Leonard Nimoy…on Mission: Impossible

[Roundabout]

It's worse in season 5's "Butterfly," where Paris is supposedly able to convince real Japanese people in Japan that he's one of them. At least most of the actors playing Japanese characters in that episode were really Asian, even actually Japanese in a few cases -- except for Hawaii Five-O's Khigh Dhiegh, who made a career of playing Asians but was actually New Jersey-born Kenneth Dickerson, of English, Egyptian, and Sudanese descent.

Like (TV) father, like (TV) son, I recall seeing Mark Lenard playing a Japanese character in an episode of Hawaii Five-0, the one starting Jack Lord.

I don't know how the audience reacted to seeing Lenard as a Japanese man, when the Hawaii Five-0 episode originally aired. I saw the episode many years later as a rerun. To my eyes, Lenard's appearance and performance was cringy and not very convincing.


Speaking of Jack Lord, I read that, before Shatner was in the picture, Roddenberry offered the role of Captain Kirk to Jack Lord. But Lord wanted a 50% cut of the profits, a piece of the action, so to speak. With that, Roddenberry rescinded the offer. What could have been but wasn't.



Getting back to Mission Impossible, Rollin and then Paris were the master of disguises within the IMF team. But that was somewhat misleading in reality.

I usually get a kick out of seeing Rollin or Paris rip off their mask at the end of an episode, because you know that, in reality, it wasn't actually the actor Landau or Nimoy who was in make-up while impersonating the character they were supposed to be impersonating during the episode.

For example, at the end of the episode "The Town", Rollin rips off the mask of the doctor (actor Will Geer). You knew that it wasn't actually Landau in disguise as the doctor during the episode.

It was, in reality, Will Geer acting as Rollin impersonating the doctor. But of course, in universe, it was Rollin who was in disguise the whole time that he was impersonating the doctor.

Another funny thing is that, oftentimes, after he rips off the mask, he would just dump it on the ground, leaving behind evidence of the con.

 

[Christopher]

I don't know how the audience reacted to seeing Lenard as a Japanese man, when the Hawaii Five-0 episode originally aired. I saw the episode many years later as a rerun. To my eyes, Lenard's appearance and performance was cringy and not very convincing.

In those days, white actors in yellowface/brownface playing non-white characters was still a common, accepted practice in the US and UK. The white audience, at least, probably wasn't bothered by it. They would've just seen it as theater, no different from actors wearing old-age makeup or fake beards or other disguises.

Speaking of Jack Lord, I read that, before Shatner was in the picture, Roddenberry offered the role of Captain Kirk to Jack Lord. But Lord wanted a 50% cut of the profits, a piece of the action, so to speak. With that, Roddenberry rescinded the offer. What could have been but wasn't.

Yes, that sounds about right. I seem to recall that Lord was difficult to work with, though, so they probably dodged a bullet.

For example, at the end of the episode "The Town", Rollin rips off the mask of the doctor (actor Will Geer). You knew that it wasn't actually Landau in disguise as the doctor during the episode.

It was, in reality, Will Geer acting as Rollin impersonating the doctor. But of course, in universe, it was Rollin who was in disguise the whole time that he was impersonating the doctor.

Well, yes, that hardly needs to be pointed out. Obviously everyone knows that no real mask would be that convincing.

But sometimes, they made a point of casting the actors to be impersonated based on their resemblance to Landau or Nimoy. Paul Stevens was cast as four different characters that Rollin impersonated, in "The Council," "The Cardinal," "Decoy," and "Nerves," because he looked a lot like Landau. The 3-parter "The Falcon" reversed it -- Nimoy's longtime stand-in Frank da Vinci was cast as a team member who disguised himself as Paris as part of a complicated deception.

 

[Roundabout]

But sometimes, they made a point of casting the actors to be impersonated based on their resemblance to Landau or Nimoy. Paul Stevens was cast as four different characters that Rollin impersonated, in "The Council," "The Cardinal," "Decoy," and "Nerves," because he looked a lot like Landau. The 3-parter "The Falcon" reversed it -- Nimoy's longtime stand-in Frank da Vinci was cast as a team member who disguised himself as Paris as part of a complicated deception.

Now that you mention it, yes, I can see the resemblance between Landau and Paul Stevens.

I don't think I ever saw "The Falcon". When I get the chance, I'll check it out.

But your description of "The Falcon" reminds me the episode where Rollin was impersonating Paul Stevens' mobster character; then the character (played by Stevens) got a fake plastic surgery and wound up looking exactly like Rollin (Landau). That was nutty.

 

[Christopher]

In the pilot, Rollin was hired specifically for his resemblance to the dictator (also played by Landau) that he had to impersonate, and when Dan Briggs temporarily wore a rubber mask of the dictator, it was clearly imperfect and he had to wear sunglasses and avoid talking, and to keep the impersonation brief before anyone saw through it. So there was a semblance of plausibility there (although when Dan tossed the mask away at the end, it suddenly no longer had eye and mouth holes but was just a complete rubber face). But as season 1 progressed, the masks came to be used more and more often and got more and more perfect, so that by "Shock" it was presumed that a person could wear a mask for days, eat and drink through it, sweat through it, and even undergo electroshock therapy while wearing it, all without the mask being damaged or recognized as fake in any way.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

I usually get a kick out of seeing Rollin or Paris rip off their mask at the end of an episode, because you know that, in reality, it wasn't actually the actor Landau or Nimoy who was in make-up while impersonating the character they were supposed to be impersonating during the episode.

For example, at the end of the episode "The Town", Rollin rips off the mask of the doctor (actor Will Geer). You knew that it wasn't actually Landau in disguise as the doctor during the episode.

It was, in reality, Will Geer acting as Rollin impersonating the doctor. But of course, in universe, it was Rollin who was in disguise the whole time that he was impersonating the doctor.

From the book
Another cause for bewilderment was the character impersonations. As (Script Supervisor-Director Allan) Greedy elaborates, "Sometimes the guest villain wasn't really the guest villain, but Rollin Hand in a mask. Under pressure you can forget that. You forgot that they would dub in Landau's voice later, and it screwed up many a director."

From episode 50 - Recovery
Guest star Bradford Dillman's strongest memory of the episode concerns a friend of his mother's who had a low opinion of his talent. "Because the lady was close to the family she worried each acting appearance would be my last, that sooner or later I'd be exposed as an imposter, thereby starving a wife and six innocent children." Her alarm intensified after seeing the finale of "Recovery," in which Dillman was playing the masked Rollin playing Shipherd. "I was acting my heart out," says Dillman, "impersonating Martin Landau, who was impersonating me. What did it get me? My mother's friend, ever supportive, observed, 'Boy, that Martin Landau is a great actor. I sure hope you were studying him, because you could've learned a lot. He was more like you than you!'"​

 

[Christopher]

From the book
Another cause for bewilderment was the character impersonations. As (Script Supervisor-Director Allan) Greedy elaborates, "Sometimes the guest villain wasn't really the guest villain, but Rollin Hand in a mask. Under pressure you can forget that. You forgot that they would dub in Landau's voice later, and it screwed up many a director."​

Except they usually didn't dub the voice. They went with the conceit that Rollin or Paris or Casey or whoever could mimic the voice perfectly.

From episode 50 - Recovery
Guest star Bradford Dillman's strongest memory of the episode concerns a friend of his mother's who had a low opinion of his talent. "Because the lady was close to the family she worried each acting appearance would be my last, that sooner or later I'd be exposed as an imposter, thereby starving a wife and six innocent children." Her alarm intensified after seeing the finale of "Recovery," in which Dillman was playing the masked Rollin playing Shipherd. "I was acting my heart out," says Dillman, "impersonating Martin Landau, who was impersonating me. What did it get me? My mother's friend, ever supportive, observed, 'Boy, that Martin Landau is a great actor. I sure hope you were studying him, because you could've learned a lot. He was more like you than you!'"​

I take it back. Apparently some viewers were stupid enough to think rubber masks could be completely convincing.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. When Gilligan's Island was on, the Coast Guard reported getting letters demanding to know why they didn't go rescue those poor castaways. (I suspect most of them were probably gag letters, but you never know.)

 

[DarrenTR1970]

@Christopher
From your review of 'Recovery' - the computer suggests a certain, logical procedure, but Shipherd knows the Americans will have anticipated that, and orders the use of an alternate procedure, which is simply using a set of waldo arms (I wonder where they got the props)

From the book
Disassembling the fail-sale required the use of remote-controlled metal manipulator arms and a lot of inserts, which meant that special effects man Jonnie Burke had to move quickly. "We worked Saturday, Sunday, Monday all day," says Burke. "By Tuesday afternoon we were carrying the arms out, and I'm walking alongside them with a can of silver spray paint, painting them."
"Even when they were installed, they were still working on them," says director Robert Totten, "and I was shooting around them." The arms were delivered to Second Unit Director Paul Krasny, and Burke was certain that something would go wrong. To his surprise, "It worked perfectly. Not a thing broke." Burke's manipulators, based on an existing pair used by a major corporation for handling radioactive materials, turned out to be more effective than the prototype. "Their arms had an offset wrist, so if you were going to turn a knob, you could only turn about thirty or forty degrees before the fingers would fall off," claims Burke. "Well, our arms, which cost about $3600, did more than theirs, which cost $36,000!" "That Jonnie Burke was always building things better," says Woodfield, matter-of-factly. "He drove us crazy."​

 

[Christopher]

@Christopher
From your review of 'Recovery' - the computer suggests a certain, logical procedure, but Shipherd knows the Americans will have anticipated that, and orders the use of an alternate procedure, which is simply using a set of waldo arms (I wonder where they got the props)

From the book
Disassembling the fail-sale required the use of remote-controlled metal manipulator arms and a lot of inserts, which meant that special effects man Jonnie Burke had to move quickly. "We worked Saturday, Sunday, Monday all day," says Burke. "By Tuesday afternoon we were carrying the arms out, and I'm walking alongside them with a can of silver spray paint, painting them."
"Even when they were installed, they were still working on them," says director Robert Totten, "and I was shooting around them." The arms were delivered to Second Unit Director Paul Krasny, and Burke was certain that something would go wrong. To his surprise, "It worked perfectly. Not a thing broke." Burke's manipulators, based on an existing pair used by a major corporation for handling radioactive materials, turned out to be more effective than the prototype. "Their arms had an offset wrist, so if you were going to turn a knob, you could only turn about thirty or forty degrees before the fingers would fall off," claims Burke. "Well, our arms, which cost about $3600, did more than theirs, which cost $36,000!" "That Jonnie Burke was always building things better," says Woodfield, matter-of-factly. "He drove us crazy."​

Impressive.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

If there's an unsung hero in 'Mission' it's Jonnie Burke. Burke and his team were responsible for the elevator in season three episode 'Doomsday,' the helicopter in season four 'Commandante' and the car in season five 'Decoy'.
What's interesting is that when Jonnie walked onto the Desilu lot in the summer of 1966, he was offered 'Star Trek' or 'Mission' and he chose 'Mission'. How different things might have turned out had he chosen 'Star Trek'.​

 

[Christopher]

If there's an unsung hero in 'Mission' it's Jonnie Burke. Burke and his team were responsible for the elevator in season three episode 'Doomsday,' the helicopter in season four 'Commandante' and the car in season five 'Decoy'.
What's interesting is that when Jonnie walked onto the Desilu lot in the summer of 1966, he was offered 'Star Trek' or 'Mission' and he chose 'Mission'. How different things might have turned out had he chosen 'Star Trek'.​

So he was the real-life Barney?

 

[DarrenTR1970]

So he was the real-life Barney?

"Bruce made it very plain that any gadgets, gimmicks, or instruments to be used had to already be in use somewhere or on a drawing board somewhere," says Bill Bates, property master for years two and three. Mechanical feasibility would distinguish Mission from most TV spy shows. It was discovered, however, that what is real does not always look real and was sometimes difficult to reproduce, even if the item was only supposed to look as if it worked. Props and special effects people worked weeks in advance, trying to create what the writers imagined.
Since so many props had to be specially built, special effects play a much more important role than in most series. Heading the crew was the remarkable Jonnie Burke, who, while working on the spy film The Silencers (1966) at Desilu, fell in love with the tiny lot. After the film, Desilu's production manager offered Burke three scripts, a western, Mission and Star Trek. He picked the western, which was soon dropped. Burke's next choice was Mission because 'Star Trek looked like too much work. Well, after the first few months, Star Trek settled down and all they had to do was basically repair the stuff the actors broke. Mission went the other way, and each show got heavier and heavier.' Burke had a solid engineering background, was experienced in construction, and had worked in the aircraft, customer auto and racecar industries. It all served him in good stead during Mission. Geller's insistence on realism meant lots of research for Burke, who pored over medical, scientific and electronics journals. He found that much of the technology in Mission was available. 'If I took one item I saw in a medical journal and tied it to another guy's research in electronics and tied them both with a hydraulic drive . . . you know, if someone wanted to spend a billion dollars they could have built the damned things. The principle was right there, but the two people hadn't gotten together.' Burke's crew consisted of five to ten people during the first season. By the following season, it was up to twelve, split between Mission and Mannix. By the third season, Burke was in charge of the entire special effects department and had between eighteen and twenty-four people working full time on seventeen shows. All were experts in their field: 'One was a top gunsmith and a good all-around machinist; another came from Fairchild Camera Company; we had top plastics people, you name it.' Burke's squad had a backstage skill worthy of Brigg's Squad, and over the course of the series were Mission's unsung heroes.​

 

[Starkers]

Speaking of Jack Lord, I read that, before Shatner was in the picture, Roddenberry offered the role of Captain Kirk to Jack Lord. But Lord wanted a 50% cut of the profits, a piece of the action, so to speak. With that, Roddenberry rescinded the offer. What could have been but wasn't.

Lord definitely had form for this kind of thing. He wanted lots more money and co-star billing to come back as Felix Leiter in Goldfinger. Hence why Felix is re-cast!