David Warner and Paul Sorvino

We've lost two great actors this week. David Warner died on Sunday, aged 80, while Paul Sorvino died on Monday, aged 83. Sorvino was in one great movie, Goodfellas, while Warner was in a million movies of varying quality. Both were on Star Trek: The Next Generation within a year of each other.

Sorvino was in the seventh season episode "Homeward" in which he played Worf's human foster brother. It was a role that needed an actor capable of subtlety and showing shades of grey. Sorvino was more than up to the challenge and played a believable character while keeping the audience guessing if he was a scoundrel or just rough around the edges.

Of course, his best known role was as the taciturn gangster boss Paulie in Goodfellas. He had the quiet warmth of an ideal patriarch and the menace of a contented psychopath, all at the same time.

David Warner appeared in the sixth season two parter, "Chain of Command". He was also in two Star Trek movies in significant roles, Star Trek V and VI but it's for his TNG role as a Cardassian torturer that he's most likely to be remembered to-day. The essentially two man show between him and Patrick Stewart, in which Warner's character used psychological tactics to make Picard see five lights when there were only four, has become an enduring meme. An evocative touchstone for how easily and completely the human mind can be made to perceive a fraudulent form of reality.

But this great role is by no means even the tip of the iceberg in Warner's long career. To say he was ubiquitous would be an understatement. I've already watched at least two movies featuring him this year--John Carpenter's Body Bags and a production of Midsummer Night's Dream from 1968. If you're in the habit of watching genre movies and television of the past 40 years, odds are pretty good that you've seen him recently, too.

It's my favourite film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, in fact. Warner plays Lysander alongside Helen Mirren, Diana Rigg, Judi Dench, Ian Holm, and Ian Richardson. And with that powerhouse cast he's perfectly capable of holding his own.

Many actors fear taking too many roles for cheapening their cache. But Warner could appear in piles of schlock like Quest of the Delta Knights (featured on Mystery Science Theatre 3000) but still elevate an otherwise already quality film with his presence. He's irreplaceable in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits or as Jack the Ripper in Nicholas Meyer's Sci-Fi thriller Time After Time.

I don't think there's another actor who has appeared in three of my favourite television series: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Twin Peaks, and Doctor Who. He also starred in dozens of underrated Doctor Who audio plays, even playing the Doctor himself on multiple occasions.

And still, there are many more roles I'm not even mentioning. Many I haven't seen yet. I look forward to them.