Thomas Kopache (born October 17, 1945) is an American actor.

Thomas Kopache
Born (1945-10-17) October 17, 1945 (age 79)
OccupationActor

Career

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Kopache was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, the son of Dorothy E. (née Sterling).[1] He is known for his roles as Assistant Secretary of State Bob Slattery in The West Wing and for various roles in the Star Trek franchise. He has also appeared in the stage productions of As You Like It as the banished Duke and in Antigone as Creon.

He has appeared in three of the Star Trek series and, along with Jeffrey Combs, Vaughn Armstrong, J. G. Hertzler and Randy Oglesby, is one of only five actors to portray as many as seven characters. Kopache played a Romulan in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Next Phase", a hologram in "Emergence" and a Starfleet officer in Star Trek Generations. On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine he played Kira Taban, the father of Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor), in "Ties of Blood and Water" and "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night". On Star Trek: Voyager he played the planner of an alien settlement discovered to be in stasis by the Voyager crew. In 1994, he portrayed Tu'Pari in the Babylon 5 episode "The Parliament of Dreams".

Kopache made a brief appearance in No Country For Old Men as a shoe salesman. Kopache guest starred as Vic Feldspar, Craig Feldspar's lisping, Jack LaLanne-like father in "Living Will", a sixth-season episode of Malcolm in the Middle. He briefly appeared as blackjack player Borsalino Cap in "The Contingency", the second-season premiere of the TV series Person of Interest.

"Catheter Cowboy"

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In 2017, Kopache appeared on the HBO show Last Week Tonight as the "Catheter Cowboy", a character based on a commercial that aired on networks such as Fox News.[2][3] Kopache's character would star in a similar-looking commercial and initially appear to talk about pain involving catheter use, but would then explain subjects such as the nuclear triad and the problems the American Health Care Act of 2017 offered. John Oliver bought commercial airtime in the Washington D.C. area and aired Kopache's segment live on stations such as Morning Joe and Fox & Friends[4] in an attempt to send a message to President Donald Trump, as he was aware that Trump watched these shows.[5][6]

Selected filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes
1983 Without a Trace Police officer
1991 Liebestraum Dr. Parker
1993 This Boy's Life Geiger Counter Vendor
1994 Mr. Jones Mr. Wilson
1994 Star Trek Generations Com Officer
1995 Leaving Las Vegas Mr. Simpson
1996 Ghosts of Mississippi Thorn McIntyre
1997 Breakdown Calhoun
1997 One Night Stand Merv
1998 Recoil Captain Trent [7]
1999 Stigmata Father Durning
2002 Catch Me If You Can Principal Evans
2003 A Man Apart Chief Neal
2005 Adam & Steve Joe
2006 Ten 'til Noon Mr. Duke
2007 Zodiac Copy Editor #1
2007 No Country for Old Men Boot Salesman
2007 Trust Me Amos Sands
2015 The App Psychotic Man
2015 Chasing Eagle Rock Sam
2016 37 George Bernstein [8][9]
2017 The Sounding Seth

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
1994 Star Trek: The Next Generation The Engineer Episode: Emergence
1995 The X-Files General Callahan Episode: The Walk
1996 Star Trek: Voyager Viorsa Episode: The Thaw
1997 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Kira Taban Episode: Ties of Blood and Water
1998 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Kira Taban Episode: Wrongs Darker than Death or Night
2001 Star Trek: Enterprise Vulcan Attaché Tos Episode: Broken Bow
2002–2005, 2020 The West Wing Bob Slattery 15 episodes
2003 Stargate SG-1 Ellori 1 episode
2004 Boston Legal Judge Dale Wallace 1 episode
2004 Star Trek: Enterprise The Alien Episode: Harbinger
2005 Malcolm in the Middle Vic Feldspar 1 episode
2006 Close to Home Judge Salter 4 episodes
2007 Psych Leonard Sirtis 1 episode
2010 Castle Abe Sandrich Season 3, Episode 4
2010 Bones Gregory Gering Season 6, Episode 4
2015 Jessica Jones Dr. Kozlov 2 episodes
2016 MacGyver O'Brian 1 episode
2017–2018 Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Catheter Cowboy 5 episodes
2018 The Tick Nabakov 2 episodes
2018 House of Cards Earl Hanna 1 episode
2020 Messiah Judge Harold Pleva 1 episode

References

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  1. ^ Thomas Kopache Biography (1945–)
  2. ^ "John Oliver Hatches a Plan to Reach Trump Where He Watches". The New York Times. 13 February 2017.
  3. ^ "John Oliver is using a commercial with a catheter-pushing cowboy to get Trump's attention". The Seattle Times. 13 February 2017.
  4. ^ "Trump may see 'Catheter Cowboy' TV spots: 'No shame in quitting'". My LA News. 13 November 2017.
  5. ^ Isidore, Chris (March 14, 2017). "John Oliver's new ad for Trump takes shot at health care bill". CNN
  6. ^ "A running list of John Oliver's 'Catheter Cowboy' ads". The Washington Post. 10 April 2017.
  7. ^ "The Gratuitous B-Movie Column: Recoil". 411Mania. 6 December 2017.
  8. ^ "'37': Film Review". Hollywood Reporter. 6 October 2016.
  9. ^ "37". Slant Magazine. 2 October 2016.
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