star trek michael j pollard

Michael J. Pollard

• View history
• 1 Personal life
• 3 Appearance in Star Trek
• 4 Filmography
• 5 External links

Personal life [ ]

Michael John Pollack, Jr. was born and grew up in New Jersey, the son of Michael John Pollack who worked as a bartender and his wife Sonia. Pollard himself was married twice, first to actress Beth Howland, with whom he had one daughter Holly Howland, and a second marriage to Annie Tolstoy with whom Michael fathered a son Axel Emmett Pollard. Both of Pollard's marriages ended in divorce, the first in 1969 and the second in 1976. Pollard never remarried after the divorce of his second wife.

By the mid-1970s, Pollard was suffering from severe drug and alcohol abuse. He received treatment in the 1980s and afterwards become heavily involved in support group treatments and sponsoring other recovering addicts and alcoholics. Rumors persisted into the 1990s that Pollard was still suffering from addiction, mainly due to odd behaviors during interviews, such as staring into space when speaking or rambling answers to questions. [1]

Pollard was in acting since 1958. A character actor, he accumulated almost a hundred appearances in movies and television series since then. Most of his training was acquired through the Actor's Studio in New York City, where at one point he shared the stage with George C. Scott and attended acting classes with Marilyn Monroe .

In 1967, Pollard earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role of C.W. Moss in the film Bonnie and Clyde . He also earned two Golden Globe nominations for that role, one for Best Supporting Actor and one for Most Promising Newcomer. In addition, his performance in Bonnie and Clyde won Pollard a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles.

Also in 1967 he and Angelique Pettyjohn appeared together in an episode of The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. ("The U.N.C.L.E. Samurai Affair").

Michael Pollard died from cardiac arrest on November 20, 2019. [2]

Appearance in Star Trek [ ]

Pollard's character in "Miri" was scripted to be between fourteen and fifteen years of age, yet Pollard himself was twenty seven years old at the time, only a few years younger than the main characters in the episode, and about the same age as the actors portraying security guards. Despite such a vast difference in age, Pollard's "baby-faced" looks had earned him the role. Pollard had previously been considered for the role of Charles Evans in " Charlie X ". ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , p. 196)

Filmography [ ]

• The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming (1966, with Brian Keith , Andrea Dromm , Theodore Bikel , and Don Keefer )
• Lost in Space episode "The Magic Mirror" (1966)
• Roxanne (1987, with Steve Martin)
• Scrooged (1988, with Alfre Woodard , Carol Kane , John Glover , Roy Brocksmith , Wendie Malick , and Sachi Parker )
• Tango & Cash (1989, with Marc Alaimo , Roy Brocksmith , Teri Hatcher , Clint Howard , Glenn Morshower , and Phil Rubenstein )
• Superboy episodes titled "Meet Mr. Mxyzptlk" and "Mr. and Mrs. Superboy" (1989, with Sherman Howard )
• Split Second (1992, with Kim Cattrall )
• The Odyssey (1997 TV movie, with Vanessa Williams )
• Merchants of Venus (aka A Dirty Little Business ) (1998, with Robert Easton , Charles Dierkop , and Helen Cates )
• House of 1,000 Corpses (2003, with Sid Haig , Rainn Wilson , and Tom Towles )

External links [ ]

• Michael J. Pollard at Wikipedia
• Michael J. Pollard at the Internet Movie Database
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)
• 3 Jamaharon

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‘harry potter’ star matthew lewis, parvinder shergill & kayleigh-paige rees lead fencing comedy-drama ‘touché’, michael j. pollard dies: oscar-nominated ‘bonnie and clyde’ actor was 80.

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Michael J. Pollard, whose long list of acting credits stretches back to the late 1950s but likely will is best remembered for his Oscar-nominated, star-making turn as the dimwitted but lovable sidekick C.W. Moss in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde , has died. He was 80.

His death was announced on Facebook today by filmmaker Rob Zombie, who directed Pollard in 2003’s House of 1000 Corpses. A New York Times obituary cites Pollard’s friend Dawn Walker, who says the actor died Thursday of cardiac arrest at a Los Angeles hospital.

“Another member of our House of 1000 Corpses family has left us,” Zombie wrote. “The great Michael J Pollard has died. I have been a huge fan of Michael since I first saw him on the Star Trek “Miri”. He was amazing in everything from Bonnie and Clyde to Little Fauss and Big Halsy from Dirty Little Billy to The Four of the Apocalypse . 20 years ago he was one of the first actors I casted in 1000 Corpses. He was a hoot and will be missed.”

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Pollard earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nom for his performance in the landmark Arthur Penn-directed Bonnie and Clyde, in which Pollard co-starred with Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons. Hackman was also nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category, but both lost to George Kennedy for his performance in Cool Hand Luke.

Born in Passaic, NJ, and as a young man studying at Actors Studio in New York, the short-statured, babyfaced Pollard already was familiar to observant TV watchers by the time Bonnie and Clyde came along. He’d made many guest appearances on such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (as the cousin of Bob Denver’s Maynard G. Krebs), Route 66, The Lucy Show, Gunsmoke, Lost in Space, the fan-favorite Star Trek episode “Miri” (he played Jahn) , Five Fingers and The Andy Griffith Show (as the extremely awkward cousin of Don Knotts’ Barney Fife). Pollard had small roles in such films such as Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man and Disney’s Summer Magic , with Hayley Mills.

On stage, Pollard created the role of Hugo Peabody in the Tony-winning 1960 original production of Bye Bye Birdie  and in 1963 was cast as Marvin in Carl Reiner’s Enter Laughing (he later reprised the role of Marvin in the 1967 film version).

But his rise to international fame came with Bonnie and Clyde , which made him so famous that there was a 1968 joke campaign and novelty song fake-nominating him for president.

Subsequent films included a starring role opposite Robert Redford in 1970’s Little Fauss and Big Halsy (he played the former), 1972’s Billy the Kid biopic Dirty Little Billy and a supporting role in Melvin and Howard (1980).

Other post- Bonnie and Clyde career highlights include 1987’s Roxanne , starring Steve Martin; 1988’s Scrooged, starring Bill Murray; 1990’s Dick Tracy, reteaming with Beatty; and Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses . His last listed credit is 2012’s The Woods, with two projects listed as in production.

According to Pollard’s official Facebook page, he was married to actress Beth Howland from 1961-69 (she died in 2015). They had a daughter, Holly Howland; the actor also is survived by a son from a different marriage, Axel Emmett.

Angela Cartwright, who starred in Lost in Space , and other posted their condolences on social media:

The boy on the other side of the magic mirror was beckoned to what lays beyond today. RIP Michael J Pollard. #lostinspace #michaeljpollard #magicmirror #rip #iwaspenny https://t.co/T51Lcbwuic — Angela Cartwright (@acstudio) November 22, 2019

Farewell to the great Michael J Pollard, for whom the phrase character actor may as well have been invented. And what a character. Unforgettable (and Oscar nominated) as CW Moss in Bonnie & Clyde and a welcome presence in so many movies that you can list below. He will be missed. pic.twitter.com/L1Ve9VeXPN — edgarwright (@edgarwright) November 22, 2019

Goodnight, Herman. Thank you for the decades of fond holiday memories. We will toast your scenes at our annual #Scrooged screening in a few weeks. #RIP #MichaelJPollard https://t.co/5SM0xXjd39 pic.twitter.com/TuTpb0OPCG — Bear McCreary 🐻🎶 (@bearmccreary) November 22, 2019

View this post on Instagram Another member of our House of 1000 Corpses family has left us. The great Michael J Pollard has died. I have been a huge fan of Micheal since I first saw him on the Star Trek "Miri" . He was amazing in everything from Bonnie and Clyde to Little Fauss and Big Halsy from Dirty Little Billy to The Four of the Apocalypse. 20 years ago he was one of the first actors I casted in 1000 Corpses. He was a hoot and will be missed. #ripmichealjpollard #houseof1000corpses #robzombie #bonnieandclyde #startrek A post shared by RobZombieofficial (@robzombieofficial) on Nov 22, 2019 at 5:50am PST

https://twitter.com/edgarwright/status/1197956997297164288https://twitter.com/bearmccreary/status/1197942679708942337https://www.instagram.com/p/B5K4XR4JEMN/?igshid=1k90yrztrm76i

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Iconic Character Actor Michael J. Pollard Dies at 80

Michael J. Pollard was in the classic film Bonnie and Clyde, the classic series Star Trek and named a classic album.

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Michael J. Pollard, a legendary character actor who was featured in Bonnie and Clyde, the original Star Trek , and House of 1000 Corpses , died in Los Angeles from cardiac arrest on Nov. 21, according to The Hollywood Reporter . He was 80.

Pollard’s breakout role was as C.W. Moss, the gas station attendant who drove getaway cars in the 1967 gangster classic Bonnie and Clyde , starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. The role got Pollard nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. In a career spanning seven decades, Pollard created many memorable characters. He led the gang of orphan children in the 1966 Star Trek episode “Miri,” which also featured Kim Darby. That same year he played character inspired by Peter Pan in in the Lost in Space  episode “The Magic Mirror.” Pollard originated the role of the jealous boyfriend Hugo Peabody in the original Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie in 1960. The cast included Dick Van Dyke, Chita Rivera and Julie Newmar.

Michael John Pollack Jr. was born in Passaic, N.J., on May 30, 1939. He studied at Montclair Kimberley Academy before training at the Actors Studio in New York City. He appeared on Broadway with Beatty in 1959 in Loss of Roses and would go on to play Bug Bailey in Beatty’s 1990 film Dick Tracy .

Pollard started as a journeyman TV actor, debuting as a shoeshine boy in an episode Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1959. He played his first lead, as Homer McCauley in the TV adaptation of William Saroyan’s The Human Comedy the same year. He played Maynard G. Krebs’ (Bob Denver) cousin on a 1959 episode of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis . He went on to appear as Barney Fife’s (Don Knotts) cousin Virgil on The Andy Griffith Show , and on classic series like Gunsmoke , The Lucy Show and I Spy .

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Pollard played the villain, Mr. Mxyzpltk, on the 1989 series Superboy . He voiced a villain on the animated TV series Toxic Crusaders . He played a mortician on the Ray Bradbury Theater season 6 episode “The Handler.” He also appeared on episodes of Simon & Simon , and Tales from the Crypt .

On the big screen, Pollard rode with Robert Redford in the biker film Big Fauss and Little Halsey , fought fires with Steve Martin in the Cyrano de Bergerac-inspired comedy Roxanne , and played the homeless guy Bill Murray thought was Richard Burton in the Christmas comedy Scrooged . He appeared in the 1980 cult film Melvin and Howard . He played the gunslinger Billy the Kid in Dirty Little Billy (1972). He was featured in Tango & Cash , with Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone. Pollard also appeared in the horror film Skeeter in 1993. Pollard played Aeolus in The Odyssey (1997), and Stucky the autograph enthusiast Rob Zombie’s 2003 cult horror film House of 1000 Corpses .

Pollard came up with the title of the 1971 Traffic song and album The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys . The actor was friends with the band’s drummer, Jim Capaldi, and was planning to make a film with him. He wrote the phrase which became the 12-minute song on a notebook during songwriting sessions.

Michael J. Pollard put the J in Michael J. Fox. When the Back to the Future actor registered with the Screen Actors Guild, another actor was registered under the name. He signed on under Michael J. Fox as a tribute to Pollard.

Pollard is survived by his daughter Holly, and son, Axel Emmett.

Culture Editor Tony Sokol cut his teeth on the wire services and also wrote and produced New York City’s  Vampyr Theatre  and the rock opera  AssassiNation: We Killed JFK .  Read more of his work here  or find him on Twitter  @tsokol .

Tony Sokol | @tsokol

Culture Editor Tony Sokol is a writer, playwright and musician. He contributed to Altvariety, Chiseler, Smashpipe, and other magazines. He is the TV Editor at Entertainment…

Michael J. Pollard, ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ and ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ Actor, Dies at 80

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Academy Award nominee Michael J. Pollard, known for his roles in “ Bonnie and Clyde ” and “House of 1000 Corpses,” has died. He was 80.

“House of 1000 Corpses” director Rob Zombie broke the news on Facebook early Friday morning.

“We have lost another member of our ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ family. I woke up to the news that Michael J. Pollard had died. I have always loved his work and his truly unique on screen presence,” Zombie said in his post. “He was one of the first actors I knew I had to work with as soon as I got my first film off the ground. He will be missed.”

Born 1939 in Passaic, N.J., Pollard attended Montclair Academy and Actors Studio in New York City in his early career. He started out in television in the late ’50s, appearing on shows like “Lost in Space” and “ Star Trek ,” but landed his breakout role as C.W. Moss, the accomplice-turned-snitch to Bonnie and Clyde in the 1967 film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Pollard received an Academy Award nomination for supporting actor and BAFTA nomination for most promising newcomer. He went on to star in films like “Dirty Little Billy,” “Melvin and Howard,” “Roxanne” and “Tango & Cash.”

More recently, Pollard starred in Zombie’s 2003 cult film “House of 1000 Corpses.” His last role was “The Woods” in 2012.

“Michael J. Pollard was one of a kind. Made every film he was in better. You sat up and took notice,” Larry Karaszewski (who wrote “ Dolemite Is My Name ” with Scott Alexander) tweeted. “I met him once on the street in Beverly Hills and tried to pay him a compliment. He growled at me. I mean — literally growled at me. It was a perfect moment.”

Michael J. Pollard was one of a kind. Made every film he was in better. You sat up and took notice. I met him once on the street in Beverly Hills and tried to pay him a compliment. He growled at me. I mean – literally growled at me. It was a perfect moment. pic.twitter.com/0YMjJQiqnt — Larry Karaszewski (@Karaszewski) November 22, 2019

Pollard is survived by his child, Holly Howland.

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Michael J. Pollard Dies: Oscar-Nominated ‘Bonnie And Clyde’ Actor Was 80

Click here to read the full article.

Michael J. Pollard , whose long list of acting credits stretches back to the late 1950s but likely will is best remembered for his Oscar-nominated, star-making turn as the dimwitted but lovable sidekick C.W. Moss in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde , has died. He was 80.

His death was announced on Facebook today by filmmaker Rob Zombie, who directed Pollard in 2003’s House of 1000 Corpses. A New York Times obituary cites Pollard’s friend Dawn Walker, who says the actor died Thursday of cardiac arrest at a Los Angeles hospital.

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“Another member of our House of 1000 Corpses family has left us,” Zombie wrote. “The great Michael J Pollard has died. I have been a huge fan of Michael since I first saw him on the Star Trek “Miri”. He was amazing in everything from Bonnie and Clyde to Little Fauss and Big Halsy from Dirty Little Billy to The Four of the Apocalypse . 20 years ago he was one of the first actors I casted in 1000 Corpses. He was a hoot and will be missed.”

Pollard earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nom for his performance in the landmark Arthur Penn-directed Bonnie and Clyde, in which Pollard co-starred with Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons. Hackman was also nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category, but both lost to George Kennedy for his performance in Cool Hand Luke.

Born in Passaic, NJ, and as a young man studying at Actors Studio in New York, the short-statured, babyfaced Pollard already was familiar to observant TV watchers by the time Bonnie and Clyde came along. He’d made many guest appearances on such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (as the cousin of Bob Denver’s Maynard G. Krebs), Route 66, The Lucy Show, Gunsmoke, Lost in Space, the fan-favorite Star Trek episode “Miri” (he played Jahn) , Five Fingers and The Andy Griffith Show (as the extremely awkward cousin of Don Knotts’ Barney Fife). Pollard had small roles in such films such as Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man and Disney’s Summer Magic , with Hayley Mills.

On stage, Pollard created the role of Hugo Peabody in the Tony-winning 1960 original production of Bye Bye Birdie and in 1963 was cast as Marvin in Carl Reiner’s Enter Laughing (he later reprised the role of Marvin in the 1967 film version).

But his rise to international fame came with Bonnie and Clyde , which made him so famous that there was a 1968 joke campaign and novelty song fake-nominating him for president.

Subsequent films included a starring role opposite Robert Redford in 1970’s Little Fauss and Big Halsy (he played the former), 1972’s Billy the Kid biopic Dirty Little Billy and a supporting role in Melvin and Howard (1980).

Other post- Bonnie and Clyde career highlights include 1987’s Roxanne , starring Steve Martin; 1988’s Scrooged, starring Bill Murray; 1990’s Dick Tracy, reteaming with Beatty; and Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses . His last listed credit is 2012’s The Woods, with two projects listed as in production.

According to Pollard’s official Facebook page, he was married to actress Beth Howland from 1961-69 (she died in 2015). They had a daughter, Holly Howland; the actor also is survived by a son from a different marriage, Axel Emmett.

Angela Cartwright, who starred in Lost in Space , and other posted their condolences on social media:

The boy on the other side of the magic mirror was beckoned to what lays beyond today. RIP Michael J Pollard. #lostinspace #michaeljpollard #magicmirror #rip #iwaspenny https://t.co/T51Lcbwuic — Angela Cartwright (@acstudio) November 22, 2019

Farewell to the great Michael J Pollard, for whom the phrase character actor may as well have been invented. And what a character. Unforgettable (and Oscar nominated) as CW Moss in Bonnie & Clyde and a welcome presence in so many movies that you can list below. He will be missed. pic.twitter.com/L1Ve9VeXPN — edgarwright (@edgarwright) November 22, 2019

Goodnight, Herman. Thank you for the decades of fond holiday memories. We will toast your scenes at our annual #Scrooged screening in a few weeks. #RIP #MichaelJPollard https://t.co/5SM0xXjd39 pic.twitter.com/TuTpb0OPCG — Bear McCreary 🐻🎶 (@bearmccreary) November 22, 2019

View this post on Instagram Another member of our House of 1000 Corpses family has left us. The great Michael J Pollard has died. I have been a huge fan of Micheal since I first saw him on the Star Trek "Miri" . He was amazing in everything from Bonnie and Clyde to Little Fauss and Big Halsy from Dirty Little Billy to The Four of the Apocalypse. 20 years ago he was one of the first actors I casted in 1000 Corpses. He was a hoot and will be missed. #ripmichealjpollard #houseof1000corpses #robzombie #bonnieandclyde #startrek A post shared by RobZombieofficial (@robzombieofficial) on Nov 22, 2019 at 5:50am PST

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'Bonnie and Clyde' actor Michael J. Pollard dead at 80

Michael J. Pollard, a versatile character actor who earned an Academy Award nomination for his role in the hit film "Bonnie and Clyde," died Wednesday. He was 80.

>> Read more trending news  

Pollard played C.W. Moss, the dimwitted gas station attendant who aided the criminal duo in the 1967 film. A friend, Dawn Walker, told  The Hollywood Reporter  that Pollard died of cardiac arrest in a Los Angeles hospital.

Pollard, who was born in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1939, went on to a long career as a character actor. Before "Bonnie and Clyde," Pollard played likable but socially inept characters,  The New York Times reported. He played the cousin of Bob Denver's main character in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," and a cousin to Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show." He also had a character actor role on "Lost in Space."

In 1966, he played a creepy role as a teenage cult leader during the first season of "Star Trek," the  Times  reported.

Pollard also had roles in films like "Dirty Little Billy," "Melvin and Howard," "Roxanne" and "Tango & Cash," Variety reported, and played in Rob Zombie's 2003 cult film, "House of 1000 Corpses." His final role was "The Woods" in 2012,  Variety reported.

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Michael J. Pollard, Character Actor in ‘Bonnie and Clyde,’ Dies at 80

A familiar face in movies and on television, he rose to fame in 1967 as the outlaw couple’s dimwitted accomplice, earning an Oscar nomination.

By Katharine Q. Seelye

Michael J. Pollard, who rose to fame in the 1967 hit film “Bonnie and Clyde” as C.W. Moss, the dimwitted gas station attendant who became a criminal accomplice, and went on to a long career as a Hollywood character actor, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Los Angeles. He was 80.

A friend, Dawn Walker, said in an interview that the cause was cardiac arrest.

Mr. Pollard had been a familiar face on television since the late 1950s. He most often played likable but socially inept characters, and usually ranked fairly far down on the cast list. In two separate shows, he played the cousin of a beloved supporting character — Jerome Krebs, cousin to Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver) on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” and Virgil, cousin to Deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts), on “The Andy Griffith Show.”

He also had a memorable role in the first season of the television series “Star Trek,” in 1966, playing a creepy, mischievous teenage cult leader on a planet of children.

But his performance in “Bonnie and Clyde,” which earned him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor, raised his profile — and changed the way Hollywood saw him.

In a 1968 interview with The New York Times, Mr. Pollard noted that directors had once been frustrated by his slow, somewhat eccentric way of delivering lines, but that the success of “Bonnie and Clyde” had changed that.

“They say, ‘Just do your thing, Michael, whatever it is,’” he said. “Same thing I’ve been doing for 10 years, man.”

“His thing” was evident in a scene in “Bonnie and Clyde” in which Mr. Pollard, who is supposed to be driving the getaway car for the two outlaws, ends up parking the car.

“We made that up,” Mr. Pollard told the film critic Roger Ebert in 1969. “See, I can’t drive a car. There was this guy teaching me, but I couldn’t learn. So here I was stuck in the parking place, and Penn” — Arthur Penn, the director — “said, ‘O.K., do it that way.’”

The writer Nora Ephron said it was Mr. Pollard’s face that grabbed one’s attention. “Potato face,” she wrote in 1970 in The New York Post. “And a little like a cherub blowing friendly winds on old-fashioned maps. A little hilarious.”

He told Ms. Ephron that he thought his face was weird. “When it was young it bothered me,” he said. “But then I became an actor and everyone started saying, ‘What a face. Wow.’ I believed all my publicity.”

He was born Michael John Pollack Jr. on May 30, 1939, in Passaic, N.J. His father was a bartender and his mother, Sonia (Dubanowich) Pollack, was a homemaker.

He is survived by a daughter, Holly, from his marriage to the actress Beth Howland , and a son, Axel Emmett, from another marriage. Both marriages ended in divorce. His sister, Ruth Coughlin, died in 2014.

He graduated from Montclair Academy in New Jersey and decided he wanted to be an actor after seeing Marlon Brando in the 1954 movie “On the Waterfront.” He enrolled at the Actors Studio in New York, where he studied with Lee Strasberg, among others.

At the Actors Studio he did a scene with Marilyn Monroe, at her request. According to Ms. Ephron, when Ms. Monroe had called him up to do the scene, she said: “Hello, this is Marilyn. The girl from class.”

He quickly proved his versatility by scoring both comic and dramatic roles in television, film and the theater, starting in 1958. He went on to act in more than 200 films and television shows.

His early TV appearances included roles in the anthology series “Lux Playhouse,” the Cold War dramatic series “Five Fingers” and a 1959 television play by Archibald MacLeish, “Secret of Freedom,” in which he played a shoeshine boy.

He appeared in two episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” again playing a shoeshine boy in one and a 13-year-old boy in the other. Thanks to his slight build, Mr. Pollard, who was 20 at the time, easily passed for characters much younger.

On Broadway, he landed a non-singing role in the original Broadway production of “Bye Bye Birdie.” A 1960 blurb in Playbill noted that he “began the season with a set of splendid notices for his performance in William Inge’s ‘A Loss of Roses.’”

Playbill added: “Following the strong impression he made as Homer Macauley in the television version of Saroyan’s ‘The Human Comedy,’ he was recruited for the Circle in the Square’s revival of ‘Our Town.’”

Multiple roles followed in quick, even overlapping, succession. They included a part in the Walt Disney family musical “Summer Magic,” opposite Hayley Mills, and another in the TV series “I Spy,” which starred Bill Cosby and Robert Culp.

In 1966, Mr. Pollard played an uncredited but memorable bit as an airplane mechanic with a runny nose in the Norman Jewison comedy “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.”

His breakout performance in “Bonnie and Clyde,” with a cast led by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway and also including Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons, won Mr. Pollard not only an Oscar nomination but also a BAFTA Award, Britain’s equivalent of an Academy Award, for most promising newcomer in a leading film role.

That same year, he landed a lead role in Derek May’s “Niagara Falls,” a kind of anti-travelogue in which fictional interviews are interspersed with documentary footage.

One of Mr. Pollard’s most popular movies was “Little Fauss and Big Halsy” (1970), a motorcycle racing movie with Robert Redford that developed a cult following. (Mr. Pollard played the woebegone Fauss to Mr. Redford’s womanizing Halsy.)

He went on to prominent roles in films like “Dirty Little Billy” (1972), “Roxanne” (1987) and “Melvin and Howard” (1980), the story of Melvin Dummar, a gas station owner in Utah who claimed to be Howard Hughes’s beneficiary. Mr. Pollard played the buddy of Mr. Dummar (Paul Le Mat).

In 1990 he played the surveillance expert Bug Bailey in “Dick Tracy,” Mr. Beatty’s adaptation of the comic strip (in which he also starred). More recently Mr. Pollard had a role in the 2003 cult horror film “House of 1000 Corpses.” He was last seen in the thriller “The Woods” in 2012; he also has roles in two films that have not yet been released, according to the Internet Movie Database.

Mr. Ebert, the critic, was more or less smitten from the start with Mr. Pollard, who was largely unknown until “Bonnie and Clyde.”

In his review of “Enter Laughing,” Carl Reiner’s semi-autobiographical 1967 movie about a young man’s entry into show business, Mr. Ebert wrote that Mr. Pollard, who had a supporting role, “brings his squint and grin to the part of Marvin, our hero’s buddy, and steals every scene.”

“There is something about Pollard that is absolutely original,” Mr. Ebert added, “and seems to strike audiences as irresistibly funny and deserving of affection.”

Daniel E. Slotnik contributed reporting; Susan C. Beachy contributed research.

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this obituary misstated when Mr. Pollard died. It was Wednesday, not Thursday.

How we handle corrections

Katharine Q. “Kit” Seelye has been the New England bureau chief, based in Boston, since 2012. She previously worked in the Washington bureau for 12 years, has covered six presidential campaigns and was a pioneer in The Times’s online coverage of politics. More about Katharine Q. Seelye

Michael J. Pollard, known for his role in “Bonnie and Clyde,” dies at 80

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Actor Michael J. Pollard, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his role as the getaway driver in the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde,” has died at the age of 80.

Pollard died of cardiac arrest at a Los Angeles hospital on Wednesday, his friend Dawn Walker told the Hollywood Reporter .

Best known for his role as C.W. Moss in “Bonnie Clyde,” starring alongside Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, Pollard also made memorable appearances on several TV shows, including “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” the original “Star Trek” series, “Gunsmoke,” “I Spy” and “The Andy Griffith Show.”

Rob Zombie, who directed Pollard in the 2003 film “House of 1000 Corpses,” posted his condolences on Facebook on Friday.

“I have always loved his work and his truly unique on-screen presence,” Zombie said. “He was one of the first actors I knew I had to work with as soon as I got my first film off the ground. He will be missed.”

Known for playing eccentric and strangely humorous misfits, the cherub-faced actor was a favorite among many of his peers. Actor Michael J. Fox “adopted the “J” in homage to the legendary character actor,” according to Fox’s Parkinson’s disease research foundation website .

The late film critic Roger Ebert once lavished praise on Pollard for his scene-stealing performance in Carl Reiner’s autobiographical film “Enter Laughing.”

“There is something about Pollard that is absolutely original and seems to strike audiences as irresistibly funny and deserving of affection,” Ebert wrote. “If he works at it and gets a break or two, there will be no stopping him. Really. All he needs is visibility, and people will become addicted.”

Pollard is survived by his son, Axel Emmett, and daughter, Holly.

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Michael J. Pollard, starred in ‘Bonnie and Clyde,’ has died at 80

Pollard died thursday in a los angeles hospital of cardiac arrest, according to the new york times..

Michael J. Pollard, best remembered for his Oscar-nominated, star-making turn as the dimwitted but lovable sidekick C.W. Moss in 1967 film “ Bonnie and Clyde,” has died at age 80.

Actor Michael J. Pollard, best-remembered for his Academy Award-nominated turn as the dimwitted sidekick C.W. Moses in the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde,” has died. He was 80.

Filmmaker Rob Zombie, who directed Pollard in “House of 1000 Corpses” reacted to the news Friday via a Facebook post, which read, in part: “We have lost another member of our HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES family. I woke up to the news that Michael J. Pollard had died. I have always loved his work and his truly unique on screen presence. He was one of the first actors I knew I had to work with as soon as I got my first film off the ground. He will be missed.”

The New York Times’ obituary reports Pollard died Thursday in a Los Angeles hospital of cardiac arrest.

Pollard’s other film credits include “Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970), “Melvin and Howard” (1980), “Roxanne” (1987), “Tango and Cash” (1989) and “Dick Tracy” (1990).

Pollard was born in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1939. He trained with Marilyn Monroe at the legendary Actors Studio workshop in New York. He had several small roles in shows including the original “Star Trek” series and “Lost in Space” before his breakout role in “Bonnie and Clyde.”

Pollard married actress Beth Howland (from the TV sitcom “Alice”) in 1961; they divorced in 1969. Survivors include his daughter, Holly; son, Axel; and cousins Alicia, Joseph, Elizabeth, Julie and Peter.

Contributing: USA Today

Star Trek (TV Series)

Miri (1966), michael j. pollard: jahn, photos .

Quotes 

Capt. Kirk : Listen to me!

Jahn : No yelling in the classroom. Look at him - a very bad citizen!

Jahn : I'll admit, it'd be some foolie, Miri, but do you think it'd work?

Jahn : Now, what does a teacher say, heh?

Redheaded Boy : [thinking]  Yeah... Study-study-study or bomp-bomp, bad kid!

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