Got to thinking about this earlier, while watching Enterprise…
Some groundwork to keep the numbers ‘clean’:
One - Let’s stick to speaking actors, not stunt actors or the people in monster suits.
Two - Purely holographic or hallucinated characters count as whatever species they appear as.
Three - Changelings, Prophets, and characters in disguise all count as their ‘base’ species, not the one they’re appearing as.
Four - Hybrid characters only count for one species - preferably the one they most match phenotypically, so Spock would only count as a Vulcan, and B’Elanna Torres as Klingon.
On first pass, I’d guess Jeffrey Combs and JG Hertzler tie for first, having 6 each - both of them spread across the same 3 series - DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise.
Combs - Vorta (multiple Weyouns), Ferengi (Brunt, Mirror!Brunt, Krem), Human (Kevin Mulkahey), Andorian (Shran) and 2 unnamed species (Tiron and Penk). Hertzler - Klingon (Martok, Koros, unnamed captain), Changeling (False!Martok, Laas), Human (Roy Ritterhouse), Vulcan (Unnamed captain of the Saratoga), Hirogen (unnamed Tsunkatse fighter), and Prophet (in the forms of the Saratoga’s captain and Martok).
I asked myself “Which ST actors played the most roles?” a few months ago and found THIS interesting article.
It’s a slightly different question than what your asking, but I thought you may enjoy it.
Stuntwoman Patricia Tallman got plenty of work doubling for Gates McFadden and Michelle Forbes and Nana Visitor and so on – which I realize you’re not counting, but which also meant she was standing right there whenever they needed somebody to play – well, Nurse Tagana, the tall Bajoran who works with Doctor Bashir; or Kiros, the Arkarian mercenary who takes over the Enterprise when Picard passes himself off as the ship’s barber; or some other alien, passing herself off as a Romulan; or Nima, the Ennis warrior; or whatever. You need a human Starfleet officer at Ops on TNG? Fine. You need a menacing Taresian on VOYAGER? Okay.
Again, bonus points for swapping in as a stunt double for an actress playing a Vulcan, and an actress playing a Klingon, and an actress playing an Elaysian, and an actress playing a J’Nai – but even without counting any of that, she’s still up there.
Vaughn Armstrong – the entirely human Maxwell Forrest, that Starfleet admiral in all those episodes of ENTERPRISE – played a Klingon who ain’t too impressed with Worf (“I don’t care what you look like; you are no Klingon!”) plus the Cardassian Danar, and the Romulan Telek R’Mor, and a Kreetassan Captain, and a a Vidiian Captain, and a Hirogen Alpha; plus he was Two Of Nine, which maybe gives him points for playing a Borg but which certainly gives him points for whatever the heck he was before he got assimilated and after he got cured.
Looking at her M-A page, Tallman seems to also have 6, when her stunt roles are discounted - Human, Bajoran, Ellis, Romulan, Arkarian, and Taresian.
Seems like it’s going to be hard to beat 6 without including stuntwork.
And Grrr! that article is neat, thanks. (I agree with the writer on the relative interest of Tony Todd’s roles.) It also shows Marc Alaimo played one more species than I was aware of…but he still only gets to 5, by my count - Antican, Cardassian, Romulan, Human, and Prophet. Memory Alpha lists him as also playing a Pah Wraith, but he really seems to be a hybrid, who’s mostly Dukat (rather than a whole different character, like when the Kosst Amojan possessed Jake), in that period, so he doesn’t join Combs, Hertzler, and Tallman, IMO.
I figure it’s 8 or 9: yeah, maybe a Borg counts and maybe it doesn’t – but we get to see what he looks like without all those Borg implants, and he’s apparently neither a human nor a Klingon nor a Cardassian nor a Romulan nor a Kreetassan nor a Vidiian nor a Hirogen; he’s apparently some other kind of weird-forehead humanoid.
Wow. I’ve been rewatching DS9 on Netflix (currently near the end of S4) and recently there were episodes with Weyoun and Brunt fairly close to each other. I had no idea that was the same actor, and I’m usually pretty good at recognizing actors through the alien makeup.
I think, re: Borg…if the character gets significant screen time both assimilated and not, both Borg and base species should be counted (since they are significantly different both physically and mentally).
So, Two, Three, Four and Seven of Nine, and Locutus/Picard should count for 2 species each.
Giving Armstrong 9 species - Klingon, Romulan, Human, Vidiian, Hirogen, Cardassian, Kreetassan, Borg, and whatever Lansor’s species is.
Y’know, it occurred to me, if we include voice-only work, James Doohan rockets into a probably unassailable lead, thanks to his doing 90% of the male/genderless voices in TAS.
He has played Human, Vulcan, Klingon, Romulan, Andorian, Orion, 6(!!) unnamed species, Edosian, Aurelian, Megan, Ursanoid, Terratin (arguable, since Terratins are human offshoots), Skorr, Pandronian, Dramen, Phylosian, Aquan, and Kzinti. (And that’s not including the various computers and AIs he’s voiced)
Which gives him a whopping 22, even counting Terratins as Humans, and ignoring the artificial beings.