The actor, W. Morgan Sheppard, who appeared in the two-part story The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon which opened Series Six in 2011, has died at the age of 86.

Sheppard played the older version of the former FBI agent Canton Delaware III, acting alongside his son Mark Sheppard who played the same character in his younger days.

The two Sheppards have the unusual distinction of appearing in both Doctor Who and Star Trek. The older Sheppard had roles in a number of different versions of the US sci-fi series with credits in Star Trek: The Next Generation (in the episode The Schizoid Man), Star Trek: Voyager (in Bliss), as a Klingon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country on the big screen, and most recently as a member of the Vulcan High Council in the 2009 reboot Star Trek. Other sci-fi credits came with two roles in Babylon 5 in the episodes Soul Hunter and The Long Twilight Struggle.

Born in London, Sheppard trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and had twelve years as an associate artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

An extensive list of credits includes film appearances in The Elephant Man (1980), Gettysburg (1993), and The Prestige (2006), with TV roles on both sides of the Atlantic in the likes of Minder (1979), Alias (2005), and Mad Men (2010). Genre related credits came in The Day of the Triffids (1981), Max Headroom (1987-1988), and Quantum Leap (1993).

Sheppard died in Los Angeles, California and is survived by his wife and children. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.