American actor Michael Pataki's first film credit was 1958's Ten North Frederick. In the early phases of his career, Pataki was reminiscent of a young Rod Steiger; in point of fact, he played the 25-year-old version of the Steiger character in the made-for-TV The Movie Maker (1965). His later television work included the weekly series Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers (1974), as Sand's brother Charlie; Spider-Man (1977), as Captain Barbera; and Phyl and Micky (1980), as Soviet consular official Vladimir Jimenko. The Slavic nature of the last-named role was typical of the sort of characters Pataki played in the 1980s, which included Nikoli Koloff in Rocky IV (1985) and Rocky V (1990). Additionally, Pataki is among those lucky thespians who played guest spots on both the original Star Trek and its 1987 grandchild Star Trek: The Next Generation. On the production side, Pataki was director of the soft-core sex farce Cinderella and the low-budget scarefest Mansion of the Doomed (both 1977), and served as producer of the 1981 TV adaptation of Broadway's Pippin. More recently, Michael Pataki was heard as "The Sewer King" on the animated TVer Batman: The New Adventures (1992).
by Hal Erickson
biography
