John Crawford

John Crawford , born Cleve Allen Richardson, was a film and television actor. He played High Commissioner in the first season episode . He filmed his scenes on Thursday , Friday and Monday at Desilu Stage 9.
Thirty years after his performance in The Original Series he revealed, still riled, that his experience on the series was less than a pleasant one, and he especially had issues with William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk in the episode: "William Shatner, the star of the series, was having an ego problem, and every time I walked on the set, I could just see it. I was not allowed to move around the set during the entire scene. He kept saying "No! No! No! No! This is the bridge of the ship and we can't be moving around." Well, that's a lot of bullshit. He always worried about people that were taller than him [note: Crawford was 6'½" (1.84 m) tall]. He didn't want you to tower over him. Well, I needed this like a hole in my head. I had a personal tragedy, my baby had recently passed away. This was in 1966 and then I had trouble with Shatner." Crawford was also disappointed by the way how the director, a close personal friend, handled the situation, "My friend Bob Gist was directing it. Now sometimes Bob can be fun, and sometimes he can be a pain. I think he was playing it safe, didn't want to make an enemy of the star, because after all, he might want to do one of these again. Since I was a friend, he could say, "Well, John, why don't you take this line right here and hold the whole scene right here." It wasn't free and easy like all the things I did in , where I could do any damned thing I wanted. The first job, I think, of any director is to free the actor so that he can act with his head and to give him monumental confidence – hell, you can do anything." (, issue 223, p. 67)
== Career outside Star Trek ==
Crawford made well over two hundred film and television appearances. He was probably best known for portraying Sheriff Ep Bridges on and for playing Major (and later Colonel) Harry Thompson in the 1979 mini-series From Here to Eternity and its subsequent series, which lasted for only one season in 1980. Both co-starred regular actress Salome Jens, while the mini-series also featured another Deep Space Nine actor, Andrew J. Robinson.
Besides his role on Star Trek, he also guest-starred on such classic TV shows (some of which, like Star Trek, were Desilu Studios productions) as The Lone Ranger, , The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, , Mission: Impossible, , The Bob Newhart Show, and . Crawford was one of the favorite actors of producer , and appeared in guest roles in all four of Allen's television series: , , starring Bill Mumy, several appearances on , starring James Darren, Lee Meriwether, and Whit Bissell, and , starring Don Marshall. Crawford also appeared in Allen's unsold sci-fi pilot The Man from the 25th Century, which also starred Darren. He also had a recurring role on , starring Joan Collins and Lee Bergere. He also appeared in an episode of with fellow "Galileo Seven" guest actor Don Marshall. Crawford's last television appearance was in a 1986 episode of , starring Brian Keith and Daniel Hugh Kelly.
His many feature film credits include Mystery Street (1950, starring Ricardo Montalban and featuring Frank Overton), (1950, also starring Ricardo Montalban and featuring Kenneth Tobey), Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952, with Leonard Nimoy), Scaramouche (1952, with Richard Hale), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952, with Lawrence Tierney), (1956, with DeForest Kelley), (1962, with Richard Beymer and Jeffrey Hunter), Jason and the Argonauts (1963, with Nancy Kovack), (1964, with William Windom), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965, with Nehemiah Persoff, John Abbott, Michael Ansara, Mark Lenard, and Celia Lovsky), (1966, with John Hoyt), The Poseidon Adventure (1972, with Elizabeth Rogers), Trouble Man (1972, starring Robert Hooks and Paul Winfield), (1973, with Paul Carr), The Towering Inferno (1974, with Paul Comi and George D. Wallace), (1975, with Harris Yulin and Kenneth Mars), and (1979, with Kenneth Mars, Robert Pine, Rex Holman, Nick Ramus, John Arndt, and Vince Deadrick).
Crawford died of a stroke in Newbury Park, California, on 21 September 2010. He was 90 years old. 
== Star Trek interview ==
* "Merchant of Menace", Joel Eisner, , issue 223, February 1995, pp. 64-68
== External links ==
* 
* 
de:John Crawford
es:John Crawford
Category:Performers
Category:TOS performers