Walter Koenig, Chekov on the Original 'Star Trek,' Dies at 90

His death at home in North Hollywood leaves William Shatner and George Takei as the last of the show's principal cast.

Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Pavel Chekov, the young Russian navigator on the original "Star Trek," has died at his home in North Hollywood. He was 90.

His talent agent, Zachery McGinnis, announced the death in a statement Monday and said Koenig's daughter and niece were with him, LAist reported in an Associated Press story. That version gave the day of death as Monday. CBS News, which said his rep confirmed the death to it, reported that McGinnis put it on Sunday night.

With Koenig gone, only two of the show's principal stars are still alive, NBC News reported: William Shatner, 95, who played Capt. James T. Kirk, and George Takei, 89, who played Hikaru Sulu. Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley and James Doohan died before him. So did Nichelle Nichols, who died in 2022.

Koenig and Takei's friendship long outlasted the show. Takei wrote on Instagram that the two met on the Enterprise bridge in the 1960s and stayed friends for almost 60 years, NBC News reported. When Takei married on Sept. 14, 2008, it was Koenig's 72nd birthday, and Koenig stood up for him as best man. "I will always treasure that he and I shared that date," Takei wrote.

Chekov wasn't aboard from the start. He arrived in the show's second season, and the series ended on NBC in 1969 after three. At the height of the Cold War, he was the only officer on the Enterprise bridge from the Communist bloc. He spoke in a thick Russian accent and was fiercely proud, a lover of poetry and loyal to a fault. His steady, friendly place on the crew was the show's way of saying old rivals could someday work side by side.

The character didn't stay on TV. Chekov came back for seven big-screen outings, the first in 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and the last in 1994's "Star Trek Generations." In 1980 Koenig wrote a "Star Trek" book, "Chekov's Enterprise," and in the 1990s he turned up now and then on the syndicated space series "Babylon 5," CBS News reported. Takei said in his tribute that Koenig was a writer and a teacher too, not only Chekov.

Much of his later life was spent with the people who kept the show alive. McGinnis pointed to Koenig's countless convention appearances and said, "He understood what Star Trek meant to people and embraced the community that grew around it."

Takei had one more line for his old shipmate: "Rest well, my dear friend. Keep navigating a steady course."

Source: LAist, retrieved October 26, 2026. Other sources: CBS News, NBC News.