Barbara March (9 October 1953 – 11 August 2019; age 65) was the actress who played Lursa in three episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek Generations.
She also provided her voice for Lursa in the video game Star Trek: The Next Generation - Klingon Honor Guard.
March filmed her first Star Trek episode "Redemption" on Monday 15 April 1991 and Thursday 18 April 1991 on Paramount Stage 16. For the episode "Redemption II", March filmed her scenes on Monday 15 July 1991 and Wednesday 17 July 1991 on Paramount Stage 9 and 16.
Following her appearance in Generations, March appeared on several trading cards, bookmarks, posters, and standups for display. [1] [2] [3] In 1994 there was also an action figure of her character from the movie, released by Playmates Toys. [4] Her costume from the episode "Past Prologue" was later worn by actress Peggy Jo Jacobs in the Star Trek: Voyager seventh season episode "Prophecy" and was sold off at the Christie's auction in New York. [5] March was interviewed by Ian Spelling for the Star Trek Generations - Official Movie Souvenir Magazine for the article "Barbara March & Gwynyth Walsh: Lursa and B'Etor", p. 72 in 1994, for the Star Trek: Communicator issue 104, pp. 51-52, October 1995, article "The Klingon Way: Lursa", and by Ian Spelling for the article "Double Trouble" in Star Trek Monthly issue 36 in 1998.
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Together with her on-screen sister and fellow Canadian Gwynyth Walsh, March was a frequent guest at Star Trek-related conventions such as Trek Expo 2008 and the Creation Las Vegas Star Trek Conventions 2010 and 2011, also appearing in Klingon makeup and costume. [6] [7] [8]
Personal and stage work
March was born on 9 October 1953 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to Polish parents. She graduated from the University of Windsor with a BFA in Dramatic Arts and started to work as a stage actress at Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where she also met her future husband Alan Scarfe, who later guest starred in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and an episode of Voyager. The two married in August 1979 and March became stepmother to actor Jonathan Scarfe from Alan Scarfe's previous marriage with actress Sara Botsford. The couple has also a daughter, musician and composer Antonia "Tosia" Scarfe. [9]
A well known stage actress in Canada, March toured several theaters in the early 1980s. She played roles such as Desdemona in "Othello", Jenny in "Neil Simon's Chapter Two", Ruth in "The Homecoming", Joanna in "Present Laughter", Lady Macduff in "Macbeth", and Rowena in "The Gayden Chronicles". In 1985 she returned to Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival to portray Isabella in "Measure for Measure" and Maria in "Twelfth Night". In 1986 she moved to New York to play Lady Macbeth on Broadway and Off-Broadway and in 1989 she was invited to play the title role in the Guthrie Theatre version of the play "The Duchess of Malfi" in Minneapolis.
Beside her work on stage and in front of the camera, March also wrote several screenplays and treatments for television and worked as story editor and an original episode writer for the Canadian television series Mysterious Island in 1995, starring her husband. The couple relocated to Canada in 2000 where Scarfe worked on the science fiction series Seven Days. Since then, March wrote the play "The Razing of Charlotte Bronte" and several novels such as "The Copper People".
March passed away, due to cancer, on 11 August 2019. [10]
Film and television
March made her film debut in the 1983 Canadian independent drama Deserters, on which she worked with her husband. For her role of Val Manufort she received a Genie Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in 1984. In 1987 she was cast in a guest role in the Canadian drama series Night Heat with Allan G. Royal, followed by the drama Kingsgate (1989, with Christopher Plummer and her husband).
After March and Scarfe moved to Los Angeles, California, she worked on the television horror film Blood Ties (1991, with Nicholas Kepros, Robert Miano, Marilyn Rockafellow, and Harley Venton), the television western The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1991, with Dion Anderson, Juliana Donald, Brian Keith, Dell Yount, Jorge Cervera, Jr., Ann Gillespie, Norman Large, Max Grodénchik, John Fleck, and Tory Christopher), the drama The Portrait (1992, with her husband and Gwynyth Walsh), and the L.A. Law episode "Beauty and the Breast" (1992, with Corbin Bernsen, Larry Drake, Michael Cumpsty, Becky Ann Baker, George De La Peña, Terry O'Quinn, and Harley Venton).
Following her connection with Star Trek, March played Helen Dieboldt in the Total Security episode "Who's Poppa?" in 1997, with Michael Bofshever, Randy Oglesby, Tony Plana, and Kristin Bauer.
Star Trek appearances
External links
- MarchScarfe.com – official site
- Barbara March at Wikipedia
- Barbara March at the Internet Movie Database
- Interview with Barbara March