Frank Langella (born 1 January 1938; age 86) is the Tony Award-winning American actor who played Jaro Essa in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine second season episodes "The Homecoming", "The Circle" and "The Siege". Langella took the role because his children were great fans of the series. He went uncredited in all of his appearances as he did not want to seem to be doing it for the exposure or money, as guest stars can sometimes seem. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. ?)
Langella has won three Tony Awards and an additional two Tony Award nominations over the course of his career, which has thus far spanned four decades. He is recognized for his portrayal of Count Dracula in the 1977 Broadway production of Dracula and its subsequent 1979 film adaptation. He is currently known for his Tony Award-winning portrayal of Richard M. Nixon in the 2007 Broadway production of Frost/Nixon and for his Academy Award-nominated performance in the same role in the 2008 film based on the play.
With his Oscar nomination for Frost/Nixon, Langella is one of only four Star Trek performers to receive an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor in a Leading Role. F. Murray Abraham, Paul Winfield, and Benedict Cumberbatch were the others. Thus far, Abraham is the only one to win the award.
Personal life[]
Langella was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. He graduated from New York's Syracuse University in 1959 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama.
Langella was married to Ruth Weil from 1977 until their divorce in 1996. They have two children, including a daughter named Sarah. Langella and Star Trek: The Next Generation actress Whoopi Goldberg, whom he worked with on Eddie (1996), lived together as domestic partners from 1996 until they separated in 2001.
Career[]
Early career[]
Langella made his television acting debut in a 1965 episode of CBS' The Trials of O'Brien with Eugene Roche. He then began performing on Broadway, receiving a Drama Desk Award for his performance in the play A Cry of Players. One of his co-stars in this production was Deep Space Nine regular René Auberjonois.
Langella earned a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer (Male) for his supporting role in the 1970 film Diary of a Mad Housewife. He also starred in The Twelve Chairs that same year. He received an award from the National Board of Review as Best Supporting Actor for his performances in both Diary of a Mad Housewife and The Twelve Chairs. He later won his first Tony Award and second Drama Desk Award for his performance in the Broadway play Seascape.
In the 1973 western The Wrath of God, Langella worked alongside fellow 'Deep Space Nine guest actors John Colicos and Gregory Sierra. In 1974, he starred in the unsold TV series pilot The Mark of Zorro, in which he played the title role opposite Ricardo Montalban and Louise Sorel; the show was directed by Don McDougall. The following year, Langella starred in a TV adaptation of Anton Chekov's The Seagull, which co-starred David Clennon. Langella also worked with Voyager's Kate Mulgrew in the 1976 TV movie The American Woman: Portraits of Courage.
Langella is perhaps best remembered for his portrayal of Count Dracula in the 1977 Broadway stage adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, a role which earned him a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award nomination. He reprised the role for the 1979 film based on the play, for which he received a Saturn Award nomination from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.
1980s[]
Langella continued to perform on stage, in film, and in television movies throughout the 1980s. He appeared in no less than five Broadway productions during this decade. He was one of several actors to portray Antonio Salieri in the original Broadway production of the Tony Award-winning play Amadeus; others include David Birney and Daniel Davis, while F. Murray Abraham played the role in the 1984 film.
Langella portrayed detective Sherlock Holmes in two productions in the 1980s: the 1981 TV movie Sherlock Holmes (in which he worked with Stephen Collins) and the 1987 Broadway play Sherlock's Last Case. Langella also worked with Bob Gunton in the play Passion in 1983, and afterward took over the role of Eddie from John Rubinstein in Broadway's Hurlyburly; Natalia Nogulich was also a cast member on this production.
On film, Langella portrayed the evil Skeletor in Masters of the Universe (1987, co-starring Meg Foster, Anthony De Longis, and Voyager regular Robert Duncan McNeill). The mask which he wore as Skeletor in the film would later be reused for the Skull faced alien seen in Worf and Jadzia Dax's Klingon calisthenics programs in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
His other film credits during the 1980s include Sphinx (1981, with John Rhys-Davies), The Men's Club (1986, with Craig Wasson), and And God Created Woman (1988). In addition, Langella was nominated for an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Leonardo in the 1983 TV movie I, Leonardo: A Journey of the Mind. He also starred with Star Trek: The Next Generation's LeVar Burton and fellow Deep Space Nine guest actor Chris Sarandon in Liberty (1986).
1990s[]
Langella appeared on Kurt Vonnegut's Monkey House in 1991. He won a CableACE Award for his performance on the series. In addition, Langella had supporting roles in many films during the 1990s, including Dave (1993, with Parley Baer, Charles Hallahan, Stephen Root, Dawn Arnemann, Dendrie Taylor, Paul Collins, Peter White, Robin Gammell, Dan Butler, Tory Christopher, and Pam Pruitt-McGeary) and Junior (1994), both featuring Stefan Gierasch. His other films include 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), Bad Company (1995; with Daniel Hugh Kelly and David Ogden Stiers), Cutthroat Island (1995; with Jimmie F. Skaggs and Harris Yulin), Eddie with Whoopi Goldberg, Lolita (1997), and The Ninth Gate (1999).
Langella voiced John Wilkes Booth in the 1992 TV movie Lincoln, which also featured the voices of Keith Carradine and Laurence Luckinbill. He also voiced the cat-like leader Archer of the Gorgonites, in Small Soldiers (1998, featuring the voice of Michael McKean and live performances by Kirsten Dunst, Gregory Itzin, Ann Magnuson, Dick Miller, Robert Picardo, and Wendy Schaal).
Langella won a third Drama Desk Award (his fourth nomination) for his performance in the 1996 Broadway production of The Father, in which he acted alongside Ivar Brogger and Gail Strickland. The following year, he received another nomination from the Drama Desk Awards for his performance in Present Laughter, in which he worked with Carolyn Seymour.
2000s[]
Langella played King Aeëtes in Jason and the Argonauts (2000, featuring Star Trek: Enterprise star Jolene Blalock and Brian Thompson as Hercules). Langella then starred in The Beast.
In 2002, Langella won his second Tony Award and fourth Drama Desk Award for his performance in the Broadway comedy Fortune's Fool. He again received nominations from both the Tony Awards and the Drama Desk Awards for the play Match in 2004. That same year, Langella was seen in the film House of D with Anton Yelchin and Mark Margolis.
Langella was part of the ensemble cast of the Academy Award-nominated film Good Night, and Good Luck., in which he played CBS founder William S. Paley. JD Cullum, Glenn Morshower, Robert Knepper, and Ray Wise were also part of the film's cast; Robert Elswit was the film's Director of Photography. Langella and many of his fellow castmates from this movie, including Wise, were nominated by the Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
In 2003, Langella guest-starred on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2005, he played the recurring role of Pino on Kitchen Confidential, on which John Cho was a regular. Langella also starred in the improvised HBO series Unscripted.
Langella played Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief Perry White in Superman Returns (2006, directed, co-written, and produced by Bryan Singer. He then starred in Starting Out in the Evening (2007), for which he won a Boston Society of Film Critics Award in addition to nominations from such organizations as the Independent Spirit Awards and the Chicago Film Critics Association. Jeff McCarthy had a supporting role in this film.
In 2007, Langella starred as former President of the United States Richard Nixon in the Broadway production of Peter Morgan's acclaimed play Frost/Nixon, which won Langella his third Tony Award and fifth Drama Desk Award; René Auberjonois also appeared in the play. He then played Nixon in the 2008 film adaptation of the play, which also featured Geoffrey Blake, Clint Howard, Andy Milder, and Ned Vaughn. For his performance in the film version of Frost/Nixon, Langella earned his first Academy Award nomination in January 2009. He also received acting nominations from the Golden Globes, the BAFTA Awards, the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, the Satellite Awards, the London Critics Circle Film Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Langella voiced the mayor in The Tale of Despereaux (2008, featuring the voice of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock's Christopher Lloyd). He also appeared in The Box (2009, featuring Holmes R. Osborne. He later appeared in All Good Things (2010, with Kirsten Dunst and Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010, with Michael Cumpsty).
2010s[]
Langella was praised for his work as Russian sleeper agent Gabriel on The Americans airing on FX from 2013-18, with Langella joining the cast in the third season starting in 2015. "Baggage" found Langella working with Boris Krutonog who would return later in "Divestment".
For his role as Arlington Steward in The Box received Langella a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 2010. [1]
Other Trek connections in series episodes and telefilms[]
- Marcus Welby, M.D., "Friends with High Places" (1973) directed by Marc Daniels
- Mannix, "Silent Target" (1973) with Barbara Luna
- Swiss Family Robinson, "Jean LaFitte" (1976) with Whit Bissell
- CBS Summer Playhouse, "Dr. Paradise" (1989) with Sally Kellerman
- True Identity (1991 film) with Christopher Collins, Andreas Katsulas, and Michael McKean
- Body of Evidence (1993 film) with Michael Forest
- Moses (1995 TV movie) with Maurice Roëves
- 111 Gramercy Park (2003 TV pilot) with Joel Grey