This is incredibly sad news to write. Versatile actor René Auberjonois passed away today at 79 from cancer according to THR.
Star Trek fans know Auberjonois as Odo from Deep Space Nine. Odo was a shape-shifting changeling and head of security on the Deep Space Nine station. He was a complex character that Auberjonois portrayed thoughtfully and brilliantly. Over the arc of entire series, the actor used subtle details and smart choices to show Odo’s character growth especially towards the end of the run during the Dominion War where Odo had to fight against his own species, The Founders. Every scene he was in, raised the level of the stakes and the actors onscreen.
Born in 1940, René Auberjonois was a prolific actor on stage and screen, and worked a tremendous amount as a voice actor. He loved all mediums. I remember him fondly as Clayton Runnymede Endicott III, the uptight, chief of staff at a governor’s mansion in Benson. My family never missed an episode. However, by the time he won the role on Benson he had already built quite the hefty resume.
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He worked opposite Katherine Hepburn on stage in Coco which awarded him a Tony. He worked with Donald Sutherland in M.A.S.H. (the film) as Father Mulcahy and according to THR, continued to work with Robert Altman often after that film. He also starred in Boston Legal which starred Original Series actor, William Shatner.
Auberjonois grew up in an artistic family and lived in London, Paris and New York. According to Wikipedia his family lived in an artist colony for a while where John Houseman, Helen Hayes and Burgess Meredith also stayed. After graduating from college he began his lifelong career in acting.
Having graced the stages of broadway, the cinema screens in theaters all over the world and our television screens for decades, he will surely be missed but never forgotten.
Rene Auberjonois is survived by his wife of 56 years, Judith and their children, Tessa and Remy.
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