Steve Ihnat
| Steve Ihnat | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Stefan Ihnat August 7, 1934 Jastrabie pri Michalovciach, Czechoslovakia |
| Died | May 12, 1972 (aged 37) Cannes, France |
| Cause of death | heart attack |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1958-1972 |
| Spouse(s) | Sally Carter-Ihnat (1970-1972) (his death) (1 child) |
Steve Ihnat (August 7, 1934 – May 12, 1972) was a Czechoslovakian-born American actor and director. He immigrated to Canada when he was five years old, and later became a United States citizen.
Born Stefan Ihnat, he was raised on a farm in Lynden, Ontario. His family settled there after fleeing his native Czechoslovakia in 1939, when he was five years old. Ihnat, his mother, father, younger sister, and two young boys from other families left Czechoslovakia three days before Prague was occupied by invading German forces in March of that year.
Ihnat became hooked on acting when he played a child role in an amateur theatre near Lynden. He said, "I knew this was the only thing I wanted to do with my life." He also said "I think wanting to act started when I was about 14 as an escape valve to my environment. I was raised on a farm and I decided I wanted to be everything in life. Acting is the best way to do it."
Ihnat moved to the United States in 1958 to pursue a career in acting and attended the Pasadena Playhouse. He gained United States citizenship. At a time when he had difficulty finding work he enlisted in the U.S. Army for two years and served at Headquarters and Headquarters U.S. Army, Port Inchon, South Korea. In 1960, Pvt. Ihnat won second prize in the Republic of Korea poetry contest for his entry titled "Toil in the Night."
Ihnat guest-starred in many television series during the 1960s. including a mind-controlled lieutenant in the science fiction television series The Outer Limits in the two-part episode, "The Inheritors", (1964). In 1965 he guest starred as murderer Charlie Parks in the Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Duplicate Case." In 1959 he played a truck driver in with cargo hijackers in an episode of "Highway Patrol".
Ihnat held over seventy guest credits in such well known series as Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy" (1969) as the psychotic Garth of Izar and also two episodes of The Fugitive, entitled "Cry Uncle" (alongside Ron Howard) and "The Walls of Night". Other credits include Blue Light ("Field of Dishonor"), Gunsmoke ("Exodus 21:22", "Jenny" with Lisa Gerritsen (December 28, 1970), and "Noose of Gold"), The Silent Force ("Take As Directed For Death"), Bonanza ("A Dream to Dream" and "Terror at 2:00"), The Virginian ("Jed" and "Last Grave at Socorro Creek"), Mission: Impossible ("The Astrologer"), ("The Mind of Stefan Miklos"), Cimarron Strip ("The Hunted"), I Dream of Jeannie ("My Master the Rainmaker"), Mannix ("Huntdown", "End Game" and "To Draw the Lightning"), The F.B.I. ("Region of Peril" and "The Prey"), The Name of the Game ("The Chains of Command" and "Nightmare"), Medical Center ("Fright and Flight") and Perry Mason ("The Case of the Duplicate Case").
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