Jon Lormer

Jon Lormer (May 7, 1906 – March 19, 1986) was an American actor and director whose career spanned stage, film, and television. He served as both a performer and director with the American Theatre Wing in New York City, and his stage work extended to productions that toured the United States.

Lormer's Broadway career took shape in 1936, when he appeared in three productions: Class of '29, Murder in the Cathedral, and American Holiday. His New York stage work formed part of a broader theatrical foundation that preceded his extensive work in film and television.

On television, Lormer became a recognizable presence through guest and recurring appearances across numerous series, frequently portraying different characters within the same show. He played the postman Silas Huff in Lassie during the 1953–54 seasons, and between 1959 and 1963 made 12 appearances on Perry Mason in the role of a medical examiner and autopsy surgeon. In 1959, he appeared in two episodes of Lawman as Harry Tate, a newspaper editor. The following year he portrayed Harry Gillespie in the Rawhide episode "Incident of the Last Chance." From 1960 to 1963, Lormer appeared in four episodes of The Twilight Zone, taking on the roles of characters in "Execution," "Dust" (where he was credited as John Lormer), Strauss in "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank," and the Minister in "Jess-Belle." During 1961 and 1962, he played three separate characters across episodes of The Untouchables. He also made three distinct appearances on The Andy Griffith Show: as Fletch Dilbeck in "Bailey's Bad Boy" (1962), as Tate Fletcher in "The Cow Thief" (1962), and as farmer Parnell Rigsby in 1964.

Lormer portrayed three different characters across the original Star Trek series. He first appeared as Dr. Theodore Haskins in "The Cage" and its 1966 re-edited version "The Menagerie," then as Tamar in "The Return of the Archons" (1967), and finally as the Old Man in "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" (1968), the character who speaks the episode's title line. From 1966 to 1968, he held a recurring role as Judge Chester on Peyton Place. In 1967, he appeared in the Lassie episode "The Eighth Life of Henry IV" as George Ramsey, a building caretaker, and that same year played Dr. Pierre Blanchard in the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode "Fatal Cargo." He also took on two roles in Daniel Boone, portraying Reverend Jimson's father in "The Renegade" and the Tuscarora tribesman Yellow Knife in "The Flaming Rocks."

In 1971, Lormer appeared as a doctor in The Men From Shiloh episode "The Angus Killer." He portrayed Professor Boggs in the 1980 syndicated drama The Life and Times of Eddie Roberts, and in 1981 played Barker, a bumbling butler, in the Magnum, P.I. episode "Ghost Writer." His final television appearance came in a November 1984 episode of Highway to Heaven.

His credited film work includes One Man's Way (1963), Zebra in the Kitchen (1965), A Fine Madness (1966), The Singing Nun (1966), The Learning Tree (1969), Getting Straight (1970), The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975), Rooster Cogburn (1975), The Boogens (1981), and the 1982 horror-comedy Creepshow, in which he portrayed Nathan Grantham. Many of his film appearances were uncredited.

Lormer died of cancer on March 19, 1986, at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, at the age of 79.