'Growing Pains' actor committed suicide

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Missing American actor Andrew Koenig, who starred in the 1980s TV comedy "Growing Pains," killed himself, his father said Thursday after police found his body in an isolated area of a park.

"Our son took his own life," a distraught Walter Koenig, who portrayed Chekov in the original "Star Trek" TV series, told reporters at a late-afternoon news conference.

Andrew Koenig, 41, was last seen Feb. 14 when he left a friend's Vancouver apartment; he was reported missing four days later after his father, in Los Angeles, received a despondent letter from his son.

Koenig's disappearance caused friends -- including such other former child stars as Alyssa Milano and Kirk Cameron -- to post comments online or put out statements seeking information on his whereabouts.

On a Web site, Koenig's parents posted a long description of their son, including the fact that he had been suffering from clinical depression when he disappeared.