Damian London(1931-2022)
- Actor
Chicago-born Damian London began acting in early television in New York at the age of 16, signing his first contract by pretending to be 21. Auditioning for his screen debut as a Nazi youth, he also pretended to be able to speak fluent German, but ended up memorizing his lines, being assisted in the correct pronunciation by Germans who owned a local greengrocer. Amazingly, he pulled it off. Still under age, he joined the Screen Actor's Union soon after. Fast forward to 1956, Damian made his first Hollywood film appearance in a bit part. Featured roles had to wait for another eleven years, but he eventually forged a career as a television guest actor, showing up in popular cult TV shows like Get Smart (1965), I Dream of Jeannie (1965), Mannix (1967), The F.B.I. (1965), Tales of the Unexpected (1979) and Seinfeld (1989). He is most fondly remembered as the sad, ill-fated Centauri Regent Milo Virini in Babylon 5 (1993). Many of Virini's personality quirks were either created or ad-libbed by the actor. He said in a July 2000 interview: "I would get a script and it was left up to you to figure out how your character would say these words, how your character's personality would handle this particular scene. There was nobody standing over you saying, 'This is the way it's going to be."