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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actor Aron Eisenberg has died at 50

He played Nog, the first Ferengi to join Starfleet.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
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Gael Cooper

Actor Aron Eisenberg, who played Nog on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, died Saturday at age 50, his wife Malíssa Longo posted on Facebook. "He was an intelligent, humble, funny, emphatic soul," Longo wrote. "He sought to live his life with integrity and truth. He was so driven to put the best he had into whatever work was put before him."

The actor's cause of death wasn't released, but he underwent his second kidney transplant in 2015, StarTrek.com notes in an obituary.

Eisenberg played Nog, the first Ferengi to join Starfleet, and appeared in 40 episodes from across all seven seasons. The show ran from 1993 to 1999. His character was the son of Rom, the nephew of Quark, and the best friend of Jake Sisko, who was the son of commanding officer Benjamin Sisko.

Eisenberg was told nothing about his character when he was cast and had no idea that the part would last, Star Trek  reports "I thought every episode I was doing might be my last episode," he told StarTrek.com in 2012. The site also notes that Eisenberg also played Kar, the young Kazon-Ogla, in a 1995 Star Trek: Voyager episode.

Friends and fans remembered Eisenberg on social media.

"I have lost a great friend and the world has lost a great heart," Armin Shimerman, the actor who played Quark, wrote in a tweet. "He was a man of conviction and enormous sensitivity and the best of humanity."