Popular TV, movie actor was a Ticonderoga native

TICONDEROGA | When Ticonderoga native Michael Witney (born Whitney Michael Armstrong) finally made it to the "big time" in Hollywood, it wasn't the result of the "big screen" per se. It was only when the up-and-coming actor appeared in a Feb. 8, 1968, television broadcast episode of the original "Star Trek" series that he started getting fan mail — and lots of it. Early life Witney was born in Ticonderoga Nov. 21, 1931. And although his promising career and life ended abruptly Nov. 30, 1983 (when he died of a heart attack in New York City), he left a lasting mark with a single, iconic "Star Trek" role that still appears on streaming TV screens 53 years later. Perhaps the actor would have liked his other terrific performances to be celebrated, equally, as well? Today, original-series "Star Trek" fans remember Witney's role as the extraterrestrial-humanoid Tyree, of the planet Neural, in that less-than-perfect 1968 episode, "A Private Little War", written by series creator Gene Roddenberry's ex-L.A. Police Department coworker and pal Don Ingalls. Witney's character, a primitive tribal man living in the barren alien hills of Neural, was one of the few memorable Trek roles that let an actor play the challenging emotional spectrum of love, jealousy, and hate simultaneously. Witney-as-Tyree took on Captain Kirk (played by periodic Ticonderoga visitor actor, and now astronaut, William Shatner) when the starship skipper showed a powerful, extraterrestrial herb-induced interest in Tyree's alien witch-doctor wife, played to the hilt by still-living actress Nancy Kovack. In real life, Witney was married to Leslie Lawson, the famous 1960s fashion model "Twiggy" — his second wife. The couple had a beautiful daughter, Carly Witney, now age 44; together, mother and daughter carry on their father's beloved legacy. Twiggy and Carly appeared at England's Buckingham Palace last year when the '60s model was named Dame Leslie Lawson and received OBE chivalric honors of the Order of the British Empire by Prince Charles. Daughter Carly, camera shy and protected by her mother, is reported to have followed her father's love of film art by working as an animator. Before drifting away from Ticonderoga during the mid-1950s, Witney served in the Korean War in the U.S. Army. He displayed an early interest in the dramatic arts while in Ticonderoga, but he also demonstrated his physical skills on the baseball diamond. Showing promise as a semi-pro baseball player, he was a minor league pitcher for the defunct Hornell Dodgers in Hornell, New York, and the Great Falls Electrics (now Great Falls Voyagers) of Montana. While playing ball in Montana in 1956, Witney met Collette Bailey in Helena. The couple married and had a time of it until they divorced in 1976. By the 1970s, Witney's circle of friends included many actors, directors, and writers, and Collette was less and less adaptable to that new world. When Armstrong moved to Los Angeles to pursue parts in motion pictures during the late 1950s, neither roles nor fame didn't come easily or quickly. It was at this time that the new electronic medium of television, based at the time in New York City, was displacing Hollywood's big-screen box office. Cutting his teeth by learning the actor's craft, Witney found stage parts by the late '50s yet he didn't make his television debut until the '60s. It was the award-winning ABC-TV drama, "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters", which aired during the 1963-64 season, that the young Ticonderoga actor got his big break. His recurring character, playing wagon master Buck Coulter, was a hit with fans. The series, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Robert Lewis Taylor novel of the same title, also launched the career of actor Kurt Russell who appeared as little Jaimie. Soon, other TV parts were opening up for Witney: "A Man Called Shenandoah", "The Richard Boone Show" (appearing with fellow "Star Trek" actor Warren Stevens), "Bonanza" (four episodes), "The Iron Horse", "Death Valley Days" (with actor-President Ronald Reagan) "Gunsmoke", "Twelve O'Clock High" (with fellow original series "Trek" actors Robert Lansing, Frank Overton, and Bert Remsen), "Daniel Boone", "The F.B.I", "Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law", "The Sixth Sense", "Cannon", "Gilligan's Island", and of course "Star Trek". He was also a hit in three 1970s-80s episodes of "Charlie's Angels". Stardom "Star Trek" probably created Witney more fans than his other TV and big-screen parts. Starting in the 1960s, "Star Trek" actors, even bit players, garnered considerable fan interest. Even after Witney's death in the 1980s, ever younger fans discovering the original series for themselves were checking out the actor's filmography. In tandem with appearing on television, Witney's agent was busy, too, getting him a role in a major Hollywood motion picture with big-name stars. His first big-screen appearance was in the brooding 1967 Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, and Richard Widmark western, titled "The Way West". While the movie wasn't a box office hit, Witney got noticed. According to various online biographical sources, Witney landed a supporting role in the 1970 Blake Edwards musical "Darling Lili" and then returned to the little screen as the historical figure of Ike Clanton in the 1971 western "Doc", based on the life of gunfighting dentist Doc Holliday. Witney also landed a lead role in the now little-seen movie "The Catcher". But by 1974, Witney had set off to England to kick-start a flagging U.S. career. In London, in 1975, BBC producers liked his good looks and cast him as the rugged, recurring character Frank Ward in the television series, "Oil Strike North". When arriving in London the previous year, Witney met superstar model Twiggy on the set of the movie "W". By some accounts, the chemistry between Witney and Twiggy was instant. "Witney and Twiggy married three years later; their union produced a daughter, Carly," according to Star Trek Memory Alpha fansite. "Witney and Twiggy appeared together in one more film, 1980's 'There Goes the Bride', before Witney's untimely death of a heart attack three years later at the age of 52." The former actor, now best known for "Star Trek", rests in eternity at Saint Therese Cemetery in Newcomb in Essex County.

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Popular TV, movie actor was a Ticonderoga native

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