Ansara’s former publicist and longtime friend Michael B. Druxman confirmed the news. Druxman told EW: “Michael and I have been friends since 1968. He was my best friend. He had a long illness. He died at home. He was a great guy, and a wonderful actor.” He added: “I really miss him.”

Born to American parents in Syria, Ansara had an extensive career in television and movies, including ABC’s Broken Arrow and NBC’s Law of the Plainsman, both of which aired in the 1950s. He also appeared alongside then-wife Barbara Eden in I Dream of Jeannie. “Unfortunately he got typecast as Native Americans. He played practically every kind of nationality you can think of,” says Druxman, who writes about Ansara in his 2010 memoir My Forty-Five Years in Hollywood and How I Escaped Alive. Ansara’s film roles included Julius Caesar and The Robe, The Comancheros, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Ansara is one of the few actors who reprised a single role in the television series Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager.