Ouch :(

[annathepiper]

Andreas Katsulas, the man who played G'Kar on Babylon 5, has passed away. Link relayed from filkertom.

RIP, Andreas. G'Kar was one of the many shining lights that made up what remains for me to date one of the most enjoyable and memorable storylines that I have ever had the pleasure to watch on television.

Comments

[me-fein.livejournal.com]

:( I can't believe it! I haven't watched B5 since the very first season - but I always liked Andreas Katsulas. :( How sad....

[me-fein.livejournal.com]

I'm also surprised he's played in so many sci-fi roles - stuff I watched! I knew he was familiar elsewhere...

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

The other night, I was watching "All Good Things..." while Donna was working on the computer. Commander Tomalak came on screen, and I called out, "Donna, you _really_ want to turn around and look at this." "Fine, fine, what-- Oh, G'Kar!" :)

[annathepiper]

Heh... I missed his later Trek appearances, I think, because by then I'd stopped watching regularly enough to pay attention to who was on the Trek episodes... but I think we may have caught his appearance on Enterprise.

And I remarked to me_fein that both he and Peter Jurasik did keep surprising me with how often they cropped up in unexpected places! I remember being startled when I realized he was the one-armed man in The Fugitive.

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

Apparently he was known for his ability to act well under heavy makeup, which of course endeared him to SF showrunners. Mira Furlan (who played Delenn) said in interviews that during the first season she went to him several times to get tips on acting under masks and makeup.

[annathepiper]

That's cool. :)

[annathepiper]

He and Peter Jurasik both kept surprising me with how many character roles they played. I remember my jaw dropping once when I realized Peter had had a bit part on an episode of Remington Steele!

[annathepiper]

Yeah, very sad indeed... I always considered him one of the foundation rocks of the entire story arc. And I would always go "hey, G'Kar!" every time I saw him in something else--like The Fugitive.

I feel like I ought to watch some B5 in his honor.

Re: *****GASP******

[annathepiper]

*nodnodnod* I feel like I ought to have me a B5 marathon in his honor. I always considered him one of the foundation rocks of the entire story arc.

Re: *****GASP******

[annathepiper]

solarbird and I have the whole series on DVD, yeah--it was pretty much mandatory, since she's the main B5 fan in the house. She'd actually taped the entire series on good SVHS tapes, but it was very much a relief to have the DVDs once we discovered that the tapes we'd made off the SVHS VCR we owned at the time weren't playable on other machines since something had gone wrong with that unit at some point! Dara's also got the pilot--a Japanese release of it, in fact--on laserdisc.

And I've got The Fugitive as well. While that's an artifact of my Harrison Ford fandom, I think a peek at that would be called for as well!

[suzene.livejournal.com]

Aw, no. :(

[annathepiper]

Yeah. Sniff. I feel like I should watch me some B5 in his honor.

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

I'm very very sad but not terribly surprised. Katsulas was apparently a lifelong chain smoker in addition to being a method actor. I've read numerous interviews with folks who were on the B5 set who claimed that one of the weirder sights was G'Kar, in costume and in character, standing outside the set and smoking a cigarette.

He'll be missed.

[annathepiper]

I'm not terribly surprised either, then... speaking as one whose father died fairly young thanks to smoking. But still, sniff.

And I can just imagine him in full G'Kar regalia standing outside with the cigarette. That must have been a sight! Especially if he stayed in character.

[howlinhobbit.livejournal.com]

When I clicked on the link for this entry in my RSS aggregator, G'kar was speaking from my sweetie's computer. We're in the midst of another "full story arc" B5 fest here. We watch it probably twice a year. Including the few episodes of "Crusade" that were made.

B5 was and is a marvelous piece of SF television. Enough space opera to sell it to the sponsors, enough SF "inside jokes" to hit the SF geeks where we... errrr... they, live and a truly brave and mostly successful attempt at "serious" SF on the boob tube. That's one hella hard balance to strike. J. Michael Straczynski did a wonderful job.

When it was originally being aired I couldn't get past the "space opera" part and foolishly ignored it. Luckily, I'm now living with a huge B5 fan and she educated me.

The ongoing and developing relationship between G'Kar and Molari is one of the consistent high points of the series.

I'm very sad. I held out a faint hope that the folks at NorWesCon would wise up enough to get him to show up so I could shake his hand and say thank you.

HH

[kathrynelaraine.livejournal.com]

Nooooo! He was my favorite character on the whole show. I'm going to go tell my mom, then we'll probably end up watching a marathon in honor.
He will be greatly missed.

:*(

[annathepiper]

*nodnod* Go look here for filkertom's thread--he and many others were posting their favorite memories of G'Kar from the show.

[wildcardgal.livejournal.com]

Oh, how sad. I admired the way his character came to life and evolved.

[annathepiper]

Indeed... he was definitely one of the sturdy rocks that held up that entire storyline. He'll be missed.

[peregrine-ek.livejournal.com]

He was a tremendous actor and will be sorely missed. I hadn't heard this, so thanks for posting it.

[annathepiper]

You're welcome! filkertom had a very nice thread going on over on his journal, with people posting their favorite memories of G'Kar from B5, here.