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Walter Koenig, who brought humour and grit to the role of starship navigator Pavel Chekov on the classic 1960s sci-fi TV series Star Trek and seven subsequent feature films, died at his home in Los Angeles on Sunday. He was 90.

“My heart is heavy. Walter Koenig, our Ensign Pavel Chekov, passed away early today,” George Takei, who starred alongside Koenig in the show and was a long-time friend, wrote on Facebook on Monday. Koenig died at his home in Los Angeles, his talent agent said.

Gene Roddenberry, the Star Trek creator, picked Koenig, who had played only a few prior roles on television, when he decided to add a Russian character to the crew of the fictional Starship Enterprise.

The introduction of a Russian officer who worked harmoniously with a racially and culturally diverse crew came amid the real-world Cold War tensions of the era.

“We were stating tacitly that peoples of all races and creeds, nationalities could not only coexist but care for each other deeply, and in doing so we were heralding a future that was very optimistic,” Koenig once told a BBC interviewer.

While Koenig was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, he used an inauthentic Russian accent that was sometimes played for laughs.

The original TV series ran for three seasons, from 1966 to 1969. Koenig appeared on 36 episodes, and then in seven movies from 1979 to 1994.

“I was informed while I was still there at my audition that I had the role,” Koenig told a newspaper in 2008. “It seemed like an engagement that might work out over several episodes, but I had no idea that it would totally shape my career and my life.”

Originally published in Dawn, October 27th, 2026