(written from a Production point of view)
Mel Winkler (23 October 1941 – 11 June 2020; age 78) was the actor who played Jack Hayes in the Star Trek: Voyager second season episode "The 37's".
Besides Voyager, Winkler guest-starred on a number of other popular television series. In 1987, he was seen in a third season episode of The Cosby Show with Star Trek: The Next Generation star Gates McFadden. Six years later, he had a supporting role in the pilot episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, starring Teri Hatcher and K Callan and also featuring Christopher Darga, Persis Khambatta, Clyde Kusatsu, and Kenneth Tigar. He would subsequently appear on three episodes of NYPD Blue (working with Gordon Clapp, Julianne Christie, Sharon Lawrence, Aaron Lustig, Allan Miller, Michael Buchman Silver, and Titus Welliver), as well as an episode of Babylon 5 (with Erick Avari, Andreas Katsulas, and Bill Mumy). Later credits include guest spots on ER (with Michael Buchman Silver), Numbers (with Vince Deadrick), and Girlfriends (starring Golden Brooks).
Winkler voiced the character of Lucius Fox on The New Batman Adventures, taking over the role from Brock Peters, who voiced the role when the show was known as Batman: The Animated Series. Perhaps Winkler's best known voice-over work, however, is the character of Aku-Aku in the various Crash Bandicoot video games.
In addition to his work on television and video games, Winkler appeared in such feature films as All the Right Moves (1983, with Gary Graham, Dick Miller and Terry O'Quinn), Heaven Help Us (1985, featuring Wallace Shawn), Dominick and Eugene (1988, with Bill Cobbs), Doc Hollywood (1991, co-starring David Ogden Stiers), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995, with Albert Hall), City Hall (1996), A Life Less Ordinary (1997), and Maniacts (2001, with Kellie Waymire). His last major film was the 2005 Paramount Pictures hit, Coach Carter.
He died at his home on 11 June 2020. [1]