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Walter Koenig Biography
Walter Koenig is an American actor, writer, teacher, and director, known for his roles as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek and Alfred Bester in Babylon 5. He wrote the script for the 2008 science fiction legal thriller InAlienable.You can also search for Robert Picardo
Walter KoenigWalter Koenig Age
Walter was born on 14th September 1936, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America. He is 82 years as of the year 2018.
Walter Koenig Photo
Walter Koenig Wife
Walter married wife Judy Levitt in the year 1965. In 1968 they had a son, actor Andrew Koenig, who died by suicide in 2010. They have a daughter, comedian and writer Danielle Koenig, who is married to comedian Jimmy Pardo.
Walter Koenig Education
When they moved to Manhattan with his family he went to school there. Koenig attended Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, with a pre-med major. He transferred to UCLA and received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. After a professor encouraged Koenig to become an actor, he attended Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City with fellow students Dabney Coleman, Christopher Lloyd, and James Caan.
Walter Koenig Movies
Walter Koenig Startrek
Koenig began playing Ensign Pavel Chekov, navigator on the USS Enterprise, in the original Star Trek television series in the second season and in all of the films featuring the original cast, also including Star Trek Generations.
One of only two actors to audition, he was cast as Chekov almost immediately primarily because of his resemblance to British actor and singer Davy Jones of the Monkees. Show creator Gene Roddenberry hoped that Koenig would increase the show’s appeal to young people. (The studio’s publicity department, however, falsely ascribed the inclusion of Chekov to an article in Pravda that complained about the lack of Russians in Star Trek.
As the 30-year-old’s hair was already receding, costume designers fashioned a Davy Jones-style “moptop” hairpiece for him. In later episodes, his own hair grew out enough to accomplish the look with a comb-over.
Most of Koenig’s fan mail indeed came from children, and the high volume of letters contributed to him soon receiving a contract as a regular cast member; this surprised Koenig, who had been told that Chekov would be a recurring role. When the early Season 2 episodes of Star Trek were shot, George Takei was delayed while completing the movie The Green Berets, so Chekov is joined at the Enterprise helm by a different character. When Takei returned, the two had to share a dressing room and a single episode script. This reportedly angered Takei to the point where he nearly left the show, but the two actors have since become good friends, to the point that Koenig was the best man at Takei’s wedding in 2008.
He received Saturn Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a Film for both Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Koenig reprised the role of Chekov for the fan web series Star Trek: New Voyages, “To Serve All My Days”, and the independent Sky Conway/Tim Russ film, Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, both in 2006, and Star Trek: Renegades, in 2015. According to the teaser for Renegades episodes 2 and 3, this will be the last time Koenig plays the role of Chekov.
Walter Koenig Humanitarian
In 2007, Koenig was asked by the human rights group U.S. Campaign for Burma to help in their grassroots campaign about the humanitarian crisis in Burma. As detailed on his official website, he visited refugee camps along the Burma-Thailand border from July 16 to 25, 2007.
Walter Koenig lieutenant Series
Koenig played a significant role as noncom Sgt. John Delwyn, who is recommended for Officer Candidates School by the series protagonist, Lt William T. Rice, played by Gary Lockwood. The plot twist, at the height of the US-Soviet Cold War, is that Sgt Delwyn’s visiting mother is a prominent, and politically active, American Communist Party member. This sets up various interesting plot tensions involving Delwyn, Rice, and Rice’s CO, Capt. Cambridge, played by Robert Vaughn.