Canadian actor Kenneth Mitchell has passed away. Mitchell revealed that he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He has used a power wheelchair since October 2019. By August 2021, Mitchell had lost the use of his voice due to the disease. He is known for his portrayal of 3 different Klingons in Star Trek Discovery – Kol, Kol-Sha, and Tenavik in seasons 1 & 2, as well as the wheelchair ridden human Aurellio, in season 3!
Among his prominent roles, in 2002, Mitchell had a recurring role on the TV series Odyssey 5, which was created by Manny Coto and starred Peter Weller. He played the older son of Weller’s character who was a little estranged from his astronaut father & younger brother. In 2004 he played real life American hockey player Ralph Cox in Miracle and went on to play a main character in the American post-apocalyptic action drama television series Jericho. He went on to have a recurring role in Ghost Whisperer an Switched at birth and starred in the 2013 tv movie Tasmanian Devil on SYFY alongside Mike Dopu Roger Cross, Rekha Sharma & Danica McKellar.
He has been in numerous guest appearance on tv after moving to the Los Angeles area before playing 3 different Klingons in Star Trek Discovery. In Season 1 he played Kol, from the house of Kor, the commanding officer of the Klingon military. He also portrayed Kol-Sha, the father of Kol, in the season 2 episode “Point of Light” and Tenavik, a Klingon monk who is the child of Ash Tyler/Vog an T’rell. In 2019, Mitchell appeared in two flashback scenes as the father of Carol Danvers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe feature Captain Marvel. Mitchell was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease”) in August 2018, and has been using a wheelchair since October 2019. he role of Aurellio was subsequently written for him as a hoverchair user, to retain his talent for the show and incorporate his wheelchair use. The USS Mitchell, which featured in Discovery season 4, is named for him.
Mitchell is survived by his wife actress Susan May Pratt, who he married on in 2006, and their two children, a daughter (born 2007) and a son (born 2012).