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Michael Pataki (January 16, 1938 - April 15, 2010) was an American actor of Hungarian descent, known for more than five decades of work in film, television, and voice acting.1 He is perhaps best remembered for playing the belligerent Klingon Korax in the classic Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" and for his role as Nicolai Koloff in Rocky IV (1985).1 In animation, he contributed guest voice work to Extreme Ghostbusters during its 1997 run.2
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Pataki was born in Youngstown, Ohio, the youngest of three children raised by Hungarian immigrant parents.1 He studied at the University of Southern California, earning a double major in political science and drama.1 His theatrical career took off at a summer stock festival in Edinburgh in 1966, where he played Jerry in Edward Albee's "The Zoo Story" to strong reviews.3
Pataki made his screen debut with an uncredited role in the 1958 war film The Young Lions, with a television debut the same year on M Squad.3 Over the following decades he built a prolific career in both live-action and voice work.
On television, his most iconic role came in Star Trek's "The Trouble with Tribbles" (1967), where he played Korax, the loud, combative Klingon whose taunts ignited a bar brawl aboard the space station. He later returned to the franchise in Star Trek: The Next Generation as Governor Karnas, making him one of a small group of actors to appear as different characters in both series. From 1974 to 1975 he held a co-starring role on the ABC series Get Christie Love! as Officer Pete Gallagher, and he made guest appearances on The Twilight Zone, Batman, Bonanza, and Mission: Impossible.1
His film credits include Airport '77 (1977), the television movie Spider-Man (1977), Love at First Bite (1979), Raise the Titanic (1980), Ron Howard's Night Shift (1982), and Rocky IV (1985), in which he played Soviet boxing official Nicolai Koloff. He also stepped behind the camera, directing the 1977 film Cinderella and producing a 1981 television adaptation of the musical Pippin.1
As a voice actor, Pataki voiced the Sewer King in Batman: The Animated Series, contributed to Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, and provided the recurring voice of George Liquor for the original production run of The Ren & Stimpy Show through 1997. His final voice performance, recorded before his death, appeared in animator John Kricfalusi's posthumously released 2019 short Cans Without Labels, which was dedicated to his memory.1
Pataki appeared as a guest voice actor on Extreme Ghostbusters in the episode "In Your Dreams."2 The series aired in 1997, coinciding with the end of his work on The Ren & Stimpy Show.
Michael Pataki died from cancer on April 15, 2010, in North Hollywood, California. He was 72 years old.3
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
"Michael Pataki," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Pataki. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7
IMDb, "Extreme Ghostbusters: In Your Dreams" (TV Episode 1997), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0574532/. ↩ ↩2
SFScope, "Actor Michael Pataki Dies" (May 2010), https://www.sfscope.com/2010/05/actor-michael-pataki-dies/. ↩ ↩2 ↩3