Jay Robinson

Jay Robinson is an American character actor from New York, New York. In, he appeared on Star Trek: The Original Series, playing Lord Petri, the Troyian ambassador, in the third season episode.

Robinson's most well-known role is that of in the 1953 biblical epic , which also marked his film debut. Star Trek: The Next Generation guest actress Jean Simmons also starred in this film, while Michael Ansara and Anthony Jochim had uncredited roles. Robinson would reprise the role of Caligula the following year in the sequel, , co-starring William Marshall and featuring Julie Newmar in an uncredited role.

In 1955, Robinson co-starred with TOS guest actresses Joan Collins and Leslie Parrish in the historical drama, The Virgin Queen (which, like The Robe, was directed by ). The following year, he co-starred with Nehemiah Persoff in .

After recovering from a drug addiction and a career-ruining jail sentence, Robinson returned to acting on television in the late 1960s, and in 1971, he co-starred in the film Bunny O'Hare, directed by Gerd Oswald. He would go on to have roles in such movies as 's ' (1972, with Stanley Adams), Nightmare Honeymoon (1973, with David Huddleston, Roy Jenson, and TOS star Walter Koenig), ' (1975, with Joan Marshall), ' (1982, with Richard Lynch, Anthony De Longis, Jeff Corey, Joseph Ruskin, and George Murdock), and ' (1988, with Kenneth Tobey). More recent films include 's 1992 blockbuster version of  and the 1993 horror movie Skeeter, which also featured fellow TOS guest stars Charles Napier, Michael J. Pollard, and Barbara Baldavin, as well as an uncredited performance by Richard Herd.

Besides TOS, other TV series on which he has made guest appearances include ', ', ', ' (with fellow TOS guest actor John Fiedler), ', ' (with another TOS guest star, Lee Meriwether), and . In 1974 he appeared in an episode of Planet of the Apes entitled "Tomorrow's Tide", which was directed by Don McDougall and photographed by Jerry Finnerman. It was later edited into the TV movie Farewell to the Planet of the Apes, which also featured Mark Lenard and John McLiam (in footage from other episodes). In addition, he was a regular on The Krofft Supershow, along with Malachi Throne, from 1976 through 1977. He was also a regular on the daytime soap opera  during the 1988-89 season, playing the role of Monty Dolan. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine guest star Bumper Robinson (no relation) was also a part of the cast during that time.

Robinson has appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies as well, including  (1973, with Anthony Zerbe), and Sinatra (1992, with Bob Gunton, Jeff Corey, Don Stark, Jack Shearer, Marc Grady Adams, and Christopher Carroll). Additionally, from 1997 through 2000, Robinson hosted a Discovery Channel program much like Ripley's Believe It or Not, but with an even more bizarre list of topics. It was entitled Beyond Bizarre.

Other Trek connections
Additional projects in which Robinson appeared with other Star Trek performers include:
 * Three the Hard Way (1974 film, with Corbin Bernsen and Irene Tsu)
 * I Wonder Who's Killing Her Now? (1975 film, with Richard Libertini and Ian Wolfe)
 * Born Again (1978, with Bill Zuckert and Byron Morrow)
 * The Man with Bogart's Face (1980, with Gregg Palmer, Ed McCready, and Bill Catching)
 * Memories Never Die (1982 TV movie, with Barbara Babcock)
 * Partners (1982, with Wendy Hughes, Seamon Glass, and Ed McCready)
 * The Malibu Bikini Shop (1986, with Charlie Brill, Bruce Greenwood and Jon Rashad Kamal)

Trivia
Robinson's best-known role is that of Caligula in The Robe (1953) and Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954). actor Malcolm McDowell would play the role in the 1979 film .

Robinson starred in several direct-to-video productions of plays by William Shakespeare throughout the early 1980s, including Othello (1981, with William Marshall in the title role), Macbeth (1981, with Alan Oppenheimer), and The Taming of the Shrew (1983, with Bruce Davison, Larry Drake, and Bill Erwin).