Andreas Katsulas Passes

Andreas Katsulas, best known for his depiction of the character G’Kar on Babylon 5, has died.

He was 59.

The cause of death was lung cancer.

MORE HERE.

May he rest in peace, and may perpetual light shine upon him.

(Katsulas is the second member of the Babylon 5 family to die. The first was Richard Biggs, who played Dr. Franklin and who died unexpectedly from a tear in his aorta.)

I must say that my views on Katsulas changed over the course of time. Originally, I didn’t like him. I first became aware of him when he was playing the Romulan character Tomalak on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and I thought he played the part in an unpleasing, cartoon-of-a-villain way.

When B5 started, this view was confirmed, because originally G’Kar was an even more over-the-top cartoon of a villain than Tomalak ever dreamed of being.

But this was a fakeout on JMS’s part, and he always meant G’Kar to evolve from villain to spiritual leader, and Andreas Katsulas has the range as an actor to be able to make that amazing transformation.

I know that Joe must have told him to play G’Kar in the pilot and much of the first season as a swaggering stereotype, and knowledge of his true range leads me to think that maybe as Tomalak he just got bad direction. Star Trek has always had a lot of wooden, cartoonish acting, and maybe that just what the directors told him to give them.

I’m glad I got a chance to see what he was really capable of.

Katsulas also was one of the few actors in Hollywood to regularly work under massive amounts of prosthetic make-up. (And one of the few willing to do so.) Though he did have parts in which he didn’t have latex glued all over his face, most fans know him only through his sci-fi appearances, and his true visage is not often seen.

So in honor of his passing, let’s look at the man without the make-up.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin