Eugene Dynarski

Eugene "Gene" Dynarski (September 13, 1933 – February 27, 2020) was an American actor. Three of the most popular projects that he has been involved with were two Steven Spielberg films, Duel and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the Westwood Studios computer game Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

In 1971's Duel, Dynarski had a small role as a truck driver in a cafe. In Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Dynarski plays a major supporting role as Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, appearing throughout much of the game's Soviet campaign and, to a lesser extent, the Allied campaign. In the 1974 film Earthquake, Dynarski portrays Fred, a worker at the Mulholland Dam who becomes the first fatality of the disaster.

Dynarski has also appeared in numerous television shows. He is one of 32 actors or actresses to have guest-starred in both the original Star Trek television series (episodes "Mudd's Women" and "The Mark of Gideon") and in one of the series' spin offs (Star Trek: The Next Generation's "11001001"). In Monkees TV series, Dynarski played the Dragonman's sidekick, Toto, in the episode titled "Monkee Chow Mein" (original US air date: March 13, 1967). His many other TV credits include episodes of Batman (episodes 47 and 48), Starsky & Hutch, CHiPs, Little House on the Prairie and The A-Team. He is also known for his two appearances as Izzy Mandelbaum Jr. on Seinfeld. Dynarski appeared in the short Apple Jack (2003) as Helmut Jitters.

Dynarski died on February 27, 2020, at the age of 86.[2]