Playwright Ernest Kearney announced earlier this week that actor Gene Dynarski died while recovering from a "heart episode" at a rehab center in February, at age 86, with two children.

Dynarski had a prolific career that included "Star Trek," "Seinfeld Next Door," and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," but I first saw him as Josef Stalin in "Command & Conquer: Red Alert." That classic video game performance can be seen above.

Interestingly, "Red Alert" is actually not the first time Dynarski has played Stalin; he also played the Soviet leader in David Pownall's "Master Class" in 1987.

According to Kearney's testimony, Dynarski was born in New York City to Polish immigrants and joined the Navy at age 16 under false pretenses of age; he moved to California in 1957, studied acting in San Diego, and then began his acting career.

According to Kearney, Dynarski was good at offending people with "tantrums and bitter rants" and demonstrated this ability to Steven Spielberg, but his generosity and kind-heartedness made him "difficult to keep offended". Carney's eulogy for Dynarski can be read here.

A number of FMV scenes from Command & Conquer and Red Alert were recently discovered on tape at EA LA. Expectations are high.

Coincidentally, actor Dimitri Diachenko, who appeared in the Soviet campaign for Red Alert 3, also recently passed away.