Lincoln Actor Lee Bergere Dies At 88

Actor Lee Bergere, who played Abraham Lincoln in the Star Trek episode "The Savage Curtain", has died at age 88 after a long and prolific career.

StarTrek.com eulogized the actor, who passed away on January 31st in New Hampshire, by recalling that The Star Trek Compendium called Bergere "a warm and intimate Lincoln" with an affectionate paternal relationship with Kirk. Lincoln was a hero to Gene Roddenberry, who named his merchandising venture Lincoln Enterprises after the US president.

"He still gets many, many fan letters about the show. It's incredible," the actor's daughter Mimi Bergere told the Associated Press of his Star Trek fame. Bergere also acted in over 200 television roles, including a regular character on Dynasty opposite "The City on the Edge of Forever" guest star Joan Collins and a recurring role on another nighttime soap, Falcon Crest, with Robert Foxworth.

Bergere began his career on Broadway and performed in the musical Man of La Mancha as the villain for its Los Angeles premiere. That theatrical experience changed him, said Mimi Bergere: "He strived to live the kind of life that Don Quixote lived, always striving for that unreachable star, never giving up." As a performer, she added, "Everybody knew his face, but nobody really knew his name."

The Los Angeles Times also memorialized Bergere, a World War II veteran who was born in Brooklyn, New York but lived his final years in New Hampshire. During the war, stated the article, Bergere was stationed in North Africa, where he was in charge of entertainment services for soldiers.

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