William Shatner has paid tribute to his Star Trek colleague Walter Koenig, who has died at the age of 90. Koenig's representative announced that the actor died Sunday of natural causes at his home in North Hollywood.
Shatner posted a message on X on Tuesday, saying he was "deeply saddened to learn of Walter Koenig's passing."
The two actors worked together on Star Trek: The Original Series, which aired for three seasons between 1966 and 1969. Shatner played Captain James T. Kirk for the whole run. Koenig arrived in the second season, in 1967, in the role of Ensign Pavel Chekov. They later shared the screen again in many of the Star Trek films.
In his post, Shatner said the two were not especially close away from the set. "Although we did not know each other well away from the set, we shared the later seasons of the original Star Trek series and the six films that followed," he wrote.
Shatner went on to describe what he saw in Koenig and what fans have often said about him: a man who sincerely loved the Star Trek community. At conventions, he wrote, Koenig was rarely satisfied to stay behind a signing table. Instead, he preferred to mingle with the people who had kept the franchise alive for so many decades.
Shatner closed his message by calling that kind of connection rare. "That kind of genuine connection is rare, and it will be remembered by everyone who came into contact with him," he wrote.
George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu across all three seasons of the original series, also honored Koenig. In a Facebook post on Monday, Takei described his former castmate as far more than his best-known character.
"Walter was more than Chekov. He was a writer, a teacher, a thoughtful man and a loyal friend. To the fans who loved him for so many years, thank you. He loved you too," Takei wrote. He ended with a farewell: "Rest well, my dear friend. Keep navigating a steady course."
