Movie roles he has played over the years include Col. West in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the gangster Tony in Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach, and Reverend Oliver in The Patriot. He has had some rather exotic cameos in a number of films, including playing Dr. Burton, a mental asylum doctor patterned after Tim Burton, in Batman Forever, and a bird expert who gradually transforms into a bird in Altman’s 1970 film Brewster McCloud. He has guest-starred on many series including The Rockford Files, Charlie’s Angels, Matlock, Frasier, Star Trek: Enterprise and The Practice (as a different character than the one he plays on Practice spinoff Boston Legal). Auberjonois has also lent his voice as Chef Louis in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and as Janos Audron in two of the Legacy of Kain games, Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance and he voiced several roles on Batman: The Animated Series, Avatar the Last Airbender and Justice League Unlimited. 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. Auberjonois has directed many theatrical productions and some TV shows, including several episodes of DS9. Auberjonois’ mother was Princess Laura Murat. On his mother’s side, René is descended from 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 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. When the family later moved back to the United States, it was to join an artists’ colony in upstate New York whose other residents included Burgess Meredith, John Houseman and Helen Hayes. The environment only confirmed his 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 old, as an apprentice. They worked together again later, when he taught under Houseman at the Juilliard School. He stated in a 1993 interview that Houseman was the person who had most influenced his career. To complete his education, he enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). After graduating, he worked with several different companies, eventually landing a role on Broadway in 1969, where he played alongside Katharine Hepburn in Coco. He was presented with a Tony Award for his performance. He also appeared memorably in City of Angels, the musical written by Larry Gelbart and Cy Coleman, in 1989. Auberjonois married Judith Mihalyi on October 19, 1963. They have two children, Tessa and Remy. |
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