The USS Enterprise now has one less crew member. Walter Koenig, the first actor to play Pavel Chekov in the “Star Trek” franchise, has died at the age of 90. The news was first reported by NPR podcast host Jesse Thorn and later confirmed by TMZ. A representative for Koenig told TMZ that the actor died of old age.
Koenig is survived by his daughter Danielle. His wife of over 50 years, Judy Levitt, had previously passed away in 2022, while their son Andrew, an actor like both his parents, died in 2010.
Koenig and Chekov joined “Star Trek” during the series’ second season, first appearing in the season 2 premiere, “The Amok Time.” The actor wasn’t only or always Chekov, though. Rather than Mother Russia, he was born in Chicago in 1936. As he wrote in his autobiography, “Beaming Up and Getting Off: Life Before and Beyond Star Trek,” he initially studied psychology and only took Acting 101 on a whim. That course’s instructor, Professor Arthur Friedman, eventually advised Koenig to give acting a shot full-time when his heart wasn’t in the social sciences anymore.
After breaking into television, Koenig first worked with “Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry on the short-lived series, “The Lieutenant.” Koenig guest-starred in the episode “Mother Enemy” as a police officer whose mother is a Communist Party member. The episode was autobiographical for Koenig; his own father, an immigrant from the Soviet Union, didn’t shed his Communist beliefs even after settling in America.
Playing Chekov
As Koenig told the Hollywood Reporter in 2012, he was brought onto “Star Trek” to appeal to younger audiences; Chekov was written to be 22 years old, barely out of the Academy. The then-31-year-old Koenig was younger than most of his co-stars, but not by that much, and he was almost one year older than George Takei (Mr. Hikaru Sulu). However, his boyish good looks and hair modeled on Davy Jones of The Monkees meant he captured the youth audience all the same.
Koenig was one of the many trailblazers on “Star Trek.” The series’ cosmopolitan cast was to show that the brightest future is one where humanity has cast aside prejudice and works together in spite of differences. To this end, American TV featuring a Russian character portrayed as an unambiguously good guy during the Cold War was groundbreaking. Koenig would say about this in 2021:
“One of the great pluses about my association with ‘Star Trek,’ that I got to be part of something that, in a way, is trying to encourage that we look at mankind as one great big soul and that we all have something to contribute.”
As for Koenig himself, he was American by birth, but his parents, Isadore and Sarah, were Jewish-Lithuanian immigrants; the family name was originally “Koenigsberg.” To play Chekov, Koenig affected a Russian accent.
Beyond Chekov
Warner Bros.
Koenig didn’t return as Chekov for “Star Trek: The Animated Series,” but he did write the script for the episode, “The Infinite Vulcan.” This kicked off a side career in television writing for Koenig during the 1970s and ’80s; his writer credits include episodes of “Land of the Lost” and “Whatever Happened to the Class of ’65?”
In 1993, he hit upon his other most famous role: the sinister psychic Alfred Bester in “Babylon 5.” Bester was a frequent thorn in the heroes’ side, but at the same time, he charmed the audience with his dark wit. According to Koenig, series creator J. Michael Straczynski initially wanted him to play a villain of the week in the season 1 episode, “And the Sky Full of Stars.” However, Koenig had suffered a heart attack shortly after receiving the script and couldn’t make the shoot for that initial episode — talk about ironic luck, because this meant Koenig got to be in 12 “Babylon 5” episodes, not just one. He would call playing Bester, “one of the best, most satisfying experiences [Koenig] ever had.”
“Babylon 5” had a reputation as a rival franchise to “Star Trek,” but Koenig was able to unite them and flex his acting muscle at the same time. It takes a skilled actor to play characters as different as Chekov and Bester, and Koenig was that actor. May his memory be a blessing.
