Alan Oppenheimer
Encyclopedia
Alan Oppenheimer is an American
character actor
and voice actor
. He has performed numerous roles on live-action television since the 1960s, and has had an active career doing voice work in cartoons since the 1970s.
Rothschild) and Louis E. Oppemheimer, who was a stockbroker.
, to playing an Israeli secret agent as well as a double-agent KAOS scientist on Get Smart
, to being the voice actor of Pebbles in Heroes of Newerth
(Martin Balsam
played the role in the pilot telemovie. Oppenheimer took over as Rudy Wells in the pilot movies of the Six Million Dollar Man starting with the second film, "Wine, Women and War" and kept playing up until the introduction of the bionic woman in 1975, whereupon Martin E. Brooks
took over as Wells until cancellation). He was the original Mickey Malph (Ralph Malph
's dad) on Happy Days
. He also played recurring role during the first two seasons of the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere
, as Helen Rosenthal's husband Ira. He had a recurring role as Mayor Alvin B. Tutweiler in the comedy series Mama's Family
.
Alan showed himself well suited to the science fiction genre in the 1973 cult classic Westworld
, where he played the head IT technician. He has also appeared in three of the more recent Star Trek
series, always playing a different character. He appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation
episode "Rightful Heir" as a Klingon
cleric, Koroth, a primary instigator of the cloning
of Kahless
, on Deep Space Nine
as a Starfleet
Captain
Declan Keogh in command of the USS Odyssey, and as an alien ambassador in Voyager
.
Alan Oppenheimer appeared as film director Cecil B. DeMille
in the 1994 Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber
's Sunset Blvd.
in the 1970s and 1980s, such as Mighty Mouse
, Ming the Merciless
on Flash Gordon
, the Overlord on BlackStar
, and Skeletor
, Man-At-Arms
and Mer-Man from Filmation's 1980s cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
. Other notable voice roles include Thundarr the Barbarian
, Vanity on The Smurfs, Rhinokey and Crock from The Wuzzles
and Falkor and Gmork from 1984's The NeverEnding Story
. In the early 1990s, Oppenheimer was the voice of Merlin
in The Legend of Prince Valiant
. He also performed various supporting roles in various incarnations of Scooby-Doo
. He took over the voice of Roger Smith's butler Norman Burg in the second season of The Big O
. Oppenheimer also worked on The Transformers
, most notably as two contrasting characters, the pacifist Beachcomber and the bellicose Warpath. His rendition of Seaspray
was remarkably similar to Mer-Man, including the gurgling effects. He was the voice of Alistair Crane on the soap opera
Passions
up until 2004 (when the character was made fully visible, played by David Bailey). Oppenheimer recently provided the voice of the Scientist for the 2009 film 9.
Oppenheimer's repertoire also includes video games, voicing Dr. Piotr Ivanovich in Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
, Prometheus
in God of War II
and Jandor the Airship Captain in Nox. In Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
, he spoke the part of Harold, an ancient mutated survivor of nuclear holocaust
who has appeared in four of the Fallout series
games. Oppenheimer also voiced the parts of a non-player character
Soldier and the Wasteland Trader, and the NPC 'enemies' Cult Ghoul Thug and Kamikaze in Fallout: BoS. Also, in the 1990-1992 compilation of Ys Book I and II, Oppenheimer voiced the roles of the Narrator, and the game's lead antagonist, Darm. In Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
he had a brief role as Batman's butler, Alfred Pennyworth
.
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
and voice actor
Voice acting
Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
. He has performed numerous roles on live-action television since the 1960s, and has had an active career doing voice work in cartoons since the 1970s.
Early life
Oppenheimer was born in New York City, New York on April 23, 1930, the son of Irene (neeMarried and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Rothschild) and Louis E. Oppemheimer, who was a stockbroker.
Character actor
As a character actor, Oppenheimer has had diverse roles in popular American television programming and Video Gaming, from playing a Nazi in Hogan's HeroesHogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to March 28, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. Bob Crane had the starring role as Colonel Robert E...
, to playing an Israeli secret agent as well as a double-agent KAOS scientist on Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...
, to being the voice actor of Pebbles in Heroes of Newerth
Heroes of Newerth
Heroes of Newerth is a free-to-play science fantasy, action real-time strategy game developed by S2 Games for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The game was heavily inspired by the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne custom map, Defense of the Ancients and is S2 Games' first game title in the...
(Martin Balsam
Martin Balsam
Martin Henry Balsam was an American actor. He is known for his Oscar-winning role as "Arnold Burns" in A Thousand Clowns and his role as "Detective Milton Arbogast" in Psycho.- Early life :...
played the role in the pilot telemovie. Oppenheimer took over as Rudy Wells in the pilot movies of the Six Million Dollar Man starting with the second film, "Wine, Women and War" and kept playing up until the introduction of the bionic woman in 1975, whereupon Martin E. Brooks
Martin E. Brooks
Martin E. Brooks is an American character actor known for playing scientist Dr. Rudy Wells in the television series The Six Million Dollar Man and its spin-off, The Bionic Woman, from 1975 onward .Brooks reprised the role of Wells in three television movies: The Return of the...
took over as Wells until cancellation). He was the original Mickey Malph (Ralph Malph
Ralph Malph
Ralph Malph is a character on Happy Days played by Don Most.-Background of Character:He usually had two things on his mind, girls and jokes...
's dad) on Happy Days
Happy Days
Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America....
. He also played recurring role during the first two seasons of the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
, as Helen Rosenthal's husband Ira. He had a recurring role as Mayor Alvin B. Tutweiler in the comedy series Mama's Family
Mama's Family
Mama's Family is an American television sitcom that premiered on NBC on January 22, 1983. It was cancelled in May 1984, but NBC would continue to air reruns until September 1985. In September 1986, Mama's Family returned in first-run syndication, where it aired for an additional four seasons,...
.
Alan showed himself well suited to the science fiction genre in the 1973 cult classic Westworld
Westworld
Westworld is a 1973 science fiction-thriller film written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton and produced by Paul Lazarus III. It stars Yul Brynner as a lifelike robot in a futuristic Western-themed amusement park, and Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.Westworld was the...
, where he played the head IT technician. He has also appeared in three of the more recent Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
series, always playing a different character. He appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
episode "Rightful Heir" as a Klingon
Klingon
Klingons are a fictional warrior race in the Star Trek universe.Klingons are recurring villains in the 1960s television show Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series and eight feature films...
cleric, Koroth, a primary instigator of the cloning
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
of Kahless
Kahless
In the fictional Star Trek universe, Kahless the Unforgettable is a legendary Klingon portrayed in Star Trek: The Original Series by Robert Herron and in Star Trek: The Next Generation by Kevin Conway.-History of Kahless:...
, on Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe...
as a Starfleet
Starfleet
In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet or the Federation Starfleet is the deep-space exploratory, peacekeeping and military service maintained by the United Federation of Planets . It is the principal means by which the Federation conducts its exploration, defense, diplomacy and research...
Captain
Captain (naval)
Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....
Declan Keogh in command of the USS Odyssey, and as an alien ambassador in Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while...
.
Alan Oppenheimer appeared as film director Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
in the 1994 Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's Sunset Blvd.
Sunset Boulevard (musical)
Sunset Boulevard is a musical with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Based on the 1950 film of the same title, the plot revolves around Norma Desmond, a faded star of the silent screen era, living in the past in her decaying mansion on the...
Voice roles
He is recognised as the voice of many characters, often for FilmationFilmation
Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live action programming for television during the latter half of the 20th century. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1963...
in the 1970s and 1980s, such as Mighty Mouse
Mighty Mouse
Mighty Mouse is an animated superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox.-History:The character was created by story man Izzy Klein as a super-powered housefly named Superfly. Studio head Paul Terry changed the character into a cartoon mouse instead...
, Ming the Merciless
Ming the Merciless
Ming the Merciless is a fictional character who first appeared in the Flash Gordon comic strip in 1934. He has since been the main villain of the strip and its related movie serials, TV shows and film adaptation.- First appearance :...
on Flash Gordon
The New Adventures of Flash Gordon
The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, also known as The Adventures of Flash Gordon, is an animated television series. The series is actually called Flash Gordon, but the expanded title is used in official records to distinguish it from previous versions.Filmation produced the series in 1979, partly...
, the Overlord on BlackStar
BlackStar
Blackstar is an American animated television series, a science fantasy story sometimes reported as being inspired by Thundarr the Barbarian. It was produced in 1981 by Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott for Filmation. The series was Filmation's second fantasy epic, the first being tucked in as a...
, and Skeletor
Skeletor
Skeletor is a featured villain in the Masters of the Universe franchise and the arch-enemy and main antagonist of He-Man. Depicted as a muscular blue humanoid with a purple hood over his yellowing bare-bone skull, Skeletor seeks to conquer Castle Grayskull so he can learn its ancient secrets,...
, Man-At-Arms
Man-At-Arms
Man-At-Arms is the primary title of Duncan, a fictional character in the Masters of the Universe franchise. The figure's tag-line is "Heroic Master of Weapons".-He-Man and the Masters of the Universe :...
and Mer-Man from Filmation's 1980s cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
He-Man
He-Man is a fictional heroic character featured in the Masters of the Universe media franchise. In most variations, he is the alter ego of Prince Adam...
. Other notable voice roles include Thundarr the Barbarian
Thundarr the Barbarian
Thundarr the Barbarian is a Saturday morning animated television series, created by Steve Gerber and produced by Ruby-Spears Productions. The series ran 2 seasons, 1980-1981 and 1981-1982...
, Vanity on The Smurfs, Rhinokey and Crock from The Wuzzles
The Wuzzles
Disney's Wuzzles is an American animated television series created for Saturday morning television, and was first broadcast on September 14, 1985 on CBS. An idea of Michael Eisner for his new Disney television animation studio, the Wuzzles are crossbred animals which sport a combined appearance of...
and Falkor and Gmork from 1984's The NeverEnding Story
The NeverEnding Story (film)
The NeverEnding Story is a 1984 German-American epic fantasy film based on the novel of the same name written by Michael Ende. The film was directed and co-written by Wolfgang Petersen and starred Barret Oliver, Noah Hathaway and Tami Stronach. At the time of its release, it was the most...
. In the early 1990s, Oppenheimer was the voice of Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
in The Legend of Prince Valiant
The Legend of Prince Valiant
The Legend of Prince Valiant is an American animated television series based on the Prince Valiant comic strip created by Hal Foster. Set in the time of King Arthur, it's a family-oriented adventure show about an exiled prince who goes on a quest to become one of the Knights of the Round Table. He...
. He also performed various supporting roles in various incarnations of Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo is an American media franchise based around several animated television series and related works produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969...
. He took over the voice of Roger Smith's butler Norman Burg in the second season of The Big O
The Big O
is a Japanese animated television series created by director Kazuyoshi Katayama and designer Keiichi Sato for Sunrise Studios. The writing staff was assembled by the series' head writer, Chiaki J. Konaka....
. Oppenheimer also worked on The Transformers
The Transformers (TV series)
The Transformers is an animated television series depicting a war among giant robots who could transform into vehicles, other objects and animal-like forms. Written and recorded in America, the series was animated in Japan and South Korea...
, most notably as two contrasting characters, the pacifist Beachcomber and the bellicose Warpath. His rendition of Seaspray
SEASPRAY
SEASPRAY was a clandestine U.S. Army special operations unit. Its existence within the U.S. Department of Defense was held secret insofar as it testifies to the close links between the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency....
was remarkably similar to Mer-Man, including the gurgling effects. He was the voice of Alistair Crane on the soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Passions
Passions
Passions is an American television soap opera which aired on NBC from July 5, 1999 to September 7, 2007 and on The 101 Network from September 17, 2007 to August 7, 2008....
up until 2004 (when the character was made fully visible, played by David Bailey). Oppenheimer recently provided the voice of the Scientist for the 2009 film 9.
Oppenheimer's repertoire also includes video games, voicing Dr. Piotr Ivanovich in Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix is a video game created by Raven Software, a sequel to Soldier of Fortune. It was developed using the Quake III: Team Arena engine. Once again, Raven hired John Mullins to act as a consultant on the game...
, Prometheus
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...
in God of War II
God of War II
God of War II is an action-adventure video game released for the PlayStation 2 by Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica division in March, 2007....
and Jandor the Airship Captain in Nox. In Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel is an action role-playing game developed and produced by Interplay for the Xbox and PlayStation 2. Released on January 13, 2004, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel was the fourth video game to be set in the Fallout universe and the first to be made for consoles...
, he spoke the part of Harold, an ancient mutated survivor of nuclear holocaust
Nuclear holocaust
Nuclear holocaust refers to the possibility of the near complete annihilation of human civilization by nuclear warfare. Under such a scenario, all or most of the Earth is made uninhabitable by nuclear weapons in future world wars....
who has appeared in four of the Fallout series
Fallout series
Fallout is a series of post-apocalyptic role-playing games published by Interplay Entertainment and later by Bethesda Softworks. Although the series is set during the 22nd and 23rd centuries, its retrofuturistic story and artwork are influenced by the post-war culture of 1950s America, and its...
games. Oppenheimer also voiced the parts of a non-player character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
Soldier and the Wasteland Trader, and the NPC 'enemies' Cult Ghoul Thug and Kamikaze in Fallout: BoS. Also, in the 1990-1992 compilation of Ys Book I and II, Oppenheimer voiced the roles of the Narrator, and the game's lead antagonist, Darm. In Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
# "Markets Crash"# "Main Titles"# "Freeway Chase"# "Admit Something"# "Meteor"# "Metallo"# "High Voltage"# "Framed"# "Luthor talks to Power Girl"# "S.T.A.R...
he had a brief role as Batman's butler, Alfred Pennyworth
Alfred Pennyworth
Alfred Pennyworth is a fictional character that appears throughout the DC Comics franchise. The character first appears in Batman #16 , and was created by writer Bob Kane and artist Jerry Robinson. Alfred serves as Batman’s tireless butler, assistant, confidant, and surrogate father figure...
.
Personal life
He was married to costume designer Marianna Elliott and professional tennis player Marilyn Greenwood, and has three children. He is third cousin to Robert OppenheimerRobert Oppenheimer
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with Enrico Fermi, he is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II project that developed the first...
.