Dos Trequis
Or: The Most Interesting Meme In the Strange New Worlds
Between 2006 and 2016, a popular Dos Equis beer ad campaign featured a debonair, gray-bearded gentleman, identified as “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” who ended each ad with a variation on the slogan — “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty, my friends.”
If you follow Star Trek anything on social media you probably know where this is going, because for a decade memes like the following have been circulating, and continue circulating a half-dozen years after the actor in question retired from his “Most Interesting” role.
Internet meme about the Jonathan Goldsmith Star Trek rumor (circa 2012)
The memes identify the actor as Jonathan Goldsmith and state he appeared as a non-speaking, unnamed redshirt in an episode of the original Star Trek.
One of those is true.
His Myth Once Expanded Faster Than the Universe
As tweeted by the official William Shatner Twitter account in 2017. (Screenshot May 17, 2020)
In our age of social media and pop culture-related clickbait, this story has been shared and retold many times. Mr. Shatner's tweet is but one example.
Lauren Davis offered this variation for io9 in 2012:
It sounds like a bit from the Dos Equis commercials, but in this case, it appears to be true. Jonathan Goldsmith, who plays the beer company's Most Interesting Man in the World, appeared in the second episode of the original Star Trek series, “The Corbomite Maneuver.” He only appears on screen for a moment, but he also doesn't get a death scene.[1]
Episode number error aside (“The Corbomite Maneuver” was the first series production episode of Star Trek filmed and the tenth to air, not the show's “second episode”), is it possible that the rest of the account is true?
Today, Jonathan Goldsmith is a famous pitchman (sold to consumers as The Most Interesting Man in the World), but in 1966, he was a working actor, mostly appearing on episodic television. Perhaps he once had a small part on Star Trek?
Not if Mr. Goldsmith has anything to say about it.
The Most Interesting Denial In the World
During a 2013 Reddit AMA, Goldsmith offered a cheeky denial that he had ever appeared on the series:
Jonathan Goldsmith: Let me set the record straight... I have never appeared on Star Trek, if I remember correctly that is, which is always dubious.[2]
In a later interview with the Television Academy, Mr. Goldsmith dismissed the story again, this time with less ambiguity:
David M. Gutiérrez: It's fitting you're being sent to Mars [in a commercial], considering you're credited as being a "Redshirt" in the original Star Trek.
Jonathan Goldsmith: No, I wasn't. I've never done that show. I can’t convince the fans of that. They keep sending me pictures of a guy in a red shirt, but it ain't me.[3]
Since the actor himself has twice issued a denial, it begs asking — how did the rumor get started in the first place?
Myth Alert
...
Myth Alert ...
Lippe Service
The Most Interesting Matter here is just how stories like this are born, spread, and propagate to the point they’re gleefully accepted as fact when they, in truth, are patently false.
In this case the answer begins not on the web, but appears to originate in the pages of the 1995 edition of The Star Trek Concordance (this information is not present in previous editions of the book). In that book, the following names are included as part of the cast list for “The Corbomite Maneuver”:
Crewmen: Bruce Mars, John Gabriel, Jonathan Lippe, Stewart Moss, George Bochmane[4]
There are two things of note about these five names. First, Lippe was the surname of Jonathan Goldsmith’s stepfather, and the name Goldsmith used professionally until 1975.[5] Second, precisely none of the actors listed actually appear in “The Corbomite Maneuver.” Bruce Mars and Stewart Moss appeared in other episodes, while John Gabriel and Jonathan Lippe/Goldsmith didn't appear on Star Trek at all. “Bochmane” is probably a misspelling of George Backman, who had a brief acting career in the late 1960s, but never appeared on Star Trek.
How did Bjo Trimble, author of The Star Trek Concordance, come to believe that these five men appeared in “The Corbomite Maneuver”? The following portion of the author's note (emphasis added) provided the first clue:
For this new edition, I used video- and audiotapes, shooting and editing scripts, the UCLA Special Collections Library collections, private files and notes, interviews, letters from fans, books, help from people inside Paramount Studios, and computer bulletin board postings...to edit, expand, add to, and rewrite the original handful of notes into this book.[6]
When we sent the following casting schedule in a batch of documents to Dave Tilotta, co-author of Star Trek: Lost Scenes, he realized the importance of the following memo almost immediately — it has all five of the names listed as crewmen in The Star Trek Concordance, including Jonathan Lippe (Goldsmith).
“The Corbomite Maneuver” casting schedule (May 1966) [7]
It turns out that Bruce Mars, John Gabriel, Jonathan Lippe, Stuart Moss, and George Backman (here, spelled “George Bochman”) all auditioned for the role of Lieutenant Dave Bailey, which eventually went to the second actor on the list — Anthony Call.
It’s pretty obviously a list actors up for two parts, but it was the early 90s and Bjo Trimble was probably forced to take handwritten notes from the documents rather than photocopy or photograph them, and when consulting her notes erroneously concluded all of the actors listed on this memo actually appeared in “The Corbomite Maneuver.”
But, as often happens with inaccurate information—especially when published by a figure as established as Bjo—such erroneous cast listings inevitably ended up in other publications. When Michael and Denise Okuda updated The Star Trek Encyclopedia with a second edition in 1997, for example, they included the following in their cast list for “The Corbomite Maneuver”:
Bruce Mars, John Gabriel, Jonathan Lippe, Stewart Moss, George Bochman, Crewmen.[8]
That book's acknowledgments confirm that such information, which is not present in the first edition of The Star Trek Encyclopedia, most likely came from Trimble:
We would like to thank Bjo Trimble for permission to use some of her cast list research from the original Star Trek series that was incorporated into our cast appendix.[9]
IMDb’s since-retracted erroneous credit.
Eventually, the claim that Jonathan Goldsmith appeared on Star Trek would make its way to IMDb (as early as 2010; though this listing has since been removed), as well as many other online sources. It was within one of those that this myth would take on a new dimension.
A Most Uninvestigated Meme
That source of all this social media activity? It appears to be an October 8, 2012 blog post by Joey deVilla, which identified a specific extra from “The Corbomite Maneuver” as Jonathan Goldsmith. Previous sources, like the Concordance and the Encyclopedia, claimed that Goldsmith played an unnamed crewman in the episode, but did not identify him with an actor on screen.
The mother of all “Interesting Man” Trek memes?
Mr. deVilla, however, claimed that the extra in question was a red-shirted Enterprise crewman who only briefly appears (and we do mean briefly — the man in question, who has no lines and receives no screen credit, is on screen for less than five seconds).
The redshirt supposedly I.D. as Goldsmith…who isn’t.
This supposed positive I.D. quickly caught fire. Not only did it form the basis of the widely circulated meme and variations on it, but it was subsequently reported — without scrutiny, and often without attribution — by other online outlets.
Examples:
October 13, 2012: I Don’t Always Play a Red Shirt on Star Trek. But When I Do, I Survive The Whole Episode (Neatorama)
October 14, 2012: The Most Interesting Man in the World played a red shirt on Star Trek—and survived (io9)
October 14, 2012: I Don’t Always Play a Red Shirt on Star Trek… (Patheos)
September 17, 2013: Image Of The Day: The Most Interesting Star Trek Redshirt In The World (SyFyWire; link no longer available)
March 9, 2014: Did You Know ‘The Most Interesting Man In the World’ Was On ‘Star Trek’? (KEKB-FM)
March 2, 2016: 31 Actors And Celebrities You Didn’t Know Appeared In ‘Star Trek’ (UPROXX)
March 9, 2016: Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man in the World was in all of your favorite TV shows (MeTV)
April 5, 2016: 12 CELEBRITIES YOU MIGHT HAVE FORGOTTEN WERE ON 'STAR TREK' (MeTV)
June 23, 2016: Dos Equis’ ‘Most Interesting Man In The World’ Has a Most Interesting Link to ‘Star Trek’ (Mic)
June 23, 2016: Dos Equis’ ‘Most Interesting Man In The World’ Has a Most Interesting Link to ‘Star Trek’ (Yahoo Music)
June 24, 2016: ‘Most Interesting Man’ Worked as an Extra on ‘Star Trek’ (Project Casting) [Article was updated September 29, 2021]
July 4, 2016: The actor who plays “The Most Interesting Man In The World” also played a redshirt on Star Trek who survived (Curionic)
January 18, 2017: “Did you know…that the “World’s Most Interesting Man” once played a “redshirt” in the original ’60’s Star Trek episode “The Corbomite Maneuver” and lived to talk about it???” (Trek Mate)
August 7, 2020: Who Is the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in The World”? (Better Marketing)
Who’s Interesting?
So, if the briefly glimpsed redshirt wasn’t our “Interesting” Goldsmith, who was he?
Unfortunately, we don't have access to the documentation necessary to identify this extra. Star Trek's daily production reports identified most speaking parts and stunt performers, but they never provided the names of any background performers. Only the total number of extras who appeared on any given day, their pay rates, and their hours worked would be listed.
Daily Production Report for “The Corbomite Maneuver” (June 2, 1966) [10]
Thus, the daily production reports for “The Corbomite Maneuver” cannot clear up his identity. The relevant section above, marked “ATMOSPHERE, WELFARE WORKERS, AND SIDELINE MUSICIANS” (bottom section of which does not identify any of the background performers who worked on June 2, 1966, when the shot Mr. deVilla identified was taken).
An entry on the Memory Alpha wiki suggests the same extra that deVilla mis-I.D.ed as Goldsmith also appeared—equally as briefly—in “What Are Little Girls Made Of”, and in “Charlie X” as one of the crewmen Charlie Evans barges through en-route to the bridge near the climax. If it’s the same actor, it’s clearly not Goldsmith.[11]
However, even though archival documentation cannot be used to clarify the actual identity of this extra, there are other reasons — beyond the actor's firm denial — that make it highly unlikely Mr. Goldsmith appeared on Star Trek in a background role.
SAG Not SEG
In 1966, Jonathan Goldsmith appeared on at least five different TV programs in eight different roles (and received screen credit). These were speaking roles, and Goldsmith was in the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Extras received considerably less than SAG actors (both upfront and on the back end; extras did not receive any residuals if a show was rebroadcast, while SAG actors would receive payments for the first few reruns).
Moreover, until 1990, background performers were represented by their own guild (SEG, the Screen Extras Guild) and SAG actors crossing over into background work was rare.
The reverse, however, was more common. On Star Trek, for example, Eddie Paskey was a background actor who appeared in 58 episodes, but he ended up with lines in five of those and screen credit in two.
Jonathan Goldsmith himself says he received his first speaking role — on The Doctors, a soap opera — when the producers gave him a line of dialogue while he was working as an extra.[12] By 1966, however, there's no evidence that Goldsmith was pursuing work as an extra, and zero evidence that he appeared on Star Trek.
Trek Adjacent
But it turns out that Goldsmith's not without a few Star Trek connections. In his memoir, Stay Interesting: I Don't Always Tell Stories About My Life, but When I Do They're True and Amazing, he relates that…
When he first moved to Hollywood (after acting in New York), he stayed with a young actor named Walter Koenig (“His role on Star Trek and his success were much deserved and truly could not have happened to a nicer guy,” says Goldsmith)[13] Walter says they knew each other but never cohabitated.[14]
Star Trek regular director Marc Daniels directed him in a 1966 television episode of Gunsmoke
He shared the screen with the likes of both Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner— with the former on on an episode of Mission: Impossible and with the latter on three episodes of T.J. Hooker
But there’s absolutely no evidence that he ever appeared on an episode of Star Trek.
Fact Trequies
That this myth has gone so far based on misreading a single memo and repeated without scrutiny is The Most Interesting Fact In the Meme World…or at least we think so.
So the next time you see that spurious meme reshared, do your FACT TREKking duty and reply with this meme we’ve made just for you…
As “The Most Interesting” Mr. Goldsmith might say, “Stay skeptical, my friends.”
—30—
Note: This article is an expanded and updated version of a piece originally published as “The Most Interesting Article In The World” (link) on Fact Trek’s predecessor, the Star Trek Fact Check blog, on Monday, November 13, 2017.
Revision History
2020-06-02 Original post.
2020-07-04 Incorrect image of daily production report replaced with the one from the date mentioned. Typos and some grammar corrected.
Special Thanks
To David Tilotta for connecting the dots between the Bailey casting memo and The Star Trek Concordance, and for generally being a real hep cat.
To Star Trek casting director Joseph D’Agosta for explaining how the casting of extras/background was carried out.
To FACT TREK Associate Ryan Thomas Riddle for his invaluable input and edits. Follow his adventures through time and space on Twitter (link) and see his work on his homepage (link).
End Notes & Sources
[1] Lauren Davis, "The Most Interesting Man in the World played a red shirt on Star Trek—and survived" (link), io9, October 14, 2012
[2] Jonathan Goldsmith, "I don't always post to Reddit, but when I do, I do it from Central Vietnam's former DMZ. I am Jonathan Goldsmith, I play the Most Interesting Man in the World. Ask Me Anything" (link), Reddit, August 1, 2013.
[3] David M. Gutiérrez, “A Most Interesting Interview with a Most Interesting Man” (link), Emmys, June 17, 2016
[4] Bjo Trimble, The Star Trek Concordance: The A-To-Z Guide to the Classic Original Television Series and Films (1995), p.14
[5] Jonathan Goldsmith, Stay Interesting: I Don't Always Tell Stories About My Life, but When I Do They're True and Amazing (2017), p.50
[6] Bjo Trimble, The Star Trek Concordance (1995), p.vii
[7] Casting Schedule for "The Corbomite Maneuver," Joe Sargent, May 1966, Gene Roddenberry Star Trek Television Series Collection, UCLA
[8] Michael and Denise Okuda, The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future (Updated and Expanded Edition, 1997), p.88
[9] Michael and Denise Okuda, The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future (Updated and Expanded Edition, 1997), p.v
[10] Daily Production Report for "The Corbomite Maneuver," June 2, 1966, Gene Roddenberry Star Trek Television Series Collection, Box 3, Folder 9
[11] Unnamed USS Enterprise operations personnel, Engineer #2 on the Memory Alpha Wiki (link)
[12] Jonathan Goldsmith, Stay Interesting: I Don't Always Tell Stories About My Life, but When I Do They're True and Amazing (2017), p.50
[13] Jonathan Goldsmith, Stay Interesting:, p.121-125
[14] Walter Koening via email with Fact Trek, Jun 1, 2022.
“I knew Jonathan in New York. We were at the Neighborhood Playhouse together. He came out to L.A. about a year after I did and we hung out together for several years back in the sixties. Ran into him again a couple of years back. Not that it matters but we never lived together.”