

(written from a Production point of view Real World article

Robert Heath Foxworth (born 1 November 1941; age 78) is an actor from Houston, Texas who has performed on two of the Star Trek spin-offs, each time as part of a multi-episode arc. He first played Admiral Leyton in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fourth season episodes "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost". Several years later, he played Vulcan administrator V'Las in the Star Trek: Enterprise fourth season episodes "The Forge", "Awakening", and "Kir'Shara".

Foxworth had initially auditioned for the role of Goran'Agar in "Hippocratic Oath". (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) The costume he wore as V'Las was sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay for US$610. [1]

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Personal life

Foxworth was born in Houston, Texas, where he attended Lamar High School. His first marriage was to Marilyn McCormick from 1964 through 1974; they had two children together. His son's godfather is his DS9 co-star Rene Auberjonois.

Foxworth married Bewitched actress Elizabeth Montgomery just two years before she died of colorectal cancer in 1995. Foxworth married Stacey Thomas in 1998 and they currently reside together in Encinitas, California.

Career

Falcon Crest and Joanna Cassidy

Foxworth is probably best known for his role as Chase Gioberti on the television soap opera Falcon Crest from 1981 through 1987. With actress Susan Sullivan, he was nominated by the Soap Opera Digest Awards as Favorite Super Couple on a Prime Time Serial in 1986.

In 1982, Foxworth's future "Awakening" co-star Joanna Cassidy made guest appearances in four episodes of Falcon Crest. Years later, he and Cassidy played husband and wife in recurring roles on the HBO series Six Feet Under (which co-stars James Cromwell). Foxworth and Cassidy most recently co-starred together in the film Kiss the Bride, released in March 2008.

Other science fiction credits

Foxworth was no stranger to science fiction when he first appeared on Star Trek. In 1974, he starred in the title role of the android Questor in Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon's unsold pilot for The Questor Tapes. Two years later, he made his feature film debut in the sci-fi thriller Invisible Strangler, in which he had the starring role and co-starred with Star Trek: The Original Series alumni Leslie Parrish, Marianna Hill, and Percy Rodriguez.

In 1979, Foxworth starred in Paramount's sci-fi horror film Prophecy, which also featured Graham Jarvis. Ten years later, he co-starred with Christian Slater, Olivia d'Abo, and F. Murray Abraham in the sci-fi drama film Beyond the Stars.

Foxworth has also made appearances on the popular science fiction shows seaQuest DSV (alongside Rosalind Ingledew and Marco Sanchez), Babylon 5 (co-starring Andreas Katsulas, Bill Mumy, Mary Kay Adams, and Robin Sachs), and Stargate SG-1. In the SG-1 episode "Memento", Foxworth portrayed a political leader fighting to stop an attempted coup by a military leader. On Babylon 5 he played a character very similar to his role of Admiral Leyton called General William Hague who, like Leyton, is also involved in an attempted coup (although this coup against Earth is justified, and succeeds, albeit after his death). Foxworth's Babylon 5 character was killed off-screen in response to his assuming the role of Admiral Leyton, and Bruce McGill was cast in a similar role to replace him. (In one outtake, McGill, when asked where General Hague was, responded "He's on Deep Space Nine"). [2]

Foxworth also appeared in The Outer Limits (narrated by Kevin Conway), playing the President of the United States in the 1996 episode "Trial By Fire".

Transformers live action film franchise

Foxworth was given the voice role of Autobot medic Ratchet in the live action films produced by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. In all films Foxworth worked with Glenn Morshower and Frank Welker. In the first Transformers release in 2007, Foxworth joined Andy Milder, W. Morgan Sheppard, Michael Shamus Wiles, and Jamison Yang. Next was the first sequel, 2009's Revenge of the Fallen with John Eric Bentley, David Bowe, Robin Atkin Downes, Aaron Lustig, Eric Pierpoint, and Tony Todd who voiced as the title villain The Fallen. In 2011, Foxworth returned to voicing Ratchet in Dark of the Moon alongside Jack Axelrod, George Coe, Michael Dorn, Leonard Nimoy as the treacherous Sentinel Prime, Keith Szarabajka, and Tom Virtue.

Other notable screen credits

Film

Foxworth's earliest feature film credits were the aforementioned Invisible Strangler and the family adventure Treasure of Matecumbe, both released in 1976. In the latter, he acting alongside fellow Trek alumni Jane Wyatt, Robert DoQui, Logan Ramsey, Rex Holman, and Louie Elias. Foxworth subsequently appeared in the thriller Airport '77 (with Robert Hooks, Monte Markham, and Michael Pataki), the 1978 horror sequel Damien: Omen II, and the aforementioned science fiction thriller Prophecy.

The only two films with Foxworth that were released in the 1980s came before and after his time on Falcon Crest: 1980's The Black Marble, with Barbara Babcock, Herta Ware, and Christopher Lloyd; and 1989's Beyond the Stars (see his science fiction credits above). In 2005, Foxworth made his first major feature film appearance in over fifteen years when he co-starred with DS9 actor Alexander Siddig, Star Trek: Voyager guest actor David Clennon, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country actor Christopher Plummer in the acclaimed drama Syriana.

Television

During the 1970-1971 television season, Foxworth was the star of the short-lived CBS legal drama Storefront Lawyers. His next series following his role on Falcon Crest was CBS' 1992 summer drama 2000 Malibu Road, which also starred Mitchell Ryan. This was followed in 1998 with the NBC situation comedy LateLine, on which he worked with Miguel Ferrer.

Throughout the 1970s, Foxworth made guest appearances on such series as The Mod Squad (starring Tige Andrews and Clarence Williams III), Medical Center (starring James Daly), Barnaby Jones (with Lenore Kasdorf and series regular Lee Meriwether), Quincy, M.E. (with Phillip Richard Allen, Robert Ito, and Garry Walberg), and Hawaii Five-O. When his work on Falcon Crest came to an end, Foxworth guest-starred in a two-part episode of Cagney & Lacey with Gregg Henry.

In 1995, Foxworth appeared on the dramas Murder, She Wrote (directed by Vincent McEveety and co-starring Scott Marlowe and Nicolas Surovy) and Picket Fences (with Ray Walston). In early 2000, he was seen in a recurring role on the short-lived CBS drama City of Angels, during which time he worked with Fran Bennett, Charles Emmett, Tzi Ma, Tony Plana, and Steve Rankin. This was followed later in the year with a two-part episode of Strong Medicine with the show's developer, Whoopi Goldberg.

In 2006, Foxworth guest-starred in the two-hour second season finale of Boston Legal, starring William Shatner and Rene Auberjonois and also guest-starring Jeri Ryan. His other recent guest appearances include episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The West Wing, Bones (directed by Jesús Salvador Treviño), Brothers & Sisters (starring John Pyper-Ferguson), and Reaper (starring Ray Wise).

Foxworth was the voice of "Race" Bannon during the second season of The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest. He took over the role from Granville Van Dusen, who voiced the character in the first two episodes of the season. John de Lancie voiced Dr. Benton Quest on this series. Foxworth later voiced the character of Professor Emil Hamilton on several episodes of Justice League Unlimited (a character previously voiced on Superman: The Animated Series by Victor Brandt). Also appearing in the JLU episodes which Foxworth appeared in were Jeffrey Combs (as "The Question"), Clancy Brown (as Lex Luthor), and Armin Shimerman.

In addition to his episodic television work, Foxworth has starred in many made-for-TV movies. Some of his more notable TV movie credits include 1973's Mrs. Sundance (directed by Marvin Chomsky and co-starring future wife Elizabeth Montgomery), 1981's Peter and Paul (with John Rhys-Davies), and 1993's For Love and Glory, (co-starring Olivia d'Abo, Zach Galligan, and Voyager's Kate Mulgrew). More recently, he had a role in the TNT movie The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, directed by Jonathan Frakes and co-starring Erick Avari. (For more TV movie credits, see other Trek connections below.)

Stage work

Foxworth made his Broadway stage debut in a 1969 production of William Shakespeare's Henry V in which VOY guest actor Len Cariou played the title role. Foxworth's next Broadway role was that of John Proctor in the 1972 revival of The Crucible, for which he won a Theatre World Award.

In 1975, Foxworth acted alongside recurring DS9 performer Salome Jens in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at the Huntington Hartford Theatre in Los Angeles, California. In 1980, he co-starred with Stephen McHattie and William Schallert in a Los Angeles production of Mary Stuart.

In 1984, Foxworth performed with Christine Healy and Anthony Zerbe in an off-Broadway production of Terra Nova. In November 1989, he co-starred with future wife Elizabeth Montgomery in Broadway's Love Letters. For this play, he assumed the role of Andrew Makepiece Ladd III, a role which was subsequently played by Fritz Weaver in that same production later in the year.

Foxworth continued performing on Broadway through the 1990s, acting in the plays Candida, Ivanov, and Honour. His more recent Broadway credits include Judgment at Nuremberg, Twelve Angry Men, and August: Osage County. He also toured as Robert in David Auburn's Proof.

Foxworth has performed at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego many times over the years. Among the plays he has done at this venue was Below the Belt with Alan Oppenheimer. More recently, Foxworth starred as Brutus opposite Robin Gammell's Julius Caesar in a 2003 Old Globe Theatre production of Julius Caesar. This production also featured Dakin Matthews and Joel Polis. In 2009, he continued his association with the Old Globe when he co-starred with Melinda Page Hamilton in Cornelia. That same year, Foxworth was named associate artist of the Old Globe Theatre.

Foxworth's other stage credits include P.S. Your Cat Is Dead (with Claudette Nevins) and Hamlet (with Hal Landon, Jr. and Dakin Matthews).

Other Trek connections

Additional film and television projects in which Foxworth appeared with other Star Trek performers include: