Ed Begley, Jr. (born 16 September 1949; age 75) is an actor from Los Angeles, California who played Henry Starling in the Star Trek: Voyager third season episodes "Future's End" and "Future's End, Part II".
He is one of the few people to have participated in both Star Trek and Star Wars, providing the voice of Boba Fett in the radio drama of Return of the Jedi.
Outside of Star Trek, he is best known to television audiences for his six-time Emmy Award-nominated role as Doctor Victor Ehrlich on St. Elsewhere. Throughout its run, the series also starred William Daniels, Norman Lloyd, Christina Pickles, Ronny Cox, Ellen Bry, France Nuyen, Chad Allen, Deborah May, Brian Tochi, Alfre Woodard, Bruce Greenwood, David Birney, and Jane Wyatt. Begley reprised his role as Ehrlich with a cameo in the 2000 TV movie Homicide: The Movie, co-starring Michelle Forbes and Reg E. Cathey.
He also had a recurring role on 7th Heaven, co-starring Stephen Collins and Catherine Hicks, and as Hiram Gunderson on Six Feet Under, which featured James Cromwell in its last two seasons.
Primarily a supporting actor, he has appeared in a number of films and TV movies opposite fellow Star Trek performers. He appeared in two Paul Bartel comedies featuring his Voyager co-star Robert Beltran: Eating Raoul (1982, with Hamilton Camp) and Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989, with Wallace Shawn). In 1983, he appeared in the comedy Get Crazy along with his Voyager co-star, Robert Picardo, as well as Malcolm McDowell, Dick Miller and Clint Howard. The other regular Trek performers he has appeared with on non-Trek projects are the late James Doohan in Storybook (1995, with Robert Costanzo and Robert Easton), René Auberjonois in Batman Forever (1995, with George D. Wallace), and Marina Sirtis in Net Games (2003). He also appeared in Columbo: How to Dial a Murder (1978) alongside Kim Cattrall and Tricia O'Neil, and sixteen years later co-starred in Columbo: Undercover, which was directed by Vincent McEveety.
Begley also co-starred in The Pagemaster (1994, starring Christopher Lloyd and featuring the voices of Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart,Robert Picardo, Whoopi Goldberg, Frank Welker and George Hearn). His other voice-work includes guest roles on episodes of Batman: The Animated Series (with Robert Costanzo, Ron Perlman and Brock Peters), Batman Beyond, and The Zeta Project (with Jason Marsden and Kevin Michael Richardson). Begley is one of only five actors who has appeared on both Batman: The Animated Series and a live-action film based on the Batman comics – the four others being René Auberjonois, John Glover, Vincent Schiavelli, and US Senator Patrick Leahy.
He also appeared in This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Best in Show (2000), and A Mighty Wind (2003), all of which co-starred fellow Voyager guest actor Michael McKean (with the latter also featuring Paul Dooley and Bill Cobbs). Begley also co-starred with McKean in the films Young Doctors in Love (1982, with Saul Rubinek, Deborah Lacey, Charlie Brill and Hamilton Camp), Auto Focus (2002), and Relative Strangers (2006).
His many other film credits also include a brief appearance in Hardcore (1979, with Gary Graham, Marc Alaimo and Bibi Besch) and larger supporting roles in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982, with Tony Plana), Cat People (1982, with Star Trek Generations actor Malcolm McDowell, who co-starred with Begley in Get Crazy the following year, and John Larroquette, Protocol (1984, with Joel Brooks, Cliff DeYoung, Kenneth Mars, Jeanne Mori, Chris Sarandon, Gail Strickland, Keith Szarabajka, George D. Wallace and Paul Willson), The Accidental Tourist (1988, with Star Trek: The Next Generation guest star David Ogden Stiers), Greedy (1994, with Olivia d'Abo and Kirsten Dunst), I'm Losing You (1998, with Salome Jens and Frank Langella), and Get Over It (2001, starring Kirsten Dunst).
Begley also worked with Future's End co-star Allan G. Royal in Handle with Care (1977, with Charles Napier) and second Captain Braxton actor Bruce McGill in Recount (2008, with Jack Shearer).
Other Trek connections[]
Additional film and TV projects in which Begley has appeared with other Star Trek performers include:
- The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969 feature film, with William Schallert, Michael McGreevey and Frank Welker)
- Evil Roy Slade (1972 TV movie, with Henry Gibson and Arthur Batanides)
- Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972 TV movie, with William Windom)
- Stay Hungry (1976 feature film, with Joanna Cassidy)
- Handle with Care (1977 feature film, with Bruce McGill and Charles Napier)
- Goin' South (1978 feature film, with Christopher Lloyd and Georgia Schmidt)
- Record City (1978 feature film, with Frank Gorshin, Alan Oppenheimer and Wendy Schaal)
- The One and Only (1978, with William Daniels and Kim Darby)
- The In-Laws (1979, with Richard Libertini, David Paymer and Rosana DeSoto)
- Streets of Fire (1984 feature film, with Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Jeff Smolek, Spiro Razatos, Bernie Pock and Vince Deadrick, Jr.)
- Meet the Applegates (1991 feature film, with Roger Aaron Brown)
- Running Mates (1992 TV movie, with Scott Alan Smith)
- Addams Family Values (1993, with Ray Walston, Carel Struycken, Carol Kane, Leigh Taylor-Young and Clint Howard)
- The Shaggy Dog (1994 TV movie, with James Cromwell)
- The Late Shift (1996 TV movie, with Daniel Roebuck, Lawrence Pressman and Nicholas Guest)
- Santa with Muscles (1996 feature film, with Don Stark, Robin Curtis and Clint Howard)
- Diary of a Sex Addict (2001, with Lisa Lord and Bobby C. King)
- Kingdom Hospital (2004 TV miniseries, with Bruce Davison and narrated by W. Morgan Sheppard)
- CSI Miami (episode "A Grizzly Murder", 2007, with David Lee Smith)
- Fly Me to the Moon (with Christopher Lloyd)
- King of the Hill (with Stephen Root)
- Gary Unmarried (with Jessica Collins)
- The Office (US version; final episode, with Rainn Wilson, Spencer Daniels and Bill Hader)
- Better Call Saul (with Michael McKean, Ethan Phillips, Mark Margolis, Jonathan Banks, Patrick Fabian, Raymond Cruz and Ann Cusack)
- Mr. Mayor (2021, with Benito Martinez and Ivonne Perez)