Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Benson Star Rene Auberjonois Passes Away

Rene Auberjonois, best known for his roles in Benson and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, has passed away. TMZ reports that the actor passed away at his home in Los Angeles after a battle with metastatic lung cancer. He was 79.

Auberjonois began his career in the theater, joining the Peninsula Players in Wisconsin in 1962. He would move on to have a successful Broadway career, including a Tony Award in 1969 for his role in Coco, before he got his screen break as Father Mulcahy in the original film version of MASH. Auberjonois went on to have a lengthy career on both the big and small screeen; his film roles included ones in the 1976 version of King Kong, Batman Forever and Mel Gibson’s Revolutionary War film The Patriot, while his TV roles included Paul Lewiston on Boston Legal, Hugo Miller in four episodes of Warehouse 13 and guest spots on a ton of television shows like Murder, She Wrote, The Jeffersons, Wonder Woman, Frasier and Grey’s Anatomy.

The actor will always be remembered most, however, for his roles on Benson and Deep Space Nine. Benson saw the actor portray Clayton Endicott III, Benson’s snobby chief of staff. DS 9 featured Auberjonois in the role of Odo, the Changeling Chief of Security on the space station. Odo was actually Auberjonois’ second of three Star Trek roles; he had an uncredited role as Colonel West in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and played a guest spot in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise.

Auberjonois also had a prolific career as a voice actor, portraying everyone from Chef Louis in The Little Mermaid and The Speaking Skull in The Last Unicorn to Renard Dumont in Disney’s The Legend of Tarzan series, Dr. Strangesnork in Snorks, Leonard McLiesh in Pound Puppies and Talos in God of War.

On behalf of 411, our best wishes to the family, friends and many fans of Mr. Auberjonois. He will most certainly be missed.