'Star Trek' star Walter Koenig, the Enterprise's Chekov, has died at 90
Koenig played Russian navigator Pavel Chekov in the original series and in seven feature films. He died at his home in Los Angeles.
Archive image · Photo: Mike Muegel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
US actor Walter Koenig has died. He died at the age of 90 at his home in the North Hollywood neighbourhood of Los Angeles, his representative Zachery McGinnis confirmed on Monday, according to CBS News and the Associated Press. According to Dark Horizons, McGinnis wrote that Koenig understood what 'Star Trek' meant to people and embraced the community that grew around it.
Born in Chicago in 1936, Koenig joined the Enterprise as Ensign Pavel Chekov in 1967, in the second season of the original series. As the only bridge officer from the Eastern Bloc of the time, the character stood for cooperation between rival nations. He also played the role in seven feature films, from 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' (1979) to 'Star Trek Generations' (1994).
In the 1990s he appeared as Psi Cop Alfred Bester in 'Babylon 5'. Koenig also wrote books and comics, and in 2012 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. According to Dark Horizons, William Shatner and George Takei are now the only surviving main cast members of the original series.