Lloyd Bochner: From the "Twilight Zone" to "Dynasty" and beyond

Canadian actor Lloyd Bochner in "Dynasty".

Source: Facebook/Denver Carrington Files

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The scene is burned in my memory.

Aliens have come to Earth in peace, offering their advanced technology to solve the world’s problems. At an international event, one of them leaves a book behind. Linguists are able to decipher the title – “To Serve Man”. Everyone thought that was just in line with all the good they were doing.

One of the linguists decides to take the aliens up on their offer of a trip to their home world. As he is boarding the space ship, his friend breaks through a throng of people yelling they deciphered the rest of the book.

“It’s a cook book,” she yells.

He tries to break free but is restrained and taken aboard the ship.

That man is played by Canadian actor Lloyd Bochner in a 1962 episode of “The Twilight Zone”.

It was part of a “Twilight Zone” marathon that aired on Channel 7 on the peasant vision dial. I watched it when I was staying at my sister’s in Lethbridge one Saturday in junior high.

Bochner had a lot of interesting roles from a guest spot as a Nazi-like commander in an episode of the original “Battlestar Galactica” to the villainous Cecil Colby in the night-time soap opera “Dynasty”.

He is another one of those Canadian actors who seems to be disappearing into the mists of time.

It’s his birthday today, and a great reason to look at the mark he left not only in Hollywood, but his native Canada.

Oil baron
The first time I saw Lloyd Bochner was as Cecil Colby in the night-time soap opera “Dynasty”. He ran Colbyco, a massive oil company, much bigger than Denver-Carrington, the company run by the series main character Blake Carrington, played by John Forsythe.

At one point, this mysterious character named Logan Rhinewwod, who is not seen on-screen but only seated, begins buying up blocks of stock in Denver-Carrington. This begins to alarm Blake because he fears a hostile take over and losing his company.

Then, in one episode, Rhinewood turns to face the camera and – it’s Cecil Colby. What makes it more devastating is that Colby has begun to date the equally villainous Alexis Carrington, Blake’s ex-wife, played by Joan Collins. They marry, and Cecil dies soon after. We saw he was already having heart difficulties while masquerading as Logan Rhinewood.

His death meant his new bride now inherited all those shares in Denver-Carrington.

Let the games begin.

Lloyd Bochner played Cecil Colby in the first three seasons of “Dynasty” from 1981 to 1982.

The years before
Lloyd Bochner’s first movie role was in 1963 in “Drums of Africa”. He would go on to appear in “The Night Walker”; “Sylvia”; “Harlow”; “Point Blank”; “Tony Rome”; “The Detective”; “The Young Runaways”; “The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit”; “Tiger by the Tail”; “The Dunwich Horror”; “Ulzana’s Raid”; “The Man in the Glass Booth”; “It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time”; and “Mr. No Legs”.

His first television role was on “One Man’s Family” in 1952, before he went on to a multitude of television roles that included playing Michael Chambers in that episode of “The Twilight Zone” in 1962.

He would go on to guest roles in the ’60s in shows such as “Dr. Kildare”; “The Lieutenant”; “Perry Mason”; “For the People”; “The Legend of Jesse James”; “Honey West”; “Combat”; “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”; “Branded”; “A Man Called Shenandoah”; “The Wild Wild West”; “The Whackiest Ship in the Army”; “The Green Hornet”; “Iron Horse”; “12 O’Clock High”; “Occasional Wife”; “T.H.E. Cat”; “The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.”;”Death Valley Days”; “Tarzan”; “Bonanza”; “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”; “The Big Valley”; “Custer”; “Judd for the Defense”; “The Name of the Game”; “Bewitched”; “The Outsider”; and “The F.B.I.”

In the ’70s he was in “Daniel Boone”; “It Takes a Thief”; “The Virginian”; “The D.A.”; “The Bold Ones: The New Doctors”; “Emergency”; “Hogan’s Heroes”; “Mission Impossible”; “Hec Ramsey”; “Ironside”; “Columbo: The Most Dangerous Match”; “Mannix”; “The Starlost”; “The Magician”; “The New Perry Mason”; “Gunsmoke”; “Cannon”; “Police Story”; “Medical Center”; “The Rookies”; “Barbary Coast”; “Ellery Queen”; “Barnaby Jones”; “Switch”; “Bronk”; “McCloud”; “Executive Suite”; “The Bionic Woman”; “McMillan and Wife”; “The Feather and Father Gang”; “The Six Million Dollar Man”; “The San Pedro Beach Bums”; “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries”; “For the Record”; “The Amazing Spider Man”; “Charlie’s Angels”; “The Littlest Hobo”; several television movies, including “Riel” in 1979, and much more.

In 1979, he also appeared in the original “Battlestar Galactica”, as Commandant Leiter in a two-parter called “Greetings from Earth”

The rest of the decade
Lloyd Bochner had roles in shows in the 1980s such as “”Trapper John M.D.”; “B.J. and the Bear”; “Hawaii Five-O”; “Hart to Hart”; “Vega$”; “Darkroom”; the TV movie “Mazes and Monsters”; “Manimal”; “Fantasy Island”; “Matt Houston”; “Masquerade”; “The A-Team”; “Crazy Like a Fox”; “The Fall Guy”; “Danger Bay”; “The Love Boat”; “Hotel”; “The Highwayman”; “The Golden Girls”; “Highway to Heaven”; and much more

The years after
Bochner kept on acting, with roles in “Designing Women”; “Who’s the Boss?”; “Road to Avonlea”; “The Young Riders”; “Murder, She Wrote”; “Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman”; and much more.

He would also appear in movies such as “The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear”; “Morning Glory”; “Legend of the Mummy”; and more. His final role was in “The Commission” in 2003.

Lloyd Bochner died on October 29, 2005 of cancer.

He was 81.

Parting thoughts
To say Lloyd Bochner was a prolific actor would be an understatement. The Internet Movie Data Base lists 219 appearances on screen for Bochner.

What I found interesting was that, unlike many Canadian actors who move to the States and never look back, he continued to appear in Canadian productions even after acting in one of the most popular night-time soap operas on television.

The reason he got so many roles was that he was a very good actor, with a strong screen presence.

Whenever I see his name though, I will always recall two performances – him being taken away by aliens to be served a la carte, and as an oil baron bent on destroying Blake Carrington.