Published Nov 12, 2016
11 Things to Know About Max Grodenchik
11 Things to Know About Max Grodenchik
Max Grodenchik, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Rom, is celebrating his birthday today. And so StarTrek.com decided to mark the occasion by sharing 11 Things to Know About Max Grodenchik. So, happy birthday, Max, and here it goes:
- Max was born in Queens, New York.
- It was Grodénchik's murder at the hands of Harvey Keitel that forced fellow Star Trek alum Whoopi Goldberg to don a habit in 1992's Sister Act.
- Prior to his recurring role in DS9, Grodénchik played two other Ferengi characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation: Sovak in "Captain's Holiday" and Par Lenor in "The Perfect Mate." His appearance in "Captain's Holiday" was credited as "Michael Grodenchik."
- Grodenchik, told by his agent that he'd be reading for the role of a Ferengi on TNG, replied, "What's a Ferengi?" He obviously figured it out.
- Grodenchik almost won the role of Quark on DS9, losing out Armin Shimerman. The two men got to know each other at the audition, became friends once Shimerman landed Quark and Grodenchik won the part of Rom, and they remain dear friends all these years later.
- Grodenchik ultimately played Rom in nearly 40 episodes of DS9.
- Prior to acting, Grodenchik had comtemplated going pro as a baseball player. When the DS9 cast and crew shot "Take Me Out to the Holosuite," Grodenchik had to mask his baseball skills on set because Rom was meant to be the team's worst player. "I just remember we were warming up, playing catch, and I had been wearing the glove on my other hand," Grodenchik said to StarTrek.com. "I’m a righty, and I wore the glove like I was a lefty, and I was throwing with my left hand to make Rom look like less of a good ball player."
- According to Memory Alpha, Grodenchik's appearance as a Trill ensign in Star Trek Insurrection, who made a joke with Riker, was deleted from the final version but included in the Star Trek: Insurrection (Special Edition) DVD "deleted scenes" feature, where it can be found as Scene #40 "Flirting."
- Grodenchik's non-Trek credits include Barton Fink, The Rocketeer, Apollo 13, Rumpelstiltskin, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Bruce Almighty, Night Court, Sliders, Tales from the Crypt, ER, Crossing Jordan, Six Feet Under and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
- Grodenchik is part of the Star Trek Rat Pack, a fan-favorite act at conventions. The Rat Pack show features Armin Shimerman, Jeffrey Combs, Casey Biggs, Vaughn Armstrong and Grodenchik performing comical songs written and produced by... Grodenchik. "We’ve performed it many times in a number of cities, and we’ve been the last act at the annual Las Vegas convention the past few years," Grodenchik told StarTrek.com. "We actually close the show, which is quite an honor."
- Grodenchik, his wife and their young daughter live in Upper Austria, about 35 miles south of Linz, the provincial capital. "There are farms on three sides of us, so we’re really in the countryside," the actor told StarTrek.com in a 2014 interview. "We decided to have and raise our baby over here; my wife was born and raised here, her family’s here."
