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John Copage (25 March 192526 June 2023; age 98) was an actor who portrayed Elliott in the Star Trek: The Original Series second season episode "The Doomsday Machine". He filmed his scenes on Monday 26 June 1967 at Desilu Stage 9. Twenty-five years after his work on The Original Series he returned to the Trek franchise and appeared as a background actor in several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation as an Enterprise-D officer. In 1994 he joined Star Trek: Voyager as a Voyager officer, appearing as a regular background actor throughout the first four seasons of the show. He also worked in the background of Star Trek: First Contact.

Copage, whose day job was as a real estate broker, was first married to the actress Alibe Peak, and together they had two sons, including Marc Copage, who was a child actor and series regular on Julia. [1] Their eldest son, actor and reporter Eric Copage, was married to television writer Robin Amos. [2]

Copage's own acting career, which spanned nearly thirty years, began with an appearance in the 1964 Ernest Hemingway film The Killers, which was written by Gene Coon, and starred such noted actors as Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, and Ronald Reagan. Also appearing in the film were Star Trek alumni Robert Phillips, Davis Roberts, Carey Loftin, and Seymour Cassel.

Following his appearance in The Killers, Copage made several television appearances during the 1960s, including Bewitched (1964), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965; with Warren Stevens, series theme composed by Jerry Goldsmith), Mission: Impossible (1967; with Martin Landau, Brock Peters, Davis Roberts, Bob Johnson, and stuntman Dick Dial), two appearances on The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1968 and 1969; featuring Kellie Flanagan), and Bracken's World (1969; starring Warren Stevens and Madlyn Rhue, with Alan Bergmann and Booker Bradshaw). Copage also appeared in the 1968 film With Six You Get Eggroll with former Star Trek alumni Victor Tayback and stunts by Carol Daniels and Charles Picerni, along with Brian Keith.

In 1969, Copage also co-wrote two original screenplays, titled Adventures of Little Diego and Max A. Million; while both scripts were copyrighted, neither were realized.

Over the next three decades, Copage had three additional acting credits to his name, one in each decade. During the 1970s, it was the 1971 horror film Simon, King of the Witches, with such future Trek actors as Andrew Prine and Frank Corsentino. During the 1980s, he appeared in episodes of Cheers (1982, with Barbara Babcock, Joel Schultz, and Gayle Frank and 1983 with Tim Culbertson, Jessie Biscardi, Walter Smith, and Martin Valinsky), Dynasty (1986, with Joan Collins, Gene Poe, and Suzanne Lodge), The Colbys (1986 and 1987, with Stephanie Beacham, Tracy Scoggins, Ricardo Montalban, Ray Wise, Ian Abercrombie, James Ingersoll, Georgann Johnson, Buzz Barbee, Suzanne Lodge, Gene Poe, Lynda Robertson, John Blower, Tony Rocco, and Devron Conrad), and Mr. Belvedere (1987, with Mario Roccuzzo), and during the 1990s, he appeared in the 1990 comedy horror spoof Repossessed, which featured a plethora of Trek actors and stuntmen, including, Willie Garson, Barbara Alyn Woods, Norman Large, Ian Abercrombie, Tom Morga, Jim Palmer, Paul Stader, George P. Wilbur, and Brian J. Williams and as a banquet guest in the comedy The Distinguished Gentleman (1992, with Victor Rivers, Noble Willingham, Gary Frank, Daniel Benzali, Julianna McCarthy, Dion Anderson, Gary Price, Lena Banks, Sam Alejan, Jim Portnoy, Gene Poe, Lou DeGrado, Sherry O'Keefe, S. Reed, John Rice, Scott Barry, Robert Buckingham, and Irving Ross).

Copage died at his home of natural causes on 26 June 2023. [3]

Star Trek appearances[]

Recurring appearances[]

External links[]

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