33 Facts About Walter Koenig

Walter Marvin Koenig is an American actor and screenwriter.

Walter Koenig began acting professionally in the mid 1960s and quickly rose to prominence for his supporting role as Ensign Pavel Chekov in Star Trek: The Original Series.

Walter Koenig went on to reprise this role in all six original-cast Star Trek films.

Walter Koenig has acted in several other series and films including Goodbye, Raggedy Ann, The Questor Tapes, and Babylon 5.

Walter Koenig was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of businessman Isadore Walter Koenig and his wife Sarah.

Walter Koenig's parents were Russian Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union; his family had been living in Lithuania when they emigrated, and they shortened their surname from "Konigsberg" to "Walter Koenig".

Walter Koenig's father was a communist who was investigated by the FBI during the McCarthy era.

Walter Koenig attended Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, with a pre-med major.

Walter Koenig transferred to UCLA and received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology.

In 1964, Walter Koenig portrayed a New York City juvenile gang leader in an adaptation of Memos from Purgatory for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

Walter Koenig began playing Ensign Pavel Chekov, navigator on the USS Enterprise, in the original Star Trek television series in the second season, and continued in the role in all of the films featuring the original cast, including Star Trek Generations.

Walter Koenig received Saturn Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a Film for both Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Walter Koenig was a "Special Guest Star" in twelve episodes and, at the end of the third season, the production company applied for an Emmy nomination on his behalf.

Walter Koenig was slated to play Bester on the spin-off series Crusade, but the series was cancelled before his episode was filmed.

Walter Koenig played "Oro" in two episodes of the Canadian science fiction television series The Starlost, which aired in 1973 on Canada's CTV television network.

Walter Koenig filmed a few FMV sequences for a re-released copy of the game Star Trek Starfleet Academy for PCs.

The game was later cancelled, but considerable footage from it was recycled for the film Game Over, with Walter Koenig's dialogue dubbed over in order to retrofit his performance into the role of a computer hard drive.

Walter Koenig has played roles ranging from a teenage gang leader to Scandinavian fiance Gunnar in the Gidget episode entitled "Gidget's Foreign Policy", to a Las Vegas entertainer.

Walter Koenig returned to space with a starring role in Moontrap and played a futuristic dictator in the video game Maximum Surge.

Walter Koenig has written several books, including Warped Factors: A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe, Chekov's Enterprise and Buck Alice and the Actor-Robot, which was re-released in 2006.

Walter Koenig created his own comic book series called Raver, which was published by Malibu Comics in the early 1990s, and appeared as a "special guest star" in an issue of the comic book Eternity Smith, which features him prominently on its cover.

Walter Koenig has taught classes in acting and directing at UCLA, the Sherwood Oaks Experimental Film College, the Actor's Alley Repertory Company in Los Angeles, and the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University.

In 1987, Walter Koenig directed his original one-act play The Secret Life of Lily Langtree at the Theatre of NOTE in Los Angeles.

In 1989, Walter Koenig starred in the science fiction film Moontrap as mission commander Colonel Jason Grant.

In 1997, Walter Koenig starred in Drawing Down the Moon, an independent film about a Wiccan woman who attempts to open a homeless shelter in a small Pennsylvania town.

Walter Koenig played Joe Merchant, a local crime lord obsessed with chaos theory who sends his thugs to intimidate her into shutting down the shelter.

In 2004, Walter Koenig co-starred in Mad Cowgirl, an independent movie about a meat-packing health inspector dying from a brain disorder, in which he played televangelist Pastor Dylan.

Walter Koenig received the 2,479th star of the Hollywood Walk of Fame on September 10,2012.

Walter Koenig played an evil newspaper tycoon in Blue Dream from director Gregory Hatanaka.

In 2017, Walter Koenig appeared in the 1980s throwback Neil Stryker and the Tyrant of Time from director Rob Taylor, battling puppet goblins as science officer Ray Nabroski.

In 2007, Walter Koenig was asked by the human rights group US Campaign for Burma to help in their grassroots campaign about the humanitarian crisis in Burma.

Walter Koenig married actress Judy Levitt in 1965; she died in 2022.

In September 2008, Walter Koenig served as best man at the wedding of his Star Trek co-star George Takei to Brad Altman.