Memory Alpha
Register
Advertisement
Memory Alpha
Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

Frank Babich (born 14 December 1933; age 90) is a retired stuntman who worked as stunt performer on several episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. [1]

Born in Minnesota, Babich moved to Santa Monica, California when he was a teenager. He attended the University of Los Angeles in the mid-1960s where he and his colleagues studied how RNA affects memory. [2] The work was published in several scientific magazines but lost its funding. [3] Babich then started to work as stuntman and film and television extra to earn the money and finish his work as well as caring for his family.

Among Babich's first roles were stunt parts in the war drama Beau Geste (1966, with Malachi Throne, Victor Lundin, Mario Roccuzzo, Gary Combs, Chuck Couch, Robert Herron, Robert F. Hoy, and stunt coordination by Hal Needham) and the war drama Tobruk (1967, with Lawrence Montaigne, Bob Hoy, Paul Baxley, Gil Perkins, and Paul Stader).

Babich worked as stunt double for lead actor Christopher George on the television series The Rat Patrol between 1966 and 1968. During filming, he broke his ribs while performing a dive into the ocean on location in Spain. Nick Dimitri, Gary Epper, Budd Albright, Jesse Wayne, Dick Warlock, and Hal Needham also worked on this series. ("Hollywood Stunt Performers, 1910s–1970s: A Biographical Dictionary", 2d ed.)

Further stunt work includes episodes of The Green Hornet (1967, with Arthur Batanides, Lloyd Haynes, Jerry Catron, and Troy Melton), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968, with Peter Mark Richman and David Hurst), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1968, with Bruce Mars and Bart La Rue), and The Outcasts (1969).

Following movie work in the Western More Dead Than Alive (1969, with George Sawaya and Fred Carson) and in the thriller Tiger by the Tail (1970, with Skip Homeier), Babich retired from acting and stunt work, leaving the Western Barquero his final acting project. In Barquero, Babich worked with fellow Star Trek alumni Mariette Hartley, and Ed Bakey.

Babich published his final two articles for his research work and went on to work as sales and assistant marketing director for the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, California until 1974, when he took the job as vice president of real estate development in Newport Beach. He then founded his own company, Mariner Investment Inc. until the market conditions forced him to close his company in 1993. The same year he and his wife Nancy relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina where he founded the company Microbiotics. Again forced to close the company, he started to work as real estate agent at Grubb & Ellis/Thomas Linderman and from 1997 on for Advantis.

Today, Babich is retired and lives with his wife Nancy in Peoria, Arizona.

External link[]

Advertisement