Paramount David Warner as Chancellor Gorkon in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country."
British stage and screen actor David Warner is dead at the age of 80, according to a statement released to the BBC by his family, which noted that he died on July 24, 2022, and that he had been sick for more than a year. Warner was best known for his roles in “The Omen,” “Time After Time,” “Time Bandits,” “TRON,” “A Christmas Carol,” and “Titanic,” while “Star Trek” fans will remember him, according to Memory Alpha, as Ambassador St. John Talbot in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” the Klingon chancellor Gorkon in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” and in the video game “Star Trek: Klingon Academy,” and as the Cardassian Gul Madred in “The Next Generation” episodes “Chain of Command” and “Chain of Command, Part II.”
According to Emmys.com, he was nominated for two Emmy Awards, winning in 1981 in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Special category for his role as Pomponius Falco in the television miniseries “Masada.”
“Over the past 18 months he approached his diagnosis with a characteristic grace and dignity,” Warner’s family said in their statement. “He will be missed hugely by us, his family and friends, and remembered as a kind-hearted, generous and compassionate man, partner and father, whose legacy of extraordinary work has touched the lives of so many over the years. We are heartbroken.”
Warner Tormented Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard in the Acclaimed ‘TNG’ Two-Part Episode, ‘Chain of Command’
In 2011, during a weekend-long appearance at a “Star Trek” convention in Las Vegas, Warner sat for an interview with StarTrek.com, the official “Star Trek” site. He addressed each of his three roles within the franchise, starting with his “Star Trek V” character, St. John Talbot. “Someone said, ‘Would you like to meet (star and director) William Shatner?’ I said, ‘I’d be delighted.’ I went into an office and there he was. As far as I know, they wanted me for it, instead of having me audition and screen test. The part itself was not all that huge. Actually, it was bigger than it turned out in the film, because they’d cut quite a bit out of it. So I was actually just standing around on the Enterprise bridge for most of it. So that’s it. I was just offered the part. I’d just arrived and was living in Los Angeles, and I’ve been offered a job in ‘Star Trek.’ ‘Thank you.'”
“Star Trek V” was released in 1989. Just two years later, he was back in the “Trek” universe, playing Gorkon in “Star Trek VI.” The Klingon sought to make peace with the Federation and was assassinated for his efforts. “Bear in mind that the culture of ‘Star Trek’ was not necessarily on my radar, particularly,” Warner told StarTrek.com. “I was aware of it and I’d seen some of it, but all I knew about Klingons was that they weren’t very nice. What the attraction of this was was that he was the bridge between Klingons. He wasn’t the evil master Klingon; he was actually trying to make peace. Just his name, Gorkon, and the beard; he was a cross between Gorbachev and Lincoln. That’s what I think Nick (Meyer, who had previously Warner in “Time After Time”) wanted. So he was a good Klingon, I suppose. And, of course, he suffered because of that.”
Warner’s episodes of “The Next Generation” are widely regarded by “Star Trek” fans as among the show’s finest hours. As the Cardassian interrogator Madred, he brutally and mercilessly tortured Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Speaking to StarTrek.com during that same interview in 2011, Warner noted that he couldn’t tell at the time that he was making superior episodes of the show. “I couldn’t,” he said. “I was not surprised that it became so well-regarded. I took over the role on three days’ notice. I couldn’t learn the show in that time. There was too much technobabble and dialogue that doesn’t come naturally to me. So, they wrote everything up for me. I don’t mind people knowing this. Every line I said, I actually was reading it over Patrick’s shoulder or they put it down there for me to do it… Cue cards.
Warner’s Doomed Klingon Character in ‘The Undiscovered Country’ Sought Peace
“So, after I finished it, I thought it worked, which obviously it did,” he continued. “But, no, I didn’t think ‘I’m in the middle of making a classic episode.’ I got the makeup on, read the lines and hoped for the best. And it turned out to be a classic episode. Isn’t that nice?”
Warner continued to act well into his late 70s, according to the Internet Movie Database. Credits amassed during the last decade of his life and career included “Doctor Who,” “Penny Dreadful,” “Wallender,” “Ripper Street,” “The Alienist,” “Mary Poppins Returns,” and his final screen work, a 2020 episode of “Teen Titans Go!” The BBC reported that Warner is survived by “his beloved partner Lisa Bowerman, his much-loved son Luke and daughter-in-law Sarah, his good friend Jane Spencer Prior, his first wife Harriet Evans and his many gold dust friends.”