Leoben Conoy

Character bio courtesy of Battlestar Wikipedia

Callum Keith Rennie

Callum Keith Rennie was born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear in the North-east of England in 1960. However, he was raised and educated in Canada after his family emigrated to Edmonton, Alberta when he was four years old. Graduating from Strathcona High School, he had intended to go to college, but instead took his student loan (some $5,000) and purchased a truck and went fishing.

Following this, he sought work as a moutaineer, supporting this goal by taking on a wide range of manual labour ranging from cooking through to laying railway track. His inital adult brush with acting came when he took a job doing voice work at CJSR, the University of Alberta's campus radio station. This lead to 12 months of steady work writing and producing, including producing a play at a local theatre, which in turn lead to him appearing on stage in "American Buffalo".

Following this, he tried his luck as an actor in Vancouver, without success; problems with drug dealing followed and hes was reduced to a string of low-paying jobs before he moved to Toronto and enrolled in the Bruhanski Theatre Studio. While studying, he appeared on stage in "Lost Souls and Missing Persons", and as a result was offered work at the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Again, things did not work out. After a season at the festival, he returned to Vancouver where he started work on another play, but never completed it. There then followed a 10-year relationship with alcohol which only ended in 1993, when his left eye was damaged in a barroom brawl.

Following this incident, Rennie put his house in order, stopped drinking and concentraded on his film career. A host of critically-acclaimed films followed. These Included the "mockumentary" "Hard Core Logo" about a rock band on the road to ruin. despite his apprehension in taking on the role of Billy Tallant in the film, Rennie came away from it not only with critical plaudits, but also with a love of rock music fused with his upbringing on punk rock. As a result, he formed a band called The Headstones.

He also had a string of guest-starring roles in the major genre television series of the 1990s: The X-Files, Highlander, The Commish, Outer Limits, Forever Night, as well as a starring role in the children's television series, My Life and a Dog.

However, it was 1997 that brought Rennie to the attention of the international television audience, when he took over from David Marciano in the hit comedy / drama series Due South. The role came about after Marciano declined to continue in the role of Dectective Ray Vecchio, and Rennie was given a unique one-year contract as Dectective Stanley Kowalski, who was "covering" for the Vecchio character, who was supposedly deep undercover. The one-year contract meant Rennie could avoid being tied-into a long-running television series, something that he preferred not to do, having already turned down the semi-regular role of Alex Krychek in the X-Files.

Following the end of Due South, Rennie returned to theatrical films, taking supporting roles in a wide range of films, as well as guest-starring in TV series such as The DaVinci Inquest (recurring role as "Bob Marlowe" over 5 episodes), Mutant X, Dark Angel and Tru Calling.

Rennie is currently single, and lives with his dog, Alberta and cat, Cleek. He enjoys playing golf and also paints (and has sold a number of his works).

IMDB Profile

Leoben Conoy is a Cylon agent first encountered at Ragnar Anchorage. He fancies himself as a prophet with predilections for enlightened monotheistic religious dogma, whereas he is more likely to sow the seeds of doubt or mis-information, weaving lies in the fabric of truth and faith.

Ragnar Anchorage Copy

Conoy is first encountered at the Ragnar Anchorage, where he poses as an arms dealer. It is likely that he was assigned with the monitoring of this depot station as the war began, gaining intelligence on Battlestars that visited there. Alternatively, he may have been tasked with stealing away or destroying the ammunition (or the station itself) to prevent its use by the Colonials.

Conoy is already sick from the radiation around Ragnar, suggesting he had been there for several hours before Galactica's arrival.

Conoy becomes trapped aboard the station with Commander Adama after a warhead is accidentally detonated. As they try to find another way out of the station, Leoben reveals his true nature to Adama through conversation, initially by claiming to be something of a philosopher. Identifying Conoy as a Cylon on the point of death, Adama challenges him and learns of the Cylon's ability to transfer their consciousness to another body when dying. Only Leoben can't -- the radiation of Ragnar is interfering with his ability.

A fight ensues, during which Leoben exhibits unnatural strength and speed. Adama manages to kill Conoy by forcing his head over an outventing steam pipe then bludgeoning him to death with a flashlight. He then brings Leoben's body back to Galactica for examination. Samples from this body, when burned, revealed synthetic materials -- which permitted Adama, Colonel Tigh and Dr. Gaius Baltar to deduce that Cylons could mimic humans in appearance (Miniseries).

The body is later stored in the ship's morgue (Flesh and Bone).

Later, three copies of Leoben are among the group of Cylons that rescue Aaron Doral, abandoned on Ragnar by the Colonials after Dr. Baltar fingers him as a Cylon agent, and debrief him.

Gemenon Traveller Copy

Conoy is again encountered when a copy is found apparently stowing away aboard the Gemenon Traveller. Knowing the model's ability to weave fact, fiction and outright lies into a confusing fabric of truth, half-truths and deceit, Adama wants the copy destroyed. However, he is overruled by President Roslin, who demands the model be interrogated.

Lieutenant kara "Starbuck" Thrace is assigned to interrogate Conoy aboard the Gemenon Traveller. Over the course of eight hours, Conoy demonstrates his ability to confuse and mix truth with lies: he claims to have planted a nuclear device somewhere in the fleet, but will not reveal where. He also mixes what appears to be religious mumbo-jumbo with penetrating insights into Colonial philosophy and kara's own past (Flesh and Bone).

While she resorts to ever-more drastic measures to obtain details on the alleged bomb's location, kara finds herself being drawn into Leoben's vision of life. So much so that when Roslin orders his execution, kara very much empathises with him.

Prior to his death, Conoy reveals there is no bomb, and uses a reason suggested by kara in the initial stages of his interrogation: that since he is so far from other Cylon centers of influence, he cannot transmit his "soul" back to home should his body die. However, the real purpose of his mission is revealed when President Roslin arrives aboard the Traveller and he manages to whisper to her that Adama is in fact a Cylon -- thus planting a potentially dangerous seed of doubt between her and Adama.

Convinced now of the danger in keeping Conoy alive, Roslin orders him ejected from the Traveller's airlock.

Interestingly, Roslin had a premonition of Conoy's surfacing in the fleet when she had a dream about him at the time he was captured. Later, in her cabin on Colonial One, she had a vision of him talking to her which prompted her decision to visit him in person - thus allowing him to complete his mission.

At the time of the dream and the vision, Roslin assumed both were the result of her using Chamalla to treat her cancer. However, both may have been the result of some form of psychic ability on the part of Conoy.

Other Copies

Apparently the resistance on Caprica captured and interrogated their own copy of Conoy, as Samuel Anders sarcastically quotes his philosophy to kara Thrace (Resistance). This is speculation, of course.

A Leoben or two are witnessed in the background of the park and cafe scenes in "Downloaded"; however, these are played by a stand-in as Calum Keith Rennie was unavailable for the episode.

During the Cylon invasion of New Caprica a Leoben copy slips into kara Thrace and Samuel Anders' tent and asks the ailing Anders where Thrace is (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II). It is uncertain if this is the Ragnar Anchorage Leoben, kara's Leoben that she interrogates, or another copy altogether.