- as
Dr.
Daystrom from Star Trek,
The
Ultimate Computer (1968)
William Marshall was seen
as the "King of Cartoons" on the Saturday morning TV kiddie
show, Pee-wee's Playhouse.
Dynamic African American
leading man and character actor William Marshall trained in Grand
Opera, Broadway and Shakespeare. In films from the 50s and 60s
including: Lydia Bailey (1952), Something of Value (1957), To Trap a
Spy (1964) and was "Attorney General Edward Brooke" in The
Boston Strangler (1968) with Tony Curtis.
In the early 1950s,
Marshall starred briefly in a series about black police officers,
entitled Harlem Detective (1953). The program was canceled when
Marshall was named as a communist in Counterattack, an anti-communist newsletter.
Nonetheless, Marshall
managed to continue appearing in both television and films. Marshall
is perhaps best remembered by television viewers for his roles as
"Dr. Richard Daystrom" in the Star Trek (1966) episode,
Star Trek: The Ultimate Computer (1968), and as the traveling opera
singer on Bonanza: Enter Thomas Bowers (1964).
Marshall also guest stared
in two Man from U.N.C.L.E. episodes, The Vulcan Affair (1964) and The
Maze Affair (1967).
During the
"blaxplotation" films of the 70s he starred in the
contemporary vampire melodrama, Blacula (1972), and its sequel,
Scream Blacula Scream (1973), and the Exorcist-type film, Abby (1974).
From the 80s, Marshall was
seen as the "King of Cartoons" on the Saturday morning TV
kiddie show, Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986), replacing actor Gilbert
Lewis. It's a job that he accepted on behalf of his grandchildren.
