October 27, 2026
Yesterday was a sad day for Trekkies and basically anyone who watch the original Star Trek series. One of the last of the cast, Walter Koeing left us at the age of 90. Of course, we all knew him as Pavel Andreievich Chekov. Okay, we knew him as simply Chekov. To be honest, I didn’t know his character even had a first and middle name, but he had that really cool Russian accent and sat next to Hikaru Sulu on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise for three seasons, boldly going where no man had gone before. To be truthful, I didn’t realize Sulu had a first name either.
At times I thought Koeing looked a little like Davy Jones of the Monkees and nearly expected him to break out into Daydream Believer a few times, but that probably would have been weird. Koeing’s character was Russian which was kind of cool in the fact that the futuristic space show had placed a Russian on a starship with a bunch of Americans back in the height of the Cold War. Perhaps that was all done with the idea of trying to give us an optimistic look to the future.
Although Koeing was born in Chicago, his parents were Russian who immigrated from Lithuania. I saw the guy in an interview once where he mentioned how people would come up to him at Star Trek conventions and tell him that his Russian accent was all wrong. Koeing claimed that he was basing his accent on his parents’ Lithuanian accent. Everyone’s a critic.
The guy was actually in several movies, did a lot of TV work, and wrote a few books, but I’m guessing that shaking his Star Trek image was pretty tough, even though the show only lasted three seasons. I just wonder how many Trekkies were disappointed when they talked to Walter and realized that his Russian accent was just part of the Chekov character. Oh well, the price of fame. R.I.P. Walter Koeing.
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