Mark Lenard

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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
from Despatch #37 (1979), artist is Mary Stacy-MacDonald
from The Babelian Council #5 (likely 1973), artist is Paula M. Nass

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 also portrayed Aaron Stempel in Here Comes the Brides and Urko in Planet of the Apes.

Lenard's first fan was his mom. In 1976, Lenard talked about one of his first roles on a segment of the 1937-1956 radio play, Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories:

...at one time I did play Tom, the Grocer Boy, on a program - a soap opera - called 'Aunt Jenny,' and I remember talking to Aunt Jenny over the counter put­ting - well, the sound man put the groceries into the bag; and my mother wrote them a fan letter saying: 'Please put Tom, the Grocer Boy, on again. We enjoyed him very much.' It was a little embar­rassing, but that's a mother for you! [1]

Fandom

His early, and long-running, fan club Mark Lenard International Fan Club began in 1968. Lenard was an inconsistent participant in that club, something that provided more than a bit of conflict. There are many comments about this sometimes contentious relationship in many issues of the club zine, Despatch.

In 1983, Geoff Allshorn wrote "Requiem", a fan fiction story in the fanzine, These Are The Voyages, which provided an in-universe explanation as to why Mark Lenard appeared as a Romulan (The Romulan Commander) and a Vulcan (Sarek) in Star Trek: The Original Series; as a Klingon (Commander) in Star Trek: The Motion Picture; and as General Urko in the Planet of the Apes TV series. Fan artist Greg Franklin provided artwork to accompany the story, featuring Lenard in his human guise as well as in these other personas.

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! [2]

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..." [3]

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. [4]

Lenard-centric Zines

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 | NonCon | Odyssey Trek | Ourcon (Michigan con) | Polaris | PortlandTrek | RoVaCon | Schuster Cons | SeaTrek | Shore Leave | Sioux Empire Peace Trek | Sol III | Space-Con | Starbase Baltimore | Star Con Denver | Starcon | Stardream | Star Trek at the Smithsonian | Star Trek Chicago | Star Trek Lives! | Schuster Star Trek Conventions/1977 (September) New York City Schuster Star Trek Convention | Starship Cincinnati | StellarCon | TerraCon | Timecon | Toronto Star Trek '76 | Trekkon | Tri Con | Vulkon | Warp

Fan Comments

Thoughts on Mark Lenard — A few years ago I went to a Star Trek convention where he was signing photos in the dealers' room. The line stretched all the way around the huge room and out the door. But he kept signing. Right up until it was time for him to go on stage and then he told all the remaining people in line that he'd be back. I got an autographed photo from him that day and I treasure it. I have no trouble separating actor and character, but I've always adored Sarek and I've always heard that Mark Lenard did too. He researched the character and took him very seriously—a lot like Leonard Nimoy does with Spock. And it shows. [5]

I have always loved his portrayal of Sarek. But somehow I had never before realized that, in less competent hands, Sarek might have been a total disaster. Imagine a Sarek who was too human. Or not quite human enough. Mr. Lenard brought to life a Sarek who was, undeniably, Vulcan. But he went beyond that, created a complex and thoroughly believable character. Watching Mr. Lenard’s Sarek in action, I could certainly understand why he had been selected to represent Vulcan. Yet I could also imagine many plausible scenarios for his marriage to Amanda. And most importantly, I had no problem at all believing that he was, indeed, Spock’s father. Since I was a devoted Spock fan long before Sarek ever appeared, any misstep in that area would have been really glaring, but everything Mark Lenard did always seemed to fit in perfectly with what we knew of Spock. [6]

So many other actors could have been cast as Sarek, and yet I can’t help but believe that Mark Lenard was perfect for the role. What was it that he showed in his performance as the Romulan Commander in Balance of Terror that led someone on the Star Trek lot to believe that he could bring depth and dignity to Spock’s father? At the time, no one had any idea that role would have significance beyond an easily-forgotten week’s work and entertainment. But there was so much to Sarek in Journey to Babel that when Star Trek achieved prominence the resonances were all there in the performance, just waiting to be plumbed. I remember the series of novels and short stories that Jean Lorrah wrote about Sarek and Amanda (no, they aren’t K/S, but I still love them), and how the author managed to find so much to write about him.

Even better, the unforgettable scene that others have mentioned, from STIII: TSFS, when Sarek comes to meld with Kirk, demands to meld with Kirk. Most of the time my attention is on the captain, reliving his pain in exquisite detail, yet willing to do what must be done, as always. But the scene was not accomplished in isolation, and would not have worked without the imperious demand of the father; you can see Sarek’s grief though it is restrained.

Mark Lenard is the first major actor from our Star Trek universe to leave us. The first of our [Trek] family to go. I knew him not at all except from the gift he gave to all, a portrayal that must have carried much of the man with it. Thank you, Mark Lenard, for Sarek and for yourself. [7]

Links

References

  1. ^ from Despatch #29
  2. ^ Source: personal email to Morgan Dawn dated March 14, 2016, quoted anonymously with permission.
  3. ^ quoted with permission from Virgule-L (Apr 24, 1998)
  4. ^ Mark Lenard. IsisCon Transcript. August 30, 1987, Washington, DC
  5. ^ by Shelley Butler in The K/S Press #5 (1997)
  6. ^ from The K/S Press #5 (1997)
  7. ^ from The K/S Press #5 (1997)
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