Roy Jenson

Roy Jenson was the Canadian-born actor who played Cloud William in the second season episode of Star Trek entitled. A tall, strong-built, imposing actor, he was a veteran of the Navy during World War II, after which he began acting. He appeared primarily in Westerns early in his career, but ultimately appeared in a wide variety of genres.

Jenson made several appearances on the television westerns Gunsmoke and Bonanza. He also performed stunts for both of these series. Other programs in which he has made guest appearances include Wagon Train, The Andy Griffith Show, ', ', ', ' (with Ricardo Montalban), and Simon & Simon. He was also part of the cast of the mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man (1976, with Kim Darby, Fionnula Flanagan, Lawrence Pressman, and Leigh J. McCloskey), How the West Was Won (1977, with Paul Fix, David Huddleston, Richard Kiley, and Anthony Zerbe), and King (1978, with Paul Winfield and Cliff DeYoung).

He also had a role in the acclaimed 1976 made-for-TV movie Helter Skelter, co-starring fellow Trek alumni Alan Oppenheimer, Marc Alaimo, David Clennon, Phillip Richard Allen, Bruce French, Skip Homeier, and Robert Ito. His other TV movies (and pilots) include Powderkeg (1971, with Michael Ansara), Kung Fu (1972, with Keye Luke and Robert Ito) and its 1986 follow-up, Kung Fu: The Movie (with Luke and William Lucking), Call to Danger (1973, with Diana Muldaur, John Anderson, Michael Ansara, and William Smithers), and Nightside (1980, with John de Lancie, Vincent Schiavelli, and Larry Cedar).

He has also appeared a large number of feature films. Among his earliest was Somebody Up There Likes Me in 1956. This film was directed by Robert Wise, who would go on to direct. The film also featured fellow Star Trek alumni Stanley Adams, Robert Easton, and Willard Sage, all of whom, like Jenson, had uncredited roles. Jenson also made an uncredited appearance in the 1959 western Warlock, which co-starred TOS star DeForest Kelley and guest star Whit Bissell. The film also featured TOS guest actors Paul Comi, Frank Gorshin, and Gary Lockwood in uncredited roles. Jenson also had uncredited roles in such films as Operation Mad Ball (1957, with James Darren and Dick Crockett), The Last Hurrah (1958, starring Jeffrey Hunter), Al Capone (1959, with James Gregory, Nehemiah Persoff, Ron Soble, Clegg Hoyt, and TOS director Joseph Sargent), North to Alaska (1960, with Stanley Adams), 36 Hours (1965, with Celia Lovsky and James Doohan), Morituri (1965, with George Takei and Paul Baxley), and Our Man Flint (1966, with Peter Brocco).

He had larger, credited roles in such films as Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960, with James Darren and Ricardo Montalban), Black Spurs (1965, with DeForest Kelley), Harper (1966, with Richard Carlyle), Will Penny (1968, with Anthony Zerbe and William Schallert), Jigsaw (1968, with James Doohan and Michael J. Pollard), Number One (1969, with Diana Muldaur), Paint Your Wagon (1969, with Ray Walston, Harve Presnell, William O'Connell, and Robert Easton), Big Jake (1971, with Glenn Corbett and John McLiam), 's The Getaway (1972), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972, with Anthony Zerbe and Michael Sarrazin), Nightmare Honeymoon (1973, with David Huddleston and Walter Koenig), and The Way We Were (1973, with Don Keefer).

In 1973, Jenson co-starred with Leigh Taylor-Young, Brock Peters, Whit Bissell, and Celia Lovsky in the science fiction classic Soylent Green. That same year, he co-starred with Joanna Cassidy and Elisha Cook, Jr. in The Outfit, and in 1974, he and Vic Tayback had roles in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Also in 1974, Jenson played what is probably his most famous movie role, Claude Mulvihill, in 's acclaimed, Academy Award-winning film Chinatown. Noble Willingham and Perry Lopez also appeared in this film, which was photographed by John A. Alonzo and featured music by Jerry Goldsmith and stunts by Hal Needham. Since then, he has had supporting roles in such well-known films as Breakout (1975, with Jill Ireland), The Wind and the Lion (1975, with Brian Keith), Framed (1975, with Brock Peters and Lawrence Montaigne), The Car (1977, with John Rubinstein, Don Keefer, and Ronny Cox), Telefon (1977, with Carl Byrd), The Gauntlet (1977, with Michael Cavanaugh), Every Which Way But Loose (1978, with William O'Connell), Any Which Way You Can (1980, with Michael Cavanaugh, and Logan Ramsey), Tom Horn (1980, with Elisha Cook, Jr. and Bobby Bass), Honkytonk Man (1982, with Jerry Hardin), and Solar Crisis (1990, with Jimmie F. Skaggs and Michael Berryman).

Jenson died of cancer in Los Angeles in April 2007. He was 80 years old. .