Easton Passes

Character actor Robert Easton, best-known to Star Trek fans for his role as the Klingon judge in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, died last week.

Easton was eighty-one, and died of natural causes at his home in Toluca Lake, California.

Known as the “Henry Higgins of Hollywood,” Easton was both an actor and a dialect coach to other actors, coaching actors such as Forest Whitaker, Ben Kingsley, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Liam Neeson, Charlton Heston and Robert Duvall.

“He was a wonderful man, a very unique personality, and a master at his craft,” said Duvall. Easton had helped Duvall to sound authentic when Duvall played Robert E. Lee in Gods and Generals. “They said, ‘We want Virginia accents.’ Bob said, ‘Which one? There are twelve distinct accents, from the Piedmont to the ocean.’ He knew them all.”

Easton began his career on the Quiz Kids radio program in 1944, touring the country. He appeared in movies such as The Red Badge of Courage, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Paint Your Wagon, Johnny Got His Gun and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country; and in television shows including The Burns and Allen Show, Father Knows Best, The Jack Benny Show, The Red Skelton Show, Wagon Train, Rawhide, Gunsmoke and more.

Easton is survived by his daughter, Heather Woodruff Perry, and a granddaughter.

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