Walter Koenig
Walter Marvin Koenig (born
September 14,
1936 in
Chicago,
Illinois) is an
American actor,
writer,
teacher and
director, best known for his role as Chekov in
Star Trek.
Koenig is of
Russian descent, but his family changed their surname from
Koenigsberg to
Koenig, and claimed to be of
Lithuanian descent during the
McCarthy Era. He attended
Grinnell College in
Grinnell, Iowa.
He has been
married since
1965 to Judy Levitt and has one
son,
Josh Andrew Koenig. Danielle Koenig, one of the writers for
Invader Zim, is his daughter. Prior to that, he was married to
Anjanette Comer. Koenig had
heart bypass surgery in
1993. His role in
Babylon 5 came out of that incident since his hospitalization forced him to bow out of a guest spot. The series producer promised to make it up to him for the lost opportunity and got the role later on.
Koenig played the navigator
Pavel Chekov on the
USS Enterprise in the original
Star Trek (TOS) television series and in the several movies that featured the original cast. He was cast as Chekov because of his resemblance to
Davy Jones to attract the younger audience, especially girls.
After Chekov, his best-known role is the Psi Cop
Alfred Bester on the television series
Babylon 5. Koenig was the "Special Guest Star" in twelve episodes and, at the end of the third season, the production company applied for an
Emmy nomination on his behalf. He was slated to play Bester on the spin-off series
Crusade, but the series was cancelled before his episode was filmed.
In addition to acting, he has written a handful of episodes for TV shows:
Star Trek: The Animated Series,
Land of the Lost,
Family and
The Powers of Matthew Star. Walter Koenig has taught classes in acting and directing at
UCLA, The Sherwood Oaks Experiment Film College, the Actor's Alley Repertory Company in
Los Angeles and the
California School of Professional Psychology. In 2002, Koenig directed stage versions of two of the original
Twilight Zone episodes for
4 Letter Entertainment.
Koenig is to reprise his role as Chekov in 2006 in an upcoming episode of
Star Trek: New Voyages, an internet based Fan Series taking place in the 4th year of the original 5 year mission after TOS had been cancelled.
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Campaign for Walter's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame*
Walter Koenig Official Website
