Tom Morga (born 27 November) is a stuntman, stunt actor, and stunt coordinator who holds the record for being the most seen stunt actor/stuntman in Star Trek. Between 1979 and 2005 he appeared in six feature films and the first four spin-off television series, doubled main actors and guest actors, and played almost every major species.
Morga also served as assistant stunt coordinator to Dennis Madalone on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager for fourteen years. This position included fight choreography for episodes such as "Blood Oath" and the creating of props such as the blade weapons in "Battle Lines". For the majority of his appearances he received no credit.
Several costumes worn by Morga were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including his costumes from the episodes "The Abandoned", [1](X) "Body and Soul", [2](X) "Descent", [3](X) "First Flight", [4](X) which was also worn by background actor Michael McAdam, "Anomaly (ENT)", [5](X) and "Darkling" [6](X) and costume parts from his appearance in "Violations". [7](X) The description for the latter costume features the sentence: A sewn in Voyager tag denotes wear by veteran stunt man Tom Morga, a name more known than the one he is doubling for.
Early life and career[]
Morga doubling "Spock" in 1979
Morga was born in Burbank, California. While in college, he worked as a smokejumper, stationed in Missoula, Montana, between 1969 and 1974. Morga's work as a smokejumper landed him his first television appearance when he was featured in an episode of the animal documentary television series Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. In the episode in which he appeared, his team saved a wild buffalo herd from a forest fire. This experience inspired him to take up a stunt career.
He began his career in the stunt industry in the '70s and performed in several live stunt shows, including the stunt show at Universal Studios Tour. A couple of his first films were, Lucky Lady (1975) where he played a henchman and Airport '77 (1977) where he was one of the Navy Seal Team placing lift bags under the airplane. On television he was the stunt double for Patrick Duffy in Man from Atlantis (1977-1978), where he performed alongside Gene LeBell and Hubie Kerns, Jr. under the coordination of the late Paul Stader. His work included doubling for Duffy in scenes outside the water and on the surface. This was also the first time he worked as stunt coordinator for an episode.
Morga also doubled Duffy in a few episodes of Dallas and landed parts in films such as Movie Movie (1978) and the first Star Trek feature film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in which he doubled for Spock actor Leonard Nimoy, among others for Spock's "space walk" into V'ger. (Return to Tomorrow - The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, p. 432)
1980s[]
In the 1980s, Morga doubled actor Jeff Goldblum on Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980), which starred Ben Vereen and was coordinated by Dennis Madalone. He then doubled Bruce Boxleitner on Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983-1987, co-starring Kate Jackson), after which he was Star Trek Nemesis actor Ron Perlman's double in Beauty and the Beast (1987-1990, co-starring Linda Hamilton, featuring Armin Shimerman and Tony Jay).
In 1982 Morga became a member of the "Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures". He received screen-time on series such as Dynasty (1989, with Joan Collins, Stephanie Beacham, Tracy Scoggins, John D. Gowans, Richard Sarstedt, Spike Silver, and Brian J. Williams), Hart to Hart, MacGyver (starring Richard Dean Anderson), The Six Million Dollar Man, Matlock, Fantasy Island (starring Ricardo Montalban), Spenser: For Hire (starring Avery Brooks), and the first spin-off Star Trek series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Other actors he doubled for film and television projects include James Keach, James Coburn, David Hasselhoff, John Travolta, the late Walter Matthau, and Steve Railsback.
Besides his television work he was busy on the big screen, as well. He doubled Harold Ramis in Ghostbusters (1984) and performed in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985, with the late David Graf), Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985, alongside Kate Mulgrew, Joel Grey, George Coe, Patrick Kilpatrick, and Michael Pataki), Jaws: The Revenge (1987), Alien Nation (1988, with Earl Boen, Roger Aaron Brown, Frank Collison, Jeff Kober, Brian Thompson, and Keone Young), and three more Star Trek feature films.
During this period he stepped into another genre he became famous for: the horror film. Morga played the lead villain, Michael Myers, in the first scenes of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988). He also played another iconic villain, Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) and appeared in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986).
1990s and beyond[]
Morga as a Reman in Nemesis
In the 1990s he continued his work in feature films, appearing in Hudson Hawk (1991), Child's Play 3 (1991, starring Brad Dourif), Army of Darkness (1992, again with Dennis Madalone, and with Chris Doyle and Patricia Tallman), The Shawshank Redemption (1994, with Bill Bolender, Brian Brophy, Clancy Brown, Jude Ciccolella, Bob Gunton, Don McManus, Mark Rolston, William Sadler), Batman Forever (1995, with René Auberjonois and Ed Begley, Jr.), Independence Day (1996, with Brent Spiner), Deep Impact (1998, with James Cromwell and Denise Crosby), and The Mask of Zorro (1998). He again doubled Jeff Goldblum in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and performed in the sixth Star Trek feature, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
He also continued appearing on television shows, including NYPD Blue (starring Gordon Clapp and Sharon Lawrence), Babylon 5 (starring Claudia Christian and Andreas Katsulas, and Star Trek stunt partner Patricia Tallman), Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, She Spies, Dragnet, and as stunt double for Michael Richards on Seinfeld (co-starring Jason Alexander).
Morga on a continuity Polaroid from the episode "Firstborn" in 1994.
In 2001 he doubled Keith Carradine in the film Cahoots and appeared in Dr. Dolittle 2. He acted in Dennis Madalone's music video "America We Stand as One" (2002), on which he was also assistant director.
His additional credits include Spider-Man (2002) alongside Spice Williams and starring Kirsten Dunst; the short film Jennifer is Dead (2002), with Pat Tallman, Dennis Madalone, and Lynn Salvatori, Catch Me If You Can (2002); Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003, with stunts by Craig Jensen), National Treasure (2004, starring Christopher Plummer); Star Trek Nemesis, and the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films (2003, 2006, and 2007), with Lee Arenberg and fellow stunt performers Brian J. Williams, Theo Kypri, Christopher Leps, Dana Dru Evenson, Alex Chansky, and Jay Caputo.
In 2006, Morga served as co-producer for the television documentary UFO: The Greatest Story Ever Denied and was interviewed for the television special Halloween: 25 Years of Terror, which also featured interviews with J.C. Brandy, Kim Darby, Chris Durand, and George P. Wilbur.
In 2007 he was part of the stunt team that was awarded with a Taurus World Stunt Award for best fight sequence in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. He shared this award with Mark Aaron Wagner, Thomas DuPont, Lisa Hoyle, Tony Angelotti, Jeff Wolfe, Phil Culotta, Kofi Yiadom, and Jeremy Fry.
Morga with Vince Deadrick, Jr. in "First Flight"
Morga worked as stunt coordinator for Corbin Bernsen's Dead Air (2009), which features Bernsen, Patricia Tallman, Justin Rodgers Hall, and Randy Mulkey and for the short comedy The Van Pelt Family (2008), and completed interviews for the television special His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th (2009), alongside Derek Mears, Kane Hodder, Lawrence Monoson, Peter Mark Richman, Erich Anderson, and David Kagen. He also performed stunts on the comedy Bald (2008, with Michael Durrell) and Castle (2010). On the latter one he worked together with Star Trek alumni Dennis Madalone, Chris Doyle, Robert Picardo, and executive producers Rob Bowman and Rene Echevarria.
Also in 2010 Morga worked as stunt coordinator on the episode "Big Time Live" of the musical series Big Time Rush. This episode features Ed Begley, Jr.. Another project as stunt coordinator was the short film Penny (2010, with Don Stark). In 2011 he worked as stunt rigger on the Castle episode "Pretty Dead". This episode featured Michael McKean and fellow stunt rigger Chris Doyle and Dennis Madalone was again the stunt coordinator.
Morga also worked as sword fight choreographer for a sword fight scene in The Artist (2011) on which fellow Trek stunt performers Laura Albert, Mark Donaldson and Tanner Gill also performed stunts. Also in 2012, Morga received a Lifetime Membership Award from the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures. [8]
Morga was interviewed for the 2013 documentary Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th, again along with Kane Hodder, Derek Mears, Peter Mark Richman, Michael Buchman Silver, Lawrence Monoson, Douglas Tait, Brannon Braga, Erich Anderson, and Whitney Rydbeck. In 2014 he completed filming on the Wayne Bauer action film Dogmike (2014) where he played Morgan Blackstone and worked opposite Lynn Salvatori. [9]
Tom Morga: Alien Stuntman[]
Morga on a continuity Polaroid for "Descent"
The title card for the special feature in 2009
In 2009 Morga made an interview for the newly digital remastered and with new special features endowed DVD box Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection. In this about four minutes long interview he told that he is probably the person who holds the record for playing the most different aliens on Star Trek, including Klingons, Romulans, Vulcans, Borg, Nausicaans, Cardassians, and Jem'Hadar. He also told that the beauty being on Star Trek is that your face is never used up so he was able to have fights in one episode and probably die but also to appear on the next episode.
Morga told that the Klingons were a challenge to play because of the big heavy jackets and the fights he had to do in these jackets. The special feature also showed up with several images of Morga in his roles and costumes during the Star Trek films, including doubling Leonard Nimoy and playing one of the first new Klingons in Star Trek: The Motion Picture for which he was the first person to be measured up for the new uniform, portraying the workman in space in Star Trek II, as Starfleet officer and Klingon in Star Trek III, the ultimately-deleted "Rock Man" from Star Trek V, his makeup sessions and on location shoot on a glacier in Alaska as the Brute in Star Trek VI, and as a Reman in Star Trek: Nemesis.
The production of Nemesis needed thin people to portray the Remans. The costumes were later slightly modified and used for the Xindi in Star Trek: Enterprise and Morga got a call to portray such a Xindi because of his name tag in the costume. He joked that you should always make sure that your name stays in the costume if you want to be hired.
Star Trek notes[]
- Morga played a rock monster in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, in a climactic sequence that was ultimately scrapped.
- Morga and fellow stuntman John Nowak worked as stunt supervisors on the fourth season episode "Qpid" in 1991. They've trained all seven main cast members during the stunt and fencing rehearsal on Wednesday 13 February 1991 on Paramount Stage 9.
- While filming a stunt for the episode "The Way of the Warrior", Dennis Madalone took a hit in his eye and Morga replaced him to fulfill the stunt sequence. In the final aired version both stuntmen played the holographic Skull warrior in the fight sequence with Michael Dorn.
- Morga filmed scenes as a Starfleet crewman for the episode "The Visitor". These scenes include an explosion in the machine room of the Defiant and Morga performed stunts as a Starfleet operations officer. Although three extras remained in the final aired version, Morga was completely cut from this episode. (source: Tom Morga)
- In 2007, Morga served as fencing coach for George Takei on the fan-made internet series Star Trek: New Voyages episode "World Enough and Time", an episode on which fellow Trek alumni George Takei, Grace Lee Whitney, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, writer and director Marc Scott Zicree, writer Michael Reaves, Doug Drexler, Iain McCaig, James Van Over, Dan Curry, Daren Dochterman, Pierre Drolet, Sam Mendoza, Ronald B. Moore, Lee Stringer, Gregory Jein, Philip Kim, Leslie Hoffman, and Michael Okuda worked.
Star Trek appearances[]
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Stunt double appearances[]
External links[]
- TomMorga.com – official site
- Tom Morga at Wikipedia
- Tom Morga at the Internet Movie Database
- Tom Morga at BauerFilms.com
- Tom Morga at FridayThe13thFilms.com
- Tom Morga at Stuntmen.com
- Tom Morga(X) – former official site
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