TREKCORE > DEEP SPACE NINE > CAST > Legate Damar

PLAYED BY: Casey Biggs
FULL NAME: not revealed
SPECIES: Cardassian
POSITION/OCCUPATION: Soldier; became head of Cardassian state; eventually became rebel leader
RANK: Glinn until "Behind the Lines"; Gul until "Statistical Probabilities"; Legate until "The Changing Face of Evil"
BIRTHPLACE: Cardassia (presumably)
SPOUSE: wife (unnamed) - killed by the Dominion during "Tacking Into the Wind"
CHILD: son (unnamed) - killed by the Dominion during "Tacking Into the Wind"
HOBBIES/INTERESTS: Kanar

Damar served under Dukat, as a glinn, on the freighter Groumall and later on a captured Klingon bird-of-prey ("Return to Grace", "Apocalypse Rising"); he was with him when Dominion/Cardassian forces took DS9 in late 2373 ("Call to Arms"). As Dukat's confidante, Damar carried some weight, but his rise truly began when he engineered a method to disable the minefield Starfleet had left across the wormhole entrance, for which he was promoted to Gul. He could not, however, resist bragging about the plan to Quark when the Ferengi got him drunk on kanar ("Behind the Lines").

Sometime later, Damar was sent by Dukat to fetch Ziyal, but was beaten up by Kira when he tried to force Ziyal to go with him. Later, when the battle for the station had finally been lost to Starfleet, Damar shot and killed Ziyal after overhearing her admit to her father that she had helped Kira and the others escape. He was forced to leave Dukat behind in the evacuation to Cardassia ("Favor the Bold"/"Sacrifice of Angels").

After this, Damar became a legate, and succeeded Dukat as head of the Cardassian government. He governed only at the Dominion's sufferance, and knew this very well, but could do little about it. At one point, he apparently arranged Weyoun's death in a transporter accident, but it did him no good, as Weyoun was immediately replaced by a new clone ("Treachery, Faith and the Great River").

By the time of the episode "Penumbra", Damar was descending into depression and alcoholism, and was essentially little more than a figurehead, though he had enough clout to secretly aid Dukat in his plan to masquerade as a Bajoran. Finally, in "Strange Bedfellows", chafing under Weyoun's continual belittling and dismissal of his authority, and incensed by the Dominion's casual sacrifice of an entire Cardassian order, Damar made his choice. He helped Worf and Ezri to escape, with a message: the Federation now had an ally on Cardassia.

In "The Changing Face of Evil", Damar gathered a force of officers still loyal to him and finally declared his rebellion by sending them on a strike against a Dominion outpost. He went underground with his men, including his aide Gul Rusot, and accepted help from Starfleet in the form of Kira, who came with Odo and Garak to teach the Cardassians guerrilla fighting tactics ("When It Rains..."). When Damar learned, while on a mission to capture a Breen energy dissipator, that his wife and son had been murdered by the Dominion, it only made him more determined; so much so that when Rusot threatened to kill Kira and Odo, Damar shot and killed his friend instead ("Tacking Into the Wind").

Not long afterwards, an intended meeting with potential allies turned out to be a trap, and Damar went into hiding with Garak and Kira, in Enabran Tain's old house. To his surprise, Damar learned soon afterwards that he was becoming a legend to the Cardassian people. At Kira's suggestion, Damar then began a popular uprising ("The Dogs of War").

Finally, in "What You Leave Behind", after he had been captured with Kira and Garak by the Jem'Hadar, but rescued by fellow revolutionaries, Damar was killed in the initial assault of the rebel forces against Dominion headquarters.

Casey Biggs

Casey Biggs was born April 4, 1955. Growing up in Toledo, Ohio, Casey chose to pursue an acting career while he was still a student at Central Catholic High. He actually had a fair amount of talent as a football player, but it was on the stage acting that made him feel most comfortable. After dropping football, which he had taken up in his freshman year, he concentrated his energy on serious acting, joining the Toledo Repertory Theater, where Roy Fluhrer served as his mentor, giving the young actor the encouragement.

Fluhrer would influence Casey for life, as did other Toledeans Carolyn Seeman and Jerry DePrisco at Catholic High and actress Eve Weiher also influenced Casey considerably. While still in high school, Casey befriended Frank Fischer, who, along with Bill Blinn, is a Hollywood producer. Fischer would accompany Casey to New York to audition for entrance in the Julliard School. He was accepted! And after high school graduation in 1973, Casey spent four years in the hallowed halls of one of the most famous arts school in the world.

After receiving a BFA from Julliard in 1977, Casey had some guest roles in television sitcoms, but his love of the stage was the center of his professional life. He joined John Houseman's prestigious performance troupe, touring America and Europe with a large cast. This included a role in the musical The Cradle Will Rock, which Casey can be heard singing in the original cast sound track (available here). Casey, having joined The Acting Company, was also a member of the famed Arena Stage in Washington D.C., where he performed as Odysseus in Homer's The Odyssey in 1994.

Professionally, Casey was nominated five times for the Helen Hayes Award for his work at Arena Stage, with a 1996 nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Residence Play in Long Days Journey into Night.

In 1995, came his role as Damar in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Believing it to be yet another, simple one-shot guest role, Casey was surprised to hear that they wanted him to come back and read a second time (the same two lines of dialogue, no less) for the role. On the first day of shooting he was warned by guest director Jonathan West that the producers had "big plans" for the character. At the time, they realized that they definitely needed a solid actor to be Dukat's right hand man, but no one guessed just how much of a prominent role Damar would turn out being, or how much of an impression Casey would have on fans around the world. As interest in Damar grew, Casey began being invited to more and more Sci-fi conventions to the great delight of many fans.

What many may not know, is that Casey had been a foster child when he was very young. Realizing he had a good opportunity to put his growing popularity to good use, Casey sought for a way to help children in the same position he had been in as a boy. With the help of the foster care center, Pennylane, Casey instituted The Casey Biggs Scholarship Fund.
"We've given out Scholorships for the past two years. The Scholarship started as a result of the fan club and my desire to help emancipated foster kids who express a desire to persue higher education. Being a former foster child myself I felt it would be a noble cause to make an effort to help a young man or woman get a leg up as they step out on their own and into a college education. Penny Lane is the perfect place to concentrate our efforts as it is one of the largest and most well respected foster care organizations in California."

For all his hard work and devotion, in the annual "Voices of Our Children" benefit, Pennylane honored Casey with their "Blue Skies Award". The awards were given on October 5, 2002. A brief report and photos regarding that special night can be seen in our News Archive.

Although best known to Star Trek fans as the guest star of television shows, TV is not where Casey puts his focus on. He is known to have said, "I'm a creature of the stage. I'm much more fulfilled working on the stage, but to be able to balance between the two is a big challenge. I see it as an opportunity that I have because I seem to be working at both. That's a real blessing." - "The Blade" (Toledo, Ohio newspaper)

As of 2003, theatre is where Casey has focused most of his attention in recent months, as a director and performer. Recently he has made his return to The Arena Stage in a new play called "Shakespeare in Hollywood". As a member of Circus Theatricals, he has directed and starred in quite a few critically acclaimed production at The Odyssey Theatre in LA, including Shakespeare's "Richard III", and the west coast premiere of Mamet's "Speed the Plow".

Biography from Casey Biggs Official Site