Morgan Sheppard

William Morgan Sheppard was born on 24 August 1932 and died on 6 January 2019 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 86. An English actor, he worked under both his full name and the shortened credit Morgan Sheppard across a career that spanned more than 50 years and encompassed over 100 film and television productions.

Sheppard served in the British Merchant Navy during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953 before pursuing formal training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, from which he graduated in 1958. Following his graduation, he spent 12 years as an associate artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His Broadway career ran from 1965 to 1974 and included two productions: The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, in which he appeared in 1966, and Sherlock Holmes. In 1995, his stage work was recognized with the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for his performance in The Homecoming.

On television, Sheppard appeared across multiple installments of the Star Trek franchise. His credits included episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager, as well as the feature film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, in which he played the warden of a Klingon gulag. In the 2009 Star Trek reboot he portrayed a member of the Vulcan High Council, though that appearance went uncredited. He also voiced characters on the animated series Gargoyles, playing the father of Jonathan Frakes' character David Xanatos and the Norse god Odin. On the science-fiction series Babylon 5, he appeared in two separate roles: the title character in the episode "Soul Hunter" and Narn war leader G'Sten, an uncle of the main character G'Kar, in "The Long Twilight Struggle." He had also been a runner-up for the recurring role of Ambassador G'Kar on that series, a part that ultimately went to Andreas Katsulas. Among his other well-known television roles were Blank Reg on Max Headroom and a guest appearance in the season six NCIS episode "Broken Bird," where he played the older version of a character named Marcin Jerek while his son Mark Sheppard portrayed the younger version. A similar father-and-son pairing occurred in the Doctor Who episode "The Impossible Astronaut," the opening installment of series six, in which Sheppard played the older Canton Everett Delaware III alongside his son as the younger incarnation. The two appearances made them among a small number of actors to have worked in both the Star Trek and Doctor Who franchises.

In film, Sheppard portrayed Confederate general Isaac R. Trimble in both Gettysburg and Gods and Generals. Beginning in December 2009, he provided the voice of Santa Claus in the Disney Christmas special Prep & Landing and subsequently reprised the role in the sequels Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa and Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice. On 4 December 2010, he appeared as Kris Kringle in the Hallmark Channel original film Farewell Mr. Kringle.

Sheppard's voice work extended prominently into video games. He narrated the introductions and mission briefings for the first four entries in the Medal of Honor series and played the live-action role of Bishop Francois Malveaux in the 1996 adventure game Zork Nemesis. In 2000 he voiced Ignatius Cheese in Escape from Monkey Island, and in 2002 he provided the voice for the character Lucky in the Xbox game Whacked!. He voiced John Adams in the Wii game The Conduit and served as the narrator for Civilization V and its expansions, recording voice-overs for the game's introduction, victory and defeat screens, loading screens, wonders, Great Works, and technology discoveries. Sheppard and his wife Regina were the parents of actor Mark Sheppard.