While I have seen him in other things, Alexander Siddig is definitely one of the Deep Space Nine people I first think of from the show. Part of that is that Dr. Bashir was one of his first roles; he made his debut in a movie called Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, hardly the most famous Stephen Frears film. He then made a TV movie and a miniseries before getting cast. Most of the rest of the stars had been bouncing around TV for decades; Siddig was not yet thirty at the time.
To my unending delight, he was born Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abdurrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi. His father was Sudanese; his English mother was Malcolm MacDowell’s older sister. In fact his father’s brother was twice prime minister of Sudan, and his great-great-grandfather was Muhammad Ahmad, a Nubian religious leader. Further, his parents divorced; his mother’s second husband was Michael Birkett, second Baron Birkett and a minor director/producer; his half-brother is both the third baron and a cinematographer. So that’s quite the heritage.
Initially, he was credited as Siddig El Fadil, but apparently his concern was that Trekkies would be unable to pronounce it. I’m not sure where the “Alexander” came from, but I do understand his concern. It’s exhausting how hard it can be for people who have “foreign” names to have them consistently mispronounced. Hell, I imagine him sitting and sympathizing with Rene Auberjonois, another DS9 actor with a challenging name and a colourful family history. And Auberjonois was a kind of foreign that Americans think is cool and interesting, not scary.
Apparently, Siddig got quite a lot more work in the days following 9/11, which I find absolutely depressing, although he does seem to have gotten more than a few roles as “one of the good ones.” Which I suppose is better than playing a lot of terrorists, though the fact that those are the choices is appalling. Siddig proved himself to be a talented actor with a good sense of comedic timing, and while it’s certainly true that old Star Trek people don’t really have to do anything other than coast on Star Trek for the rest of their lives, I’m sure it would be nice for him to play a lead now and again.
He was actually initially considered for Captain Sisko; it was decided, correctly, that he was too young for the role. Sisko needed gravitas that Siddig wasn’t really old enough for in those days. He had something of an eager puppy quality to him. This, I suppose, is part of why he grew into the weird relationship with the various other characters that he did; there was something irresistibly adorable about him. I’ll admit I’ve missed a lot of his specific story arc, but it isn’t out of any lack of affection for him, just the writing.
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