R.I.P. David Warner, English character actor in Star Trek movies and 'Tron'

His 50-year career included wacky comedies, horror films and two appearances in Perry Mason TV movies.

Some performers, particularly those with an imposing, authoritative accent, find themselves playing the villain more often than not. David Warner was one of those actors. He played villains in everything from Tron to Titanic along with dozens of other credits during a career that started in England in the 1960s.

In one of his first major roles, Warner played the eccentric title character opposite Vanessa Redgrave in the kooky romp Morgan! (A.K.A. Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment) in 1966. Two years later he played Lysander in a film version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream alongside Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm and Judi Dench.

Warner’s work in the Seventies included a Western, director Sam Peckinpah’s The Ballad of Cable Hogue, thrillers like the 1978 remake of The Thirty Nine Steps and horror films like The Omen in which his photographer character meets a gruesome end. He also appeared in the 1979 TV movie S.O.S. Titanic starring David Janssen and Cloris Leachman, not to be confused with Warner’s later role in James Cameron’s Titanic.

Warner appeared on screens big and small during the second half of his career. He won an Emmy for acting in the 1981 miniseries Masada and appeared in classic Eighties series Remington Steele and Hart to Hart. It was around this time that he really solidified his place as a go-to villain, literally playing Evil in Time Bandits and greedy executive Ed Dillinger in Tron.

Yet he wasn’t completely typecast. He played the sympathetic Bob Cratchit, not the cantankerous Scrooge, in a 1984 TV version of A Christmas Carol.

In the late Eighties and early Nineties, Warner appeared in two Star Trek films and two Perry Mason TV movies as a different character each time. In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier he was St. John Talbot and he played Klingon Chancellor Gorkin in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Warner also lent his voice to many animated shows in including Batman: The Animate Series, Gargoyles and Freakazoid! He worked well into is seventies, recently playing Admiral Boom in 2018’s Mary Poppins Returns.

David Warner was 80 years old.

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13 Comments

forthekids 15 months ago
Dave also played"Superman's" father "Jor-El"on an episode of"Lois & Clark:The New Adventures Of Superman"TV Series.
moffattw 15 months ago
He was so great in so many Movies: Time after Time as Jack the Ripper. Time Bandits, as Evil Genius.
cpcva 20 months ago
Saw him in an episode of midsomer murders the episode that introduced John Barnaby. Warner was nasty as always.
Runeshaper 20 months ago
R.I.P. David Warner. Great actor.
KevinButler 20 months ago
Mr.Warner also played"Jor-El"on an episode of"Lois & Clark:The New Adventures Of Superman".
Matsui 20 months ago
RIP David Warner. He also appeared in Time After Time (1979), The Man With Two Brains (1982), Titanic (1997), Acapulco Heat TV Series (1998), and many many other movies & TV shows.
BrittReid 20 months ago
R.I.P. David Warner excellent character actor in all his roles. Terrific in The Omen.
DethBiz 20 months ago
RIP David Warner. One of my all-time favorite character actors! Always seemed to pop up in everything. Loved him in A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott, Time after Time with Malcolm McDowell and Waxwork with Zach Galligan and Deborah Foreman.
harlow1313 20 months ago
I am particularly fond of "Time After Time," in which H.G. Wells unleashes Jack the Ripper (Warner) on the nineteen-seventies United States. The film also stars Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen. It's a ripping good yarn.
DethBiz harlow1313 20 months ago
Love that movie!!! In my opinion, one of the most underrated movies of all-time. David Warner and Malcolm had such a great chemistry in it.
Barry22 harlow1313 20 months ago
That was a very good movie.
MrsPhilHarris harlow1313 20 months ago
I agree. It’s an amusing little film. 📽
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