John Colicos left his mark on both the classical world and the world of popular culture.

 The Toronto-born actor died at Mount Sinai Hospital Monday after a series of heart attacks. He was 71.

 He made his mark on the classical stage early in his career as the youngest actor ever to play the title role in King Lear. At 22, he took over the part from Stephen Murray in an Old Vic touring production in Helsinki, remaining in the part when the show returned to London.

 Colicos had already made a name for himself on the nascent Canadian stage, both in Montreal, where he was raised, and his native Toronto, where he was born in 1928.

 Original Klingon

 His success with the London Lear won him the role of Edmund in Orson Welles' New York production, which was followed by a stint with John Houseman's American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Conn., and eventually led him back to Canada, where he performed at the Stratford Festival from 1961 to '63, under artistic director Michael Langham. He also spent a season at the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

 But it was after Colicos left the stage to pursue a career in film and TV that he made an indelible mark on popular culture, appearing as the original Klingon in the old Star Trek.

 In a 1993 interview, he recalled how the look came to be.

 Asked by a make-up artist what his character looked like, he replied: "If you're asking me, spray my hair black and make me look like a futuristic Genghis Khan."

 Even though he was invited back to the series, he never appeared on Star Trek again, although he became a familiar face on both the small screen and large, appearing in such series as General Hospital, Mission Impossible and Street Legal, and feature films such as Phobia, Raid On Rommel, The Changeling, Anne Of The Thousand Days and the remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice.

 'Very engaging'

 He returned to the stage occasionally, playing Churchill in an acclaimed production of The Soldiers and appearing as Antony to Maggie Smith's Cleopatra.

 In 1956, Colicos married model Mona McHenry, and the couple divorced a quarter century later. They had two sons, Edmund, named for Edmund Kean, Colicos' favourite actor, and Nicholas, who followed in his father's acting footsteps and is now working on the musical stage in London.

 Colicos returned to Toronto about a decade ago, where he lived quietly.

 Local actor David Fox, with whom Colicos taped a series of five commercials last year for an American optical firm, recalls the experience fondly.

 "He was very professional, very engaging," Fox recalled yesterday. "You could sense a powerful personality.

 "He'll be missed. I'm sorry I never had a chance to work with him more."

 Services have not been announced, but it is likely that a private cremation is planned.


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