dead at 79
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Star Trek - Charlie X: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708424/
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MovieChat Forums > Robert Walker Jr. Discussion > dead at 79
https://deadline.com/2019/12/robert-walker-jr-dies-star-trek-actor-and-son-of-hollywood-stars-was-79-1202802504/
On television his career spanned 20 years and his many credits included roles on Route 66, Ben Casey, Combat!, Bonanza, The Time Tunnel, The Six Million Dollar Man, Quincy, M.E.,Charlie’s Angels, Columbo, CHiPs, L.A. Law, and Murder, She Wrote.
It was his role in Federation space, however, that earned Walker his most lasting screen legacy. Walker was 26 when he played the callow 17-year-old Charlie Evans, aka Charlie X, on the second episode of Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi series for NBC. The petulant Charlie came aboard the USS Enterprise as a rescued castaway who survived 14 solitary years amid the wreckage of a downed transport ship. The memorable episode, penned by D.C. Fontana, takes a dark turn when the orphaned teen’s dangerous secret and formidable mental powers are revealed.
Do they know what he died of?
He did not do much acting, but his father was a fairly well known actor.
The only things I can recall him doing were Charlie X on Star Trek, and Ensign Pulver where he comically mispronounced the word buttocks as bee-yew-toks.
What did he do in his life?
He looks so much like his father (Strangers On A Train - 1951) for a minute I thought they were the same person.
I noticed Junior on a 1965 TV show and then looked up the Hitchcock film and wondered how this guy could have appeared in both and look so young in '65. I did remember him from Star Trek, and quickly realized they couldn't be the same, but the shape of their faces is almost identical.
He looks so much like his father (Strangers On A Train - 1951) for a minute I thought they were the same person.
I noticed Junior on a 1965 TV show and then looked up the Hitchcock film and wondered how this guy could have appeared in both and look so young in '65. I did remember him from Star Trek, and quickly realized they couldn't be the same, but the shape of their faces is almost identical.
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It was pretty incredible. I had the same problem when I was young, thinking it was the same guy in both movies in both eras.
I always thought this was interesting.
Robert Walker SENIOR died young -- 33 I think -- and tragically from an injection given to him by a studio "Dr. Feelgood" after the actor had been drinking.
Robert Walker Jr. lived for DECADES longer than his father, and gave some interviews on "Strangers on a Train"(DVD) and it was as if a small miracle occurred:
We got to see what Robert Walker SENIOR would have looked like in his 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s....
PS. Funny that nobody thought to remake Strangers on a Train with Robert Walker Jr. as Bruno..
What caught by surprise me was after seeing Senior's name under Strangers, I looked up the TV show not expecting to see RW JUNIOR ! If they were just two similar looking actors, that would have been one thing, but to suddenly see they were father and son ...!
I'm sure a ton of people already knew this, but I don't think I ever had put the two together before.
Thanks for the little backstory about Senior. I also noticed Junior's mother was Jennifer Jones and step-dad was THE David O. Selznick. The kid was uber-Hollywood royalty, and that Star Trek episode makes him very recognizable.
Feel like I should have known all this already.