Richard Herd

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Richard Herd as L'Kor

Richard Herd as Admiral Owen Paris

Richard Herd (born 26 September 1932; age 75) from Boston, Massachusetts is a veteran film and television actor known to Star Trek fans for his appearances as Admiral Owen Paris on Star Trek: Voyager.

After graduating from high school, Herd enlisted in the Army, serving for less than a year in 1953 and receiving a discharge as a private. He did not break into acting until the 1970s, however, with his first credited role as an athletics coach in the cult classic Hercules in New York.

In his early career, Herd performed mostly in TV guest roles before being cast in The China Syndrome in 1979 followed by a guest role on the TV series M*A*S*H in 1980. After this he played Brigadier General Foley in the film version of Private Benjamin and played General of the Army Omar Bradley in the 1979 miniseries Ike, a role which Karl Malden (who Herd is often mistaken for) had earlier played in the film Patton.

Richard Herd has made appearances on several well known science fiction shows, including Quantum Leap with Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. He made several appearances as Admiral Noyce on the sci-fi series seaQuest DSV alongside other Trek guest stars Stephanie Beacham, Rosalind Ingledew, and Marco Sanchez, and is well known for his role in the 1983 NBC hit mini-series V, in which he played John, the Visitors' Supreme Commander. He reprised this role in the 1984 sequel, V: The Final Battle. Both of these projects starred DS9 guest actors Michael Durrell and Andrew Prine. V: The Final Battle starred TNG and VOY guest star Mark L. Taylor and TNG/DS9 guest star Dick Miller.

Herd is known for playing Police Captain Dennis Sheridan for three seasons on the series T.J. Hooker, starring William Shatner in the title role. James Darren was a regular on this series. Herd would be reunited with Shatner in the episode "Hide and Seek" of the aforementioned seaQuest DSV.

He is also known for his recurring role as Wilhelm on the hit sitcom Seinfeld, starring fellow Voyager guest actor Jason Alexander.

Other TV appearances include: a guest-starring role in The A-Team, which included his Voyager co-star Dwight Schultz in the main cast; two appearances on Hardcastle and McCormick, starring Brian Keith and Daniel Hugh Kelly in the title roles; and an appearance on Beauty and the Beast, starring Ron Perlman.

On film, he is perhaps best known for playing Chairman Spencer in the 1985 sci-fi/horror movie Trancers. Other films in which he has starred include All the President's Men (with Stephen Collins and F. Murray Abraham), The Onion Field (with John Savage, Ronny Cox, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Pataki, and John de Lancie), Private Benjamin (with Alan Oppenheimer), Deal of the Century (with Graham Jarvis, Richard Libertini, Tony Plana, and Wallace Shawn), Planes, Trains & Automobiles (with Bill Erwin and William Windom), Gleaming the Cube (1989, with Christian Slater, Art Chudabala, and Ed Lauter), and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (with Bob Gunton, Anne Haney, and Leon Rippy). In 1996, he co-starred with TNG actor LeVar Burton and Star Trek Generations actor Malcolm McDowell in the sci-fi movie Yesterday's Target.

At one point, he was the 3rd National Vice-President of the Screen Actors Guild. He is currently a member of the Enterprise Blues Band, a musical group that writes and performs songs about Star Trek. The other members are Vaughn Armstrong, Casey Biggs, Steve Rankin, William Jones and Ronald B. Moore. He plays the gut box bass, kazoo, and sings some of the back-up vocals.