(written from a Production point of view)
John Savage (born 25 August 1949; age 74) is the actor who played Captain Rudolph Ransom in the Star Trek: Voyager fifth and sixth season episodes "Equinox" and "Equinox, Part II".
Savage is well known for his breakthrough role as Steven in the classic 1978 war drama The Deer Hunter with an uncredited Kurtwood Smith as a fellow Vietnam War prisoner. Another role for which he is famous is that of Claude in the 1979 film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Hair. That same year, he starred as police detective Karl Hettinger in The Onion Field, a crime drama co-starring Phillip Richard Allen, K Callan, Ronny Cox, John de Lancie, Richard Herd, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Pataki and Franklyn Seales.
Savage's subsequent films include Inside Moves (1980, with Bert Remsen), The Amateur (1981, co-starring Christopher Plummer, along with Ed Lauter and Graham Jarvis), Salvador (1986, with Tony Plana), Do the Right Thing (1989) and Summer of Sam (1999, with Bebe Neuwirth and Mike Starr), The Godfather Part III (1990), White Squall (1996), Message in a Bottle (1999, with Raphael Sbarge), and The Thin Red Line (1998, with Simon Billig, Michael McAdam, and Michael McGrady) and The New World (2006, with Christopher Plummer). During the 1990s, he began to act more on television, making guest appearances on shows such as The X-Files (in an episode directed by Rob Bowman) and Tales from the Crypt (with Bibi Besch and Anthony Zerbe).
Savage was a regular on Dark Angel, on which he worked with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine star Nana Visitor. He also had a recurring role as Henry "Hack" Scudder on Carnivàle, working alongside the likes of Adrienne Barbeau, Clancy Brown, K Callan, John Fleck, John Carroll Lynch, Scott MacDonald, Matt McCoy, Diane Salinger, and Time Winters, as well as Walker, Texas Ranger with Noble Willingham.
One of Savage's more recent appearances was in a 2022 episode of Bosch Legacy. Savage appeared in a guest role opposite Titus Welliver, who also produced the series, and coincidentally had played Maxwell Burke, the first officer of Savage's character Captain Ransom, in the Voyager episodes.
Other Trek connections[]
Additional projects in which Savage worked with other Star Trek alumni are listed below.
Film[]
- Bad Company (1972; co-starring David Huddleston and Ed Lauter)
- The Killing Kind (1973; co-starring Peter Brocco)
- Maria's Lovers (1984; with Keith Carradine and Bill Smitrovich)
- The Dangerous (1994; with Joel Grey and Cary-Hiroyuki)
- CIA II: Target Alexa (with Anthony De Longis)
- Killing Obsession (with Victoria Dillard)
- Carnosaur 2 (1995; with Cliff DeYoung, Christopher Darga and John Chandler)
- Hostile Intent (1997; with Saul Rubinek; written by Manny Coto)
- Intoxicating (2003; with Art Chudabala)
- Easy Six (edited by Todd Ramsay)
- Kill Your Darlings (2006; with John Larroquette)
- Shortcut to Happiness (aka The Devil and Daniel Webster) (2007; with Kim Cattrall)
Television[]
- Cade's County episode "Gray Wolf" (1971; with Sharon Acker)
- All the Kind Strangers (1974; co-starring Samantha Eggar)
- Eric (1975; directed by James Goldstone; co-starring Nehemiah Persoff)
- The Turning Point of Jim Malloy (1975; with John Hoyt, John McLiam, Allan Miller, and Byron Morrow; cinematography by Jerry Finnerman)
- Great Expectations (1989 mini-series; with John Rhys-Davies and Jean Simmons)
- Daybreak (1993; with Willie Garson)
- Op Center (1995; with Kim Cattrall, France Nuyen and Sherman Howard)
- The Jack Bull (1999; with Glenn Morshower)
- The Virginian (2000; co-starring Harris Yulin)
- They Nest (co-starring Dean Stockwell)
- Admissions (2004; with Christopher Lloyd)
- Love's Long Journey (2005; with Jeff Kober, Diane Salinger and W. Morgan Sheppard)