PERSONNEL FILE: Garak, Elim

A smooth-talking, self-professed 'plain and simple tailor' is DS9's lone Cardassian resident, exiled there upon Starfleet's arrival and eventually confirmed after much circumlocution as a former Obsidian Order spy, the son of its onetime leader Enabran Tain and one with a gift for interrogation. Garak's own clouded history as an OO agent, coupled with the typical Cardassian penchant for convoluted intrigue, often put him at odds with some of his own people including agent Corbin Entek and Gul Toran, whom he killed on the spot, and Gul Dukat, whose father he had tortured and killed years before. Garak was exiled after being forced even to betray his father/mentor and they parted bitterly, Tain refusing to give his son any forgiveness when he died alongside Garak in a Dominion prison camp in 2373. Tain's planned return to power in 2371 led to a failed assassination attempt on Garak, but the tailor had his shop blown up to focus attention on the Flaxian sent to kill him; he was the only one of five targets with data harmful to Tain to survive. A year earlier, Garak had nearly died when the pain-blocking device he was implanted with broke down two years after he'd grown addicted to the full flow of endorphins he decided to release. On DS9, where his quarters are Chamber 901 on Habitat Level H-3, he struck up an early friendship with the young Dr. Bashir, and later came to respect Odo as well especially after their witnessing of Tain's disastrous Cardassian-Romulan debacle against the Founders Homeworld. His rage over being later being dismissed by the Female Changeling led to his abortive plan to bomb their new homeworld with the USS Defiant, but the act drew a six-month sentence from Sisko; later, he would help free twinned prisoners from his father's Dominion prison camp despite his claustrophobia. Ironically, he became enamored of Dukat's half-Bajoran daughter Tora Ziyal in 2372 during her stay on DS9, after he decided he could trust her with a rare show of vulnerability much to both Kira and Dukat's annoyance. And, despite his exile, he still has friends on Cardassia who relay information. He had hoped to end his exile with acts of valor, but Dukat's prominence at every turn of events has hampered that. He knows fluent Klingon, spent over a year as the 'gardener' of the Cardassian Embassy on Romulus during a year of many Romulans' mysterious deaths and dislikes hand-to-hand fighting.

Andrew Jordt Robinson was born February 14, 1942, in New York City. His father dying in World War II, when Andy was only three, was a great blow to Andy's mother. The two moved to Connecticut to be closer to his mother's family. Still, Andy grew up a rather lonely child, often left to his own devices. This led to trouble on the streets of Hartford, and when Andy began to flirt with juvenile crime, he was sent to St. Andrew's, a school for troubled kids in Rhode Island. He credits St. Andrew's with turning his young life around at a critical time. When the school had its 100th anniversary, Andy did the one-man show Memoirs of Jesus there as a fund raiser.

On graduating from St. Andrew's, Andy attended the University of New Hampshire for two years, where he majored in English with hopes of teaching or going into journalism. However, in his sophomore year, Andy and a couple of friends decided to picket the school's ROTC program. In the early 1960s in conservative New Hampshire, this was considered pretty radical. When the newspapers got wind of the story, the school gave the boys an ultimatum - take the ROTC course, or don't graduate. Andy refused, whereupon he left UNH and headed for the Big Apple, receiving his B.A. in English from the New School for Social Research in New York City.

It was on a visit to some of his old haunts at UNH that he ran into a former history teacher, who had enough faith in Andy's acting ability that he suggested Andy apply for a Fulbright scholarship. Andy did apply and was accepted, only to later discover that he had been one of only four applicants chosen from 1,200! In this case, ignorance is bliss, because had he known the odds, Andy might not have tried for the scholarship.

His year in England at the London Academy for Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) was a great experience for Andy. Here, he worked at learning the craft of stage acting. His training in voice, carriage and movement, as well as the study of Shakespearean verse, have stood him in good stead over the years - particularly in the role of Garak, where heavy makeup and costume make "presence" extremely important.

On returning to the U. S., Andy did repertory work in Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Providence, R.I. before his first N.Y. stage role in Macbird Macbeth, a political parody. It was during Macbird that Andy first met Joseph Stern, with whom he is now in close association at The Matrix Theatre Company in Los Angeles. Macbird also starred Stacy Keach, a fellow student of Andy's at LAMDA.

In the 1960's and 1970s Andy wrote and acted while appearing with the experimental theater group LaMama Plexus in New York. He also appeared as Woyzeck in Europe, and off-Broadway in Futz and The Cannibals. It was during this time that Andy met someone very special.

On the closing night of Springvoices, a play which Andy had written for LaMama, Stacy Keach and singer Judy Collins, another friend, invited Andy to a party with the intention of fixing him up with an attractive young woman they'd brought with them. Reluctantly, Andy agreed to go. However, when he arrived at the party the person who immediately caught his eye was Irene. He walked up and said hello, and the rest is history. The two have just celebrated their 27th anniversary. Their extended family consists of Irene's two sons, their daughter Rachel, and two grandchildren.

In 1971, while appearing at Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival in Dostoevsky's The Idiot, Andy landed the role of the infamous Scorpio killer in Dirty Harry. Director Don Siegel talked Clint Eastwood into coming to see Andy perform. Shortly afterward he was cast in the part which would both gain and lose him a career in movies. He was so chillingly believable as the psychotic Scorpio that he has struggled with typecasting ever since.

Over the next several years, Andy performed a wide variety of roles in movies and television, including Charley Varrick with Walter Matthau, and a leading role in the soap opera Ryan's Hope, which earned him an Emmy nomination. Then, after a few lean acting years, Andy had the good fortune to star in the play In the Belly of the Beast, about real-life murderer Jack Abbott. He traveled with the play from L.A. to New York, and then to Australia, all the while garnering critical acclaim.

Suddenly, his career was looking up again. Episodic TV and movies-of-the week followed. Andy also portrayed the title role in one of two TV movies made about Liberace after the musician's death.

Andy debuted on Broadway in 1993 in the play Any Given Day, written by Frank Gilroy as a prequel to the better known "The Subject Was Roses". He loved his role, and working with co-stars Sada Thompson and Andrea Marcovicci. Sadly, the play received mixed reviews and closed after only six weeks. It was the only time Andy remembers crying at a final curtain call.

Once back in L.A., he was chosen for the role of Garak the Cardassian tailor/spy on Deep Space Nine - after first reading for the part of Odo!

Since the writers gave him little background for the character, much of Garak's persona has come from Andy himself - and he's obviously done an impressive job, because the character wasn't necessarily intended to be a regular one. Garak has become one of the most popular recurring characters on Deep Space Nine, thanks to Andy. He feels he's done some of his best acting as Garak, and is grateful to the show's writers for continuing to surprise him as well as the viewers with the development of the 'plain and simple tailor'. His favorite scene is from The Wire, with the episodes Improbable Cause and The Die is Cast close behind.

In 1992-93 friend Joseph Stern set about founding a theatre company in Los Angeles, and Andy was among those Stern asked to be involved in this endeavor. Andy is a proponent of double casting productions. This came about because actors appearing in television and movies often wish to perform in live theater. In a double cast play, if an actor is offered a part in a movie or a TV series, he or she can feel free to accept knowing there is always someone ready to step into the role. There is greater challenge for actors as well, because the dynamics can change dramatically with different cast combinations. In the Matrix' recent production Mad Forest, eleven actors shared playing 40 parts on different evenings!

George M. Cohan's The Tavern was the first Matrix production in 1993. While Andy didn't open in this play, he did appear in it after Any Given Day finished its run on Broadway. He also appeared in Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus, and the one-man play Memoirs of Jesus.

In 1995 and 1996, Andy's direction of Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" and Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming" at the Matrix earned him two Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards. This in turn led to his TV directing debut on Deep Space Nine, and Andy has since gone on to direct an episode of Voyager as well. His latest directing effort at The Matrix is J. B. Priestley's "Dangerous Corner", which opened in May 1997 to rave reviews.

Getting his start as a television director has meant that Andy's theater acting has been put on temporary hold. He missed appearing in Mad Forest at the Matrix (in which he would have played a dog, among other things!)

In the Summer of 1996. And, he reluctantly had to pass on directing Molly Sweeney at the Los Angeles Music Center's prestigious Mark Taper Forum, as this would have conflicted with his directing of Voyager.

However, the stage is Andy's first love, and he hopes to return to it soon.