| René Auberjonois |
René Auberjonois at the Galileo7-Convention in Neuss, Germany, 2004 |
| Birth name |
René Murat Auberjonois |
| Born |
June 1 1940 (1940--) (age 67)
New York City, New York,  United States |
| Spouse(s) |
Judith Mahalyi (19 October 1963 - present) |
| Children |
Tessa Auberjonois, Remy Auberjonois |
René Murat Auberjonois (born June 1 1940) is a
Tony Award-winning American character actor, known for
portraying Father Mulcahy in the movie version of M*A*S*H and for creating a number of characters in long-running television series, including Clayton Endicott III on Benson (for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award),
Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space
Nine, and, currently, attorney Paul Lewiston on Boston Legal. He also has had a long and successful stage acting career.
Biography
Personal life
Auberjonois was born in New York City. His mother was Princess
Laura Louise Napoléone Eugénie Caroline Murat, a descendant of Joachim Murat,
King of Naples and his
wife Caroline Bonaparte, sister of the Emperor
Napoléon. His father, Fernand Auberjonois (1910–2004), was a Cold War-era foreign
correspondent and Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer, and his grandfather, also named René
Auberjonois, was a Swiss post-Impressionist painter. Auberjonois' family moved to
Paris after World War II, where at an early
age he decided to become an actor.
The family moved back to the U.S., joining an artists' colony in Rockland County,
New York whose other residents included Burgess Meredith, John Houseman, and Helen Hayes. The environment confirmed
Auberjonois' decision to act, and he made important contacts that were to advance his career. One of the most influential
contacts Auberjonois made during this period was Houseman, who gave him his first job in the theater at 16 years of age as an
apprentice. They worked together again later, when Auberjonois taught under Houseman at the Juilliard School, and Auberjonois stated in a 1993 interview that Houseman was the person who had
most influenced his career. The Auberjonois family also lived in London, England,
where Auberjonois completed high school while studying theatre. To complete his education, Auberjonois attended and graduated
from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon
University).
Auberjonois married Judith Mihalyi on October 19, 1963. They have two children, Tessa and Remy.
Theatre
After college, Auberjonois worked with several different theatre companies, beginning at the prestigious Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. He then traveled between
Los Angeles and New York working in numerous theatre productions. Auberjonois
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.
Eventually, Auberjonois landed a role on Broadway in 1968, where he appeared in three plays at once: 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!. The next year he earned a Tony Award for his
performance as Sebastian Baye alongside Katharine Hepburn in Coco. Other Tony nominations were for 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 include Malvolio in Twelfth Night (1972); Mr. Samsa in Metamorphosis opposite Mikhail
Baryshnikov (1989); Professor Abronsius in Dance of the Vampires,
Michael Crawford's unsuccessful rewrite of Tanz der Vampire; and Jethro Crouch in Sly Fox (2004,
for which he was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award). Auberjonois
has also appeared many times at the Mark Taper Forum, notably as Malvolio in Twelfth
Night and as Stanislavski in Chekhov in Yalta, although his
performance as Richard III was not a success. As a member of the Second Drama
Quartet, Auberjonois toured with Ed Asner, Dianne
Wiest, and Harris Yulin. He also appeared in the Tom
Stoppard and Andre Previn work, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, at the
Kennedy Center and the Metropolitan Opera.
Auberjonois has also directed many theatrical productions.
Films
After MASH, Auberjonois' movie roles have included Colonel West in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the gangster Tony in
Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach (1988), and
Reverend Oliver in The Patriot (2000). He has had some rather exotic
cameos in a number of films, including Dr. Burton, a mental asylum doctor patterned after Tim
Burton, in Batman Forever, and a bird expert who gradually transforms into
a bird in Robert Altman's 1970 film Brewster
McCloud. Other notable film appearances have included McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, starring Warren Beatty), The Hindenburg (1975, co-starring George C.
Scott), the remake of King Kong (1976), Eyes of Laura Mars
(1978), Eulogy, The Feud, and Inspector Gadget (1999). Auberjonois also portrayed the character of Straight
Hollander in the 1993 Miramax film, The Ballad of Little Jo.
Television
In addition to his recurring roles mentioned above, Auberjonois has guest-starred on many television series, including
The Rockford Files, Charlie's
Angels, The Outer Limits, Matlock, Murder, She Wrote, Frasier, Judging Amy, Chicago
Hope, Star Trek: Enterprise, Stargate SG-1, and The Practice (for which he received
another Emmy nomination for a different character than the one he played on Practice spinoff Boston Legal).
Television movie credits include Disney's Geppetto, Gore Vidal's The Kid, the
remake of the classic, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and the miniseries (2000). He received a third Emmy Award nomination for his performance in ABC's The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Auberjonois has also lent his voice as Janos Audron in three of the Legacy of Kain games, Soul Reaver 2,
Blood Omen 2 and Defiance, and he voiced several roles on Batman: The Animated Series, Avatar the
Last Airbender, and Justice League Unlimited.
Auberjonois has directed some TV shows, including Marblehead Manor and several episodes of DS9 listed below.
Radio and other voice work
Auberjonois has also been active in radio drama. Among other programs, he read "The Stunt" by Mordechai Strigler for the
NPR series Jewish Stories From the Old World to the New. He has also recorded a number of
novels on tape. As for film voice-overs, he was heard in Disney's The Little
Mermaid (receiving top billing as Chef Louis), and as The Skull in The Last
Unicorn.
Deep Space Nine directorial credits
Further reading
External links
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