Entertainment
Star Trek’s Odo Secretly Voiced Many Of Your Favorite Cartoon Characters
By Jennifer Asencio
| Published
The 1991 animated Disney film The Little Mermaid was part romance and part madcap adventure as Ariel’s friends, a collection of literal fish out of water, have misadventures with human society. One of the most memorable scenes in the movie finds Sebastian, the musical sea crab, in the kitchen of Chef Louis, who is not only a gourmet but specializes in “les poisson”: seafood. He even sings about it.
The voice behind that song was actor René Auberjonois, the celebrated actor who played security chief Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Given that Odo is usually the straight man for Ferengi businessman Quark’s comic escapades, Auberjonois’s resume shouldn’t be shocking. In addition to his seven seasons on DS9, he also played the snobby Clayton Endicott III on the sitcom Benson for six of its seven-season run. He was nominated for an Emmy for that role.
However, the austere appearance of the actor and his propensity for playing the comic foil belie the fact that the creative talent behind Odo was also a voice actor in a lot of children’s entertainment.
The Other Voices Of René Auberjonois
His first voice role was as the skeletal guardian of the cave where the Red Bull lived in The Last Unicorn. This character terrified children in the 1980s with his piercing wail of “Unicorn!” after getting drunk on imaginary wine. Auberjonois plays him to his sniveling, sinister best through the power of his voice alone.
Also during the 1980s, while he was filming Benson in person, he was voicing characters for the Saturday morning cartoon The Snorks. These undersea creatures were like Smurfs, but with snorkels on their heads that enabled them to live in the ocean. Auberjonois participated in 42 episodes, playing the voice of Dr. Strangesnork and other minor characters.
At the same time, two episodes of the 1987 version of the cartoon Pound Puppies likely set the stage for him to be cast when the property was revived in 2010. Over three years, Auberjonois played McLeish, who ran the pound and was begrudgingly responsible for the puppies. The depiction of McLeish looks a little like Auberjonois. Even as a voice actor, he was a great comic foil.
René Auberjonois Was One Of The All Time Great Character Actors
René Auberjonois was also an accomplished actor on the screen. His other major television credits include four seasons on Boston Legal, the role of Father Mulcahey in the more serious movie version of M*A*S*H*, and Dr. Burton in Batman Forever. He even acted in another Star Trek classic, The Undiscovered Country, as Colonel West.
Off-screen, he tried his hand at directing, taking the helm for eight episodes of DS9. These included “Family Business,” the episode in which Quark returns to the Ferengi home world, and “Hippocratic Oath,” which deals with the Jem’Hadar addiction to Ketracel-white. That this episode was apparently ignored in developing the Jem’Hadar character for Starfleet Academy is almost more insulting when its behind-the-scenes history is acknowledged.
René Auberjonois Died Of Cancer In 2019
Unfortunately, the world lost both Rene Auberjonois’s acting talents and his distinctive voice in December 2019. The actor was 79 when his health was decimated by lung cancer that had invaded his brain. He chose to end his own life under the California End of Life Option Act and spent his final days at home with his wife of 56 years and their two children. This in itself is a remarkable Hollywood story of loyalty and family that complements the roles he spent so many years playing on-screen.
While he might be remembered best as Odo, his distinguished and varied career speaks for itself. Through both Star Trek and his role as Chef Louis in The Little Mermaid, he cemented his place as a cultural icon. But the stodgy, seemingly uptight characters he often played are only the foundation of a legacy of voice acting work that many fans aren’t even aware of.