Oscar-nominated American actor, closely associated with director John Cassavetes, who played Lieutenant Commander Hester Dealt in the second-season Next Generation opener The Child.
Seymour Cassel (1935 to 2019) was an American actor best known for his work with John Cassavetes. He received an Academy Award nomination for Faces, starred in Minnie and Moskowitz, and later appeared in several Wes Anderson films, including Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.
In The Child, the episode that opened the second season of The Next Generation, he plays Lieutenant Commander Hester Dealt, the medical trustee who supervises the transport of dangerous plague samples from Aucdet IX.
Dealt works with Dr Pulaski when one of the specimens begins to grow, a danger traced to radiation from Troi's mysterious son Ian.