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Steven Lance was born in Freehold, New Jersey and is a versatile film, television and voice actor, narrator, broadcaster, impressionist, writer, editor and published author. He is best known for his feature film roles as a Vegan crewman in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and the Young Emergency Room Intern in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980). Lance was "gifted" his role in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" by series creator Gene Roddenberry for his longtime association with Star Trek (1966) as host of the original New York City Star Trek conventions. He hosted Al Schuster's Star Trek '74 at New York's Commodore Hotel, as well as Star Trek '75, Star Trek America, and Bi-Centennial 10, all held in New York City's Americana Hotel. Lance (who initially worked under the Stage Name "Heash") hosted up to three conventions a year in New York, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. Most recently, Lance was the Narrator and Sound Supervisor for an animated short film Collier Youth Services: An Overview (2021)," which screened at the 2021 Garden State Film Festival.
He appears on screen as 'Vacation Man' and off-camera as the 'Voice of Trevor's Mom' in Ryan D. Moore's live-action feature film Marijuana Minutes (2022), for which he also served as ADR Supervisor. In Steven Melone's comedy, (currently in post-production), Lance appears as "Old Falling Man" in the film's pivotal scene, Additionally, Lance provided the radio drama broadcast voices of both Barry and Gary, in the live-action short, Hunting in the Past (2020), (currently in post-production), on which is he also served as the ADR Supervisor. Lance has a featured role in the music video, Dream Staycation (2020), a tribute to frontline workers, which was produced and performed by award-winning Canadian recording artist Sean James Hogan. Lance can be heard as the Public Address Announcer in Arthur Futuro (2019), and is the show's Post Production Sound Supervisor. Additionally, he is the Associate Producer, Sound Supervisor and Script Consultant for the short film I Thought I Heard Something... (2024), which is in post-production.
Lance's professional career was launched while he was still in high school, writing and producing radio commercials for local businesses, which included the Monmouth Mall in New Jersey. Then in 1973, Lance and his friend Barry attended their first Star Trek convention in New York City. Lance entered the talent show and performed his Star Trek stand-up routine--complete with impressions of the Enterprise crew. He won that competition and, as a result, was hired to host the 1974 International Star Trek convention. Lance continued hosting Star Trek conventions through 1983, while also working as a radio disc jockey on WRLB-FM, newscaster on WJLK-FM, and later program host of "Names in the News with Steven Lance," on New Jersey's ground-breaking modern rock radio station, FM 106.3, where his boss was Matt Pinfield of MTV's "120 Minutes" and "Celebrity Deathmatch."
Lance has been in showbiz since the age of four, first appearing on stage as an assistant for his dad, a professional magician. While most of his friends were outside playing sports, Lance was inside watching television and dreaming of being "in" the box just like Mike Teevee, the tv-obsessed character from the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). He was fascinated with every aspect of the medium, and knew then that he wanted to pursue a career in entertainment. His 4th grade teacher said of Lance on one of his report cards, "Steven is very bright, but he talks too much." Little did she know that his proclivity for being so chatty would one day earn him a living. Lance got his first break doing cartoon voices for animated segments of Sesame Street (1969) and Villa Alegre (1973) because they were produced by his maternal uncle, renowned animator and producer Harvey Siegel, who had earlier produced the classic cartoons The Bullwinkle Show (1959), The Bullwinkle Show (1959), Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales (1963), Hoppity Hooper (1964), and Underdog (1964).
Lance is a "quick study" at picking up new voices and has mastered many, including Boris Karloff--from his Frankenstein Monster's growl and speech in "Bride of Frankenstein" through his early motion pictures such as Edmond Bateman in "The Raven," to his older double-role as both the Grinch, and the narrator, of the Chuck Jones animated classic, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" He can effortlessly switch from Jack Mercer's original Popeye's (unscripted) high-pitched under-the-breath wisecracks and singing, to Lance LeGault's guttural Colonel Decker from The A-Team (1983). He loves doing Bob & Ray Bob Elliott (Chris Elliott's dad) and Ray Goulding from the show that was produced at WOR-AM radio in New York, which is where he met and became close friends with them. Lance of course enjoys doing his "Star Trek" impressions, including William Shatner as Captain Kirk, George Takei as Mr. Sulu, Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov, and his absolute dead-on favorite, James Doohan as "Scotty," the Enterprise's irascible Chief Engineer. His cartoon impressions include the Art Carney Ed Norton knock-offs for Yogi Bear and Barney Rubble. And he has actually done the voice of Kermit the Frog for Jim Henson, and Grover for Frank Oz.
Lance holds a B.A. degree in English from Upsala College and his acting training comes from being on the other side of the microphone and cameras. His list of industry mentors include, Broadcaster Geraldo Rivera, Talk-Show host Morton Downey Jr., Motion Picture director Robert Wise, Comedian, actor, writer and director Woody Allen, Walt Disney animator Tex Henson, and his dear friend, Henry Darrow, who played the aging Zorro on "Zorro and Son," and Don Alejandro opposite Duncan Regehr , on the Family Channel series in the 1990's. Darrow also provided the voice of Zorro in the Filmation animated cartoons, and it was he who taught Lance the art of providing inflection and energy for animated characters. Having worked with the cast of the "Star Trek" television series for a dozen years, he also got tips, guidance and advice from them when they did their characters' voices for Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973). Lance's most valuable schooling came from his dear friend, actor James "Scotty" Doohan, who voiced the ship's Chief Engineer, along with up to three other character voices for each of the 22 episodes.
Lance is also a professional writer and published author. He has completed a feature film screenplay and his pop-culture television reference book "Written Out of Television: A TV Lover's Guide to Cast Changes" was published by Scarecrow Press in Hardcover and Madison Books as a Trade Paperback. He also served as the Lead Researcher for James Robert Parish's, "The Unofficial Murder, She Wrote Casebook" book and Research Assistant for more than a dozen other books including Vincent Terrace's "Television Specials" and "Television Characters and Story Facts." Those successes won Lance a job as the Marketing Director for Geraldo Rivera. The position led to appearances on numerous radio and television shows that included "The Rocky Allen Showgram" on New York City's WPLJ-FM, and Fox TV's "Good-Day New York" with Donna Hanover. During his "Star Trek" years, Lance appeared three times on The Joe Franklin Show (1950), the same show on which the original Ghostbusters appeared. Lance is also the former creator, producer, and host of the weekly "Planet Showbiz" podcast on WCCR Rutgers Camden and served as Entertainment Editor for the Comcast cable on-line entity, Comcast@Home. In addition, he has earned a reputation as the nation's foremost trivia expert on the Adventures of Superman (1952) television series. In an article that appeared in the NY Daily News, Lance was called, "The Closest Thing to Superman Since George Reeves."
Lance is a multiple award winner, having received numerous Jasper Awards from The Jersey Shore Public Relations and Advertising Association in recognition of outstanding achievement in the field. He is also included in the 2019 and 2003 edition(s) of the international Marquis reference book, Who's Who in the World; the 24th edition of Who's Who in the East, the third edition of Who's Who in Entertainment, and the 56th (2000-2001) and 57th (2002-2003) editions of Who's Who in America. In addition, Lance is the recipient of the very prestigious 2019 Albert Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award.
Lance is hard at work on a new book about his "Star Trek" years, and numerous other projects TBA.
