Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 9, 1994 TAG: 9408110005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ian Spelling
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The 73-year-old actor, best known to Trekkers as Khan Noonian Singh from the ``Trek''-classic episode ``Space Seed'' and the movie ``Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'' (1981), will return to television this fall, playing an angel in Aaron Spelling's new syndicated series ``Heaven Help Us.''
``My main job is helping this couple [John Schneider and Melinda Clarke] who've died prematurely,'' the affable Montalban explains.
``They're in limbo because of a one-second time warp during which their plane crashed. So they're put to the test. Are they going up or down?
``As their guardian angel I guide them, present assignments in which they help people.''
The show, which Montalban films twice a month in San Antonio, is literally just what the doctor ordered.
Last July, Montalban suffered a spinal hemorrhage that required nine hours of surgery to repair. Now, despite persistent pain and occasional spasms, the actor's muscular control is improving and he can get around with a walker.
His work on ``Heaven,'' he notes, forces him to get out of bed and helps keep self-pity at bay.
``My physician says that, psychologically, the show is the best thing that could have ever happened,'' he reports. ``As an angel, I can just appear anywhere ... sitting.
``I'm grateful to Aaron for devising a way I could work without walking. I guess he's MY guardian angel.''
Though Montalban plays an angel in his new series, he will forever be the belligerent Khan in the minds of Trekkers. The actor says he knew from the start that the part of the genetically engineered superhuman was a plum role.
``When I first played Khan [on television] I really enjoyed it,'' Montalban says during a telephone interview from his home in California's Hollywood Hills. ``The show was treated with all seriousness by everyone and that spirit got to me.''
Later, when he was in his sixth year of portraying the composed Mr. Roarke on TV's ``Fantasy Island,'' Montalban was asked to reprise his role as Khan in ``Wrath.''
``I was dying to do something other than Mr. Roarke,'' he says. ``It was wonderful, because Khan had become so passionate and consumed with avenging his wife's death by getting Kirk [William Shatner].''
Montalban's only complaint is that he had no face-to-face scenes with Shatner. Because the Kirk-Khan confrontations took place via viewscreen, Montalban was stuck gazing at a wall while emoting.
``I had to do my lines with the script girl, who, as you might imagine, sounded nothing like Bill,'' he says, laughing. ``Still, it was a very rewarding experience.''
Montalban counts ``Khan'' among his career highlights. Other favorites are ``Fiesta'' (1947), his first American film; ``Sweet Charity'' (1969); the acclaimed road show ``Don Juan in Hell''; and ``Fantasy Island.''
In the course of his varied career, the Mexican-born actor has played characters of Latin, American Indian, Italian, French, German and Greek descent.
``My career has been: `Ask not what the role can do for you but what you can do for the role,''' he says.
These days, when not in physical therapy or on the set of ``Heaven,'' Montalban reads, listens to music, hosts the syndicated radio program ``Somos Hispanos'' and spends time with his wife, Georgiana, their four children and six grandchildren.
When asked about his hopes for the future, Montalban tells a story that he says parallels his life and his goals.
``There was a gerontologist who studied aging,'' he begins. ``She had two groups of rats in ideal conditions, with perfect diets, everything.
``The group on the left got fat, diseased easily and died young. The group on the right was happy, healthy and eternally young.''
What separated the two?
``The group on the right was given two new toys every day. That kept them interested, running and alive,'' he says.
``So I like to think of myself as a rat on the right.''
by CNB