Barry Atwater

Barry Atwater was the American actor who originated the role of Surak in the Star Trek episode. Born in Denver, Colorado, Atwater died of a stroke in Los Angeles, California, having just turned 60 the week before his death.

Other television series on which he has made guest appearances include ', ', Mr. Lucky, ', ', ', and ', the latter of which he co-starred with his "Savage Curtain" co-star Leonard Nimoy, as well as fellow Star Trek alumni Michael Ansara, Joanna Cassidy, John Colicos, Erik Holland, Paul Kent, Barbara Luna, Blaisdell Makee, Charles Maxwell, Ed McCready, John McLiam, Charles Napier, Peter Mark Richman, Abraham Sofaer, Rudy Solari, Jason Wingreen. Atwater and Salome Jens costarred in the "Corpus Earthling" episode of The Outer Limits, in which Robert C. Johnson dubbed the voices of the alien rocks. Atwater was also a regular cast member on the daytime soap opera , playing "Dr. John Prentice" from 1964 through 1967.

Atwater was in three episodes of The F.B.I.: 1. "Death of a Fixer", with fellow Vulcan Lawrence Montaigne; 2. "The Challenge", with Joanne Linville and Fritz Weaver; 3. "The Mercenary", with Fritz Weaver again, and Celeste Yarnall.

In 1971, he had a role in the TV movie Vanished, with William Shatner, Robert Hooks, and Michael Strong, and the following year, he appeared in the well-known TV movie , as the vampire Janos Skorzeny, co-starring fellow TOS guest actors Stanley Adams and Elisha Cook, Jr..

He had an uncredited role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 classic film, , in which Star Trek actors Charles Cooper, Nehemiah Persoff, and Paul Carr also appeared. The following year, Atwater co-starred with Jeffrey Hunter, Biff Elliot, Frank Overton, Frank Gorshin, Clegg Hoyt, and Jason Wingreen in the Western film The True Story of Jesse James.

Other Trek connections
Additional film and TV projects in which Atwater appeared with other Trek performers include:
 * Pork Chop Hill|Pork Chop Hill (1959) with Biff Elliot, Paul Comi, and Clarence Williams III
 * Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) with Davis Roberts and Trek director Corey Allen
 * Captain Newman, M.D. (1963) with James Gregory, Paul Carr, Seamon Glass, and Paul Sorenson
 * F.I.S.T. (1978) with Kevin Conway, Ken Lynch, Richard Herd, and Bill Zuckert.