Paul Koslo

Paul Koslo
Performer1980
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Portrays:	Billy Eheres
Date of Birth:	June 27, 1944
Date of Death:	January 9, 2019
Age at Death:	74
Nationality:	DE
Related Media
		@ BW Media
[ Official Site]
IMDb profile

Paul Koslo (born Manfred Koslowski; June 27, 1944 – January 9, 2019) was a German-born Canadian character actor who portrayed Billy Eheres in the Galactica 1980 episode "Spaceball".

Early Life

Koslo was born Manfred Koslowski at the very end of World War II in what would soon become West Germany. His father was a Prussian career soldier in the German army. After World War II, his father moved the family to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada in the 1950s, where Koslo learned to speak fluent English.

According to interviews, Koslo could still remember American Sherman tanks rolling down the street, and waiting for American soldiers to throw out Hershey's Chocolate and Wrigley's bubble gum to the local children during the occupation. It was in Germany where he first learned of cowboys and Indians from the GIs, his first real taste of anything related to film.

No more than a year after he arrived in Canada, Koslo saw his first film, a Tarzan movie. Ever since, he wanted to be an actor. His family later moved to British Columbia, where he got a part-time job working for his brother-in-law. He described himself at the time as being somewhat of a rebel. In high school, he would cheat in track races, and he and his friends would lock series of combination locks together in the locker room. As a teenager, he was drafted by the Canadian Mounties to fight a forest fire, from which he made quite a lot of money. He used the money to hitchhike across North America twice.

Career

Training and Early Roles

Koslo auditioned for the National Film School in Montreal and was accepted, but was kicked out a year later. However, as luck would have it, he was asked to do an audition for PBS's Crime and Punishment by an executive who saw him while he was walking through the CBC parking lot. An acting agency took notice, and from there the acting jobs came easier, leading him to California.

Koslo's acting debut was in a little-known 1966 movie called Little White Crimes (also known as Flux), and he was also doing an off-Broadway production of Hair in New York, which ran for four months. He first broke into films at age 22, and then appeared in a rush of movies taking advantage of his youthful looks.

1970s Film Career

Koslo started his career in cult films of the early 1970s, including Nam's Angels (also known as The Losers, which was later referenced in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction), Vanishing Point (1971), and The Stone Killer (1973).

His most notable early role was opposite Charlton Heston in the science fiction film The Omega Man (1971), where he played Dutch in an unusually sympathetic co-starring role. During the filming of a dramatic rescue scene in Dodger Stadium, Koslo accidentally hit Heston in the head with one of his character's pearl-handled pistols, breaking the skin and causing the star to bleed. Heston was stunned and shocked at first, but later was gracious about the accident.

After working alongside such stars as John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Walter Matthau, and Charles Bronson, Koslo became known for playing shifty, untrustworthy, and often villainous characters. He portrayed villains in Joe Kidd (1972) with Clint Eastwood, Mr. Majestyk (1974) with Charles Bronson, and The Drowning Pool (1975) with Paul Newman. Koslo is particularly well remembered as the smart-mouthed small-time hood Bobby Kopas trying to shake down melon grower Charles Bronson in Mr. Majestyk.

He and fellow Omega Man co-star Anthony Zerbe also appeared in Rooster Cogburn (1975) with John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn. After a solid supporting part as a Jewish concentration camp survivor in the critically acclaimed Voyage of the Damned (1976), and a role as Mayor Charlie Lezak in Michael Cimino's controversial epic Heaven's Gate (1980), he began a long run of portraying villainous types in television productions.

In rare, in-depth interviews with both Psychotronic Video magazine and Shock Cinema (issue No. 14), Koslo spoke candidly about his experiences working in several films with Charles Bronson and in The Omega Man with Heston.

Television Career

Koslo's career drifted towards television in the late 1970s and 1980s. He built a repertoire working in television series produced by Glen A. Larson, having played supporting roles in Galactica 1980, Knight Rider, Quincy, M.E., The Highwayman, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Starting in the late 1970s, he regularly guest-starred on such television series as The Rockford Files, Mission: Impossible, Barnaby Jones, The Incredible Hulk, T. J. Hooker, The A-Team, The Fall Guy, Dallas, Hunter, MacGyver, Matlock, and Hawaii Five-O.

In the Highway to Heaven episode "The Torch," he played a leader of the American Nazi Party. Koslo found it difficult to deliver his character's often bigotry-riddled dialogue, and during the filming of a scene set at a Nazi rally, the cast and crew were heckled by passers-by, since the scene was filmed on location in downtown Los Angeles with swastikas decorating the outside of a building. He also appeared as Jesse James in The Dukes of Hazzard seventh-season episode "Go West, Young Dukes."

Koslo appeared in the Stargate SG-1 fourth season episode "The Serpent's Venom" as the Goa'uld torture master Terok, who worked in service of the System Lord Heru'ur.

Later Career

Unfortunately, most of Koslo's film work in the 1990s and beyond was direct-to-video fare, such as Chained Heat 2 (1993), Robot Jox (1989), and Inferno (1999). His latest producing credit was the 2015 JFK documentary A Coup in Camelot.

Personal Life

Koslo was a founding member of the MET Theatre in Hollywood since 1974. He met his wife, Allaire Paterson, at the MET Theatre when he produced a one-woman show called Purple Breasts, a critically acclaimed play she co-wrote and starred in. They married on January 4, 1997, and had one daughter together, Chloe.

Koslo was the owner of the historic Rock Inn (also known as Red Rock Inn) in Lake Hughes, California, which he purchased in 1975 but leased out in 1995. He lived in the Lake Hughes area north of Los Angeles.

Death

Paul Koslo died on January 9, 2019, from pancreatic cancer at his home in Lake Hughes, California, surrounded by his family. He was 74 years old. He is survived by his wife Allaire, daughter Chloe, sister Karin, brother Georg, and extended family.

Filmography Highlights

Film

• Little White Crimes (1966)
• The Losers (1970)
• Vanishing Point (1971)
• The Omega Man (1971)
• Joe Kidd (1972)
• The Stone Killer (1973)
• Cleopatra Jones (1973)
• Mr. Majestyk (1974)
• The Drowning Pool (1975)
• Rooster Cogburn (1975)
• Voyage of the Damned (1976)
• Heaven's Gate (1980)
• Robot Jox (1989)
• Chained Heat 2 (1993)

Television (Selected)

• Bearcats! (1971)
• Mission: Impossible
• Gunsmoke
• The Rockford Files
• Hawaii Five-O
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
• Galactica 1980 (1980) - Billy Eheres
• The Incredible Hulk
• Quincy, M.E.
• The A-Team
• Knight Rider
• The Highwayman
• MacGyver
• Stargate SG-1 (2000) - Terok

References

External Links

• Paul Koslo at the Internet Movie Database