Well, this is a bummer: Peter David is reporting that Andreas Katsulas has died of cancer at the age of 59. Katsulas is one of those terrific character actors whose name you probably don’t know, but whose face ought to be instantly familiar. He’s done dozens of film and TV roles over the years, usually playing a heavy of some kind. Genre fans will remember him as Ambassador G’Kar on the cult-fave series Babylon 5, as well as the recurring character of Romulan Commander Tomalak on Star Trek: The Next Generation, while more mainstream movie-goers know him as the dastardly One-Armed Man in the Harrison Ford version of The Fugitive.

I wasn’t a regular viewer of B5, but I caught it frequently enough to be impressed by Katsulas’ talent. The character he played was a reptilian alien, requiring him to all but bury his distinctive features under make-up appliances, but his great power as an actor shone through all the latex, making G’Kar, curiously, one of the most sympathetic and emotional characters on the series. The character was tragic, filled with frustration and rage at the fate of his species but essentially noble and haunted by the things circumstance forced him to do. Katsulas was utterly convincing in the part, and that’s saying something; not many actors are that good in extensive make-up, and most aren’t any good at all.

I haven’t found much in the way of official obituaries for him, but his B5 co-star Bill Mumy has a brief, fond note on his website, and Peter David’s wife Kathleen tells a heartwarming tale that I think explains what kind of man he must’ve been as well as anything could.