TODAY IN STAR TREK HISTORY: Walker Edmiston Is Born

Walker Edmiston and Clint Howard as Balok. Images: Wikimedia Commons and Paramount.

FEBRUARY 6, 2023 – What do Commander Balok of the First Federation ship Fesarius and Ernie the Keebler Elf have in common? Besides their relative height, I mean.

The answer is thanks to the versatile voice actor Walker Edmiston, who was born on this date in 1926, in St. Louis. Edmiston participated in local theater while in high school and later studied at the Pasadena Playhouse. His television career began as early as 1947, when he voiced Wally Walrus in a Woody Woodpecker short, “Smoked Hams.” (He had been introduced to Walter Lantz after someone had overheard one of his celebrity impressions.) In the 1950s he did voice work on puppet shows on KTLA, in Los Angeles. He even hosted is own children’s show, The Walker Edmiston Show, which featured his own puppet creations.

Then in 1966, Edmiston provided the voiceover for Balok, replacing Clint Howard’s seven-year-old voice. (Howard has said that he didn’t mind having his voice replaced; what he did mind was the pink grapefruit juice standing in as tranya.) This was the first of seven “appearances” for Edmiston on Star Trek. He also provided voices for three other season one episodes and three season two episodes, including those of Eminiar Security in “A Taste of Armageddon” and Vulcan Space Central in “Amok Time.”

By 1969, Edmiston had come to the attention of Sid and Marty Krofft and ended up voicing multiple characters on their shows, including H.R. Pufnstuf and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, on which he voiced Sigmund. In Land of the Lost he appeared regularly on screen, though in costume, as Enik the Altrusian. (Enik’s costume was designed by Michael Westmore, the story of which Edmiston told in an interview.)

In 1997, he took over the voice of Ernie the Keebler Elf from Parley Baer, who had been providing Ernie’s voice since 1969. Edmiston voiced Ernie until 2007, the year of his death.

Edmiston also made many on screen as well as voice appearances in television and film over the years, from The Monkees and Mission: Impossible to The Transformers: The Movie and Avatar: The Last Airbender, as Fire Lord Azulon, his final role.

According to Marty Krofft, “Walker was one of the most talented voice people in town.”

Please join us in remembering Walker Edmiston on his birthday anniversary, today in Star Trek history.