Biography

René Auberjonois (June 1, 1940 – December 8, 2019) was an American actor, best known for playing Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Clayton Endicott III on Benson. He first achieved fame as a stage actor, winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1970 for his portrayal of Sebastian Baye opposite Katharine Hepburn in the André Previn-Alan Jay Lerner musical Coco. He went on to earn three more Tony nominations for performances in Neil Simon's The Good Doctor (1973), Roger Miller's Big River (1985), and Cy Coleman's City of Angels (1989); he won a Drama Desk Award for Big River. A screen actor with more than 200 credits, Auberjonois was most famous for portraying characters in the main casts of several long-running television series, including Clayton Endicott III on Benson (1980–1986), for which he was an Emmy Award nominee; and Paul Lewiston on Boston Legal (2004–2008). In films, Auberjonois appeared in several Robert Altman productions, notably Father John Mulcahy in the film version of M-A-S-H (1970); the expedition scientist Roy Bagley in King Kong (1976); Chef Louis in The Little Mermaid (1989), in which he sang "Les Poissons"; and Reverend Oliver in The Patriot (2000). In the American animated musical comedy film Cats Don't Dance (1997), Auberjonois voiced Flanagan. Auberjonois also performed as a voice actor in several video games, animated series and other productions.