William Marshall
William Marshall (19 August 1924–11 June 2003; age 78) was an American actor, director, producer, and opera singer who appeared as Daystrom in the Star Trek: The Original Series second season episode "The Ultimate Computer". He was the cousin of fellow Star Trek actor Paul Winfield.
Marshall is perhaps best known for playing the title role of the 1972 cult vampire melodrama, Blacula, and its 1973 sequel, Scream Blacula Scream. He was also known for his performance as the "King of Cartoons" on the children's program Pee-wee's Playhouse from 1987 through 1991.
Marshall was born in Gary, Indiana, and later lived in Pacoima, California. He was trained as a classical actor as well as an opera singer. He died from complications of Alzheimer's disease in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 78. He died exactly four years after the passing of his Original Series co-star DeForest Kelley. Marshall's cousin, Paul Winfield, died the following year.
Acting career
1940s-1960s
In the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Marshall appeared in several stage plays, including Broadway productions of Carmen Jones; Lost in the Stars, a later production, and the film version, of which both starred Brock Peters; and Peter Pan, acting alongside Nehemiah Persoff. He made his film debut as King Dick in 1952's Lydia Bailey. This was followed with a supporting role in 1954's Demetrius and the Gladiators, which co-starred Jay Robinson and featured Jean Simmons and Julie Newmar. In 1958, he co-starred alongside Dame Judith Anderson and Theodore Bikel on the live anthology series The DuPont Show of the Month.
Marshall acted out the title role of William Shakespeare's Othello, The Moor Of Venice in several stage productions throughout the 1950s. He also produced the first of these productions at the Mother Zion Church in New York City in 1953. Marshall later starred in, and directed, The Bear and The Marriage Proposal in 1961, which toured at various US Army based in France. He also directed the play Long Voyage Home at the American Artists and Students Center in Paris, France, in 1962. From 1962 through 1963, Marshall toured as Othello in various European cities as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival.
Norman Lloyd directed Marshall in a 1964 installment of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. That same year, Marshall appeared on the TV series The Nurses, which starred Stephen Brooks. Also in 1964, Marshall was seen in an installment of Bonanza with Jason Wingreen, an installment of Rawhide with Don Marshall, who was no relation to him, and Harry Townes, and an installment of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with Fritz Weaver. Marshall was then directed by John Meredyth Lucas in a 1965 installment of Ben Casey.
In 1967, Marshall acted alongside fellow Original Series actors Jason Evers, Lloyd Haynes, and Perry Lopez in various installments of NBC's Tarzan. That same year, he co-starred with Lawrence Montaigne in installments of Daniel Boone and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Marshall then had major supporting roles in the 1968 films To Hell with Heroes, which was directed by Joseph Sargent and co-starred Sid Haig, and The Boston Strangler. The latter film co-starred fellow Original Series guest actors Jeff Corey and Sally Kellerman, and it also featured cinematography by Star Trek: The Motion Picture director of photography Richard H. Kline.
During this time, Marshall acted out Dr. Richard John Daystrom, Sr., Ph.D. in Star Trek, specifically in "The Ultimate Computer", whose source story the mathematician Laurence N. Wolfe had written, and he later said that he was deeply moved to act out such a role of an Black man of such renowned genius, whom even a dashing authority figure like James Kirk addressed respectfully as "Sir." For that time in the 1960s, Marshall considered that a rare opportunity to act out a character who was very Human in a way unrelated to any stereotype of the character's race, and yet reflective of his own frustrations with racism in his own life. Marshall manifested those frustrations in Daystrom's rant about his career frustrations and hearing his colleagues mocking him for what had been his greatest achievement by that time in his life.
Marshall was directed by Marvin Chomsky in a 1968 installment of The Wild Wild West that co-starred Tom Troupe. He then appeared in the CBS/MGM TV pilot movie U.M.C. along with Alfred Ryder, William Windom, and Jason Wingreen.
1970s-1990s
In 1970, Marshall had a role in Skullduggery, which co-starred Roger C. Carmel and featured Booker Bradshaw. That same year, he had a supporting role in Zig Zag, in which film Stewart Moss, Steve Ihnat, and Vic Perrin also appeared. In 1971, Marshall appeared in Honky, alongside John Fiedler, and in 1974, he starred in Abby, which was co-edited by Bub Asman, supervising sound editor on Star Trek Nemesis. In 1977, Marshall had a role in the thriller Twilight's Last Gleaming, alongside his cousin, Paul Winfield.
Possibly Marshall's most famous film role was that of Mamuwalde, the African prince who is transformed into the vampire "Blacula" by Count Dracula, in Blacula. Released in 1972, Blacula co-starred fellow Star Trek guest actors Elisha Cook, Charles Macaulay, and Thalmus Rasulala. Marshall reprised his role as Mamuwalde/Blacula in Scream, Blacula, Scream, which was released in 1973. Blacula won the "Best Horror Film" award at the 1972 Saturn Awards; the second film was nominated for the same honor.
On television, Marshall guest-starred with Davis Roberts in Insight (1970) and Mannix (1972, also featuring Dallas Mitchell). He later co-starred alongside Bernie Casey in Police Woman in 1977. That same year, Marshall was a regular on NBC's Rosetti and Ryan.
Marshall reunited with his Demetrius and the Gladiators co-star (and fellow Original Series guest star) Jay Robinson for a stage production of William Shakespeare's Othello, which was taped and released on video in 1981. Marshall then guest-starred in an episode of The Jeffersons with Keone Young and appeared in Curtains, which was released in 1983 and starred Samantha Eggar. He later acted out The Grim Reaper in an installment of Benson, one of whose regular cast members René Auberjonois was.
In 1986, Marshall had a supporting role in the comedy film Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter, which co-starred Paul Sorvino. He then acted out the pirate captain in the comedy Amazon Women on the Moon, with his castmates in that film including Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager guest stars Frank Collison, Ed Begley, Jr., Ronny Cox, Larry A. Hankin, Dick Miller, and Robert Picardo.
Marshall began acting out "The King Of Cartoons" on Pee-wee's Playhouse in 1987, taking over the role from actor Gilbert Lewis. During his segment, Marshall's character played a brief cartoon, usually from the "Golden Age" of animation. The King Of Cartoons was well-known for introducing each cartoon with his catch-phrase, "Let…the cartoooon…begin!" Marshall acted out the character till the series concluded in 1991 on Paul Reubens's request, as he (Reubens) had begun to suffer from work burnout and wanted to take a sabbatical.
He and fellow Trek alumni Henry Darrow and Bert Remsen appeared as poker players in the 1994 film Maverick. Marshall then had supporting roles in the cult sexploitation films Sorceress, alongside Edward Laurence Albert, and Dinosaur Valley Girl, alongside Jeff Rector. This last, tragically, was Marshall's last film, as he had begun to suffer the effects of Alzheimer's disease, which had begun to impair his memory, and his acting career was now ruined.