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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 13 december 2019

‘Benson,’ ‘Star Trek’ actor René Auberjonois has died at 79

By ANDREW DALTON son Rèmy-Luc Auberjonois
Associated Press told The Associated Press.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — René René Auberjonois worked
Auberjonois, a prolific actor constantly as a character
best known for his roles on actor in several golden
the television shows “Ben- ages, from the dynamic
son” and “Star Trek: Deep theater of the 1960s to the
Space Nine” and his part cinema renaissance of the
in the 1970 film “M.A.S.H.” 1970s to the prime period
playing Father Mulcahy, of network television in the
has died. He was 79. 1980s and 1990s — and
The actor died Sunday at each generation knew him
his home in Los Angeles of for something different.
metastatic lung cancer, his For film fans of the 1970s,

This Nov. 9, 2013, file photo shows Rene Auberjonois at the International Myeloma Foundation 7th
Annual Comedy Celebration in Los Angeles.
Associated Press

he was Father John Mul- with René.” opposite Katharine Hep-
cahy, the military chap- George Takei tweeted: burn in “Coco,” a play on
lain who played straight “”Star Trek fans knew him the life of designer Coco
man to the doctors’ antics as Odo from Deep Space Chanel that would earn
in “M.A.S.H.” It was his first Nine. We knew him as him a Tony for best actor in
significant film role and the René. He was a wonder- a leading role in a musical.
first of several for director ful, caring, and intelligent He would later see Tony
Robert Altman. man. He shall be missed. nominations for 1973’s “The
For sitcom watchers of the When I look out to the stars, Good Doctor,” 1984’s “Big
1980s, he was Clayton Run- I shall think of you, friend.” River,” and 1989’s “City of
nymede Endicott III, the Auberjonois was born in Angels.”
hopelessly highbrow chief New York in 1940, the son In 1970, Auberjonois began
of staff at a governor’s of Fernand Auberjonois, his run with Altman, playing
mansion on “Benson,” the Swiss-born foreign corre- Mulcahy in “M.A.S.H.”
ABC series whose title char- spondent for U.S. newspa- In his most famous ex-
acter was a butler played pers, and the grandson of change from the movie,
by Robert Guillaume. a Swiss post-impressionist Sally Kellerman’s Marga-
And for sci-fi fans of the painter also named René ret Houlihan wonders how
1990s and convention-go- Auberjonois. such a degenerate doc-
ers ever since, he was Odo, The younger René Auber- tor as Donald Sutherland’s
the shape-shifting Change- jonois was raised in New Hawkeye Pierce could
ling and head of space- York, Paris, and London, reach a position of respon-
station security on “Star and for a time lived with sibility in the U.S. Army.
Trek: Deep Space Nine.”“I his family in an artists’ col- A bible-reading Auberjo-
am all of those characters, ony in Rockland County, nois responds, deadpan:
and I love that,” Auberjo- New York, whose residents “He was drafted.”
nois said in a 2011 interview included the actors John “I actually made that line
with the “Star Trek” web- Houseman, Helen Hayes up when we were rehears-
site. “I also run into people, and Burgess Meredith. ing the scene,” Auberjo-
and they think I’m their After graduating from col- nois said on the podcast
cousin or their dry cleaner. lege at Pittsburgh’s Carn- “The Gist” in 2016. “And it
I love that, too.” egie Institute of Technol- became a kind of an icon-
Fellow stars from “Star Trek” ogy, now Carnegie Mel- ic line for the whole film.”
shows praised the actor on lon, Auberjonois hopped The same year he played
Twitter. around the country joining an off-the-wall ornitholo-
William Shatner said that theater companies, even- gist in Altman’s “Brews-
“to sum up his life in a tually landing three roles ter McCloud,” played a
tweet is nearly impos- on Broadway in 1968, in- saloonkeeper alongside
sible. To Judith, Tessa & cluding playing the Fool in Warren Beatty in the di-
Remy I send you my love & a long-running version of rector’s western “McCabe
strength. I will keep you in King Lear. & Mrs. Miller” in 1971 and
my thoughts and remem- The following year he appeared in Altman’s “Im-
ber a wonderful friendship would play Sebastian Baye ages” in 1972. q