Skip to main content
SM
★ Acting

Shepard Menken

1921 – 1999 · Active 1949–1989
▶ Watch on SassyFlix 1 film available
Killers from Space

Killers from Space

1954 ★ 3.5
as Maj. Clift

Dr. Douglas Martin (Peter Graves) is a nuclear scientist working on atomic bomb tests. While collecting aerial data on a United States Air Force (USAF) atomic blast at Soledad Flats, he loses control of his aircraft and crashes. He appears to have survived, unhurt, walking back to the air base with no memory of what happened. On his chest is a strange scar that was not there before the crash. At the base hospital, Martin acts so strangely that the USAF brings in the FBI to investigate, thinking he might be an impostor. He is eventually cleared but told to take some time off. Martin protests being excluded from his project while on leave. When an atomic test is set off without his knowledge, Martin steals the data, then goes back to Soledad Flats and places the information under a stone. An FBI agent follows him, but Martin is able to elude him until he crashes his car. Now back at the hospital, he is given truth serum. Deep under the drug's influence, Martin tells a story about being held captive by space aliens, led by Denab, in their underground base. The aliens, with large, bulging eyes, are from the planet Astron Delta, ruled by a being called The Tala. They had revived his lifeless body as he had died in his aircraft. The aliens plan to exterminate humanity using giant insects and reptiles, grown with the radiation absorbed from our own atomic bomb tests. Martin intuits that the aliens use stolen electric grid power to control their powerful equipment. This so that the A-bomb's released energy levels can be predicted and then balanced. The aliens wiped his memory and hypnotized him into collecting the data for them. The FBI agent (Steve Pendleton) and the base commander (James Seay) are skeptical of this incredible story and keep him confined at the hospital. Nevertheless, the attending physician says that Martin genuinely believes that what he told them is true. With calculations made using a slide rule, Martin determines that if he shuts off the power to Soledad Flats for just 10 seconds, it will create an overload in the aliens' equipment. So he escapes from the hospital and goes to the nearby electrical power plant, where he forces a technician to turn off the power. After 10 seconds, the alien base is destroyed in a massive explosion, saving the Earth from conquest.

Watch Now
Career Highlights Top 6 by popularity · TMDB

Filmography

36 credits
1980s 4 credits
1989
Two Daddies? as Additional Voices (voice)
Movie
1988
TV ★ 7.1
1982
Movie ★ 7.1
1981
Goldie Gold and Action Jack as Additional Voices (voice)
TV ★ 5.0
1970s 2 credits
1975
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi as Rikki-Tikki-Tavi the Mongoose (voice)
Movie ★ 6.5
1970
The Phantom Tollbooth as Spelling Bee / Chroma (voice)
Movie ★ 6.9
1960s 10 credits
1967
TV ★ 8.0
1966
TV ★ 7.6
1966
The Lone Ranger as Tonto (voice)
TV ★ 6.7
1965
The Man from Button Willow as Shanghai Kelly / Chinese Singer / Saloon Man #3 / Trolley Car Conductor (voice)
Movie ★ 5.3
1965
The Big Valley as Marvin Sanders
TV ★ 6.2
1965
The Big Valley as Doc Willis
TV ★ 6.2
1962
The Jetsons as Nimbly (voice)
TV ★ 7.3
1962
The Jetsons as (voice)
TV ★ 7.3
1962
The Jetsons as Mugsy Megatron / Microbe (voice)
TV ★ 7.3
1961
TV ★ 8.4
1950s 18 credits
1957
TV ★ 7.6
1956
The Benny Goodman Story as Harry Goodman
Movie ★ 6.4
1956
TV ★ 10.0
1954
Movie ★ 3.8
1954
Movie ★ 5.2
1953
Movie ★ 4.0
1953
Remains to Be Seen as (uncredited)
Movie ★ 6.0
1953
Movie ★ 7.0
1952
Movie ★ 6.3
1952
TV ★ 5.0
1952
TV ★ 5.3
1951
Daredevil Droopy as Circus Man (uncredited)
Movie ★ 7.0
1951
Movie ★ 5.9
1951
I Love Lucy as Jean Valjean Raymond
TV ★ 7.9
1951
I Love Lucy as Charpontier
TV ★ 7.9
1951
I Love Lucy as Store Owner
TV ★ 7.9
1951
I Love Lucy as Doctor
TV ★ 7.9
1950
Lux Video Theatre as Sam Gorlopin
TV ★ 6.7
1940s 1 credit
1949
The Red Menace as Henry Solomon
Movie ★ 4.5
s 1 credit
Aliens from Space as Major Clift
Movie