Michael Ansara’s visits to ’60s spy television

Michael Ansara in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Veteran actor Michael Ansara died last week, according to obituaries including one in one in the Hollywood Reporter.

Obituaries referenced how Ansara played a Star Trek Villain. However, the Syrian-born actor made guest star appearances in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., It Takes a Thief, Hawaii Five-O and Mission: Impossible. (To view his IMDB.com entry, CLICK HERE.

The actor, who passed away at age 91, received an unusual send off on Aug. 4: Bob Schieffer’s closing commentary on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Schieffer described what it was like as a 20-year-old college student interviewing Ansara and his then-wife Barbara Eden in 1957 in Fort Worth, Texas.

“They treated me with patience and good humor,” Schieffer said. “I hope I’ve learned to ask better questions. I’m sure they forgot the episode and I never saw them again. But I never forgot how kind they were to a kid who had no idea what he was doing. When you’re the kid, you never forget those things.”