Walter Koenig, Star Trek’s Original Chekov, Dies at 90: ‘He Loved You Too’
Walter Koenig, known as the cheeky and endearing Russian navigator Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek television series, died on Sunday at 90, The New York Times reports. Koenig played the tart-tongued character for the iconic show’s second and third seasons, and also reprised the role in six Star Trek movies featuring the original cast.
Koenig had a memorable stint in another space-themed show, Babylon 5, playing telepath Alfred Bester. He worked as a screenwriter on shows including Land of the Lost and Family. He voiced Chekov in numerous video games and also wrote several books.
But for many, he’ll forever be remembered as the likable ensign with a Monkees mop-top hairdo and distinct accent. Chekov’s Russian heritage was important to a show that displayed a unified future, where a diverse crew, even including the half-Vulcan Spock, explored the stars together. His Russian accent on words such as “wodka” for vodka and, most famously, “nuclear wessels” for “nuclear vessels” in 1986’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, resulted in fan-favorite quotes. Chekov even once told proud Scotsman and fellow Enterprise crew member Montgomery Scott that “Scotch was invented by a little old lady in Leningrad.”
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Koenig was born in Chicago to Russian Jewish immigrant parents from Lithuania. According to his obituary in The New York Times, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was told that young viewers thought the stars, William Shatner as Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, were too old. Producers hoped younger viewers would be drawn to Koenig and his Davy Jones-esque hair. Be that as it may, Koenig was 30 when cast, only five years younger than Shatner and Nimoy.
Koenig’s wife, Judy Levitt Koenig, died in 2022. They had two children.
In 2012, Koenig was honored in 2012 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That same year, he served as best man at fellow Star Trek cast member George Takei’s wedding to Brad Altman, with fellow cast member Nichelle Nichols also standing up for the couple. Takei remembered Koenig with a touching Instagram post.
“Walter was more than Chekov,” Takei wrote. “He was a writer, a teacher, a thoughtful man, and a loyal friend. To the fans who loved him for so many years, thank you. He loved you too.”
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line. See full bio
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