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Walter Marvin Koenig (IPA: [ˈkeɪnɪg]; born September 14, 1936) is an American actor, writer,...

Walter Marvin Koenig (IPA: [ˈkeɪnɪg]; born September 14, 1936) is an American actor, writer, teacher and director, known for his roles as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek and Alfred Bester in Babylon 5. Koenig was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Sarah (née Strauss) and Isadore Koenig, who was a businessman. Koenig's parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia; his family lived in Lithuania when they emigrated and shortened their surname from "Königsberg" to "Koenig". Koenig's father was a communist who was persecuted during the McCarthyist era. Walter Koenig attended Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa with a pre-med major. He transferred to UCLA and received a BA in psychology. Koenig played the navigator Pavel Chekov on the USS Enterprise in the original Star Trek (TOS) television series and in the several movies that featured the original cast. He was cast as Chekov because of his resemblance to British actor/musician Davy Jones of the Monkees, in a bid to attract a younger audience, especially girls. (The studio's publicity department, however, ascribed the inclusion of Chekov to an article in Pravda complaining about the lack of Russians in Star Trek.) Koenig wore a hair piece