Ricardo Montalbán, 88, died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. Building on a series of film roles as a suave entertainer, the Mexico City-native became world famous during his seven-year stint as the enigmatic Mr. Roarke in the original Fantasy Island.

But Montalbán is even better known to sci-fi fans as Khan Noonien Singh, the fascinating villain of the 1967 Star Trek episode "Space Seed" and the feature film follow-up, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Star Trek II is considered one of the best Star Trek films, and Montalbán's performance ("He tasks me. He tasks me and I shall have him!") has a great deal to do with its popularity.

Montalbán's busy career involved dozens of stage and screen roles, including star turns in big MGM musicals in the 1950s and later opposite many of Hollywood's most glamorous leading ladies. He earned an Emmy Award in 1978 for his role in How the West Was Won. Following Fantasy Island, he had a regular role on TV's The Colbys from 1985 to 1987. Montalbán was mostly confined to a wheelchair following a spinal operation in 1993; however, he still worked lending his voice for animated films and TV shows (including a self-mocking recurring role on Freakazoid), and even appeared on-screen in the Spy Kids sequels.

Montalbán, who during his run on Fantasy Island was just about the only leading actor of Hispanic origin on American network television, worked hard to leverage his fame to advance the visibility of Hispanic performing artists. In 1970, he founded the non-profit organization Nosotros whose goal is "to help fulfill the goals of persons of Spanish-speaking origin in the motion picture and television industry." The historic Doolittle Theatre near the intersection of Hollywood Blvd. and Vine became the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre in 2004, the culmination of Montalbán's dream to create a facility to train and support visionary artists and talents. The theater was the first major theater facility in the United States to carry the name of a Latino performing artist.

Patrick McGoohan, 80, star of The Prisoner, died Tuesday in a Los Angeles hospital following a brief illness. McGoohan was best known for his role as Number Six in the landmark ITV series, McGoohan not only played the lead but developed the concept and wrote and directed several episodes; he also served as executive producer.

The Prisoner ran for just one season in 1967 with 17 episodes. Later this year AMC will remake a miniseries based on the cult classic, starring Ian McKellen (Gods and Monsters) and Jim Caviezel (Frequency).

Coincidentally, the cable network just this week made the entire series of McGoohan's original Prisoner available to watch online. The series was famously filmed at the architecturally distinct village of Portmeiron, Wales.

McGoohan had previously starred in the more straightforward spy series Danger Man. Later McGoohan won two Emmy Awards, 16 years apart, guest starring in two episodes of Columbo in 1974 and 1990. He also made several memorable appearances in movies such as Dr. Ruth in the David Cronenberg horror classic Scanners, the warden in the 1979 film Escape From Alcatraz, King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Braveheart, and as the judge in the 1996 drama A Time to Kill.

Despite having the updated version of legendary superagent based on him in the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, Marvel may be balking at paying for Samuel L. Jackson to play S.H.I.E.L.D. hero Nick Fury in an upcoming Avengers film.

And Jackson seems angry about it, according to a story in the L. A. Times.

"There was a huge kind of negotiation that broke down," Jackson said. "I don't know. Maybe I won't be Nick Fury. Maybe somebody else will be Nick Fury or maybe Nick Fury won't be in it. There seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world so [they're saying to me], 'We're not making that deal.'"

Marvel is indicating relations are ongoing, so it's possible this is a stunt by the studio or Jackson or both as part of negotiations. Jackson has already played Fury in a post-credits cameo tucked away at the end of Iron Man.

This follows news that high-priced co-star Terrence Howard is being replaced for Iron Man 2 by Don Cheadle, reportedly because of money. Marvel does have some star-power budgeting to be concerned about: as the Times points out, an Avengers movie will involve shelling out for Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Edward Norton (Hulk), and presumably Jackson as Fury, plus name actors for Captain America and Thor, both of whom will have separate introductory films in 2011 and 2010.

Only Jackson, though, has already been indelibly incorporated into the comics themselves.

Showtime, which has given us a few sci-fi classics in the past, has a character-driven drama called Syns in development, about synthetic human organisms.

The names behind it are promising: the show is being created by John McNamara (a consulting producer on Jericho) and Sera Gamble (executive story editor on Supernatural), according to THR. The two worked together before on he series Eyes. Gamble is said to be writing the pilot.

Showtime acquired the U.S. rights to the project, which was initially developed and then abandoned by the BBC, about a world where "humanlike synthetic organisms" referred to as Syns are used for "various purposes." The show was originally called Dolls' Hospital.

Chris Coelen, head of producing corporation RDF USA, said the project will have "light sci-fi elements, but it's really meant to be rooted in the real world."

Gamble recently spoke to Buddy TV about Supernatural and mentioned in passing how developing Syns could affect her work on that series. "This is something I'm developing while working on the show," Gamble said. "There are so many steps between sitting down to write a script that you're developing for a network and something actually being on the air, especially when you're doing something for cable."