Actor William O’Connell, known for his roles in Star Trek, The Twilight Zone and Batman (1966), has died, aged 94.
He died at his home in Sherman Oaks, California on January 15, and the news was confirmed to Deadline by a friend. A cause of death has not yet been given.
Born in 1929 in Los Angeles, California, O’Connell’s acting credits were mainly from the 1960s and 1970s. He is known for his regular collaborations with Clint Eastwood, the two first appearing in the 1969 musical, Paint Your Wagon, before working together on a number of movies directed by Eastwood, including Westerns High Plains Drifter and The Outlaw Josey Wales.
O’Connell is also well known for his memorable television role in season two of Star Trek. He starred in the episode Journey To Babel as Thelev, an Orion agent disguised as an Andorian ambassador. Thelev’s mission was to destroy the USS Enterprise – and although this ultimately failed, he did manage to stab Captain Kirk (William Shatner) before eventually poisoning himself as his ship self-destructed.
Other titles from O’Connell’s career include Every Which Way But Loose, an episode of Charlie’s Angels and Kolchak: The Night Stalker. His last role was in the 1991 horror movie, The Haunted, in which he played Father Kearney.