Michael Pataki RIP

Jabootu correspondent Eric Balzer alerted me to the fact that Michael Pataki, one of the most familiar character actors of the 1970s, has passed on.   Pataki, with his rough visage and gravely voice, was a natural heavy and made a good living playing (mostly) bad guy roles–or, conversely, cops– in a myriad of films and, especially, episodic TV appearances.

In terms of this site, Mr. Pataki appeared in a minor role as Dolph Lundgren’s Russian handler in Rocky IV, and as the hero Frank Draka (nee Dracula) in Dracula’s Dog.  He also appeared as a cop in the MST3K subject The Bat People.  Other notable films he appeared in included playing a really nasty nosferatu in Grave of the Vampire (with William “Big Bill” Smith playing his son!), and stuff like Airport 1977, Love at First Bite, Dead & Buried, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins and the slasher flick Graduation Day.

Mr. Pataki was also, as noted, a regular presence on TV screens.  Most notably he played the villainous Klingon Korax in the classic Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles.”  He also appeared on The Twilight Zone, My Favorite Martian, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Batman, Mission: Impossible, The Sixth Sense, Columbo, Get Christie Love, Baretta, Happy Days (he was Count Mallachi of the dreaded ‘Mallachi crunch’), Beyond Westworld, Airwolf and really, a zillion others.  Total listed IMDB credits:  157.

Mr. Pataki was 72.

  • Plissken79

    Good write up of Pataki’s career, Ken, but how on earth could you leave out Michael Pataki’s legendary part as the villianous JC in the MST3K classic The Sidehackers? (also known as Five the Hard Way)

  • Good catch! He had so many credits I must have missed that one.

  • MarshallDog

    Which one was Korax? Was he the one that egged Scotty into punching him? Or was he the one that posed as Darvin?

  • BeckoningChasm

    He was also awesome as George Liquor, American, on the Ren and Stimpy Show.

  • OTL

    MarshallDog: Korax was the one that egged Scotty into punch him. “I didn’t mean to say that the Enterprise should be hauling garbage. I meant to say that it should be hauled away *as* garbage!” (He was also the bad guy in the first season episode of NextGen, “Too Short a Season”, but that’s not nearly as memorable as Korax…)

    With all his other credits, it’s probably not necessary to mention he was also the police captain in the live-action Spider-Man show from the ’70s, but I’ll do it anyway.