Actor Walter Koenig, best known for playing Ensign Pavel Chekov in the Star Trek series has died at the age of 90.
Koenig was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, growing up in New York after his family moved from Chicago.
He studied psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, before pursuing acting at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.
Koenig began his television career in the early 1960s, appearing in The Lieutenant, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Gidget and I Spy.
In 1967 he joined the second season of Star Trek, with the casting partly due to his resemblance to Davy Jones from The Monkees television show.
Koenig reprised his Chekov role in seven Star Trek feature films between 1979 and 1994.
He received Saturn Award nominations for his performances in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
He later enjoyed another prominent science-fiction role as the sinister telepath Alfred Bester in the television series Babylon 5.
Beyond acting, Koenig worked as a screenwriter, playwright, author and acting teacher, publishing several books, including his autobiography Warped Factors.
He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012 and returned to the Star Trek universe in 2023, voicing Federation President Anton Chekov in Star Trek: Picard.
Koenig married actress Judy Levitt in 1965, and they had two children, Andrew and Danielle. Andrew died in 2010 and Judy in 2022. Koenig turned 90 last month.
