Warner was never a huge name as an actor but he had the sort of recurring presence that develops a following. For me, as a Star Trek fan, I first took notice of his name because he was one of those rare few who turned up in multiple significant roles. First he played the Federation ambassador in Star Trek V: the Final Frontier - a pretty unimportant part for an actor as recognizable as he; appropriately, as Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was intended as something of a redemption for the film franchise after the previous film's failings, Warner protrayed the Klingon chancellor Gorkon in that film and got to turn in a terrific performance. But perhaps most memorably for Trek fans, he appeared in the two-part story "Chain of Command" on Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which he portrayed Gul Madred, a Cardassian who tortured Jean-Luc Picard. Much of that two-parter's recognition is due to Patrick Stewart's performance in the torture scenes, but Warner really earned due praise in those episodes. His oily portrayal of Gul Madred helped reinforce how Cardassians would be characterized throughout the franchise. Warner nearly had another role when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's producer Ira Steven Behr wanted Warner to portray in "Accession" an usurper to the role of Emissary that Benjamin Sisko performed. Unfortunately, Warner was out of the USA when the episode was being filmed and so was unavailable. Behr counted the lack of Warner as one of his regrets as he was certain Warner would have improved the quality of the episode.
Warner was something of a character actor and most often seemed to play villains, to the extent that his roles included playing Evil, itself (Time Bandits). He was also a terrific Jack the Ripper in the charming time travel romance Time After Time; he was the bad guy in Tron. I was so into Warner that when he would turn up in a minor role such as in In the Mouth of Madness I would get excited imagining what his character would get up to (then disappointed when the answer was, "not much").
But I also loved Warner's work in voice acting. His first big animated role was as Ra's al-Ghul in Batman: The Animated Series; he was also one of the top villains of Gargoyles, the Archmage; and in contrast he got to play the very silly villain the Lobe on the very silly program Freakazoid! Even in animation he seemed to be typecast as villains but certainly his smooth, refined voice sounded great on those shows.
Rest in peace, Mr. Warner.
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