René Auberjonois, “Benson” and “Deep Space Nine” Star, Dies at 79

Rene Auberjonois, known for his roles in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “Benson” and as Father Mulcahy in the 1970s film “M.A.S.H.,” has died at age 79.

Auberjonois’ son, Rèmy-Luc Auberjonois, told The Associated Press that his father died on Sunday at his Los Angeles home of metastatic lung cancer.

Auberjonois’ first major movie role was as Father Mulcahy in the 1970 film “M.A.S.H.”

In the 1980s, he played Clayton Runnymede Endicott III, a snooty staffer in a governor’s mansion on “Benson.” And in the 1990s, he played the shape-shifting alien Odo on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

Auberjonois was born in New York City. His father, Swiss-born Fernand Auberjonois (1910–2004), was a Cold War-era foreign correspondent and Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer. His paternal grandfather, also named René Auberjonois, was a Swiss post-Impressionist painter. His mother, Princess Laure Louise Napoléone Eugénie Caroline Murat (1913–1986), was a great-great-granddaughter of Joachim Murat, one of Napoleon’s marshals and King of Naples during the First French Empire, and his wife, Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon’s youngest sister.

Auberjonois wrote that his French family name, an uncommon one in the U.S., means “armorer”, or one who makes armor.

Auberjonois had a sister and a brother, and two half-sisters from his mother’s first marriage. His family moved to Paris, France, after World War II, where at an early age he decided to become an actor.

After a few years in France, the family moved back to the United States and joined an artists’ colony in Rockland County, New York, whose residents included Burgess Meredith, John Houseman, and Helen Hayes. The Auberjonois family also lived in London, United Kingdom, where Auberjonois completed high school while studying theatre. To complete his education, he attended and graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1962.

After college, Auberjonois worked with several different theatre companies, beginning at the prestigious Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and then he traveled between Los Angeles, California, and New York, working in numerous theatre productions. He helped found the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music Repertory Company in New York. He was a member of the Peninsula Players summer theater program during the 1962 season.

In 1968, Auberjonois landed a role on Broadway and appeared in three plays simultaneously: as Fool to Lee J. Cobb’s King Lear (the longest-running production of the play in Broadway history), as Ned in A Cry of Players (opposite Frank Langella), and as Marco in Fire! In 1969, he earned a Tony Award for his performance as Sebastian Baye alongside Katharine Hepburn in Coco.

He received Tony nominations for his roles in Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor (1973) opposite Christopher Plummer; as the Duke in Big River (1984), winning a Drama Desk Award; and, memorably, as Buddy Fidler/Irwin S. Irving in City of Angels (1989), written by Larry Gelbart and Cy Coleman.

Other Broadway appearances included Malvolio in Twelfth Night (1972); Scapin in Tricks (1973); Mr. Samsa in Metamorphosis (1989); Professor Abronsius in Dance of the Vampires (musical), the English-language version of Jim Steinman’s musical adaptation of Tanz der Vampire; and Jethro Crouch in Sly Fox (2004), for which he was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award.

Auberjonois appeared many times at the Mark Taper Forum, notably as Malvolio in Twelfth Night and as Stanislavski in Chekhov in Yalta. As a member of the Second Drama Quartet, he toured with Ed Asner, Dianne Wiest, and Harris Yulin. He appeared in the Tom Stoppard and André Previn work, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Auberjonois directed many theatrical productions, and starred in the Washington D.C. production of 12 Angry Men (2004), where he portrayed “Juror #5” to Roy Scheider’s “#8” and Robert Prosky’s “#3”. He made his debut at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., as the titular character in Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid through July 27, 2008.

Films

Auberjonois played Father Mulcahy in the original film version of MASH. His subsequent film roles included the gangster Tony in Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach (1988), and Reverend Oliver in The Patriot (2000). He made cameo appearances in a number of films, including Dr. Burton, a mental asylum doctor patterned after Tim Burton, in Batman Forever (1995), and a bird expert who gradually transforms into a bird in Robert Altman’s 1970 film Brewster McCloud. He appeared as Colonel West in the 1991 Star Trek film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Other notable film appearances have included: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Images (1972), Pete ‘n’ Tillie (1972), The Hindenburg (1975), King Kong (1976), The Big Bus (1976), Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), Where The Buffalo Roam (1980), Walker (1987), My Best Friend Is a Vampire (1988), The Feud (1989), Inspector Gadget (1999), and Eulogy (2004).

Auberjonois portrayed the character of Straight Hollander in the 1993 Miramax film The Ballad of Little Jo. He voiced Professor Genius in Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, Louis the Chef in the 1st and 2nd Little Mermaid films, Flanagan in Cats Don’t Dance, the Butler in Joseph: King of Dreams, and the concierge in Planes: Fire & Rescue.

Television

In addition to having been a regular actor on three TV shows (Benson, a situation comedy; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in science fiction; and Boston Legal, a legal dramedy),

Auberjonois guest-starred on many television series, including Ellery Queen, Family, Grey’s Anatomy, The Rockford Files, Charlie’s Angels, Starsky & Hutch, Wonder Woman, Harry O, The Jeffersons, The Outer Limits, Night Gallery, Hart to Hart, Matlock, Murder, She Wrote, The Bionic Woman, Frasier, Judging Amy, Chicago Hope, The Bob Newhart Show, Star Trek: Enterprise, Stargate SG-1, Warehouse 13, Archer, L.A. Law, The Practice (for which he received an Emmy nomination, playing a different character than the one he played on The Practice spinoff Boston Legal), Saving Grace, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Criminal Minds, NCIS, The Good Wife, The Librarians, and Madam Secretary.

His television movie credits include The Rhinemann Exchange, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, Disney’s Geppetto, Gore Vidal’s Billy The Kid, the remake of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and the Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (2000) miniseries. He portrayed the character, Fortunato, in an episode of American Masters entitled “Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul” (1995). He received a third Emmy Award nomination for his performance in ABC’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. He played NASA scientist, Dr. Felix Blackwell, in the episode “Phoenix” on NCIS.

Auberjonois voiced animated roles, including characters on Snorks, Batman: The Animated Series, Leonard McLeish on Pound Puppies (2010), Avatar the Last Airbender, Master Fung in the first episodes of Xiaolin Showdown (before being replaced by Maurice LaMarche), Azmuth on Ben 10 Omniverse, Renard Dumont on The Legend of Tarzan, Justice League Unlimited, Max Steel, Fantastic Max, Challenge of the Gobots (as the treacherous “Dr. Braxis”), Archer, Young Justice, Random! Cartoons, and Avengers Assemble. He lent his voice talents to the 2001 Public Broadcasting System (PBS) American Experience documentary, “Woodrow Wilson“, as the title character, along with the 2003 PBS historical documentary Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites.

Auberjonois directed TV shows, including Marblehead Manor, and various episodes of Deep Space Nine.