Walter Koenig Gets A Star On The Hollywood Walk Of Fame
We reported earlier about Star Trek: Renegades, a new web series starring Trek veterans Walter “Chekov” Koenig and Tim “Tuvok” Russ. But that actually isn’t the biggest Koenig news today. In a ceremony earlier today, Koenig left his imprint on Hollywood – literally – as he accepted his very own star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The actual awarding of the star was just the culmination of a celebration of Koenig’s career that ran over the previous weekend, including a gala celebration Saturday evening at the Beverly Garland Hotel and the Egyptian Theatre. The guest list included Trek veterans such as Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, Marina Sirtis, the aforementioned Tim Russ, and Armin Shimerman.
While Koenig is best known for his role as Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek series and films, the actor earned a new generation of fans – and, in my opinion, a much meatier role – playing duplicitous Psi-Cop Alfred Bester in Babylon 5. It’s a nice touch, then, that B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski was on hand to deliver a speech and congratulate Koenig during the Star ceremony. Straczynski famously created the role specifically for Koenig after the Trek actor had passed up an earlier B5 role due to health problems.
Koenig is the final member of the Original Series cast to receive a star. Better late than never, I suppose. It does make you wonder what the hell took so long. Not only did the guy have important roles in not one, but two separate iconic science fiction series, but he also introduced “nuclear wessels” into the lexicon. If that’s not worth a freakin’ star, I don’t know what is.
Here’s a video of Koenig’s friends and co-stars congratulating him on the honor.
