It could be said that Patricia Herd had her very own Star Trek convention. The actress and author, who is now 90 years old, was married to two prolific character actors, both of whom appeared on Star Trek. She’s also worked on various films and television shows with other performers in the franchise.
Born as Patricia Ann Crowder, she was married to Joseph Ruskin from 1968 to 1979 and Richard Herd from 1980 to 2020, when he died. Ruskin guest starred as Galt in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The Gamesters of Triskelion,” and later recurred as the Klingon, Tumek, in the Deep Space Nine episodes “The House of Quark” and “Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places.” He also appeared as a Cardassian in DS9’s “Improbable Cause,” a Vulcan in the Voyager hour “Gravity,” and a Suliban doctor in “Broken Bow,” which served as the pilot for Enterprise. Additionally, Ruskin voiced characters in the video games Star Trek: Hidden Evil and Star Trek: Away Team, and popped up in the film Star Trek: Insurrection.
Richard Herd was a veteran character actor who was a series regular on V, the William Shatner-led T.J. Hooker, and seaQuest DSV, and recurred as George Costanza’s boss on Seinfeld. He also recurred as Admiral Paris, the father of Tom Paris, in four episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, and as the Klingon, L’Kor, in the Next Generation two-parter “Birthright.” He went on to make many Star Trek and genre convention appearances and performed concerts with the popular Enterprise Blues Band.
Less than six months after her marriage to Ruskin ended in divorce, she wed Richard Herd and took his last name. One of her first acting credits was a 1981 episode of the show Walking Tall, the cast of which included future Deep Space Nine guest star Edward Albert. Her first TV movie, 1982’s Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal, co-starred Bob Gunton and Robert Picardo. In 1993, she guest starred in an episode of SeaQuest 2032 that also featured Richard Herd, Stephanie Beacham, and Eric Avari. And, in her most recent screen credit, the 2018 comedy, The Oath, she co-starred alongside John Cho and Richard Herd. Patricia Herd and Richard Herd actually appeared together several times, including on stage in a production of Death of a Salesman, the film Summer Rental, and in the 2015 short, Thom & Gerry.
In 2021, a little more than a year after Richard Herd died, then-87-year-old Patricia Herd published her first book, a memoir called Junkies, Hookers, Dykes… and Others I Have Known.