Stephen Furst spent a career as the man nobody takes seriously, and on Babylon 5 he showed what a writer can do with that man given five seasons. He directed later, on little money, but the acting is what lasts.
Fi1m perspective
Stephen Furst played the man at the edge of the group. In National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) he is Flounder, the pledge; in St. Elsewhere (1982) he is Elliot Axelrod, the doctor least sure he should be one; in Babylon 5 (1994) he is Vir Cotto, an attaché who begins meek and stays near the back of the frame. The parts share something easy to underrate. We are meant to feel a little sorry for him, and he lets us, without ever asking for it.
The career has a plain shape. One film made him in 1978 and television kept him: five years on St. Elsewhere, then five seasons on Babylon 5, where J. Michael Straczynski gave him the part and later the director's chair for three episodes, plus one of Crusade. After that came low-budget films for the Sci Fi Channel, producing work including My Sister's Keeper (2009), and voices for animation. He was frank about why the second career was harder than the first: "I played a bumbling character on both shows - I think that hurt my credibility to say hey, can you trust me with a million dollars to direct an episode?"
The best of him is on the two series we have reviewed, and for the same reason in both. Our review of St. Elsewhere recommends it for its flawed hospital staff and the actors who make them worth following, and Axelrod's insecurity is exactly the kind of flaw that show knew what to do with. Babylon 5 we rated for a long story that gives personal grudges room to become drama, and Vir is one of the characters that room was built for. We went in expecting to smile at him and found, somewhere in the later seasons, that we were worried about him, because the writing let the meek attaché change and Furst changed with it, slowly enough to believe.
Neither of our reviews singles him out, and that is honest about the kind of actor he was: the one you notice on the second viewing, once the louder people have stopped talking. The directing we can neither recommend nor warn against; the episodes and the Sci Fi Channel films are small, and we have not weighed them. He knew he would be remembered for Flounder, and said as much. The longer work took five years a time, and it rewards exactly the patience Babylon 5 asks of you anyway. Start there, and give it the seasons it needs; he is one of the reasons to.
Biography
Stephen Furst was an American actor and director. He played Dr. Elliot Axelrod on the medical drama series St. Elsewhere (1982–1988) and the recurring character Vir Cotto on the science fiction series Babylon 5 (1994–1998), also directing three episodes of the latter.
He trained at Virginia Commonwealth University. Furst first gained attention as Kent 'Flounder' Dorfman in the film National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). He appeared in other television series including MacGyver, Murder, She Wrote and Scrubs, and in films such as The Dream Team (1989). Furst died in 2017.
