Keene Curtis

Curtis's professional acting career began in 1948 when Orson Welles cast him in a film production of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Soon after, Curtis moved to New York and spent the next twelve years working as a stage manager. His first Broadway performance came in a 1967 production of You Can't Take it With You, which began years of steady work performing in Broadway shows. He won a Tony Award in 1971 for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for The Rothschilds.

In the 1970s, Curtis began to act regularly in film and television. Prominent TV credits include The Magician, Three's Company, Cheers, and the Bea Arthur vehicle Amanda's, among many others. In 1996 he appeared in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, making him one of a handful of actors to have worked in both the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises. As a voice actor, besides the role of Tarkin, Curtis acted in numerous cartoon shows, notably The Smurfs, in which he voiced Lord Balthazar from 1982 to 1989. Curtis continued acting until 1998. He died of Alzheimer's in 2002.