Mark Lenard
| Name: | Mark Lenard, born Leonard Rosenson |
| Also Known As: | |
| Occupation: | actor, voice actor |
| Medium: | live-action film, television |
| Works: | Star Trek, Here Come the Brides, Planet of the Apes (TV series), others |
| Official Website(s): | |
| Fan Website(s): | |
| On Fanlore: | Related pages |
Mark Lenard (October 15, 1924 – November 22, 1996) was an American actor who is best known for his role as Spock's father, the Vulcan ambassador Sarek, in Star Trek. The actor also had a role as a Romulan in an episode of the original series.
He appeared in Star Trek: The Original Series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, three Star Trek movies, and Star Trek: The Animated Series. In Star Trek The Motion Picture, Lenard played a Klingon. Lenard was also in Here Comes the Brides and Planet of the Apes.
Fandom
In 1968, Ruth Berman founded the Mark Lenard International Fan Club in Minneapolis, MN.
Lenard and Some Stories About Zines
One story in fannish lore involves Lenard and his reaction to the covers of some fanzines portraying his on-screen son, Spock. Like apocryphal stories everywhere, there's foggy sources, and then the re-tellings around the fannish campfire!
One of the stories appears to have its origin at IsisCon in 1987:
A fan remembered Lenard, a guest of honor, walking around the dealer's room at IsisCon:
I went to the Isis convention with a few fellow K/S zine publishers. One of them used to put out a binder with all her covers (some quite explicit) on her dealer's table. We were watching all our tables when Mark Lenard wandered by. He was looking at everything on the tables with great interest (the tables were all full with K/S zines). Then he glanced through the binder and looked up and said with a heavy sigh: "My son, my son" shaking his head with a sly grin on his handsome face! It was hysterical. He knew what he was looking at and was obviously amused by it. Ah, those were the days! [1]
Another fan tells it like this: Lenard wandered the Dealer's Room with some handlers at a con. He came across a copy of the gen zine Spock Enslaved!, with its cover of a nearly naked Spock in chains, and stopped and stared long enough to worry his handlers, before sighing dramatically and mock whispering, "Oh my son, my son".
Another fan, Sandy Hereld, wrote:
I love stories of how individual actors have dealt with finding slash -- even the ones that are probably just fannish legend, like Gareth Thomas (Blake, of Blake's 7) sending it back with grammar corrections in the margins, and a casually written, "Why did you think I'd be interested in this?", or Mark Lenard (Sarek) walking through the dealer's room and seeing the cover of (I think) Thrust, and saying, "Oh my son, my son..." [2]
In his IsisCon official presentation to fans, Lenard also commented on explicit zines:
… years ago I used to get a lot of fanzines. All kinds of them. And you know about the x-rated fanzines. I never, well, I looked at them sometimes. Sometimes I didn't. Threw them in the back of the car or something. One day I got into the car and my daughter was four years old then. She got into the backseat and there was this fanzine there. She opened it up and there was a centerfold and who should be on the centerfold but Spock. And I'll tell you only that his ears weren't the only thing about him that was pointed. She was four then. She seemed, I won't say unimpressed, but it didn't seem to bother her particularly. She's 21 now. She seems to, you know, have grown up all right. I resolved never again to leave any of that stuff around, any of the fanzines around without looking at them first. [3]
Lenard-centric Zines
- Despatch (about the actor)
- Mark: Collected (Lenard's various roles)
- many, many zines with a focus of Sarek
Conventions
Lenard appeared as a guest of honor at many conventions. Some of them were:
Aucon | Baycon | Creation Cons | Dixie Trek | Fan-Out | 1982 ("Ultimate Fantasy" aka "The Con of Wrath") | IsisCon | KC Con | Kling-Kon | Ourcon (Michigan con) | Polaris | PortlandTrek | Schuster Cons | SeaTrek | Shore Leave | Sol III | Space-Con | Star Con Denver | Starcon | Stardream | Star Trek at the Smithsonian | Star Trek Chicago | Star Trek Lives! | Starship Cincinnati | StellarCon | Timecon | Toronto Star Trek '76 | Trekkon | Tri Con | Vulkon | Warp
Links
References
- ^ Source: personal email to Morgan Dawn dated March 14, 2016, quoted anonymously with permission.
- ^ quoted with permission from Virgule-L (Apr 24, 1998)
- ^ Mark Lenard. IsisCon Transcript. August 30, 1987, Washington, DC