RENÉ AUBERJONOIS

(1 June 1940 - 8 December 2019)

The American actor René Auberjonois, who has died from cancer at the age of 79, was never a real household name but he kept busy on stage, in films and on television for over fifty years, and in the process often turned quirkiness into an art form. He became famous through his appearances in the films of Robert Altman, but from the age of sixteen trained and gained experience in the theatre. His family were near neighbours of producer-director John Houseman who found him an apprenticeship at his Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut. Later on he taught under Houseman at the Juilliard School. Theatre work in Washington, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York followed and at 28 he played the Fool opposite Lee J. Cobb’s King Lear. He was in the musicals Coco (winning a Tony Award), Big River and City of Angels and in plays, including Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor. Robert Altman discovered Auberjonois in a flop musical and put him into M*A*S*H as Father Mulcahy, and then in Brewster McCloud, McCabe and Mrs Miller, Images and The Player. He was also in Martin Ritt’s Pete ‘n’ Tillie, Robert Wise’s The Hindenburg, James Frawley’s The Big Bus, John Guillermin’s remake of King Kong, Irvin Kershner’s Eyes of Laura Mars, Alex Cox’s Walker, Police Academy 5, Nigel Finch’s The Lost Language of Cranes, Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever, Inspector Gadget, Roland Emmerich’s The Patriot, Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women and Blood Stripe (directed by his son Remy Auberjonois). He was in four films during 2019: The Circuit, Windows on the World, Raising Buchanan and First Cow. His last film, Ralph Soll’s Cortex, is in post-production. René Auberjonois’s career was mainly in television, including Rhoda, Starsky and Hutch, The Rockford Files, The Good Wife and over 170 episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as the shape-shifting Odo, his most famous TV part. He also did much voice-over work for animated series including Snorks, Batman: The Animated Series, Pound Puppies, Avatar the Last Airbender and The Smurfs. Auberjonois’ wife was Judith Mahalyi who he married in 1963. They have two children, son Remy and daughter Tessa.

MICHAEL DARVELL