We did not just lose Aron Eisenberg last year.
We lost Rene Auberjonois as well.
Rene was such an important part of Deep Space Nine.
Maybe we could end today...
Ira, I would love to start,
if maybe you all just had a few words
to memorialize and remember these two great men
who we lost in the last year.
You know, Rene,
he was a force.
He had strong opinions and he backed those opinions up.
He was very talented. He could be prickly as hell.
He could be sweet as hell.
As an actor, he was a joy to watch,
and he also gave me his face at the end of Season 6.
I was walking down to the set, he was coming back,
and he ripped off his mask,
the last time for a couple of months, soaking wet,
and he goes, "Here! A souvenir!"
And I said, "I'm keeping this [beep] thing.
I'm gonna keep it," and it's up there
in my library to this day.
So that's what I think of when I think of Rene.
Aron...
Aron. I just wish I could've told him.
I mean, I just thought he knew, which was my mistake.
I just thought the actors knew how much we loved them,
because we kept trying to give 'em great things
to do all the time.
So that's how writers say that they love actors,
is they try to give them the best material that they can.
I just thought he was a funny guy. He was a sweet guy.
Later on, in the conventions,
I got to spend time with him, more time with him.
You know, he was...
I know it's a cliche, but in some ways
Aron was too good for this planet that we live on,
you know, which is why I think he was taken so young.
He was just a good, decent human being, and...
We miss him. It's easy to miss him.
Aron was everybody's best friend.
I mean, whenever I went to a convention
in some part of the world
where it was usually Star Trek actors,
or from other shows that I don't really know...
It's no offense to them.
And I'd want to have someone to have lunch with,
I would find Aron and Aron would be there.
And he was...
He actively tried to offend you, you know?
But as a joke.
As a thing that, he found that funny, and I found it funny.
It's a particularly British sense of humor,
and he's like, you make fun...
Setting someone up, as they used to say in the U.K.
And I don't think there'll ever be enough said about Aron.
He's a sweet, sweet human being.
He was a sweet human being.
And Rene I didn't know very well on the show.
I didn't do very many scenes with him.
He was prickly.
He could be prickly.
But he would also laugh and fill a room with his laughter.
And I will yield the rest of my time to Nana,
'cause I knew that he and Nana were very close.
The loss of Rene is huge.
He was a deep friend.
And he was. He was difficult.
He was all those things.
But he was one of the things I respect most
that an actor can be:
he was interested in the work, constantly fascinated,
and brought a child's mind to every aspect of it.
He cared so deeply,
and he would get into his flow state
and it was beautiful to work with him
and to watch him work.
Aron was this enormous, huge heart.
He and I texted all the time.
The last time we talked
was two days before he died.
When I was told that...
My husband came in and said,
"I'm so sorry to tell you, Aron died,"
and I went into denial like I've never gone.
And it was about an hour
before I would let the information in
that he was gone.
And, of course, I knew for two years
that Rene was ill,
and that was its own journey,
but I got to take some of that journey with him,
of helping him die, helping him talk about it.
And it was a very precious thing to me.
So I got, it's just huge.
I miss them. I miss them both.
Terry?
Oh, gosh. Yeah.
Both of those relationships had initial struggles.
With Rene, he ended up being like a father figure to me
and I really cherish the journey I went on with him,
because at first I used to make him so angry.
I would be like, "Oh, my god!" [laughs]
And it's amazing how it evolved,
and it's just a testament to what a big person he was too,
and it's just amazing.
And Aron,
at first he just drove me nuts
how he just wouldn't stop,
like a little, "Ah-la-la-la-la-la!"
"Shush!"
But [laughs] he would force the conversation to be like,
"Oh, Terry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to upset you,"
or, "I didn't mean to push you off,"
or, "I didn't mean to say it like that."
And then we developed a really nice rapport
and could banter with each other.
It was just the more confident
that he got that you liked him,
the more relaxed he was about everything.
And so, I don't know, he's just an amazing soul.
For Aron, to the spirit of Aron
that is probably here somewhere around us:
Aron, you must know by now
that we all loved you.
And because he was always concerned about his acting:
please know, Aron, we respected you.
You were one of the finest actors I ever worked with.
For Rene:
As Sid said, he was a consummate actor,
and because my whole world is about acting,
that's all I ever really think about.
I will say that
I was always in awe of working with Rene.
And if I have the last word,
let me leave it with Shakespeare:
They were men.
Taken for all in all.
I shall not look upon their likes again.