Steve Ihnat
Encyclopedia
Steve Ihnat was a Czechoslovakia
n-born actor and director. He immigrated to Canada when he was five years old, and later became a United States citizen.
. His family settled there after fleeing his native Czechoslovakia in 1939, when he was five years old. Ihnat, his mother, father, and two young boys from other families left Czechoslovakia three days before Prague
was closed.
Ihnat became hooked on acting when he played a child role in an amateur theatre near Lynden. He said, "I knew this was the only thing I wanted to do with my life." He also said "I think wanting to act started when I was about 14 as an escape valve to my environment. I was raised on a farm and I decided I wanted to be everything in life. Acting is the best way to do it."
in 1958 to pursue a career in acting and attended the Pasadena Playhouse. He gained United States citizenship. At a time when he had difficulty finding work he enlisted in the U.S. Army for two years and served at Headquarters and Headquarters U.S. Army, Port Inchon, South Korea
. In 1960, Pvt. Ihnat won second prize in the Republic of Korea poetry contest for his entry titled "Toil in the Night."
Ihnat guest-starred in several television
series during the 1960s and is best known by Star Trek
fans as Garth of Izar from the Star Trek: The Original Series
episode "Whom Gods Destroy
" The Fugitive
episode "Cry Uncle" "The Walls of Night" Ihnat held over seventy guest star credits in such well known series as Gunsmoke
("Exodus 21:22", "Jenny" with Lisa Gerritsen
(December 28, 1970), and "Noose of Gold"), Bonanza
("A Dream to Dream" and "Terror at 2:00"), The Virginian
("Jed" and "Last Grave at Socorro Creek"), Mission: Impossible
("The Mind of Stefan Miklos"), I Dream of Jeannie
("My Master the Rainmaker"), Mannix
("End Game" and "To Catch the Lightning"), The F.B.I. ("Region of Peril" and "The Prey"), The Outer Limits
("The Inheritors"), The Name of the Game
("The Chains of Command" and "Nightmare"), Medical Center (TV series)
("Fright and Flight") and Perry Mason
("The Case of the Duplicate Case") but never achieved major fame for starring in movies or his own television series.
As an actor, he first achieved wide notice for his portrayal of a mind-controlled lieutenant in the science fiction television series The Outer Limits
. His extended speech at the end of that double episode, "The Inheritors — Part 1 & Part 2" (1964), is one of the most affecting moments in television. Ihnat eventually became one of the most in-demand A-list guest stars of the 1960s.
Ihnat's most famous role in Mission: Impossible
was that of brilliant Soviet Union investigator Stefan Miklos in the 1969 episode "The Mind of Stefan Miklos," widely praised as one of the most cerebral and intelligent episodes of the entire series. While he played other roles (mostly villains) in the show, his performance in this episode is his most memorable.
From 1964 to 1968 he appeared in eight feature films. He often played villains, using his abilities to subtly turn one-dimensional characters into complex and multi-dimensional antagonists. In 1967, Lamont Johnson cast him in the Richard Boone film Kona Coast
in which Inhat played a murderous playboy in Hawaii doping up teenagers and causing mayhem to Boone's property and person . In 1968, he memorably portrayed a murderous thug in the film Madigan
, starring Richard Widmark
and Henry Fonda
and a NASA administrator in the film Countdown, directed by Robert Altman
and starring James Caan and Robert Duvall
. Other films of note during this period included In Like Flint
and Hour of the Gun
.
Ihnat was a screenwriter and director as well. He wrote, produced and starred in "Do Not Throw Cushions Into The Ring," which while never released, led to his receiving the plum position of directing The Honkers, starring James Coburn
who he had appeared alongside in In Like Flint. He also co-wrote the movie with Stephen Lodge.
who had been a Playboy
Playmate of the Month in May 1962. Sally had a daughter from a previous marriage. Steve's son, Stefan, was born one month before Steve died. At the age of thirty-seven, he suffered a heart attack
while visiting the Cannes Film Festival
in France, where he was promoting his "Do Not Throw Cushions in the Ring." He died on his wife's 30th birthday. His death was later announced on the Emmys telecast.
Ihnat is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
in Los Angeles
. His son, Stefan, who died at age 32 from complications of diabetes, is interred next to him.
Sally Carter-Ihnat was married to Hollywood Squares
host Peter Marshall
from 1977 to 1988.
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
n-born actor and director. He immigrated to Canada when he was five years old, and later became a United States citizen.
Early life
Born Stefan Ihnat, he was raised on a farm in Lynden, OntarioLynden, Ontario
Lynden, Ontario is part of Flamborough, currently part of the city of Hamilton. Lynden now has fewer than 500 residents. There used to be a train station in Lynden that went to Hamilton and Lynden provided goods to that city...
. His family settled there after fleeing his native Czechoslovakia in 1939, when he was five years old. Ihnat, his mother, father, and two young boys from other families left Czechoslovakia three days before Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
was closed.
Ihnat became hooked on acting when he played a child role in an amateur theatre near Lynden. He said, "I knew this was the only thing I wanted to do with my life." He also said "I think wanting to act started when I was about 14 as an escape valve to my environment. I was raised on a farm and I decided I wanted to be everything in life. Acting is the best way to do it."
Film and television career
Ihnat moved to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1958 to pursue a career in acting and attended the Pasadena Playhouse. He gained United States citizenship. At a time when he had difficulty finding work he enlisted in the U.S. Army for two years and served at Headquarters and Headquarters U.S. Army, Port Inchon, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
. In 1960, Pvt. Ihnat won second prize in the Republic of Korea poetry contest for his entry titled "Toil in the Night."
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series during the 1960s and is best known by Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
fans as Garth of Izar from the Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
episode "Whom Gods Destroy
Whom Gods Destroy (TOS episode)
"Whom Gods Destroy" is a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It is episode #69, production #71, and was broadcast on January 3, 1969. It was written by Lee Erwin, based on a story by Lee Erwin and Jerry Sohl, and directed by Herb Wallerstein...
" The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...
episode "Cry Uncle" "The Walls of Night" Ihnat held over seventy guest star credits in such well known series as Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
("Exodus 21:22", "Jenny" with Lisa Gerritsen
Lisa Gerritsen
Lisa Gerritsen is an American former child actor, later a computer systems consultant/networking specialist, and more recently, possibly, as an independent relocation coordinator and facilities project manager. She currently lives with her husband John Rustan and son in Northern California...
(December 28, 1970), and "Noose of Gold"), Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
("A Dream to Dream" and "Terror at 2:00"), The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
("Jed" and "Last Grave at Socorro Creek"), Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...
("The Mind of Stefan Miklos"), I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries...
("My Master the Rainmaker"), Mannix
Mannix
Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors...
("End Game" and "To Catch the Lightning"), The F.B.I. ("Region of Peril" and "The Prey"), The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits (1963 TV series)
The Outer Limits is an American television series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1965. The series is similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction, rather than fantasy stories...
("The Inheritors"), The Name of the Game
The Name of the Game (TV series)
The Name of the Game is an American television series starring Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack that ran from 1968 to 1971 on NBC, totaling 76 episodes of 90 minutes. It was a pioneering wheel series, setting the stage for the likes of The Bold Ones and the NBC Mystery Movie in the 1970s...
("The Chains of Command" and "Nightmare"), Medical Center (TV series)
Medical Center (TV series)
Medical Center is a medical drama series which aired on CBS from 1969 to 1976.-Synopsis:The show starred James Daly as Dr. Paul Lochner and Chad Everett as Dr. Joe Gannon, surgeons working in an otherwise unnamed university hospital in Los Angeles. The show focused both on the lives of the doctors...
("Fright and Flight") and Perry Mason
Perry Mason (TV series)
Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
("The Case of the Duplicate Case") but never achieved major fame for starring in movies or his own television series.
As an actor, he first achieved wide notice for his portrayal of a mind-controlled lieutenant in the science fiction television series The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits (1963 TV series)
The Outer Limits is an American television series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1965. The series is similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction, rather than fantasy stories...
. His extended speech at the end of that double episode, "The Inheritors — Part 1 & Part 2" (1964), is one of the most affecting moments in television. Ihnat eventually became one of the most in-demand A-list guest stars of the 1960s.
Ihnat's most famous role in Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...
was that of brilliant Soviet Union investigator Stefan Miklos in the 1969 episode "The Mind of Stefan Miklos," widely praised as one of the most cerebral and intelligent episodes of the entire series. While he played other roles (mostly villains) in the show, his performance in this episode is his most memorable.
From 1964 to 1968 he appeared in eight feature films. He often played villains, using his abilities to subtly turn one-dimensional characters into complex and multi-dimensional antagonists. In 1967, Lamont Johnson cast him in the Richard Boone film Kona Coast
Kona Coast (film)
Kona Coast is a 1968 film directed by Lamont Johnson. It stars Richard Boone and Vera Miles.-Plot:Sam Moran is a Honolulu charter-boat captain who leads fishing expeditions in the tropical paradise. When his daughter is found murdered at the party of a wealthy young playboy, he seeks the truth...
in which Inhat played a murderous playboy in Hawaii doping up teenagers and causing mayhem to Boone's property and person . In 1968, he memorably portrayed a murderous thug in the film Madigan
Madigan
Madigan is a 1968 American thriller film directed by Don Siegel and starring Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda.The screenplay, originally titled Friday, Saturday, Sunday, was adapted by two writers who had been blacklisted in the 1950s, Abraham Polonsky and Howard Rodman , based on a novel titled The...
, starring Richard Widmark
Richard Widmark
Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...
and Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
and a NASA administrator in the film Countdown, directed by Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
and starring James Caan and Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....
. Other films of note during this period included In Like Flint
In Like Flint
In Like Flint is a 1967 film directed by Gordon Douglas, the sequel to the parody spy film Our Man Flint . It posits an international feminist conspiracy to depose the ruling American patriarchy with a feminist matriarchy. To achieve and establish it, they kidnap and replace the U.S. President,...
and Hour of the Gun
Hour of the Gun
Hour of the Gun is 1967 Western film starring James Garner and depicting Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday during their 1881 battles against Ike Clanton and his brothers in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and the gunfight's aftermath in and around Tombstone, Arizona.The film is based on the non fiction...
.
Ihnat was a screenwriter and director as well. He wrote, produced and starred in "Do Not Throw Cushions Into The Ring," which while never released, led to his receiving the plum position of directing The Honkers, starring James Coburn
James Coburn
James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...
who he had appeared alongside in In Like Flint. He also co-wrote the movie with Stephen Lodge.
Death
Steve Ihnat was married to Sally Carter-IhnatMarya Carter
Marya Carter is an American model and actress. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the month for its May 1962 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Paul Morton Smith....
who had been a Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
Playmate of the Month in May 1962. Sally had a daughter from a previous marriage. Steve's son, Stefan, was born one month before Steve died. At the age of thirty-seven, he suffered a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
while visiting the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
in France, where he was promoting his "Do Not Throw Cushions in the Ring." He died on his wife's 30th birthday. His death was later announced on the Emmys telecast.
Ihnat is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
The Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery is a cemetery in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles, California. It is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in Westwood....
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. His son, Stefan, who died at age 32 from complications of diabetes, is interred next to him.
Sally Carter-Ihnat was married to Hollywood Squares
Hollywood Squares
Hollywood Squares is an American panel game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The "board" for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants...
host Peter Marshall
Peter Marshall (game show host)
Peter Marshall is an American television and radio personality, singer, and actor.He was the original host of The Hollywood Squares, from 1966 to 1981. He has almost fifty television, movie, and Broadway credits...
from 1977 to 1988.