Walter Koenig(I)
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Walter Koenig began his acting career in 1962 as an uncredited Sentry in the TV series Combat! (1962), and in the following few years had bit roles in several television shows, until he landed the role that would catapult his career in ways he could never have imagined, as Ensign Pavel Chekov in Star Trek's Original Series (Star Trek (1966)). He went on to reprise that role in all 7 of the original Star Trek movies (The 7th movie, Star Trek: Generations (1994) was mostly ST: The Next Generation, but had the original series section at the beginning, and Kirk at the end), as well as voicing the same character in several of the video games. He has continued to reprise that character in several different Star Trek video's, and TV series, rising in rank to Lieutenant, Commander, Captain and Admiral through the years (his most recent being Admiral Chekov in the pilot of Star Trek: Renegades (2015), which never launched, but that evolved to Renegades (2017), a 2 part, crowd-funded, fan-made mini series that also stars fellow Original Series star Nichelle Nichols (as a character NOT named 'Uhura'). Since it was Fan-Made (and to avoid violating studio rights) they couldn't use the Star Trek Character's names, like Uhura or Chekov, so they simply called him 'The Admiral'. (however the uniforms and technology are remarkably Star Trek like.)
He also had a recurring role of the quintessential scoundrel
Bester on the television series
Babylon 5 (1993). He has been the
"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. He once again played Bester in the spin-off series
Crusade (1999).
In between filming the 4th and 5th Star Trek films he took his first leading role in the video feature,
Moontrap (1988). In an interactive
state-of-the-art video game from Digital Pictures called
Maximum Surge (1996),
Koenig played as Drexel, another scoundrel.
Walter completed worked in the low budget feature film
Drawing Down the Moon (1997)
from Chaos Productions. And has star billing as a German psychologist
in the martial arts picture, Sworn to Justice (1996).
A one character piece that Koenig wrote and performed entitled "You're Never
Alone when You're a Schizophrenic" 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 (1995), did
sketch comedy on the Comedy Central series "Viva Variety" (1996) and
performed on an ESPN sports commercial that aired in the spring of
1998. Walter also hosted a cult movie marathon for Comedy
Central. It played once a week for the course of a month.
Koenig's autobiography, "Warped Factors - A Neurotic's Guide to the
Universe" was released through Taylor Publishing on April 1, 1998. The
audio tape reading of the book by the author has been released through
Dove Video in January 1999. Koenig performed as the Shadow Guy in an
episode of
Diagnosis Murder (1993) 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. From "The
Girls of Summer" to "The Boys in Autumn", Koenig's stage career spans
thirty years and includes stops in New York with "A Midsummer Night's
Dream" (Quince) and "Six Characters in Search of an Author" (Oldest
Son). In Chicago, he guested in "Make a Million" (Johnny) opposite
Jackie Coogan and on the road -- from
Arizon to Philadelphia -- Mark Lenard
(Sarek: Spock's father) and he performed in the short plays "Box and
Cox" (Box) and "Actors" (Dave). They also toured in a two character
play, "The Boys in Autumn", the comedy-drama about the reunion of Tom
Sawyer and Huck Finn forty years later.
By himself, Koenig also starred as Larry the Liquidator in "Other
People's Money" in Reno, Nevada. His Los Angeles productions include
"Steambath" (God), "The White House Murder Case" (Captain Weems),
"Night Must Fall" (Danny), "La Ronde" (Gentleman), "The Typist and the
Tiger" (Paul), and "The Deputy" (Jacobson) among almost two dozen
others ("Blood Wedding", "The Collection", et al.). Directorial credits
include "Hotel Paradiso" for Company of Angles, "Beckett" for Theatre
40, "America Hurrah!" at the 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
Antony and Cleopatra (1984)
(Pompey) opposite Timothy Dalton and
Lynn Redgrave as well as the MOW's
Goodbye, Raggedy Ann (1971)
and
The Questor Tapes (1974).
Walter has written for the television series
The Powers of Matthew Star (1982),
What Really Happened to the Class of '65? (1977),
Family (1976),
Land of the Lost (1974), and
the animated Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973)
series. 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. Koenig has taught classes in acting
and directing privately 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 Actor's Alley Repertory
Company in Los Angeles, California.
He also had a recurring role of the quintessential scoundrel
Bester on the television series
Babylon 5 (1993). He has been the
"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. He once again played Bester in the spin-off series
Crusade (1999).
In between filming the 4th and 5th Star Trek films he took his first leading role in the video feature,
Moontrap (1988). In an interactive
state-of-the-art video game from Digital Pictures called
Maximum Surge (1996),
Koenig played as Drexel, another scoundrel.
Walter completed worked in the low budget feature film
Drawing Down the Moon (1997)
from Chaos Productions. And has star billing as a German psychologist
in the martial arts picture, Sworn to Justice (1996).
A one character piece that Koenig wrote and performed entitled "You're Never
Alone when You're a Schizophrenic" 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 (1995), did
sketch comedy on the Comedy Central series "Viva Variety" (1996) and
performed on an ESPN sports commercial that aired in the spring of
1998. Walter also hosted a cult movie marathon for Comedy
Central. It played once a week for the course of a month.
Koenig's autobiography, "Warped Factors - A Neurotic's Guide to the
Universe" was released through Taylor Publishing on April 1, 1998. The
audio tape reading of the book by the author has been released through
Dove Video in January 1999. Koenig performed as the Shadow Guy in an
episode of
Diagnosis Murder (1993) 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. From "The
Girls of Summer" to "The Boys in Autumn", Koenig's stage career spans
thirty years and includes stops in New York with "A Midsummer Night's
Dream" (Quince) and "Six Characters in Search of an Author" (Oldest
Son). In Chicago, he guested in "Make a Million" (Johnny) opposite
Jackie Coogan and on the road -- from
Arizon to Philadelphia -- Mark Lenard
(Sarek: Spock's father) and he performed in the short plays "Box and
Cox" (Box) and "Actors" (Dave). They also toured in a two character
play, "The Boys in Autumn", the comedy-drama about the reunion of Tom
Sawyer and Huck Finn forty years later.
By himself, Koenig also starred as Larry the Liquidator in "Other
People's Money" in Reno, Nevada. His Los Angeles productions include
"Steambath" (God), "The White House Murder Case" (Captain Weems),
"Night Must Fall" (Danny), "La Ronde" (Gentleman), "The Typist and the
Tiger" (Paul), and "The Deputy" (Jacobson) among almost two dozen
others ("Blood Wedding", "The Collection", et al.). Directorial credits
include "Hotel Paradiso" for Company of Angles, "Beckett" for Theatre
40, "America Hurrah!" at the 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
Antony and Cleopatra (1984)
(Pompey) opposite Timothy Dalton and
Lynn Redgrave as well as the MOW's
Goodbye, Raggedy Ann (1971)
and
The Questor Tapes (1974).
Walter has written for the television series
The Powers of Matthew Star (1982),
What Really Happened to the Class of '65? (1977),
Family (1976),
Land of the Lost (1974), and
the animated Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973)
series. 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. Koenig has taught classes in acting
and directing privately 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 Actor's Alley Repertory
Company in Los Angeles, California.