John Wheeler, the actor who helped create the Tellarites, died on February 6, 2026. His passing was made public a few weeks later.

Before his death, all I knew about Wheeler, beyond his appearance as Gav in Journey to Babel, was that he had a sense of humour about himself. Every autograph of his I have seen includes a little joke, often self-deprecating. You can see this in the signed piece of paper I own.

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I am not sure where or when he signed this, but it was far enough in the past that a bus ride cost only $1.50. 

I own a lot of Star Trek autographs, and almost all of them were obtained in person. That matters because the scrawled name is nice but the real value is the minute or two I get when I reach the front of the autograph line. (That was my experience with Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, and many others.)  

The two Wheeler autographs I own are an exception; I bought them from a dealer, for two reasons: first, it was unlikely the actor would travel up to Canada for a convention, and second, I liked his joke. It was the 3×5 card that drew my interest; the signed photo card came with it.

I have tried to learn about Wheeler since his death, but sadly all my Star Trek reference works are mute. Bjo Trimble’s Star Trek Concordance mentions only Gav, not Wheeler, and Wheeler does not appear in The Fifty-Year Mission or Altman and Gross’ earlier works, or The Star Trek Compendium, The Star Trek Interview Book, The Star Trek Encyclopedia, Star Trek The Complete Unauthorized History, or These are the Voyages. 

That is not really surprising. His was a small (albeit important) role in only one episode, and if anyone had asked Wheeler he would probably not have remembered much about the two days he was on set in 1967. It was common for the guest actors, approached by fans decades later, to recall little. 

I have since learned from online sources like IMDb and Memory Alpha that he had an extensive list of credits as a character actor, but about his time on the Enterprise I still know nothing.

Thank you, John. You were a working actor and Star Trek was just another job, and not necessarily even among the most interesting or challenging, outside of donning the Tellarite mask. But it meant a lot to us. You helped create a species that continues in our history today.

Left to right: TOS Journey to Babel. TOS Whom Gods Destroy. TAS The Time Trap. ENT Bounty. DIS Short Treks The Escape Artist. LD Moist Vessel