(written from a Production point of view)
Erich Anderson (24 October 1956 – 1 June 2024; age 67) was the actor who played the Satarran impostor "Kieran MacDuff" in the Star Trek: The Next Generation fifth season episode "Conundrum". He filmed his scenes for this episode between Monday 18 November 1991 and Wednesday 20 November 1991 and Friday 22 November 1991 and Tuesday 26 November 1991 on Paramount Stage 8 and 9.
Anderson had a very lengthy career in television, with recurring roles in no less than five popular television series: Thirtysomething as Billy Sidel; Felicity (co-created by J.J. Abrams) NYPD Blue (starring Gordon Clapp) as Don Kirkendall (including two episodes with Gwynyth Walsh), Boomtown (starring Neal McDonough) as Ben Fisher; and Close to Home (starring John Carroll Lynch) as Detective George Branch. He also made guest appearances on Murder, She Wrote (with William Windom), Dallas (co-starring John Anderson, Glenn Corbett, Leigh J. McCloskey, Derek McGrath, William Smithers, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Morgan Woodward), Melrose Place, Sisters (with Stephen Collins), 7th Heaven (starring Stephen Collins and Catherine Hicks), Touched by an Angel, Chicago Hope (in an episode with Susanna Thompson), ER, The X-Files, Family Law (starring Christopher McDonald), CSI: Miami, and Medical Investigation (starring Neal McDonough), among many other shows.
After his appearance on Star Trek, Anderson appeared with Next Generation co-star Brent Spiner in two more projects: a 1996 episode of The Outer Limits (directed by Joseph L. Scanlan) and the 2004 television movie Jack. Other appearances with Trek performers include Quantum Leap (1990, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000, starring Paul Guilfoyle, with Jolene Blalock), Sisters (1991, with Denise Crosby and Frank Kopyc), Boston Public (2001, with Jeri Ryan), For the People (2002, with Armin Shimerman), and Close to Home (2006, with Connor Trinneer and directed by Roxann Dawson).
Prior to any of these, Anderson and his Next Generation co-star Jonathan Frakes were among the many Star Trek alumni who appeared in Dream West (1986). The other Trek performers who appeared in this series were F. Murray Abraham, Jeff Allin, John Anderson, Lee Bergere, James Cromwell, Michael Ensign, Alice Krige, Matt McCoy, Glenn Morshower, Fritz Weaver, Noble Willingham, and Anthony Zerbe. He made his feature film debut in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984, co-starring Lawrence Monoson) followed with a role in Missing in Action (1984, with Lenore Kasdorf). Later film credits include Patty Hearst (1988, with Kitty Swink), Bat*21 (1988, with Clayton Rohner), The Glass Shield (1994, with Bernie Casey, Victoria Dillard, Jim Fitzpatrick, Natalia Nogulich, Lori Petty, and Biff Yeager), Nightwatch (1997, with Brad Dourif), Where's Marlowe (1998, with Miguel Ferrer and Clayton Rohner), Beyond Suspicion (2000, with Casey Biggs and Jack Kehler), and Unfaithful (2002). Anderson was also involved in a number of TV movies, including 1991's Love Kills starring Virginia Madsen and Jim Metzler, 1992's Overkill with Marc Alaimo and Jack Shearer, 2002's Due East with Clara Bryant, and A Time to Remember (2003, co-starring Louise Fletcher, Rosemary Forsyth, and Megan Gallagher).
Anderson was married to fellow Next Generation guest performer Saxon Trainor. He passed away due to cancer in Los Angeles on June 1, 2024, at the age of 67. [1]