Remembering Merritt Butrick

The life and career of Merritt Butrick (1959-1989) were both short, but I’m just the right age to have witnessed his time of peak fame, which occurred (most unusually) at the start of his career.

Butrick’s big moment in the sun occurred from 1982 to 1984, when he played the role of new-wave loving Johnny Slash on Square Pegs (1982-84), and Captain Kirk’s son David Marcus in the movies Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). In between those two pictures he was in the teen comedy Zapped! (1982) which features Scott Baio as a kid who acquires telekinetic powers as a result of a chemistry experiment. (Yeah, I know — Scott Baio and science! Hilarious!)

Anyway for just the span of a few months, Butrick was at dead center of the zeitgeist. I don’t mean he was famous per se. I don’t know that many people knew his name then, let alone now (and let’s face it, that’s a terrible name). But his persona clicked beautifully with that moment. MTV was beginning to take off, and Butrick’s image seemed to live at the nexus of two of their most robust playlist threads: all the New Romantic bands coming in from the U.K., and the umpteenth revival of Southern California fun-in-the-sun culture. His persona was sweet and spacy. He possessed a feminine kind of beauty, right down to affecting a pout like a fashion model. But he also had what it took for swashbuckling. He’d have been a great Billy Budd.

Prior to ’82, Butrick had done very little: he’d guest starred on Hill Street Blues and CHiPs, and had a supporting role in 1981 TV movie remake of Splendor in the Grass. But clearly his type resonated with the aesthetic of the moment. Carefully cast, and with the right sort of management, he might have gone on to bigger roles and better fame, for few have started with such a strong foundation for stardom. But instead…he just kind of returned to doing the kind of stuff he had started out with. He was in five films, only one of which was what you might call a real movie: Shy People (1987), directed by Andrei Konchalovsky between Runaway Train (1985) and Tango & Cash (1989), though much less successful than either. The other four movies were Head Office (1985), Wired to Kill (1986), Fright Night Part 2 (1988), and Death Spa (1989). He’s in numerous TV movies including two with Kris Kristofferson in 1986, Blood & Orchids and a remake of Stagecoach. And he guessed starred on shows like Fame and Jake and the Fatman.

By the late ’80s, Butrick’s look had altered. The striking cheekbones had lost definition, and the curly blond locks no longer sprouted in profusion. He had been on the older side when he played Johnny Slash. Pretty soon, faking being a teen anymore was out of the question. In 1988 he was able to guest star on Star Trek: The Next Generation playing a character who had nothing to do with David Marcus, and with no resulting confusing about his presence on the starship Enterprise, for he was unrecognizable:

It proved to be one of Butrick’s last performances. He was not yet 30 when he passed away from AIDS related causes. Butrick was bisexual by most accounts. Square Pegs colleagues spoke of him oversleeping on shooting days and needing rides to the TV studio, which suggests a bit of burning the candle at both ends, though all are adamant that he was not into hard drugs. Just a fun-loving guy who had some very good luck…and then some very bad luck.