James Sloyan, the prolific character actor who played four different aliens across three “Star Trek” series and helped set the con in motion in the Oscar-winning “The Sting,” died July 22, 2026, at his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He was 85.
His family made the death public two months later, in an obituary published in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, Sept. 20. No cause of death was provided.
“Friends and colleagues remember him always present, always curious, courageous, inventive, loyal, as well as brash, mouthy and very urban. He was one-of-a-kind,” his family wrote in the obituary.
Four Aliens Across Three Series
For fans of the franchise, Sloyan was the guest star who kept coming back wearing a different face. He made five appearances across three “Star Trek” series, playing four characters in all.
On “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” he played Romulan Adm. Alidar Jarok in the 1990 episode “The Defector,” the conflicted officer whose defection to the Enterprise drives the hour. He returned to the series in the 1994 episode “Firstborn” as Alexander Rozhenko, the adult son of the Klingon Worf, a role also credited as K’mtar. He later portrayed the Bajoran scientist Dr. Mora Pol in two episodes of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” and the Haakonian scientist Ma’Bor Jetrel on “Star Trek: Voyager.”
From Broadway to “The Sting”
Sloyan was born in Indianapolis on Feb. 24, 1941. He graduated from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and served three years in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., before turning to acting full time.
He made his Broadway debut in 1969’s “Indians” and took lead roles in off-Broadway productions including “A Dream Out of Time.” His stage work extended behind the scenes as well: he handled fight choreography for Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival.
His film debut came in the 1970s with “The Traveling Executioner,” followed by “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” in 1971. Then came the role that put him in a Best Picture winner. In the 1973 film “The Sting,” Sloyan played Mottola, a numbers runner who becomes the first mark of the con pulled by Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) and Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones), setting the story in motion. The movie won Best Picture at the Oscars in 1974.
In the 1980s, in “Xanadu,” which starred Olivia Newton-John, Sloyan played Simpson, the demanding boss at AirFlo Records of aspiring artist Sonny Malone, played by Michael Beck.
A Familiar Face and a Famous Voice
Television kept him busy for decades. Sloyan turned up as a guest on “The Doctors,” “The Streets of San Francisco,” “Kojak” and “Delvecchio,” then landed a regular role in 1977’s “Westside Medical.”
In 1983, he was cast opposite “Oh Madeline” star Madeline Kahn as her husband in the sitcom, which ran through 1984. And while millions never matched the name to the face, plenty of them knew the voice: Sloyan served as the voice of Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus in commercials for 18 years, beginning in 1989.
That combination — the unmistakable voice, the face buried under alien prosthetics, the reliable second banana in a blockbuster caper — defined a career that ran more than five decades and rarely put him at the top of a poster.
Sloyan is survived by his wife, actress Deirdre Lenihan, and their children, musician Daniel Sloyan and actress Samantha Sloyan.