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I–K Entries Steve Ihnat Michael Jackson Russell Johnson Tor Johnson Nathan Juran Boris Karloff DeForest Kelley Val Kilmer Stanley Kubrick   IHNAT, STEVE (1934–1972). Czechoslovakian actor. SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND HORROR FILM CREDITS Acted in: "The Price of Doom" (1964), episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea; "The Inheritors" (1964), two-part episode of The Outer Limits; "My Master the Rainmaker" (1966), episode of I Dream of Jeannie; In Like Flint (Gordon Douglas 1967); "The Astrologer" (1967), "The Mind of Stephan Miklos" (1969), episodes of Mission Impossible; Countdown (Robert ALTMAN 1968); "Whom Gods Destroy" (1969), episode of Star Trek; Sweet, Sweet Rachel (tv movie) (Sutton Rolley 1971). You may not remember the name, but anyone who watched American television during the 1960s will immediately recognize the face. Indeed, Steve Ihnat—distinctively tall, handsome, and broad-shouldered—might be regarded as the quintessential television guest star, who never had a series of his own but brought his commanding presence to innumerable episodes of other people's programs, including Bonanza, The F.B.I., Gunsmoke, It Takes a Thief, Mannix, Perry Mason, Then Came Bronson, The Virginian, and The Young Rebels. In science fiction circles, Ihnat is undoubtedly, and unfortunately, best known for his role in the Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy," playing a charismatic madman with shape-changing abilities who almost seizes control of the Enterprise. While the story itself is the sort of meaningless melodrama that often marred the series' third season, it is amazing to observe how thoroughly Ihnat dominates the proceedings; just as "Space Seed" was Ricardo MONTALBAN's episode, "Whom Gods Destroy" is Ihnat's episode—and it is a tribute to both men's talents that I can recall no other Star Trek episodes in which star performers William SHATNER and Leonard NIMOY were so forcefully shoved to the sidelines. However, his most memorable performance came in a two-part episode of The Outer Limits, "The Inheritors," where he again outshone a capable competitor—a young Robert DUVALL—in portraying a soldier, turned into a genius by an alien implant, who conspires to kidnap some handicapped children and take them to the aliens' planet where, we are finally told, they will be cured to live happy lives. Persuasively sympathetic in an apparently villainous role, Ihnat made a slow-moving story strangely involving. He was also impressive in two episodes of Mission Impossible, a program ideally suited to his subdued air of authority, and although he was given little to do as a NASA general in the film Countdown, he did it very well. Despite his demonstrated talents in several genres, Ihnat seemed to have a special affinity for westerns, and it was shortly after co-writing and directing a comedy about rodeo performers, The Honkers (1972), that he collapsed and died of a heart attack at the young age of thirty-eight. Perhaps all those years of struggling to steal the spotlight away from the stars of the show had finally taken their toll.

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