemed', it took until around the 2nd-3rd series before we realised that G'Kar wasn't really the bad-guy we had him penned down as at first. It also gave us numerous wonderfull monologues in his fabulous deep leathery tones, the most memorable probably being the epilogue to season 3, which I've included to transcribe at the end of this piece. I hope Joe doesn't mind.
I was very fortunate to have met Andreas on a number of occasions, and found him an exceptionally charming and funny man, a consumate professional, and a kind, freindly person. I will never forget every especially funny moment of him sharing a stage with Peter Jurassik, Babylon 5's Londo Mollari. Those two characters were always the crux of B5 for me, and it's hard to imagine a Babylon 5 without both those two in it.
Rest in peace,
Andreas Katsulas,
18 May 1946 -
13 Feb 2006
"There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us.
We know only that it is always born in pain."
Many people will not know him by name, but I'll wager many of those people have actually seen him perform, be it in what hollywood insisted was his ideal role, the stereotypical bad guy, such as the 'one-armed man' in the 1993 remake of 'The Fugitive', or under many layers of prosthetics, as two of probably his mode widely known roles; the Romulan Tomalak in the Star Trek franschise, and as the Narn Abmassador G'Kar in Babylon 5.
G'Kar was such a wonderfull character for Andreas, as he got to shed the bad-guy routine that was starting to become all too routine for him, although of couse, due to Babylon 5's insistance that 'No one is exactly what they seemed', it took until around the 2nd-3rd series before we realised that G'Kar wasn't really the bad-guy we had him penned down as at first. It also gave us numerous wonderfull monologues in his fabulous deep leathery tones, the most memorable probably being the epilogue to season 3, which I've included to transcribe at the end of this piece. I hope Joe doesn't mind.
I was very fortunate to have met Andreas on a number of occasions, and found him an exceptionally charming and funny man, a consumate professional, and a kind, freindly person. I will never forget every especially funny moment of him sharing a stage with Peter Jurassik, Babylon 5's Londo Mollari. Those two characters were always the crux of B5 for me, and it's hard to imagine a Babylon 5 without both those two in it.
Rest in peace,
Andreas Katsulas,
18 May 1946 -
13 Feb 2006
"There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us.
We know only that it is always born in pain."
