Robert Walker Jr., ‘Star Trek’ Actor, Dead at 79

Actor Robert Walker Jr. has died. Walker was the son of late Hollywood stars, actor Robert Walker and Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Jones. He was 79 years old, the cause of death is unknown.

StarTrek.com reported the sad news on Friday, citing his family. Star Trek’s official Twitter account also tweeted about his death.

“We are saddened to report the passing of Robert Walker Jr., the actor who played the titular role in Star Trek: The Original Series episode ‘Charlie X.’ #StarTrek #StarTrekFamily,” the tweet reads.

We are saddened to report the passing of Robert Walker Jr., the actor who played the titular role in Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Charlie X.” #StarTrek #StarTrekFamily https://t.co/0Z06ATnpuA

— Star Trek (@StarTrek) December 6, 2019

The son of actors Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones, Robert Huson Walker Jr. was born at Queens Hospital on April 15, 1940. His parents separated when Robert was only three, and at age 9 his stepfather became the powerful film mogul David O. Selznick who by this time had already taken firm control of his mother’s career. He attended The Lawrenceville School near Princeton before beginning his acting career.

Walker began training at the Actors’ Studio in the early 1960s. Robert Walker Jr. was a familiar presence on television in the 1960s and early 1970s, he became less active in later decades. He also married wife Ellie Wood in the early 60s and they had three children.

He started his film career with two strong roles in The Hook (1963), a morality story set during the Korean war starring Kirk Douglas and Nick Adams, and The Ceremony (1963) in which he received a Golden Globe Award for “promising newcomer.”

Walker’s career was off to a great start when he was handed the biggest challenge of his film career taking over Jack Lemmon’s Oscar-winning role as Ensign Pulver (1964) in the sequel to the popular service comedy Mister Roberts (1955). The film and Walker were panned by the critics and Walker lost major ground in Hollywood. Despite his obvious talent, his subsequent films lacked the quality and promise of his first two, which included The Happening (1967), The Savage Seven (1968), Killers Three (1968).

Walker studied Tai Chi Chuan under Marshall Ho’o, a skill which he later exhibited in his role in the movie Easy Rider, film his wife Ellie also appeared Easy Rider (1969).

He appeared in films and television such as The War Wagon (1967) with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas; the title role in Young Billy Young, alongside Robert Mitchum, and Beware! The Blob, or—Son of Blob (1972). He featured in Angkor: Cambodia Express (1982) with Nancy Kwan, Christopher George, Woody Strode, and Sorapong Chatree.

In the 1960s, Walker appeared in the television series Route 66 (“Across Walnuts and Wine”, 1962). He played the title role and an emotionally disturbed character who was a troubled actor who lived and performed on the streets and in circuses, in Naked City episode “Dust Devil on a Quiet Street” (also 1962). In The Big Valley episode “My Son, My Son,” (1965), Walker portrayed Evan Miles, an emotionally disturbed college dropout who becomes obsessed with childhood friend Audra Barkley.

Walker was cast in the Star Trek episode “Charlie X” (1966) as Charles ‘Charlie’ Evans, a 17-year-old adolescent and social misfit with psychic powers. Walker appeared in the fifth season of the series Combat! in the episode “Ollie Joe” (also 1966).

In addition, he had the title role in an episode of The Time Tunnel entitled “Billy the Kid” (1967). He also portrayed Nick Baxter, an ill alien who caused the deaths of humans by touch, in an episode of The Invaders (“Panic”, 1967). He played Mark Cole in an episode of Bonanza (“The Gentle Ones”, 1967).

In the 1970s, Walker had a role in an episode of Columbo (“Mind Over Mayhem”, 1974), and as an innocent longshoreman who takes the blame for a murder on Quincy, M.E. (“The Hero Syndrome”, 1977). He also appeared in the pilot episode of The Eddie Capra Mysteries (1978).

Walker’s half-sister, Mary Jennifer Selznick, committed suicide at age 20 by jumping from a twenty-two story building in Los Angeles in 1976.

Walker maintained an episodic presence on television in the 1980s and 1990s. He guest-starred in two episodes of Murder, She Wrote with Angela Lansbury, the first time in “The Corpse Flew First Class” (1987), and as a mentally handicapped man in “Shear Madness” (1990). His last television performances were in L.A. Law and In the Heat of the Night, both in 1991. He also made a television series appearance in 1993 and had a small role in the film Beyond the Darkness (2016).