Veteran character actor James Sloyan, whose six-decade career stretched from Broadway to The Sting, Xanadu and several memorable Star Trek roles, has died. He was 85.
Sloyan actually died July 22 at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, while being cared for by his family, according to an obituary published by his loved ones in the Los Angeles Times on Sept. 20.
His death was not publicly announced until nearly two months later. The family did not disclose a cause of death.
For generations of television viewers, Sloyan was one of those instantly recognizable actors who seemed to appear everywhere.
His résumé included everything from Murder, She Wrote and The X-Files to Moonlighting, Quantum Leap, Cagney & Lacey and NYPD Blue.
But Star Trek fans may remember him best.
Sloyan made five appearances across three Star Trek series during the 1990s, taking on several dramatically different characters.
On Star Trek: The Next Generation, he portrayed Romulan Admiral Alidar Jarok in the acclaimed episode “The Defector.” He later returned as an older version of Alexander Rozhenko, the son of Worf.
Sloyan then appeared twice on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Dr. Mora Pol, the Bajoran scientist who studied Odo, before playing Haakonian scientist Ma’Bor Jetrel on Star Trek: Voyager.
His career stretched far beyond science fiction.
Sloyan appeared in the 1973 Oscar-winning classic The Sting as Mottola, a numbers runner targeted by Johnny Hooker, played by Robert Redford, and Luther Coleman, played by Robert Earl Jones.
The encounter helps set the movie’s elaborate con story into motion.
Seven years later, Sloyan appeared in the Olivia Newton-John musical fantasy Xanadu as Simpson, the demanding record-company boss of artist Sonny Malone.
Television gave Sloyan one of his most prominent roles in the 1983 ABC comedy Oh Madeline.
He played Charlie Wayne, husband of Madeline Kahn’s title character, a romance novelist who wrote under the unlikely pen name Crystal Love. The Carsey-Werner-produced sitcom lasted 18 episodes.
Sloyan’s distinctive voice also reached millions of Americans who may never have known his name.
His family said he joined the launch of Toyota’s Lexus luxury brand and remained associated with the automaker’s advertising for 18 years. Other records place his work as the familiar Lexus commercial voice beginning with the brand’s U.S. launch in 1989.
Sloyan was born James Joseph Sloyan in Indianapolis on Feb. 24, 1941, according to his family’s obituary.
After living overseas and later in Albany, New York, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before serving three years in the U.S. Army.
His family said Sloyan helped revive entertainment programming while stationed at Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
After leaving the Army, he returned to New York and worked with Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival as both an actor and a choreographer of stage combat.
That part of his early career was remembered decades later by Henry Winkler.
Following news of Sloyan’s death, Winkler wrote on X that Sloyan had been one of his sword-fighting instructors while he was attending drama school.
Sloyan made his Broadway debut in Arthur Kopit’s Indians and later transitioned into film, appearing in The Traveling Executioner and The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight before moving to California in 1973. His family described a career that ultimately spanned roughly six decades.
His television work became especially extensive.
Along with a regular role on the 1977 medical drama Westside Medical, Sloyan appeared on The Streets of San Francisco, Kojak, Wonder Woman, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Lou Grant, Falcon Crest, Knots Landing and numerous other series.
He also appeared in television movies including The Disappearance of Aimee with Faye Dunaway and Bette Davis and The Billionaire Boys Club.
Sloyan’s family remembered him as a fiercely individual personality who remained curious, inventive and loyal throughout his life, calling him “one-of-a-kind.”
Acting also became a family profession.
He is survived by his longtime wife, actress Deirdre Lenihan, as well as their children Daniel, a musician, and actress Samantha Sloyan.
Samantha has built her own extensive television career, including a recurring role as Dr. Penelope Blake on Grey’s Anatomy and appearances in projects including Scandal, Hush, Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher.
James Sloyan’s older brother, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Patrick Sloyan, died in 2019.
Although Sloyan rarely became the marquee name on the projects he joined, his unusually broad body of work made him familiar to moviegoers, television audiences, Star Trek devotees and even generations of drivers who knew his voice from Lexus commercials.
His career ultimately connected Broadway, an Academy Award-winning movie, cult films, network television and one of science fiction’s most enduring franchises.
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