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Walter Koenig, Star Trek’s Original Chekov, Dies at 90: ‘He Loved You Too’

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Walter Koenig, Star Trek’s Original Chekov, Dies at 90: ‘He Loved You Too’

Raise a glass of "wodka" to the Enterprise's navigator. The actor not only starred in the original series, but in all six original-cast movies.

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.”

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.


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