End Credits #46: Cinema's 2016 Lost Treasures William Schallert

These are some of Cinema's sad departures of 2016 taken from my personal notes soon after the events took place:

Sadly, the amazingly talented and prolific character actor William Schallert (July 6, 1922 -  May 8, 2016) has died at age 93. Along with Ken Howard and Patty Duke this makes three former Presidents of the Screen Actors Guild who have died just in the last few months. Early in his career, he became involved with the Circle Theater in Hollywood, eventually becoming one of its owners. Schallert's film debut was in 1947's The Foxes of Harrow. He subsequently made vivid characters come brilliantly to life in hundreds of films including many highly accomplished such as Riot in Cell Block 11, Them!, Shield for Murder, Black Tuesday, Written on the Wind, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Cry Terror!, Torpedo Run, Day of the Outlaw, Pillow Talk, Lonely are the Brave, In the Heat of the Night, Hour of the Gun, Will Penny, Colossus: The Forbin Project, and Charley Varrick. On television, just a few of his more memorable roles greatly enhanced Lux Video Theatre, Playhouse 90, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rifleman, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Patty Duke Show (as Martin Lane, Patty's father), The Wild Wild West, Get Smart, Gunsmoke, The Waltons, War and Remembrance, Desperate Housewives, and True Blood. Of all the characters in either film or television William Schallert portrayed, he'll probably be most remembered for a role previously not mentioned: His sole appearance on the original Star Trek TV series as Nilz Baris, the Federation Undersecretary Of Agricultural Affairs, in perhaps the series most beloved episode The Trouble with Tribbles. 

For more of cinema's talented contributors lost to us this year please see the Cinema Cafe's In Memoriam Pinterest Board here.