Marc Alaimo

American character actor Marc Alaimo (born Michael Joseph Alaimo) began acting on the stage in the early 1960s. Even in his early days he had a propensity for playing shady characters or sinister villains, including the treacherous Iago of Shakespeare's Othello and the brutish Bill Sykes of Oliver!. Alaimo had come to acting thanks to a high school speech teacher who persuaded him to audition for school plays. He was subsequently mentored by a professor of drama at Marquette University where he not only acted in plays (1961-63) but also utilised his skills as a handyman in the construction of sets.

Alaimo moved to New York in 1964 to perform with various off-Broadway companies. He also went on tour (as Macduff) with the National Shakespeare Company in a production of Macbeth. Between 1964 and 1966, Alaimo completed studies in drama and ballet at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA). In 1965, he joined Equity, and, after discovering that there was already a Michael Alaimo on their books, changed his first name to Marc.The ensuing years saw him with the Chelsea Theater Center in New York and the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, for the latter in classical roles like Laertes (Hamlet) and Lucky (Waiting for Godot). In 1967, Alaimo returned to his home state to join the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. There, he was acclaimed for his performance as the chief antagonist in Othello. According to a reviewer for the university newspaper "His Iago is flawless. He uses quick gestures and movement, and every word is distinct. A turn of his head tells the audience what turn the subsequent action will take...Alaimo uses his agile movements to fit comfortably and perfectly into the role." Alaimo went on to other meaty roles on the stage during the remainder of the sixties, often in famous plays like A Streetcar Named Desire, The Importance of Being Earnest and Marat-Sade. After headlining as a cat burglar in a Philadelphia production of Sidney Kingsley's Detective Story, Alaimo relocated to California in late 1973.

In addition to continuing his theatrical career, Alaimo had by 1970 segued into television, cast in his first recurring role as Frank Barton in the daytime soap The Doctors (1963). In Hollywood, he soon found himself typecast, either as tough police officers or as baddies, though on balance more often the latter. In one of his many villainous roles, he played one of a duo of serial killers posing as an L.A. detective in an episode of Police Story (1973). He appeared in many top-rated 1970s and 80s crime shows, including The Rockford Files (1974), Barnaby Jones (1973), Starsky and Hutch (1975), Kojak (1973) and Hill Street Blues (1981), as well as in occasional feature films (one might recall his alien assassin in The Last Starfighter (1984) or his Mexican cartel boss in Tango & Cash (1989)). From 1987, Alaimo became a regularly fixture --as multiple characters (and one standout role in particular)--in the Star Trek franchise.

He became the first actor to portray a Romulan in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) (Commander Tebok, in "The Neutral Zone") and the first Cardassian (Gul Macet) ever featured in any Star Trek series (TNG's "The Wounded'). Earlier, he had made his series debut --again in heavy makeup -- as a lupine humanoid (Antican) delegate in the episode "Lonely Among Us".

Above all else, Alaimo's definitive screen incarnation has been the complex, endlessly scheming, power-obsessed, often deceptively amiable Cardassian military leader Gul Dukat, first seen on TNG, but more prominently featured in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and considered by many fans to be one of the greatest of all Star Trek villains. The actor himself (unlike the DS9 writing staff) does not regard the Dukat character as evil, explaining "I've tried to play him with some sort of sensitivity. I could have gone one-dimensionally aggressive and mean and ugly with this character if I'd chosen to. I have the feeling that's what they kind of wanted. I thought, 'I've done that a hundred and fifty times already.' So I wanted to give him some dimension, some depth, and I think it's worked very well".

Alaimo's long neck, pronounced neck muscles and broad shoulders prompted make-up artist Michael Westmore to accentuate these physical characteristics (in particular, by creating the pronounced Cardassian neck ridges), effectively creating a template for the menacing appearance of the species. At a 2015 Star Trek convention, Alaimo was interviewed, saying "I've had a pretty long career in a lot of different areas, but 'Deep Space Nine' has become this wonderful little feather in my cap, and I'm thankful for that. I'm proud of the series, and the whole experience has been a very positive one for me."