René Auberjonois dies: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Benson and Boston Legal star was 79

The New York Times

Auberjonois, who died Sunday from metastatic lung cancer, was one of the most sought-after character actors with hundreds of roles in television, film and the stage. Among his TV roles, he most memorably played alien security officer Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the governor’s chief of staff Clayton Endicott III on Benson and senior law firm partner Paul Lewiston on Boston Legal. Auberjonois' last TV role was on Madam Secretary in 2016. "He appeared in episodes of seemingly every television show of the 1970s: Starsky & Hutch, The Rockford Files, The Bob Newhart Show, Charlie’s Angels and many more. Benson, which he joined in 1980 in its second season, made him a regular in American living rooms," writes Neil Genzlinger in Auberjonois' New York Times obituary, adding: "Mr. Auberjonois was thrust into a whole different level of fame when he took on the role of Odo, a stern shape-shifter and the security chief of the Federation space station Deep Space Nine, on the 1990s Star Trek spinoff, which ran for 173 episodes (several of which he directed). The franchise, of course, has an army of ardent fans, and Mr. Auberjonois turned up at various fan fests, enjoying the adulation — but as himself, not as an alien." “When I go to conventions, I don’t talk in my Odo voice, I don’t have makeup on,” he told The Birmingham News of Alabama in 1996 of being a Star Trek star. “I’m just a guy with a receding hairline.” ALSO: Fellow Star Trek stars pay tribute to Auberjonois, including William Shatner and George Takei.