Walter Koenig
Originally hired by Gene Roddenberry for his uncanny resemblance to Davy Jones of the Monkees, Walter Koeing made Chekov the best loved Russian of the Cold War. Koeing's ready wit and wide eyed innocence gave Pavel Chekov his charm, a marked contrast to the sinister Bester, the treacherous, psi-cop he portrays on Babylon 5. He is an accomplished author and playwrite and a favorite of fans for over thirty years.
From Girls of Summer to The Boys In Autumn, Walter Koenig's stage career spans thirty years and includes stops in New York with A Midsummer Night's Dream and Six Characters In Search Of An Author. In Chicago he guested in Make A Million (as Johnny) opposite Jackie Coogan and on the road -- from Arizona to Philadelphia -- opposite Mark "Sarek" Lenard. He performed in the short plays Box and Cox and Actors. By himself, Koenig also starred as Larry the Liquidator in Other People's Money in Reno, Nevada. His Los Angeles productions include Steambath, The White House Murder Case, Night Must Fall, La Ronde, The Typist and the Tiger and The Deputy among almost two dozen others (Blood Wedding, The Collection, et al.) Directorial credits include Hotel Paradiso for Company of Angels, Becket for Theatre 40, America Hurrah! at Oxford Theater, Twelve Angry Men at the Rita Hayworth Theatre, Matrix at the Gascon Theatre Institute and Three By Ten at Actor's Alley.
Walter has performed in the television movies Anthony and Cleopatra (as Pompey) opposite Timothy Dalton and Lynn Redgrave as well as the Mow's Goodbye Raggedy Anne and The Questor Tapes. He has also appeared on dozens of other television series and of course, as Chekov in the original Star Trek TV series.
Mr. Koenig reprised the character of the Russian navigator in the first seven Star Trek films and in 1988 took the leading role in the video feature Moontrap. Walter has written for the television series Family, Powers of Mathew Starr, Class of '65, Land of the Lost and the Star Trek animated show.
This actor-writer has seen publication with the non-fiction Chekov's Enterprise and the satiric fantasy novel Buck Alice and the Actor-Robot. He also created the three issues of the comic book story Raver published by Malibu Comics.
Walter Koenig has taught classes in acting and directing privately and at UCLA, The Sherwood Oaks Experimental Film College and at the California School of Professional Psychology. Most recently he has been an instructor at the Actors' Alley Repertory Company in Los Angeles.
Over a period of five years Mark Lenard and Walter toured in the two character play The Boys In Autumn, the comedy-drama about the reunion of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn forty years later.
Koenig has had the recurring role of the quintessential bad guy Bester on the television series Babylon 5. He has been the Special Guest Star in twelve episodes and at the end of the third season Babylonian Productions applied for an Emmy nomination on his behalf.
In an interactive state-of-the-art video game from Digital Pictures called Maximum Surge Walter Koenig stars as "Drexel", another bad guy. Walter has also completed work on the low budget feature film Drawing Down the Moon from Chaos Productions, and has star billing as a German psychologist in the martial arts picture Fist of Justice. A one-character piece that Mr. Koenig wrote and performed entitled You're Never Alone When You're A Shizophrenic was a finalist in the 1996 New York Film Festival awards.
Koenig filmed a guest appearance as himself on the CBS situation comedy Almost Perfect, did sketch comedy on the Comedy Central series Viva Variety, and performed on an ESPN sports commercial that aired in 1998. The Viacom CD ROM Starfleet Academy, in which Walter reprised the character of Chekov continues to sell impressively. Most recently, Walter hosted a cult movie marathon for Comedy Central.
His autobiography, Warped Factors - A Neurotic's Guide To The Universe was released through Taylor Publishing on April 1998. Most recently, Mr Koenig perfomed as the Shadow Guy in an episode of Diagnosis Murder and went to New York to perform in a new radio broadcast version of War of the Worlds in tribute to both H.G. Wells and Orson Welles.
Special Thanks to John Tackett and DragonCon for use of their excellent biography of Walter.