Walter Koenig played the role of Chekov during the original run of Star Trek in 1966. He was a young, eager, and optimistic officer who served as the navigator on the USS Enterprise. Or, you may remember him for his thick Russian accent.

While he made a name for himself on the hit 1966 series, he wasn't always an actor.

According to a 1968 interview with The Idaho Statesman, Koenig was a pre-med major in college before switching to psychology at UCLA. He said he had always been interested in acting and finally decided to give it a try.

Cue: Star Trek.

"I had reached a pretty abysmal point in my career when Star Trek was offered to me," Koenig said. "Nothing was happening so, about a year ago, I decided to stop waiting for people to do things for me and engineered my own breaks. I decided to make my own motion picture."

According to the article, he wrote, acted in, and produced his own comedy, I Wish I May, about actors trying to survive in Hollywood. He was in the middle of shooting the film when he found out he had an interview for Star Trek.

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"After a number of years of living with the prospect of the miraculous happening and nothing actually happening I reacted with great containment," Koenig said. 

Koenig was called for his interview. After the reading, he was told to go to the studio hairdresser to have his hair styled. He was ready to believe he had the part, but, like with his other roles, his acting dreams almost took a different turn.

"When I returned I saw other actors being interviewed for the part," Koenig said. "This was the most acutely disappointing of all moments in my life. I thought I had the part."

However, he did end up getting the part. Koenig was happy with the news. He liked his role because he liked the series itself. He considered it to be "intelligent" and "imaginative."

"I had several reasons for wanting the role," Koenig said. "There's the practical reasons of economics. I have a wife, a home and a yearning for a measure of security. The role couldn't have come at a more opportune time. If I were a religious man, I would say someone was looking out for me."

Even with the role, Koenig was used to having things fall apart, making him a bit gun-shy. But as the ratings and success of the series would prove, he had nothing to worry about. Between Trek and his own movie venture, he said, "It restored my self-esteem."

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