Thomas Kopache

Thomas Kopache (born October 17, 1945) is an American actor. Kopache was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, the son of Dorothy E. (née Sterling). He is known as Assistant Secretary of State Bob Slatterly in The West Wing and for various roles in the Star Trek franchise. He has also appeared in the stage productions of As You Like It as the banished Duke and in Antigone as Creon. He is one of few people who have appeared in all of the Star Trek television series, other than the original, and, along with Jeffrey Combs, Vaughn Armstrong, J. G. Hertzler and Randy Oglesby, is one of only five actors to portray as many as seven characters. His largest Star Trek role was as Kira Taban, the father of Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Kopache played Taban in "Ties of Blood and Water" and "Wrongs Darker than Death or Night". Kopache had earlier played a Romulan in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Next Phase", a hologram in "Emergence" and a Starfleet officer in Star Trek Generations. In 1994 he portrayed "Tu'Pari" in the Babylon 5 episode "The Parliament of Dreams". Kopache makes a brief appearance in No Country For Old Men as a shoe salesman. Kopache guest starred as Vic Feldspar, Craig Feldspar's lisping, gym owning, jumpsuit-wearing, Jack LaLanne-like father in the Malcolm in the Middle episode titled, Living Will, from the show's sixth season. He also briefly appeared in Season 2, Episode 1 of the television show Person of Interest in the role of a blackjack player. The title of the episode is "The Contingency". The character is listed in the credits as "Borsalino Cap". In 2017, Kopache appeared on the HBO show "Last Week Tonight" as the "Catheter Cowboy", a character based on a commercial that aired on networks such as Fox News. Kopache's character would star in a similar-looking commercial and initially appear to talk about pain involving catheter use, but would then explain subjects such as the nuclear triad and the problems the American Health Care Act of 2017 offered. John Oliver bought commercial airtime in the Washington D.C. area and aired Kopache's segment live on stations such as Morning Joe and Fox & Friends in an attempt to send a message to President Donald Trump, as he was aware that Trump watched these shows.