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Iggy Pop (born 21 April 1947; age 76) is the stage name of James Newell Osterberg, Jr., a rock singer, songwriter, and occasional actor who appeared as Yelgrun in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine sixth season episode "The Magnificent Ferengi".

Biography[]

Osterberg was born in Muskegon, Michigan. He took the name "Iggy Pop" at the age of 19 after beginning his career in music: Iggy after The Iguanas (his first band) and Pop after Jim Popp, a friend. Osterburg shaved his eyebrows for a show, which apparently made him resemble Jim Popp, who had recently had chemotherapy.

He was the central figure of the seminal punk rock band formed in Ann Arbor in 1967 that was eventually called "The Stooges." Pop would later go solo, working with such talent as David Bowie before scoring a US Top 40 hit in a 1991 duet with the B-52s' Kate Pierson and the song "Candy".

The Deep Space Nine writers had actually wanted Pop to play the role of Grady in the third season episode "Past Tense, Part II", but he was unavailable due to a music tour he was undertaking in Spain. Ira Steven Behr is an Iggy Pop fan and pushed for his casting as Yelgrun three years later. A few months before filming his Deep Space Nine role, he was injured in a mosh pit during one of his concerts, making him available during recovery. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. 516))

In addition to his guest spot on Deep Space Nine, Pop had small acting roles in films and television series like Sid and Nancy (also featuring Biff Yeager) and The Color of Money (with Bill Cobbs and Ernest Perry, Jr.), followed by supporting roles in such films as Hardware (1990), Cry-Baby (1990), Tank Girl (1995, co-starring Reg E. Cathey, Ann Cusack, Jeff Kober, Charles Lucia, Malcolm McDowell, and Lori Petty), Dead Man (1995), the drama The Brave (1997, with Clarence Williams III and Azalea Davila), The Crow: City of Angels (1996, with Shelly Desai), Snow Day (2000) and Suck (2009, with McDowell and Nicole de Boer) and "The Adventures of Pete and Pete". He had a role in the film The Dead Don't Die (2019, with Carol Kane). He recently voiced a character in Seth MacFarlane's series American Dad! along with Miguel Ferrer, Scott Grimes, Wendy Schaal and Patrick Stewart.

External links[]

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