Forget Shat's Toup - What About Koenig's Wig?

[AtoZ]

It's become accepted "sport" to poke about Shatner's toupee, but for my money, none of the wigs Walter Koenig wore throughout the series looked remotely real or even good. We all know about his early appearances with the Beatle's wig, but as the series wore on and his look was altered, he still wore incredibly bad wigs.

What up with that?

Why doesn't anybody even mention it?

 

[JustKate]

I don't know but I agree. I mean, Shatner's toupee was a really good one - were they on a budget with Koenig's or something?

 

[Nerys Myk]

I thought it was his real hair in the later episodes.

 

[startrekkin58]

I was under the impression that Koenig wore a wig during the last couple movies. You can see it's a little too perfect and puffy during Star Trek 6 and in the beginning of Generations. Even now his hair hasn't changed that much. It's slightly suspect if you ask me...

 

[Nerys Myk]

Yeah I think Walter was sporting a piece in some of the movies.

 

[JustKate]

What I've read - mostly here, I admit, but this is a pretty darn fabulous collection of Trek experts - is that Koenig is one of those men who started going bald really young. So he wore a wig at first until his hair grew out, but I think even before TOS ended, they were having to take steps to hide/camouflage/something his thinning hair. If I remember correctly, the last time this came up, somebody quoted a biography of Koenig or an interview.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

Believe it or not, I am still not convinced that the Shat wore/wears a toupee. I need concrete proof! But oh yeah, Koenig's was very crappy.

 

[Shatmandu]

Koenig's early "hair" looked like a woodland creature was having sex with his skull, but then he looked okay for a good while.

And then in movies V, VI, and Generations, he looked like the studio made a late-night raid on Jack Lord's casket.

Joe, tombed

 

[M'Sharak]

What I've read - mostly here, I admit, but this is a pretty darn fabulous collection of Trek experts - is that Koenig is one of those men who started going bald really young. So he wore a wig at first until his hair grew out, but I think even before TOS ended, they were having to take steps to hide/camouflage/something his thinning hair. If I remember correctly, the last time this came up, somebody quoted a biography of Koenig or an interview.

From here:

Captain Robert April said:
Didn't know about De, but Walter Koenig only wore the Beatles wig until his own hair grew long enough (compare "Catspaw" with "Trouble With Tribbles", for example). Or, they got a better wig. Remember, although he played a 22 year old, Koenig is actually in the same age range as Shatner and Nimoy.

Sort of. He wore the full wig at first, til his hair grew out. But at some point he started wearing a rug to cover a bald spot he had as early as his audition. As he related on page 180 of "Warped Factors" (hardcover):

He [Fred Phillips] leaned closer. "Your hair is thinning in the back. You better come with me."
...He whipped out a can of something called Nestles, Streaks and Tips. The brown spray covered the island of withering follicles at my crown and thus began my life of deception on Star Trek: ... and the resolute assault of male-pattern baldness was, at least temporarily, obscured by the magic of the paint can.

Edit: Season 2, Episode 2, here's the wig. Six episodes later, he's clearly lost the wig and is wearing his own Chekov mop.

 

[Sovay]

...I had no idea. I also had no idea shatner wore a toupee till after I finished TOS and got online. I'm still not convinced- in any case, I can never spot it.

 

[JustKate]

^ There are lots of different kinds of toupes, Sovay - I don't think Shatner's was one of those "may as well call it a wig" ones. It was just supposed to...fill in his scalp a bit, if I've been correctly informed. Some of those are really subtle, but I believe you have to pay a lot of money for that subtlety.

Not that I'm speaking from personal experience here...

 

[startrekkin58]

What a minute.... Deforest Kelley wore a toupee?! Nooooo... I say nay!!!

 

[Captain Robert April]

The jury's still out on De, but he was around ten years older than Shatner, so who knows?

Shatner, on the other hand, has already been confirmed more times than can be easily counted. Hell, back in the day, he was pretty open about it. It's only in recent years that he's clammed up about the subject.

 

[startrekkin58]

Sorry I don't buy the story on De. He looked so natural, gray and slightly unkempt at times. If it was a toupee, it was a pretty damn good one. As for Shatner, it's no secret about his toupee. I changed every year when they made a new movie to reflect the times it was filmed. During the 80s, he had that curly helmet hair thing going. I think it looked the best in TWOK and TUC.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

At this point Koenig is completely bald except for a fringe. He's not really that shy about going out with a rug, and if you look long enough you can find a couple of pictures online of him attending premieres wigless - Getty Images has one, I think.

Of course, among other folks Bob Justman has documented the need for Shatner to wear toupees during TOS.

 

[Green Shirt]

Believe it or not, I am still not convinced that the Shat wore/wears a toupee. I need concrete proof! But oh yeah, Koenig's was very crappy.

Even if he wasn't wearing one here, he sure did in the early 80s -unless his hair got thicker and curlier as he aged.

 

[AtoZ]

It's become accepted "sport" to poke about Shatner's toupee, but for my money, none of the wigs Walter Koenig wore throughout the series looked remotely real or even good. We all know about his early appearances with the Beatle's wig, but as the series wore on and his look was altered, he still wore incredibly bad wigs.

What up with that?

Why doesn't anybody even mention it?

Case to point;

A really good example of the natty-assed tribble prop they recycled for Koenig's head can be gleaned in the scene where he succumbs to the Tholian inner space and goes crazy on the bridge. Just after Spock bellows "Chekhov" and neck pinches the restrained and near-insane ensign, you can not only EASILY see the braid that secures the wig to his scalp, you can see that the wig and his real hair are not a close match color-wise or in the grooming.

Watch that scene. It comes well after his early, Beatle-wig hair days of the second season.

To me, the REAL wig-wearing culprit has always been Koenig, not Shatner.

 

[Red Ranger]

Man, it must've sucked to go bald early back then. There's a bit more acceptance of balding men now, but back then, it was a deal-killer! Patrick Stewart would never have been cast as a male lead back then! -- RR

 

[JustKate]

^ Well, and of course for Koenig...despite his real age, he was supposed to be a cute boy who would appeal to young girls - not that he ever had that effect on me, but that's who he was supposed to appeal to. A bald spot didn't exactly convey youth. It doesn't now, for that matter.

 

[johcomp]

http://shatnerstoupee.blogspot.com/

Quite interesting and amusing