Biography
W. Morgan Sheppard was a prolific British actor who appeared in scores of films and television shows over the course of a six-decade acting career that began in the early 1960s. Born and raised in London, Sheppard served in the British merchant navy and sold building equipment prior to turning his attention towards acting. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the 1950s, graduating in 1958, and would later serve as an associate for the Royal Shakespeare Company. By the early 1960s Sheppard began appearing regularly in films and on television. One of his first big roles in the 1960s was in the film adaptation of "Marat/Sade" (1967); just the year prior in 1966 Sheppard appeared on Broadway in the original play. By the 1970s and 1980s, Sheppard's acting career really began picking up steam. He appeared on numerous British television shows, including "London Belongs to Me" (Thames Television, 1977) and "The Flame Trees of Thika" (BBC, 1981), as well the films like "The Elephant Man" (1980), "Hawk the Slayer" (1980), and "Nutcracker" (1982). By the late 1980s Sheppard starting getting some recognition in the states for playing Blank Reg on the science fiction series "Max Headroom" (ABC, 1987-88). Over the next two decades, Sheppard would go on to appear in several more science-fiction themed television shows and films, including "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" (1991), "SeaQuest 2032" (NBC, 1993-96), "Star Trek Voyager" (UPN, 1995-2001), and "Babylon 5" (PTEN/TNT, 1994-98). Sheppard continued acting regularly well into the 2010s, most notably with roles in films like "April Apocalypse" (2013), "The Devil's Dozen" (2013), and "Last Man Club" (2016), the latter of which would prove to be his final film role. After several decades in show business and countless film and television roles to his credit, W. Morgan Sheppard passed away on January 6, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. He was 86.
