Michael Pataki


Michael Pataki was an American actor of stage, film and television.

Early life

Pataki was born in Youngstown, Ohio, to Hungarian parents, the youngest of three children. He had an elder brother and an elder sister. He attended the University of Southern California with a double major in political science and drama. His career was launched at a summer stock festival in Edinburgh in 1966 as Jerry in The Zoo Story.

Television career

Pataki had a co-starring role on the 1974–75 groundbreaking ABC-TV series Get Christie Love! playing Officer Pete Gallagher, Christie Love's bumbling but well-meaning sidekick with the dream to one day be a technical advisor on a TV cop show. Despite being the first detective TV series with an African American female lead, the characters of Christie and Pete rarely discussed race.
Pataki appeared as a guest star in numerous television productions, from the black-and-white days of Hawaiian Eye, M Squad, The Twilight Zone, Ripcord, Combat!, and My Favorite Martian, to early color shows such as The Flying Nun, All in the Family, Mr. Terrific, Garrison's Gorillas, Bonanza, Run for Your Life, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Batman, and Felony Squad. He was also a regular on Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers, and The Amazing Spider-Man, and had a re-occurring role on McCloud as well. One of his most famous roles was as Korax, the brash, loudmouthed Klingon who provoked the bar fight in "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode of Star Trek.
He also played Governor Karnas in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Too Short a Season" and George Liquor in the episodes of The Ren & Stimpy Show titled "Dog Show" and "Man's Best Friend"; he would also play various characters after series creator John Kricfalusi was terminated from the series, while continuing to play the latter role in subsequent Kricfalusi projects until Pataki's death, with his last appearance being in the posthumously released 2019 short Cans Without Labels.
Pataki is one of the few Star Trek actors that appeared in both the original series and The Next Generation. In the original series, he played Klingon First Officer Korax in the episode "The Trouble with Tribbles". He was also the voice of The Cow in Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, along with many other secondary characters. Pataki played a guest spot on Happy Days Season 4 as Myron "Count" Malachi, one half of the Malachi brothers. His role was notable for his line "Let the pigeons loose." He played a Russian defector in the episode "The Americanization of Ivan" in WKRP in Cincinnati.

Film career

Pataki's film credits included Airport '77, Spider-Man, Love at First Bite, The Onion Field, Raise the Titanic, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, and many others. He also appeared in Rocky IV, as Nicoli Koloff, the sports administrator for Ivan Drago and had a memorable moment in Ron Howard's sex comedy Night Shift as a man who moons an entire courtroom.
Pataki has also had his fair share of B movie roles in titles such as The Last Porno Flick, Carnal Madness a.k.a. Delinquent Schoolgirls with George Buck Flower, Colleen Brennan, and others. In Dracula's Dog, he played opposite Reggie Nalder and José Ferrer as a descendant of Dracula who is being stalked by a vampiric Doberman Pinscher. His other horror titles included Grave of the Vampire, The Baby, Dead & Buried and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. He also directed Richard Basehart in Mansion of the Doomed.

Other film work

Pataki directed the 1977 soft-core sex farce Cinderella. He also produced a 1981 TV presentation of Pippin with David Sheehan, starring William Katt.

Death

Pataki died from cancer on April 15, 2010, at the age of 72. He completed his recording for George Liquor for Cans Without Labels before his death and the short was dedicated to his memory.

Selected filmography

  • The Young Lions as Pvt. Hagstrom
  • Ten North Frederick as Parking Lot Thug
  • Easy Rider as Mime #4
  • The Sidehackers as J.C.
  • The Cut-Throats as German Sniper
  • Dream No Evil as Rev. Paul Jessie Bundy
  • The Andromeda Strain as Operator of 'The Hands'
  • The Return of Count Yorga as Joe
  • Brute Corps as MacFarlane
  • The All American Hustler as Carol's Boyfriend
  • The Pink Angels as Biker
  • Grave of the Vampire as Caleb Croft / Professor Lockwood
  • The Dirt Gang as Snake
  • The Black Bunch as Mr. Heinke
  • The Baby as Dennis
  • Sweet Jesus, Preacherman as State Senator Sills
  • Little Cigars as Garage Mechanic
  • Heterosexualis as Virgil
  • Last Foxtrot in Burbank as Paul
  • The Bat People as Sgt. Ward
  • The Last Porno Flick as Ziggy
  • Get Christie Love! as Sgt. Pete Gallagher
  • Carnal Madness as Carl C. Clooney
  • Airport '77 as Wilson
  • Spider-Man as Captain Barbera
  • Dracula's Dog as Michael Drake / Count Igor Dracula
  • Jailbait Babysitter as Roger Warfield
  • Spider-Man Strikes Back as Captain Barbera
  • Superdome as Tony Sicota
  • When Every Day Was the Fourth of July as Robert Najarian
  • Ruby and Oswald as Ike Pappas
  • The Pirate as General Eshnev
  • Love at First Bite as Mobster
  • The Onion Field as Dist. Atty. Dino Fulgoni
  • The Glove as Harry Iverson
  • The Last Word as Dobbs
  • Disaster on the Coastliner as Tate
  • Up Yours as Virgil / Virgil's Father
  • Raise the Titanic as Munk
  • High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane as Darold
  • Graduation Day as Principal Guglione
  • Dead and Buried as Sam
  • Night Shift as Man Who Moons Courtroom
  • Sweet Sixteen as George Martin
  • One More Chance as Sam
  • Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins as Jim Wilson
  • Rocky IV as Nicolai Koloff
  • American Anthem as Coach Soranhoff
  • The Underachievers as Murphy
  • Death House as Franco Moretti
  • Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers as Dr. Hoffman
  • Hollywood Hot Tubs 2: Educating Crystal as Professor Drewton
  • Batman: The Animated Series as the Sewer King in the 6th episode entitled: 'The Underdwellers'
  • The Looking Glass as Frank
  • Edge of Nowhere as Sheriff
  • Trim as Dimitri
  • Cans Without Labels as George Liquor