35 Star Trek Actors Who Died In 2022
24. David Birney
David Birney played Letant, the Romulan commander in Tears Of The Prophets, the final episode of Deep Space Nine's sixth season. He also played one of the Prophets manifesting as the Romulan. Though he appeared only once in Star Trek, he had an enormous body of work behind him, including dozens of film and television appearances.
Birney was an accomplished academic, with a bachelor's degree in English Literature, as well as an MA in Theatre Arts, acting and directing. He was awarded an honourary PhD from Southern Utah University. He was also a voice actor who recorded quite a few audiobooks, and also bridged the Star Trek/Star Wars gap by playing Anakin Skywalker in a radio adaptation of Return Of The Jedi.
He served on the Large Theatre Panel for the National Endowment Of The Arts, and was a board member for the Foundation For Biomedical Research. He supported many theatre initiatives, as well as co-chairing the American Diabetes Association for five years. In December 2017, it was revealed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. He died at his home in Santa Monica, four days after his 83rd birthday.