Andrew Koenig, 1968-2010
Andrew Koenig, son of Star Trek‘s Walter Koenig, was found dead in Vancouver’s Stanley Park after the actor had been missing since Valentine’s Day, victim of an apparent suicide. Koenig was probably best known as Kirk Cameron’s friend “Boner” on the ’80s sitcom Growing Pains, but nerds likely knew him best for his father; however, Andrew also played the Joker in the acclaimed fan film Batman: Dead End, above. There’s no amount of condolences that would help anyone during this tragedy, especially from a dumb nerd site, but we will say that Koenig was talented and his family have our deepest sympathies.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.