PERSONNEL FILE: Dukat, Gul

The former Cardassian prefect of DS9, or Terok Nor, Dukat has proven himself a survivor as well as an expert tactician at political intrigue as well as combat. He has ridden the roller-coaster of change sweeping his people, incredibly recovering from the DS9 loss to becoming military advisor after a shocking civilian coup in 2371, then a lone marauder against Klingon aggressors after losing his legate rank over a mistress scandal, and finally as ruler of a puppet government in the Dominion on the verge of taking the Alpha Quadrant in 2373-74. A wily egotist and more silver-tongued than most Cardassians, he was a part of the Bajoran occupation at least as far back as 2352 (when he fathered a daughter by a Bajoran mistress) and came to head the station about ten years before the overall Bajoran withdrawal he opposed. He had dealt with Quark throughout the Occupation, but had first met both Kira and Odo in 2363 as a member of the Central Command -- afterwards making Odo his station security chief, and later coming to have an ever-enlarging crush on Kira; he had called labeled her a 'minor operative' who ran 'errands for the terrorist leaders. After the withdrawal he still kept meddling in station affairs as commander of the Second Order but was not above cooperating when it suited him, as in hunting down the Maquis with Sisko who kidnapped him in 2370, or searching for his mistress and daughter among the Ravinok survivors with Kira in 2372. Dukat had just been promoted to legate after helping save the civilian Deteppa Council from Klingon capture in early 2372 during their invasion, but he lost all standing and his wife and seven children, including an 11-year-old son Mikor in 2371 by admitting to his illegitimate daughter Tora Ziyal. Rather than keep his demotion to a freighter captain, he broke off to prey as a bandit on Klingon intruders, but eventually sold out his world to the Dominion to become its leader under the Vorta, Weyoun. Although they fought together against the Klingon invaders, Dukat and Garak share a special hatred: the former Obsidian Order agent had Dukat's father on trial and executed, and Dukat has wanted to do the same to his rival, now in exile. His old Terok Nor clearance was the maximum, level 9 with access/authorization code 'Dukat 5116-Green;' in the Second Order his security ID code was A-D-L-4-0. He likes red leaf tea, Bajoran Spring Wine, Didactic Theatre, and had survived five assassination attempts by 2367.

Marc Alaimo was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His acting talent was discovered by a Jesuit priest, Father Walsh, who encouraged Marc to pursue this gift. Marc credits Father Walsh with saving him from "going off the rails," as Marc was a bit of a "tearaway" as a young man. He related the following story at a recent convention about the first experience he had with acting: He was in school at the time, and during class he had been asked to mime a man being hanged. He portrayed it so vividly that "the girls in the class were crying and the boys were just sitting there. . . and I knew I had this power." The teacher asked him to stay after class to talk about his performance, and ended up getting Marc the lead role in the school play -- over the objections of the other teachers who knew Marc only as a tough kid, a 'greaser.' After the night of his performance, the objections of the other teachers vanished, and Marc's life changed for the better.

After attending Marquette University, Marc spent some years in New York City pursuing his career as an actor. Says Marc: "I spent seven years there, struggling, actually. I did three years of soap opera, and then I would do repertory theaters, professional rep theaters across the country. I would be one of those nucleus actors. In those days, there used to be a nucleus company of actors, say anywhere from 8 to 12, and then they'd fill in other parts with locals and apprentices. I maintained a base in New York for seven years. I miss it. When I started out to be an actor, to think in terms of movies and television was verboden. We looked down our nose at it. We were serious actors, artists, artistes."

Marc then spent many years doing episodic television series in California: "I did a lot of those. At one point I just chose not to do them on episodic anymore. Because I did all that Starsky and Hutch stuff. I was always the heavy, and I always got killed." But now, Marc says that he's "at a much more mature point" in his life. "I'd like to do a good character, do good film or TV, [movies of the week], and theater of course. That's my first love. You just can't make a living at it."

Marc seems to have found a niche in playing the character of Gul Dukat on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "Originally when first I started [playing Dukat], I could have taken a very one dimensional point of view about this character, and just played him, 'I'm going to rip your arms and legs off and eat them, right in front of you.' I could have done that. It would have been easy. But I began to see little interesting things about him, to give him texture and some different colors, and something people could really relate to. It's all turned out very well. I think he's really turned into a very interesting character."

At present, Marc is no longer married but he does have two children: a son and a daughter. He lives in a rural area of southern California with his dog, Fitz, and his wolf, Jenny, in a house that he has renovated himself. One of his current projects is a Tex-Mex restaurant called 'The Adobe Cantina,' on which he did some of the hands-on construction personally. It will (hopefully) be opening soon!