William Morgan Sheppard was an English actor and voice actor who appeared in over 100 films and television programmes, in a career that spanned over 50 years.
Sheppard starred in several episodes of different series of Star Trek, notably 's "The Schizoid Man |The Schizoid Man" and 's "Bliss |Bliss". In the feature film', his role was the warden of a Klingon gulag and in the 2009 reboot Star Trek, he played a member of the Vulcan High Council, but was uncredited. Outside of Star Trek, he is best known for his role as Blank Reg on Max Headroom and his role as the Confederate general Isaac R. Trimble in the films Gettysburg and Gods and Generals. Sheppard appeared in two roles on the science-fiction series Babylon 5, in the episode titled "Soul Hunter", playing the eponymous character and also played Narn war leader G'Sten, an uncle of main character G'Kar, in "The Long Twilight Struggle". He was also a runner-up for the role of Ambassador G'Kar on the series, though the role eventually went to Andreas Katsulas. Sheppard was one of several Star Trek actors who voiced characters on the animated seriesGargoyles, wherein he played the father of Jonathan Frakes' character David Xanatos and the Norse god Odin. Sheppard and his son, Mark Sheppard, acted together in a few productions. Sheppard appeared in the television seriesNCIS, in the season six episode "Broken Bird", where he played the older version of a man named Marcin Jerek, while his son played the younger version. He appeared in the opening episode of series six of Doctor Who, "The Impossible Astronaut", playing the character Canton Everett Delaware III. He portrayed an older version of Delaware, while his son portrayed the younger version in the same episode. He and his son are among the few actors who have appeared in both the Star Trek and Doctor Who franchises. In December 2009, Sheppard voiced the part of Santa in Disney's Christmas special Prep & Landing. Following that, he returned as the voice of Santa in the sequels, ' and . On 4 December 2010, Sheppard appeared on Hallmark Channel Original FilmsFarewell Mr. Kringle as Kris Kringle.
Video game career
Sheppard voiced several characters in video games. He narrated the introductions and mission briefings for the first four installments of the Medal of Honor video-game series. He was cast in the 1996 adventure game Zork Nemesis, playing the live-action role of Bishop Francois Malveaux, one of the four alchemists central to the plot of the game. In 2000, he voiced the character Ignatius Cheese in the game Escape from Monkey Island. Sheppard voiced over for the character John Adams in the Wii gameThe Conduit. He provided the voice for the character Lucky in the 2002 Xbox game Whacked!. On 4 August 2010, Sheppard was announced as the voice actor for the video gameCivilization V. and provided the voice overs for loading screens, victory screens, built wonders, and newly researched technologies.
