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Walter Koenig Receives Walk of Fame Star

The star is unveiled during a ceremony at 6679 Hollywood Blvd. Monday

Walter Koenig became the final Star Trek cast member to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Monday.

Esther Shapiro, a co-creator of the 1981-1989 ABC prime-time soap opera Dynasty, and J. Michael Straczynski, creator of the 1994-98 science fiction series Babylon 5, were among those in attendance at the 11:30 a.m. ceremony in front of the Boardwalk restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard. Former Star Trek alums George Takei and Nichelle Nichols were also on hand for the cermeony.

The star is the 2,479 on the Walk of Fame and near that of Koenig's Star Trek castmate George Takei.

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"This is something that you hope and wish for, dream about, but something you never expect to really happen," Koenig said in 2011 when it was announced he would be receiving a star. "It's a joyous occasion and I am deeply honored."

The ceremony came two days after the 46th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek, which Koenig joined in its second season as Ensign Pavel Chekov, a role he also would play in the first seven Star Trek movies.

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Koenig also wrote the 1973 episode The Infinite Vulcan of the animated Saturday morning Star Trek series.

Born in Chicago on Sept. 14, 1936, and raised in New York City, Koenig did his first on-stage work while attending The Fieldston School in the Bronx.

Koenig initially aspired to a career in psychiatry, first attending Grinnell College in Iowa as a pre-med major, then transferring to UCLA, where he received a bachelor's degree, majoring in psychology.

A professor encouraged Koenig to invest in his acting talent and he enrolled in New York's Neighborhood Playhouse, where his classmates included Dabney Coleman, Brenda Vaccaro, Christopher Lloyd, Jessica Walter, Elizabeth Ashley and James Caan.

Koenig's career began in 1960 with several roles on the television series A Day in Court.

Koenig's other early roles also included portraying a teenage thug on the April 1, 1963, premiere of the still-running ABC daytime drama General Hospital and a teenage gang leader in a 1964 episode of the CBS suspense anthology, The Alfred Hitchock Hour.

Following Star Trek's cancellation by NBC in 1969, Koenig appeared on episodes of Medical Center, Ironside and Columbo in the 1970s. He had a recurring role in Babylon 5 as the villainous Psi Cop Alfred Bester.

Koenig also wrote episodes of Land of the Lost, What Really Happened to the Class of '65?, Family and The Powers of Matthew Star.

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