Walter Koenig: Biography

Actor Walter Koenig is best known as Ensign Chekhov on the evergreen TV series Star Trek. Before his tenure on Star Trek he'd done some acting, both in his native Chicago and in New York. Absent from Star Trek's first season, Koenig was signed on in 1967 as Russian-born Pavel Chekhov when the NBC "suits" decided that a new, young regular was needed to woo the female teenaged viewers. The role turned out to be Koenig's life's work: he has portrayed Chekhov in every Star Trek feature film since. Oddly, he did not appear in the 1975 Saturday morning Star Trek cartoon spin-off, though he did contribute one of that series' scripts. Firmly entrenched in the science-fiction mode into the 1990s, Walter Koenig has appeared as Mr. Bester in the syndicated series Babylon 5. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide