(written from a Production point of view)
Tom Ormeny (17 April 1946 – 16 July 2023; age 77) was the actor who played the Bortas' first officer in the Star Trek: The Next Generation fourth season episode "Redemption". He filmed his scenes on Tuesday 16 April 1991 on Paramount Stage 9.
He was born Tamás Örményi in Budapest, Hungary. His mother was Hungarian actress and film star Éva Szörényi and his father was a sound engineer in films. The family fled the country after the Soviet Union crushed the 1956 Hungarian uprising, when he was ten years old, immigrated to the United States and settled in Connecticut, then New York City, later in Los Angeles.
In 1957, Ormeny got his first professional acting job on Radio Free Europe and made his television debut alongside his mother in an episode of Armstrong Circle Theater (featuring William Daniels and written by Art Wallace), which dramatized his family's escape to the West. Ormeny soon became a prolific child actor in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions and continued his theatre career into adulthood. He earned a BA degree in Theatre Arts at Santa Clara University in 1968, and an MA in Drama at UCLA in 1970.
Ormeny acted regularly in television since the 1960s, where he appeared on such shows as The Streets of San Francisco, Wonder Woman, MacGyver, General Hospital, Grey's Anatomy, Boston Public (starring Jeri Ryan, in an episode with Tony Todd) and the pilot for Boston Legal (starring René Auberjonois and William Shatner, with Steven Anderson, Sharon Lawrence, Don McManus, and Todd Stashwick).
On film, Ormeny had roles inOnly When I Laugh (1981, featuring John Vargas), Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (1985, starring Alice Krige), and Gang Related (1997, co-starring Brad Greenquist, Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jr. and Jimmie F. Skaggs). He was even the star of his own film, 1986's Agent on Ice, co-starring Thomas Kopache and Andreas Katsulas.
More recently he played Paul in the romance Mr. Wrinkles (2008, with James W. Jansen) and appeared in episodes of Mad Men (2008, with Mark Moses and Patrick Fischler) and Scrubs (2010).
Ormeny was also a noted acting coach and teacher, and along with his wife, Maria Gobetti, founder and manager of the Gobetti-Ormeny Acting Studio and the Victoria Theatre Center in Burbank, California. Their former acting students include Star Trek alumni Armin Shimerman and Jeff Kober. Ormeny served eight terms as the president of the Los Angeles Theatre Alliance. He also worked as an acting teacher for young talents at Disney Studios.
Ormeny passed away due to brain cancer on July 16, 2023 at the age of 77. [1]
Other Star Trek connections[]
Additional projects in which Ormeny has worked alongside fellow Star Trek alumni include:
- Cannon (1974) with Vince Howard, Andrew Prine and James B. Sikking
- Sergeant Matlovich vs. the U.S. Air Force (1978 TV movie) with Steven Anderson, Brad Dourif, Gavan O'Herlihy, David Ogden Stiers and William Wintersole
- Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter (1984 TV movie) with Fran Bennett and John Glover
- Roseanne and Tom: Behind the Scenes (1994) with Steven Anderson
- 7th Heaven episode "With Honors" (1999) with Stephen Collins and Catherine Hicks
- Profiler episode "On Your Marks" (2000) with Gregory Itzin
- Profiler episode "Tsuris" (2000) with Gregory Itzin, Matt McCoy and Raphael Sbarge
- When Billy Beat Bobby (2001 TV movie) with Michael Cavanaugh, Bob Gunton, Leonard Kelly-Young, Patrick Kerr and Scott Klace
- Providence episode "Shadow Play" (2002) with Glenn Morshower, Concetta Tomei and Cress Williams
- JAG (2002) with Zoe McLellan, Randy Oglesby and Dean Stockwell