While plenty of audience members recognize Ricardo Montalbán as Mr. Roarke in Fantasy Island, many remember how one small guest appearance impacted an entire television series.

Montalbán appeared in the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series as Khan, a role that he would later reprise in the 1982 film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

But according to an interview, Montalbán admitted that when he was originally presented with the opportunity, he was a bit reluctant to accept the role of Khan. “When it was first offered to me, I didn’t really want to do it because the part was really very small,” Montalbán said during an interview with The Palm Beach Post. “But I had worked too long in my life not to know you don’t judge parts by their size.”

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In truth, Montalbán was nervous that audiences wouldn’t be able to see him as a Star Trek character.

“What worried me more was I’d been on Fantasy Island for so many years, I thought, ‘My God, audiences are going to laugh at me if I sound exactly like Roarke.’ My agent convinced me to do it because, he said: 'The part is small, but even when you’re not on, they’re talking about you, so it seems bigger.”

Luckily, his agent’s instincts were spot on. Montalbán’s portrayal of Khan is widely regarded as one of the finest in Star Trek history. Moreover, the actor’s anxieties proved fruitless.

“Strangely, and to my great satisfaction, when I finally did Khan for that film, Roarke had disappeared completely,” said Montalbán. “At least I thought so. I played it not as a villain, but as a man obsessed with vengeance for his wife, who died. Vengeance, not evil, was the key, and I think that’s what saved me.”