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René Auberjonois

, Actor
Rene Auberjonois
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  • Born: 1 June 1940
  • Birthplace: New York, New York
  • Best Known As: Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

René Auberjonois was a busy actor on stage and screen for thirty years before he played Odo, the shape-shifting constable on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-99). He followed that in 2004 by taking the role of venerable lawyer Paul Lewiston on the jokey drama Boston Legal (co-starring William Shatner). Auberjonois is a reliable character actor whose film credits include M*A*S*H, (1970) and McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, starring Warren Beatty). On television he has been a regular voice actor for cartoons, including The Smurfs (1981), Mighty Max (1991) and Bruce Willis' Bruno the Kid (1996). He also was a regular player on TV's Benson (1980-86).

 
 
Artist: Rene Auberjonois
  • Genre: Soundtrack
  • Active: 2000s
  • Instrument: Vocals
  • Representative Album: "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Warped"

Biography

While his name might suggest a birthplace somewhere in France -- or at the very least Quebec -- actor Rene Auberjonois was born in New York City. However, his well-to-do parents were of noble European blood, thus French was the language of choice in his household. Despite his first-born-American status, Auberjonois was shunned by many of his schoolmates as a foreigner, and teased for having a "girl's" name. As a defense mechanism, Auberjonois became the class clown, which somehow led naturally to amateur theatricals. The influence of such neighborhood family friends as Burgess Meredith and Lotte Lenya solidified Auberjonois' determination to make performing his life's work. He was cast in a production at Stratford Shakespeare company by John Houseman -- another neighbor of his parents' -- and after moving with his family to England, Auberjonois returned to complete his acting training at Carnegie-Mellon University. There he decided to specialize in character parts rather than leads -- a wise decision, in that he's still at it while some of his handsomer and more charismatic Carnegie-Mellon classmates have fallen by the wayside. Three years with the Arena Stage in Washington DC led Auberjonois to San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre, of which he was a founding member. Movie and TV work was not as easy to come by, so the actor returned to New York, where he won a Tony for his Broadway role in the musical Coco. An introduction to director Robert Altman led Auberjonois to his first film, M*A*S*H (1970), in which he introduced the character that would later be fleshed out on TV as Father Mulcahy (with William Christopher in the role). He worked in three more Altman films before he and the director began to grow in opposite directions. More stage work and films followed, then TV assignments; Auberjonois' characters ranged from arrogant dress designers to snooty aristocrats to schizophrenic killers on film, while the stage afforded him more richly textured roles in such plays as King Lear and The Good Doctor. In 1981, Auberjonois was cast as Clayton Endicott III, the terminally fussy chief of staff to Governor Gatling on Benson. Like so many other professional twits in so many other films, Auberjonois' job was to make life miserable for the more down-to-earth hero, in this case Robert "Benson" Guillaume. Blessed with one of the most flexible voiceboxes in show business, Auberjonois has spent much of the last two decades providing voice-overs for cartoon characters, notably Chef Louie in the Disney animated feature The Little Mermaid. In 1993, Rene Auberjonois assured himself a permanent place in the hearts of "Trekkies" everywhere when he was cast as Odo (complete with understated but distinctive "alien" makeup) on the weekly syndicated TV show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Music Guide

Performed Songs By:

Alan Menken, Howard Ashman
 
Actor:

René Auberjonois

  • Born: Jul 01, 1940 in New York City, New York
  • Occupation: Actor, Director
  • Active: '70s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Comedy, Drama
  • Career Highlights: McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Images, King Kong
  • First Major Screen Credit: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

Biography

While his name might suggest a birthplace somewhere in France -- or at the very least Quebec -- actor Rene Auberjonois was born in New York City. However, his well-to-do parents were of noble European blood, thus French was the language of choice in his household. Despite his first-born-American status, Auberjonois was shunned by many of his schoolmates as a foreigner, and teased for having a "girl's" name. As a defense mechanism, Auberjonois became the class clown, which somehow led naturally to amateur theatricals. The influence of such neighborhood family friends as Burgess Meredith and Lotte Lenya solidified Auberjonois' determination to make performing his life's work. He was cast in a production at Stratford (Ontario)'s Shakespeare company by John Houseman -- another neighbor of his parents' -- and after moving with his family to England, Auberjonois returned to complete his acting training at Carnegie-Mellon University. There he decided to specialize in character parts rather than leads -- a wise decision, in that he's still at it while some of his handsomer and more charismatic Carnegie-Mellon classmates have fallen by the wayside. Three years with the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. led Auberjonois to San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre, of which he was a founding member. Movie and TV work was not as easy to come by, so the actor returned to New York, where he won a Tony for his Broadway role in the musical Coco. An introduction to director Robert Altman led Auberjonois to his first film, M*A*S*H (1970), in which he introduced the character that would later be fleshed out on TV as Father Mulcahy (with William Christopher in the role). He worked in two more Altman films before he and the director began to grow in opposite directions. More stage work and films followed, then TV assignments; Auberjonois' characters ranged from arrogant dress designers to snooty aristocrats to schizophrenic killers on film, while the stage afforded him more richly textured roles in such plays as King Lear and The Good Doctor. In 1981, Auberjonois was cast as Clayton Endicott III, the terminally fussy chief of staff to Governor Gatling on Benson. Like so many other professional twits in so many other films, Auberjonois' job was to make life miserable for the more down-to-earth hero, in this case Robert "Benson" Guillaume. Blessed with one of the most flexible voiceboxes in show business, Auberjonois has spent much of the last decades providing voice-overs for cartoon characters, notably Chef Louie in the Disney-animated feature The Little Mermaid. In 1993, Rene Auberjonois assured himself a permanent place in the hearts of "Trekkies" everywhere when he was cast as Odo (complete with understated but distinctive "alien" makeup) on the weekly syndicated TV show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

 
Wikipedia: Rene Auberjonois
René Auberjonois
Rene_Auberjonois.jpg
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, Flag of the United States 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 (19102004), 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

Major Cast Members of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Avery Brooks | Rene Auberjonois | Nicole de Boer | Michael Dorn | Terry Farrell | Cirroc Lofton | Colm Meaney | Armin Shimerman | Alexander Siddig | Nana Visitor
Cecily Adams | Marc Alaimo | Philip Anglim | Casey Biggs | Rosalind Chao | Jeffrey Combs | James Darren | Aron Eisenberg | Louise Fletcher | Hana Hatae | Max Grodénchik | J. G. Hertzler | Barry Jenner | Salome Jens
Penny Johnson Jerald | Kenneth Marshall | Chase Masterson | Brock Peters | Duncan Regehr | Andrew Robinson | Wallace Shawn | Mark Allen Shepherd | Melanie Smith


 
 

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Copyrights:

Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the René Auberjonois biography from Who2.  Read more
Artist. Copyright © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ® , a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Rene Auberjonois" Read more

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