Michael Ansara

Michael Ansara (April 15, 1922 – July 31, 2013 ) was a Syrian-American stage, movie and voice actor.

He was best known for playing of Cochise in the American television series Broken Arrow, Kane in the 1979-81 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Commander Kang on three different Star Trek TV series, Deputy U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart on the NBC series, Law of the Plainsman, and the voice for villain character Mr. Freeze in the Emmy Award winning series Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, and Batman Beyond.

Early life
Ansara was born in a small village in Syria and moved to Lowell, Massachusetts. He was educated at the Los Angeles City College.

Career
Ansara starred in his own ABC-TV series, Law of the Plainsman (1959–60), with Gina Gillespie and Robert Harland. He performed as an Apache Indian named Sam Buckhart who had been appointed as a U.S. Marshal. The series began as an episode of The Rifleman. In 1961, he appeared as Carl in the episode "Night Visitors" of the NBC anthology series The Barbara Stanwyck Show.

Ansara also played in the Biblical epics The Robe (1953) as Judas Iscariot, The Ten Commandments (1956) as a taskmaster (uncredited), and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) as Herod's commander. He also appeared as Belshazzar in Columbia's 1953 movie Slaves of Babylon. Guest starred with Kurt Russell in an episode of the 1960's series "Lost in Space".

Later career
Ansara did voice-acting as Mr. Freeze in Batman: The Animated Series as well as the animated movie Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, an episode of both New Batman Adventures and Batman Beyond. He also voiced Mr. Freeze in the video game Batman Vengeance.

Ansara retired in 2001.

Awards
Ansara was nominated for an Academy of Science Fiction Award. He won a Western Heritage Award for Rawhide. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for both movies and television.

Marriages
Ansara was married to Jean Byron from 1955 until they divorced in 1956. He was married to Barbara Eden from 1958 until 1974. They had a son, Matthew Ansara, who died in 2001. He married Beverly Kushida in 1977.

Death
Ansara died on July 31, 2013 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease in his home in Calabasas, California, aged 91.