Liam Sullivan

Liam Sullivan
PerformerTOS
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Portrays:	Planner (uncredited)
Date of Birth:	May 18, 1923
Date of Death:	April 19, 1998
Age at Death:	74
Nationality:	USA
Related Media
		@ BW Media
[{{{site}}} Official Site]
IMDb profile

William E. Liam Sullivan (18 May 1923―19 April 1998) was an American actor and singer, professionally credited as Liam Sullivan. He portrayed the primary Planner, a Theta-class lifeform, in Original Series' "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, Part II", a role for which he was uncredited but later identified through computer-aided facial recognition.

Sullivan's television career spanned 46 years across more than 115 productions. His Romanesque features and precisely modulated voice made him ideally suited to portray smoothly roguish, arrogant or cynical characters, particularly in genre television. Sullivan's most notable genre television appearances include The Twilight Zone, Star Trek: The Original Series, Logan's Run, Lost in Space, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Early life and education

Sullivan was born William Edward Sullivan on 18 May 1923 in Jacksonville, Illinois. He was the son of Lee A. Sullivan Sr. (1889–1968) and Nell Sullivan (née Griffiths, 1891–1957). His grandfather, W.E. Sullivan (1861–1932), founded the Eli Bridge Company, which built the innovative Big Eli Ferris Wheel in Jacksonville in May 1900. The business remained in operation within the Sullivan family throughout his lifetime.

Sullivan attended Jacksonville High School and Illinois College, where he had his first experience with acting in regional theater. He later studied drama at Harvard University before pursuing a professional acting career.

Career

Stage work

Sullivan made his way to New York and first appeared on Broadway in The Constant Nymph in 1951. His Broadway career also included appearances in Merchant of Venice and the Mike Nichols production of The Little Foxes. He later returned to the West Coast to perform in a Los Angeles stage production of Mary Stuart.

Television

By the early 1950s, Sullivan began appearing in television roles. He became a familiar presence across all genres, from western to science fiction. Sullivan's only recurring television role was as Major Mapoy, the villainous cattle baron, in all 26 episodes of the ABC Western series The Monroes during the 1966–67 season.

Sullivan's television credits included Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Dragnet, Hawaii Five-O, Dallas, and L.A. Law. Among his many television credits, two stand out as particularly memorable: his sadistic philosopher-king Parmen in the Star Trek episode "Plato's Stepchildren", and his obnoxious social-climbing upstart Jamie Tennyson in The Twilight Zone episode "The Silence", who unwisely accepts a bet for a half-million dollars that he can remain silent for a year.

In "Plato's Stepchildren", which aired on 22 November 1968, Sullivan played Parmen, a tyrannical leader of a small community of people with telekinetic abilities who decides he wants McCoy to stay against his will on the planet as their doctor. The episode is historically significant for featuring television's first scripted interracial kiss between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura.

Sullivan appeared in another Twilight Zone episode, "The Changing of the Guard", in which he played the Headmaster who must deliver news to an aging teacher played by Donald Pleasence.

In the Dragnet episode "The Big Prophet" (1968), Sullivan as his character Brother William, a thinly disguised portrayal of Timothy Leary, held forth for the entire half-hour on the benefits of LSD and marijuana while Joe Friday argued the opposing view.

Sullivan's other science fiction television appearances included playing Nexus in the Lost in Space episode "His Majesty Smith", scientist Anthony Sterling in the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode "Leviathan", and an appearance in the Logan's Run television series.

Sullivan often portrayed villains throughout his acting career. He once stated: "Playing truly evil people is a great way to release tension and anger and disgust with humanity. Show bad people what they really look and act like and maybe they'll recognize themselves and change. Who knows?"

Film

Sullivan's film work included The Magic Sword (1962), In the Cool of the Day (1963), One Man's Way (1964), Major Dundee (1965) with Charlton Heston, and That Darn Cat! (1965) as FBI Agent Graham.

Battlestar Galactica

In 1978, Sullivan portrayed the primary Planner—a Theta-class lifeform—in the Battlestar Galactica episode Original Series' "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero, Part II", which aired on 29 October 1978. His role was uncredited in the original broadcast and was only identified decades later through computer-aided facial recognition technology employed by researchers documenting the series.

Bits and pieces of Sullivan's unnamed character can be seen in the deleted scenes for this episode on both the DVD and Blu-Ray releases.

Final years

During the latter stages of his life, Sullivan combined acting with writing. Just prior to his death, he was working on a novel and was also in the process of compiling a biographical history of the Eli Bridge Company. In the months prior to his death, Sullivan had signed publishing contracts for two books.

Sullivan's final screen appearance was as a Reporter in the TNT miniseries George Wallace (1997), directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Gary Sinise and Angelina Jolie.

Sullivan died of a heart attack on 19 April 1998 in Los Angeles at age 74. He was survived by a brother, a sister, three nieces and five nephews. Memorial services were held at 2 p.m. on 17 May 1998 at the Church of Religious Science, 260 Pass Avenue, Burbank.

Sullivan has a marker at Diamond Grove Cemetery in Jacksonville, Illinois, in the Sullivan family plot on the west side of Section L near the road, without an individual headstone. However, cemetery personnel have indicated this may be just a marker to honor Sullivan, as records cannot be located to confirm whether he is physically interred there following his death in California.

References

External Links

• Liam Sullivan article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
• Liam Sullivan article at Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki.

• Liam Sullivan at Find a Grave