A Variety report says that Walter Koenig, known to the world as Star Trek's Russian hothead Pavel Chekhov, has died.

Koenig's big break in show biz came in 1967, when he was cast as Chekhov in the second season of the original Star Trek series. He portrayed the character until the show's cancellation, and then through seven feature films; he had a particularly memorable scene in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, when a Ceti eel burrowed its way into his brain.

The downside of that early-career fame is that Koenig was typecast, and acting roles following the end of the Star Trek series were sparse. He turned to screenwriting through the 1970s; ironically, while the character of Chekhov was not included in the Star Trek animated series that ran for two seasons after the live-action show was cancelled, he wrote the script for an animated series episode called The Infinite Vulcan, making him the first member of the cast to write an episode for the Star Trek franchise.

But Koenig also played very much against type in at least one memorable role: Alfred Bester, a powerful Psi Corps officer in Babylon 5. Where Chekhov was brash, good-hearted, and a little naive, Bester was a charismatic, stone-cold villain with a talent for manipulation and complete indifference to human life. He was the sort of character who was born to chew scenery, but Koenig took a more understated approach that imbued Bester with real menace. It was a good bit of casting.

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