American comic actor (1935–2011), known for The Producers and Young Frankenstein, who played the village protector Colyus in the Deep Space Nine episode Shadowplay.
Kenneth Mars was an American actor celebrated for his work with Mel Brooks, including the playwright Franz Liebkind in The Producers and Inspector Kemp in Young Frankenstein, and for a long career as a voice actor.
He guest-starred in the second-season Deep Space Nine episode Shadowplay as Colyus, the Protector of a small Yaderan village in the Gamma Quadrant whose inhabitants have been vanishing one by one.
Colyus first suspects Odo and Dax, then works with them, and is as surprised as anyone to learn that he and almost all his neighbours are holograms sustained by a failing generator.