shatner age star trek

William Shatner

William Shatner is best known for his distinctive voice and his roles on 'Star Trek' and 'Boston Legal.'

Who Is William Shatner?

Actor, director, author, singer William Shatner is best known for his roles on Boston Legal and Star Trek .

Born on March 22, 1931, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Shatner started his career as a child performer in radio programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. As a student at McGill University, he continued to pursue acting. Shatner spent his summers performing with the Royal Mount Theater Company. He graduated from the university in 1952 and joined the National Repertory Theater of Ottawa. Working with Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Shatner also appeared in productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario.

Early Stage and Screen Roles

In 1961, Shatner had a small part in the Holocaust drama Judgment at Nuremberg , playing an army captain. He had a lead part in The Intruder (1962) as a racist who fought against school integration. On the small screen, Shatner had his first series, For the People , in 1965. He starred on the short-lived drama as an assistant district attorney in New York City.

'Star Trek' Series and Films

The following year, Shatner took on the role that made him famous around the world. As Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek , he commanded the U.S.S. Enterprise , a starship traveling through space in the twenty-third century. Kirk encountered all sorts of unusual aliens and challenging situations during his journeys. Accompanying him on these adventures was his loyal crew, which included first officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and medical officer Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley). The science fiction series created by Gene Roddenberry premiered on September 8, 1966, and lasted for three seasons.

During the run of the show, Shatner also made an unusual career move. He recorded an album, The Transformed Man (1968), which featured spoken word versions of contemporary pop hits. Already known for his dramatic, but earnest delivery of his lines on Star Trek , Shatner recorded renditions of such songs as the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

Not long after the album, Star Trek was canceled. The show, however, continued to live on in syndication and became even more popular. Star Trek became a Saturday morning cartoon that ran during the mid-1970s, and it was resurrected a live action film in 1979. Returning to the role of Kirk, Shatner starred in Star Trek: The Motion Picture . The film's warm reception by film-goers showed how much affection the public had for the old series. At the beginning of the film, Kirk has become an admiral, Bones has retired, and Spock has returned to the planet Vulcan. But the three return to work on a new version of the Enterprise to solve a crisis involving a mysterious cloud that has destroyed several spaceships.

In the sequel Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Kirk has to overcome an old adversary out for revenge, Khan Noonien Singh (Richardo Montalban). He followed with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).

The next chapter in the Star Trek film series received a lukewarm reception. For Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Shatner not only returned as Kirk, but made his debut as a feature film director as well. The film, unfortunately, received some fairly negative reviews. Movie critic Roger Ebert called it "a mess," involving "not much danger, no characters to really care about, little suspense, uninteresting ... villains, and great deal of small talk."

Not matter what the reviews said, the Star Trek film series continued at warp speed. The next installments were Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) and then Star Trek Generations (1994). In Generations , the members of the original Star Trek hand the baton to the cast of the spin-off series Star Trek: The Next Generation , marking the end of Shatner's starring role in the franchise.

TV and Movie Roles

't.j. hooker'.

In 1982, Shatner took on a new leading television role in T. J. Hooker , as a veteran police officer who returns to a street beat. The supporting cast included Heather Locklear and Adrian Zmed as younger officers who work with and look up to Shatner's character. Unlike the original Star Trek series, T. J. Hooker was immediately popular with television audiences.

Shatner remained a fixture on television even after T. J. Hooker went off the air, becoming the host for Rescue 911 in 1989. This was an early entry into the reality television genre, featuring reenactments of emergency situations.

'The Practice,' 'Boston Legal'

On the big screen, Shatner appeared as a beauty pageant host in Miss Congeniality (2000) and its sequel Miss Congeniality 2 (2005), with Sandra Bullock . In 2003, he made a guest appearance as a talented, but eccentric lawyer on The Practice . His turn as Denny Crane brought him his first Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He had been previously nominated for his guest appearance on the science fiction sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun in 1999.

The Practice creator David E. Kelley created a spin-off series, Boston Legal , featuring Shatner's character Denny Crane in 2004. Law partner and master litigator Crane acts as a mentor of sorts to Alan Shore (played by James Spader). For his work on the series, Shatner won his second Emmy — this time for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series — in 2005. More nominations in this category followed in 2006 and in 2007.

'Shatner's Raw Nerve,' 'Weird or What?'

In 2008, Shatner began work on Shatner's Raw Nerve, a celebrity interview program on the Biography Channel. He then worked on another Biography Channel project entitled Aftermath with William Shatner , which focused on the stories of ordinary citizens who became overnight celebrities, and also hosted the supernatural-themed Weird or What?

'$#*! My Dad Says,' 'Better Late Than Never'

In 2010, Shatner returned to sitcom TV in the short-lived $#*! My Dad Says , based on a Twitter feed of the same name. He began hosting the U.S. version of the stop-motion series Clangers in 2015, and enjoyed some success with the reality-travel series Better Late Than Never the following year, alongside Henry Winkler , George Foreman and Terry Bradshaw .

'The UnXplained' on HISTORY

Shatner is the host and executive producer of the HISTORY nonfiction series The UnXplained , which premiered on July 19, 2019, at 10 pm ET/PT. The series tackles subjects that have mystified mankind for centuries, from mysterious structures and cursed ancient cities to extraterrestrial sightings and bizarre rituals.

“It’s an intriguing show that will offer viewers credible answers to questions about mysterious phenomena, while also leaving other theories left unexplained," Shatner said.

Shatner has experienced great success as an author. During the writers' strike of 1987, he transformed a screenplay idea into a novel. The result was TekWar (1989), a work of science fiction featuring a middle-aged private detective working in the twenty-second century. More Tek titles followed and were later adapted for television.

Additionally, Shatner worked with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens to create a series of Star Trek novels, and launched the Quest for Tomorrow and Samuel Lord science fiction series.

Also a veteran of nonfiction, Shatner co-authored Star Trek Memories (1993) and Star Trek Movie Memories (1994) with Chris Kreski. He and Kreski also worked together on Get a Life! (1999), a look at the whole Star Trek fan phenomenon. The actor went on to pen several nonfiction books with David Fisher, including Up Till Now: The Autobiography (2008) and Live Long And...: What I Learned Along the Way (2018).

Marriages and Personal

From 1956 to 1969, Shatner was married to Canadian actress Gloria Rand. The couple had three children together. Shatner married actress Marcy Lafferty in 1973. That marriage ended in divorce in 1996. Shortly thereafter, he married model Nerine Kidd. Kidd's life came to a tragic end in 1999, when she accidentally drowned in a pool at the Shatners' home in Studio City, California.

After such a tragic loss, Shatner was able to find happiness again with his 2001 marriage to Elizabeth J. Martin, a horse breeder. In late 2019, it was reported that the 88-year-old actor had filed for divorce.

As part of his own love of horses, Shatner started the annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show to raise funds for children's charities in 1990.

In late 2017, Canadian Governor General Julie Payette appointed Shatner an Officer of the Order of Canada for his contributions to popular culture and his charity work.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: William Shatner
• Birth Year: 1931
• Birth date: March 22, 1931
• Birth City: Montreal
• Birth Country: Canada
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: William Shatner is best known for his distinctive voice and his roles on 'Star Trek' and 'Boston Legal.'
• Astrological Sign: Aries
• McGill University

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: William Shatner Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/actors/william-shatner
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: December 11, 2019
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• The line between making a total ass of yourself and being fundamentally funny is very narrow.

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William Shatner

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William Shatner, OC ( born 22 March 1931 ; age 93), an Emmy Award-winning Canadian actor, became most famous for portraying Captain James T. Kirk of the starship USS Enterprise in all 79 aired episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series , 21 of the 22 episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series , and the first seven Star Trek movies . He also directed and co-wrote the story for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier . His image also appeared in Star Trek Beyond , in a photograph that was among Spock 's possessions bequeathed to his alternate reality counterpart .

In addition, Shatner appeared indirectly (through archive footage) in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " Trials and Tribble-ations " and his archive voice-over was used in the Star Trek: Enterprise fourth season episode " These Are the Voyages... ". He has also voiced the role of Kirk in a number of video games and he is the credited author for a series of Star Trek novels involving Kirk, the first of which was The Ashes of Eden . (His primary "ghost" writers are Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens .)

Outside of the Star Trek franchise, Shatner is well-known for his roles on several other television shows, including Bob Wilson in the "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" episode of The Twilight Zone , the title character on the 1980s police drama series T.J. Hooker , and his Emmy Award-winning portrayal of famed attorney Denny Crane on the ABC drama The Practice and its spin-off, Boston Legal . He is also remembered for hosting the informational program Rescue 911 from 1989 through 1996 and is currently recognized as the official spokesperson for Priceline.com , having appeared in advertisements for the company since 1998. Prior to his work on Star Trek , he starred in Incubus , one of a handful of movies to be filmed entirely in the constructed language known as Esperanto.

In 2021 , Shatner was a passenger on private spacecraft company Blue Origin's second human spaceflight, NS-18, becoming the oldest human ever to fly into space. This makes him one of a select few Star Trek performers to have actually been to space, along with Mae Jemison , E. Michael Fincke , and Terry Virts , although unlike them, he was a space tourist rather than an astronaut.

• 1 Biography
• 2 Early career
• 3 Playing James T. Kirk
• 4.3.1 Denny Crane and Boston Legal
• 5 Musical career
• 6 Book writing
• 7.1.1 Novels
• 7.1.2 Non-fiction
• 7.2 Documentaries
• 7.3 Video games
• 7.4 Discography
• 9.1 Additional appearances
• 10 Star Trek interviews
• 11 External links

Biography [ ]

Shatner was born in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighborhood of Montreal , Quebec, Canada, to a Conservative Jewish household. A native English speaker, he is also fluent in French.

He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University in Montreal, where the Student Center was unofficially renamed "The Shatner Center" in the 1990s in a student popular election. As of 2014, a flimsy sign was hanging in the lobby, but the university administration had not officially accepted the name change.

Famous for his clipped, dramatic, and often-imitated narration and dialogue delivery, Shatner has become one of the most recognizable stars in Hollywood. In a career spanning five decades, he has become a household name not only for his role as James T. Kirk , but also for playing T.J. Hooker in the series of the same name, the host of Rescue 911 , and for his Emmy Award-winning role as legendary but senile lawyer Denny Crane on Boston Legal . He is also an accomplished writer, producer, director and host. On 14 December 2006, Shatner was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame for his many accomplishments in the field of television.

Shatner has three daughters: Leslie , Lisabeth , and Melanie . All are from his first marriage to Gloria Rand, whom Shatner married in 1956 but divorced in 1969, following the cancellation of Star Trek. Shatner subsequently married actress Marcy Lafferty in 1973. Shatner and Lafferty remained together until their divorce in 1994. Shatner then married Nerine Kidd in 1997, but this marriage ended tragically with Kidd's death in a drowning accident in 1999.

He is currently married to Elizabeth Martin, who shares Shatner's passion for horses. They live together in Los Angeles, California. In his spare time, he plays paintball and tennis and is a professional horse breeder. In this latter profession, he founded the annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show in 1990, which he continues to host.

Shatner has been awarded the Order of Canada, one of the highest civilian honors in the country, and has received two Emmys for his work on Boston Legal . He is also commemorated on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto, and has two honorary degrees to his name from McGill University and the New England Institute of Technology. On 29 April 2014, Shatner received NASA's highest civilian honor, the Distinguished Public Service medal. [2]

Early career [ ]

Shatner began his screen acting career in Canadian films and television productions, including the role of Ranger Bob during the first year of the popular children's show Howdy Doody . He was also seen in a 1952 episode of Omnibus with future Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country co-star Christopher Plummer , who also hails from Montreal. In fact, Shatner would eventually be Plummer's understudy at the Stratford Shakespearan Festival's 1956 production of Henry V, where Shatner had to take Plummer's role for a performance when he was ill, giving the younger actor his major break in his career.

One of Shatner's earliest American television appearances was a 1956 episode of The Kaiser Aluminum Hour called "Gwyneth," in which he co-starred with Joanne Linville , who played the title role. Shatner later reunited with Linville in episodes of The United States Steel Hour and The Defenders before co-starring together in the Star Trek episode " The Enterprise Incident ".

Shatner ultimately landed several guest roles on the TV series Studio One in 1957. His first appearance on that program was in a 1957 two-parter entitled "The Defender" (featuring Ian Wolfe ), which served as the basis for the aforementioned TV show The Defenders , on which Shatner had a recurring role (albeit as a different character than the one he played on Studio One ). The following year, Shatner landed his first American film role, playing Alexi Karamazov in 1958's The Brothers Karamazov . Among his co-stars in this film were future TOS guest stars David Opatoshu and Harry Townes .

On Broadway, Shatner performed with his future " Elaan of Troyius " co-star France Nuyen in The World of Suzie Wong , with Nuyen playing the title role. This play ran for a total of 508 performances from 14 October 1958 through 2 January 1960. Shatner's performance won him a Theatre World Award in 1959. He and Nuyen performed an excerpt from the play on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. His next Broadway play was the comedy A Shot in the Dark , which ran for 389 performances between October 1961 and September 1962. Fritz Weaver joined the cast late in the run, replacing actor Walter Matthau.

In the meantime Shatner continued co-starring with a number of future Star Trek guest-stars in several popular American television programs throughout the 1950s and '60s, including Playhouse 90 (with James Gregory ), Kraft Television Theatre (with Richard Kiley ), Outlaws (with John Anderson , John Hoyt , and Ken Lynch ), Naked City (with Theodore Bikel and Lou Antonio ), The Dick Powell Show (with Frank Overton ), The Nurses (with Stephen Brooks and Madlyn Rhue ), 77 Sunset Strip (with Brian Keith ), Route 66 (with Glenn Corbett and Louise Sorel ), Burke's Law (with Michael Ansara and Bill Catching ), The Outer Limits (with Lawrence Montaigne , James B. Sikking , and Malachi Throne ), Twelve O'Clock High (with Robert Lansing , Frank Overton, and Bert Remsen ), and The Big Valley (with Bill Quinn and Jason Wingreen ). He even appeared along with his future co-star Leonard Nimoy in a 1964 episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. called "The Project Strigas Affair." He also appeared with George Takei (as well as Keye Luke and Abraham Sofaer ) on Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre that same year.

Other popular TV shows Shatner appeared on during this time include Alfred Hitchcock Presents , Thriller , The Fugitive , Gunsmoke , and The Virginian . He also had a recurring role as Dr. Carl Noyes on Dr. Kildare in early 1966, during which he co-starred with Bruce Hyde and Diana Muldaur – both of whom he was reunited with on Star Trek. Most notably, however, he starred in two episodes of The Twilight Zone , both written by Richard Matheson , including the famous "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", in which he played Bob Wilson, a man released from a mental hospital who seemingly suffers a relapse aboard an airliner after seeing a creature on the plane's wing.

Shatner also continued acting in films during the 1960s. In 1961, he appeared as Captain Harrison Byers, the aide to Judge Dan Haywood, in the classic Academy Award-winning drama Judgment at Nuremberg with future TOS guest actor Rudy Solari . That same year, he had the starring role as a revolutionary and controversial high school teacher in The Explosive Generation , and the following year he starred as a bigot in the Roger Corman classic The Intruder (with George Clayton Johnson ). He then appeared as a preacher in 1964's The Outrage (co-starring Paul Fix ).

1965's low budget horror film Incubus stars Shatner. The film was believed to be lost for some years, until a copy was found in France. Its main point of interest, other than Shatner's starring role, is that it is entirely filmed in Esperanto , a constructed language, which has very rarely been used onscreen. The pronunciation of the language by the actors has been criticized by fluent speakers; Shatner's has been compared to Montreal French.

In 1968, while Star Trek was still in production, he starred in the dual role of brothers Johnny Moon and Notah in the Western White Comanche . He also did a television movie entitled Perilous Voyage in 1968, again working alongside Louise Sorel. For unknown reasons, NBC sat on this film for eight years, not airing it until 29 July 1976.

Shatner's first television series, the crime drama For the People , aired in 1965 but failed to gain the attention needed to keep it on the air past the initial thirteen episodes. Also in 1965, Shatner played the title role in a pilot, Alexander the Great , which co-starred Robert Fortier and featured music by Leonard Rosenman . However, the pilot was not picked up for a series. (It was finally aired on television in 1968.) Fortunately, however, Shatner gained a new opportunity for stardom when, that same year, he starred as Captain James Tiberius Kirk in the second pilot for a show by Gene Roddenberry called Star Trek , " Where No Man Has Gone Before ".

Playing James T. Kirk [ ]

Stardom was not immediate for Shatner or the rest of the Star Trek cast. Ratings for the series were low and, after only three years, resulted in its cancellation in 1969. But that same year, the Apollo 11 moon landing transformed the vision of interplanetary travel from fantasy to a more realistic possibility. Star Trek reruns gained new popularity and thrust Shatner and the cast into television immortality.

By 1973 Star Trek had gained an extensive amount of popularity thanks to reruns. There was such a high demand for more Star Trek that a new animated series was put together, reuniting most of the original cast members to lend their voices to their now famous characters. The series lasted for two seasons, with Shatner voicing Captain Kirk in all but one of the 22 episodes. Although the animated series came to an end in 1974 , Trek had still not died; pre-production began on a new, live-action Star Trek series in 1977. Although this new series was never made, it resulted in the first Trek feature film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture , in 1979 . And, for the first time in ten years, Shatner was back, in the flesh, in the role that had made him famous.

Shatner continued playing the Kirk character through the next six features, concluding with his character's demise in 1994 's Star Trek Generations . Although Shatner enjoyed working on the film, he later displayed regret at having Kirk killed off and commenced to look for the opportunity to once again play the legendary Starfleet captain, although he did play him during a pre- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country period for video cutscenes along with Walter Koenig and George Takei for Interplay's Starfleet Academy in 1997. He did not appear in 2009 's Star Trek , however. [3]

In 2006, a commercial for DirectTV aired in which Shatner reprises his role as Captain Kirk, complete with a Trek film Starfleet uniform. The commercial takes place during the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country but it has Kirk stepping out of character to promote DirectTV.

Shatner has also reprised the role of Kirk – albeit, in voice over only – for the video game Star Trek: Legacy . Also giving voice to their respective captains in this game are Patrick Stewart ( Jean-Luc Picard ), Avery Brooks ( Benjamin Sisko ), Kate Mulgrew ( Kathryn Janeway ), and Scott Bakula ( Jonathan Archer ).

Shatner was contacted about a possible role in Star Trek Beyond . Along with Shatner, Leonard Nimoy was also rumored to appear before his death in 2015, in a scene with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto , as the future alternate reality versions of the characters. [4] This did not come to fruition.

Post-TOS career [ ]

In the aftermath of Star Trek 's cancellation Shatner continued to work steadily in film and television; because his marriage to Gloria Rand had failed, he was no longer living to pursue his career as a direct result, but instead pursuing his career to live. The year after Trek 's apparent demise, Shatner starred in the made-for-TV movies Sole Survivor (which also featured a former Star Trek co-star, John Winston ) and The Andersonville Trial (with John Anderson, Harry Townes , Whit Bissell , Robert Easton , Dick Miller , Kenneth Tobey , and Ian Wolfe). He also made guest appearances in such shows as The F.B.I. (with Lawrence Montaigne), The Name of the Game (with William Smithers ), Storefront Lawyers (with Robert Foxworth ), Ironside (with Gene Lyons , Barbara Anderson , Roger C. Carmel , Barry Atwater , and Robert Ito ), The Sixth Sense (written by Gene L. Coon ) , Mission: Impossible (with Barbara Anderson), Barnaby Jones (with Darleen Carr , Vince Howard , and Lee Meriwether ), Mannix (with Yvonne Craig and Phillip Pine ), The Six Million Dollar Man (with Alan Oppenheimer ), Kung Fu (with Rosemary Forsyth , Keye Luke, and France Nuyen), Petrocelli (with Glenn Corbett, Susan Howard , David Huddleston , and Susan Oliver ), and Police Story (with Dean Stockwell ).

In 1971 he co-starred with Barry Atwater , Robert Hooks , and Michael Strong in the TV movie Vanished and with Bruce Davison in the pilot movie for Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law . The following year, he was reunited with his " Miri " co-star Kim Darby in the science fiction telefilm The People . He also co-starred with Anthony Zerbe in the TV version of the Sherlock Holmes adventure The Hound of the Baskervilles . He had several more TV movie credits throughout the 1970s, including Incident on a Dark Street (1973, with Robert Pine ), Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973, with Darleen Carr, France Nuyen, and Paul Winfield ), Indict and Convict (1974, with Susan Howard), The Tenth Level (1975, with Stephen Macht ), Columbo: Fade in to Murder (1976, with his former Trek co-star Walter Koenig ), The Bastard (1978, with Kim Cattrall , John Colicos , John de Lancie , William Daniels , James Gregory, and Alex Henteloff ), Little Women (1978, also with John de Lancie), Crash (1978, co-starring Adrienne Barbeau , Ron Glass , George Murdock , and then-wife Marcy Lafferty ), and Riel (1979, with Christopher Plummer).

In 1975 Shatner became the star of another series, a Western comedy-drama called Barbary Coast . However, the series was canceled after its first season. Afterward, Shatner starred in two TV mini-series, both of which co-starred fellow Star Trek performers: 1977's Testimony of Two Men , with Theodore Bikel, Jeff Corey , John de Lancie, and Logan Ramsey , and How the West Was Won , with Robert DoQui , Fionnula Flanagan , Brian Keith, Ed Lauter , Ricardo Montalban , George D. Wallace , and Morgan Woodward .

During this time, Shatner appeared in a three cult feature films: the very adult 1974 action film Big Bad Mama , co-starring Dick Miller and Noble Willingham , the 1975 horror movie The Devil's Rain , and the 1977 sci-fi/horror picture Kingdom of the Spiders , co-starring wife Marcy Lafferty. Another movie from the 1970s was titled Want a Ride, Little Girl? This film, also called Impulse and I Love to Kill , and in which he again co-starred with wife Lafferty, has been so critically condemned that Shatner himself has come forward and said that it was a "bad time" for him, and he has also denied being able to remember why he agreed to join its cast.

Unlike many actors who have become identified to specific characters in film and television, Shatner has been able to escape typecasting and continued to find roles outside the realm of Trek which have also been popular; this is due at least in part to, as having been pointed out above, his having pursued his career to live rather than his living to pursue his career. From 1982 to 1986, he starred in the title role of T.J. Hooker , a hard-boiled police officer. That series also starred Star Trek: Voyager guest star Richard Herd and frequent Star Trek: Deep Space Nine guest star James Darren . (Shatner later reunited with Richard Herd for a 1994 episode of seaQuest DSV .)

It was during the 1980s that Shatner began an acting trend that lasts to this day: making fun of himself and of his role as Captain Kirk, the popularity of which he had trouble understanding. An early example of this came with his role as Lunar Base Commander Buck Murdock in the 1982 spoof Airplane II: The Sequel , which had him poke fun at many of the quirks and mannerisms of Kirk and Star Trek in general. (Marcy Lafferty also appeared in the film, as did Bruce French .)

In 1986 Shatner hosted Saturday Night Live and took part in an infamous sketch in which he told Star Trek fans to " get a life !" The appearance later became the subject of an autobiographical account by Shatner, chronicling his relationship with the Star Trek fandom.

Outside of Star Trek , Shatner continued to act in Canadian-made films (such as 1980's The Kidnapping of the President and 1982's Visiting Hours ) and American-made TV movies (such as 1988's Broken Angel , with Roxann Dawson and Brock Peters ). In 1989 Shatner became the host of the popular documentary series Rescue 911 , which lasted from 1989 to 1996.

It was in the 1980s that Shatner geared towards directing. In 1989 having already directed multiple episodes of T.J. Hooker , Shatner directed Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , for which he also co-wrote the story. This came as part of a deal made between him and co-star Leonard Nimoy several years earlier; Nimoy was able to direct two earlier Trek films only if Shatner was also allowed the opportunity to direct one later. The result was lukewarm, earning negative criticism and low box office proceeds. Nonetheless, Shatner was not deterred and continued directing for television and for films he had written.

1990s and 2000s [ ]

Continuing his trend towards "lampooning" himself Shatner starred as the villain in yet another spoof, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 , in 1993. James Doohan also made a gag appearance in his beloved role of Scotty (albeit, as a 20th century police officer in charge of repairing the police station's cappuccino machine), while F. Murray Abraham , Whoopi Goldberg , and Charles Napier also had cameos.

Loaded Weapon 1 was followed in 1998 with the popular Free Enterprise (written/produced by Mark A. Altman and directed/co-written by Robert Meyer Burnett ), a Star Trek -themed black comedy in which Shatner played a caricature of himself named, aptly enough, "Bill." He is currently set to film a sequel to Free Enterprise . reprising his role as "Bill."

In 1998 Shatner became the spokesperson for "Priceline.com." The earliest of this company's commercials, in which Shatner strummed a guitar and spoke "songs" advertising Priceline in front of a bemused audience, gained much notoriety and earned him somewhat of a come-back in show business. He continues to perform for Priceline commercials, which he at first did in voiceover. More recently, he has been seen as the "Priceline Negotiator." He did appear in two Priceline.com commercials with Leonard Nimoy as well, and one with Robert Pine.

In 1999 and 2000 Shatner had a recurring role as "The Big Giant Head" (aka Stone Phillips) in the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun . This role led to the actor's first Emmy nomination, that of Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, in 1999.

In 2000, Shatner appeared in the popular comedy Miss Congeniality as Stan Fields, the aging host of the Miss United States Pageant. This role ultimately led to Shatner becoming the host of the real thing – the 50th Annual Miss USA Pageant – in 2001. Also in 2001, Shatner lent his voice as Mayor Phlemming in the combination animated/live action hit comedy Osmosis Jones with Rif Hutton and Herschel Sparber lending their voices as well. Shatner reprised his role as Stan Fields in the 2005 sequel, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous opposite Diedrich Bader and Enrique Murciano . Continuing his experience as a master of ceremonies, Shatner was the chairman for the 2001 specials Iron Chef USA and Iron Chef USA: Holiday Showdown . In late 2006, he hosted the short-lived ABC game show Show Me The Money .

Shatner's popularity has also earned him cameos in such films as Showtime (in which he spoofs his T.J. Hooker character as well as himself) and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story in which he played the chancellor of the dodgeball tournament. Shatner later made an appearance in the 2008 comedy film Fanboys , which also featured Christopher McDonald in a supporting role. Additionally, Shatner has lent his voice to a number of animated films, including Osmosis Jones (2001) and Over the Hedge (2006). In Shooting Stars (aka Shoot or be Shot , 2002), he played a deranged script writer; the film also features Voyager and Enterprise actress Julianne Christie .

In 2002 Shatner and the rest of the original Trek cast (minus DeForest Kelley and James Doohan) lent their voices to their animated selves in a popular episode of Futurama called "Where No Fan Has Gone Before." That same year, Shatner wrote, directed, and co-starred in the independent science fiction film Groom Lake . Also starring in the film were fellow Trek performers Dan Gauthier and Tom Towles .

Shatner voices the sun's core in the 2010 computer-animated film Quantum Quest . The film's main protagonist, a photon named Dave, is voiced by Chris Pine , who stars in 2009's Star Trek as an alternate-continuum incarnation of James Kirk , the role whose "Prime Continuum" incarnation Shatner originated in the 1960s. Also lending their voices to Quantum Quest are Star Trek alumni Jason Alexander , Robert Picardo , and Brent Spiner . [5] [6]

Shatner later starred on the CBS sitcom $#*! My Dad Says (pronounced "bleep"), based on Justin Halpern's popular Twitter feed. But that program's run was short; it was cancelled without completing its only season.

Shatner played the author Mark Twain in an episode of "Murdoch Mysteries" called "Marked Twain". [7]

Denny Crane and Boston Legal [ ]

In 2004 Shatner made his debut as legendary but eccentric attorney Denny Crane on The Practice , earning an Emmy Award as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. He reprised the role of Crane in the spin-off series Boston Legal , which also starred former DS9 cast member René Auberjonois . For the last two seasons of the show, Auberjonois was replaced by Shatner's Star Trek III co-star, John Larroquette , although Auberjonois made continued recurring appearances.

Shatner won another Emmy for playing Denny Crane in 2005, this time as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, for his work on Boston Legal . He received another Emmy nomination for the role in 2006, although he did not win. He was awarded a fourth Emmy nomination for playing Denny Crane and his third nomination in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2007. The award, however, ultimately went to Terry O'Quinn for his role in J.J. Abrams ' Lost . In 2008, Shatner was again nominated for an Emmy Award for Boston Legal .

In 2005, Shatner won the Golden Globe as Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for Boston Legal . In 2007 Shatner was nominated for a second Golden Globe.

Shatner starred as Denny Crane on ABC's Boston Legal for four years, from 2004 through 2008. The series ran for its fifth and final season in the fall of 2008, with the two-hour series finale airing 8 December 2008. Because of Shatner's involvement, the writers of the show often threw in puns and in-jokes related to Star Trek , usually delivered by Shatner himself.

Besides former series regular René Auberjonois and more recent regular John Larroquette (whom Shatner worked with on Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ), other Trek performers with whom Shatner has worked on the show include Henry Gibson (as a peculiar judge whom Denny Crane refers to as "nansy-pansy" and "namby-pamby"), Joanna Cassidy (who played Denny's lover and his brief eighth wife), and the aforementioned Jeri Ryan (as an actress with whom Denny, of course, becomes infatuated). DS9 actor Armin Shimerman also had a recurring role, as did Ethan Phillips of Voyager fame, although neither shared scenes with Shatner. Scott Bakula had a guest spot on the series, as well but he also did not share any scenes with Shatner.

Musical career [ ]

Between 1967 and 1970 both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy recorded covers of famous songs for MCA, which were later collected in the album "Spaced Out: The Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner."

Shatner is also (in)famous for his rendition of the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," as well as his spoken word cover of Elton John's "Rocket Man (I Think It's Gonna Be A Long Long Time);" both were featured on an album titled The Transformed Man .

"William Shatner Live" was released in 1977, and includes references to the then-upcoming Star Trek film.

In 2004, he returned to his musical career with a new album, titled Has Been , produced by musician Ben Folds, who previously worked with Shatner on his own first solo album, Fear of Pop . The lead track Common People is a cover of a Pulp song, but much of the other content is co-written by Shatner himself. It features guest performers such as Joe Jackson, Lemon Jelly and Henry Rollins.

Exodus: An Oratorio in Three Parts features Shatner doing a Biblical reading, accompanied by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.

2011's Seeking Major Tom is an album of cover versions, mostly themed around science fiction, or space, with some exceptions, such as his version of "Bohemian Rhapsody". There is one song by Shatner, co-written with Adam Hamilton, called "Struggle".

In 2013, he released Ponder the Mystery , which features guest appearances from the likes of Mick Jones of the Clash, Rick Wakeman, and Tony Kaye of Yes.

Book writing [ ]

Following the death of Kirk in Star Trek Generations , Shatner has written, with the assistance of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens , as stated above, a set of nine novels, chronicling the resurrection and subsequent adventures of Kirk in the 24th century. His tenth novel, Star Trek: Academy - Collision Course , shows his own views of how the Star Trek universe began.

He has also written a series of novels called TekWar . These novels, for which one of his inspirations was Marie Winn 's book The Plug-In Drug , ultimately became the basis for a TV series and a number of telefilms, which Shatner himself directed, starred in, and served as executive producer. There was also a comic series titled TekWorld , inspired by his writings.

Other projects and appearances [ ]

Shatner appeared on the USA Network's and the World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night RAW to promote TekWar , where he was involved in an altercation with Jerry "The King" Lawler . Shatner personally inducted Lawler into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007. He later guest hosted the February 1, 2009 episode of RAW , which included a segment with Trek alumnus the Big Show . Shatner was, himself, inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame's Celebrity Wing with the Class of 2020 .

Shatner participated in the 2001 Star Trek Edition of the game show Weakest Link , along with LeVar Burton , Denise Crosby , Roxann Dawson , John de Lancie , Robert Picardo , Armin Shimerman , and Wil Wheaton . He lost, but not before showing host Anne Robinson what his Trek character was most "known" for: his way with women.

Shatner opened the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony for Star Wars creator George Lucas on June 9, 2005, beginning the segment with "Star Trek changed everything ."

In 2005, Shatner starred in the reality mini-series, Invasion Iowa, which took place in Riverside , Iowa, the future birthplace of James T. Kirk. In addition, Shatner hosted two specials for The History Channel in 2006, Comets: Prophets of Doom and How William Shatner Changed the World .

In August 2006, Shatner was the guest of honor at the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner . His chair of honor was his captain's chair from the original Enterprise . This event was hosted by "roastmaster" Jason Alexander (a huge Star Trek fan and one-time Voyager guest star who credits Shatner as an inspiration for his becoming an actor) and had a number of comedians (including another one-time Voyager guest, Andy Dick ) taking jabs at Shatner, joking about his life and career. Among the "roastees" were Shatner's TOS co-stars Nichelle Nichols and George Takei, while Trek alumni Clint Howard (reprising his role as Balok , now middle-aged and addicted to tranya ) and Sarah Silverman left recorded messages for Shatner. In attendance at the event were Shatner's Boston Legal co-stars René Auberjonois and Mark Valley, TNG actor Brent Spiner , and Voyager actress Jeri Ryan . In September 2011 Shatner followed up on his appearance in the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen , this time as one of the roasters. This outing was hosted by "roastmaster" Seth MacFarlane . MacFarlane, an unapologetic " Trekkie " himself and having missed out on Shatner's own roast, made use of the opportunity to take several swings at the illustrious Star Trek actor after all.

Since his own roast, Shatner has appeared in two music videos with Jason Alexander for country music star Brad Paisley – "Celebrity" and "Online". Both have referenced his singing career and "Online" also has several Star Trek references. In the latter, Shatner plays Alexander's father, while Voyager guest-star Estelle Harris plays his mother, as she memorably did on Seinfeld .

Shatner currently hosts his own offbeat celebrity interview show for A&E Television's revamped "Bio" channel entitled Shatner's Raw Nerve , which premiered on 2 December 2008. Among the guests he has interviewed so far are his Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy and TNG guest star Kelsey Grammer .

In addition, Shatner made frequent appearances on NBC's The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien . He first appeared as a guest on the show, but he has since made cameos to recite the resignation speech and the Twitter posts of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin as though they were poetry. Most recently, he recited quotes from Levi Johnston , the father of Palin's grandson.

Shatner is also featured in the introductory video for Conan O'Brien's "In the Year 3000" segment. In the video, Shatner's disembodied head "floats" across the screen while introducing the segment: " It's almost like a cosmic ride into the millennium. That far-off reality that is the year 3000. It's the future man. " In the 13 November 2009 episode, the video was altered to include Shatner's TOS co-star George Takei, who destroys Shatner's head by firing " phasers " from his eyes and " photon torpedoes " from his mouth. After destroying Shatner's head, Takei remarks " Mmm, delicious! " and laughs maniacally.

In February 2011, Shatner appeared in an episode of the History Chanel series American Pickers where he and his wife asked the show's stars Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz to find items for their new Kentucky vacation house.

In 2009, Shatner produced and starred in a film called William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet , a documentary about a ballet set to his album Has Been , which was produced by Ben Folds. The award-winning film received critical acclaim and had a successful film festival run. The film had a multi-platform television premiere in July 2011 through EPIX, a joint venture between Paramount Pictures, Lions Gate, and MGM.

In 2017, Shatner guest-starred in an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic , entitled " The Perfect Pear ", in which he voiced the character of Grand Pear , the maternal grandfather of Applejack . Prior to the airing of the episode, Shatner had teased his role through a number of Twitter posts. He also proclaimed himself a "Brony" in 2016, and went on to state that the character of Rainbow Dash was his favorite.

The same year featured Shatner cast alongside fellow iconic 1960s television actor Adam West, as Two-Face and Batman respectively in the animated film Batman vs. Two-Face . The film also featured Julie Newmar and Lee Meriwether , who co-starred with both actors in their respective series'.

In 2021 , private spaceflight company Blue Origin announced that Shatner would be a passenger on its second human flight, NS-18 . The flight was originally scheduled for 12 October 2021 , and (after a day's weather delay) launched on 13 October 2021 . Shatner, then 90 years old, became the oldest human to go to space (in the process belying his alter ego's "galloping about the cosmos is a game for the young" quote in The Wrath of Khan ), [8] [9] as well as becoming the very first major Star Trek contributor, be it cast or production crew, to do so – alive that is, as the ashes of both Gene Roddenberry and James Doohan were spent into space after their respective deaths. But Shatner is, strictly speaking, not the very first (living) Star Trek -affiliated person to go into space, as three real-world astronauts with actual cameo appearances (as opposed to those only featured in utilized archival footage) in live-action Star Trek under their belt, had already preceded him, as had Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos incidentally, on his company's 20 July 2021 first human flight NS-16; " Trekkie " Bezos had a cameo role in Star Trek Beyond .

In 2023 , Shatner was among those inducted into the San Diego Air & Space Museum's International Air & Space Hall of Fame. [10]

• The Ashes of Eden
• Dark Victory
• Captain's Peril
• Captain's Blood
• Captain's Glory
• Academy: Collision Course
• Academy: Third Class

Non-fiction [ ]

• Get a Life!
• Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man
• Shatner: Where No Man...
• Shatner Rules
• Star Trek Memories
• Star Trek Movie Memories
• Up Till Now: The Autobiography
• I'm Working on That
• Spirit of the Horse: A Celebration of Fact and Fable

Documentaries [ ]

• How William Shatner Changed the World
• Mind Meld: Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime
• The Captains
• The Captains Close Up
• William Shatner Presents: Chaos on the Bridge
• William Shatner's Star Trek Memories

Video games [ ]

• Star Trek: 25th Anniversary
• Star Trek: Encounters as Kirk
• Star Trek: Judgment Rites as Kirk
• Star Trek: Legacy as Kirk
• Star Trek: Tactical Assault as Kirk

Discography [ ]

• "How Insensitive" / "Transformed Man" (Decca Records, 1969)
• The Transformed Man (Decca Records, 1969)
• William Shatner – Live! (Lemli Records, 1977)
• Captain of the Starship (K-Tel Records, 1978) Reissue of "Live!" album.
• Shatner once bought a horse from the father-in-law of Scott Bakula , who played Captain Jonathan Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise .
• Shatner suffers from tinnitus , along with the late Leonard Nimoy, reportedly due to a special effect explosion on the set of the Star Trek episode " Arena ". [11] Shatner has since then become involved with the American Tinnitus Association. [12]
• On 28 March 2013, a humorous advertisement for the Star Trek video game depicted Shatner "fighting" a Gorn in a parody of this episode. [13]
• Actor John Lithgow , whom Shatner worked with on 3rd Rock from the Sun , essentially played Shatner's character from the Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" when it was remade for Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983. A reference to this was made in an episode of 3rd Rock in which Shatner played role of "The Big Giant Head". When asked how his flight was, Shatner's character explained that it was horrifying: " I looked out the window… and I saw something on the wing of the plane! " to which Lithgow exclaimed, " The same thing happened to me! "
• Several costumes worn by Shatner were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including a grey jumpsuit from Star Trek: The Motion Picture [14] and a white undershirt. [15]
• Shatner is referenced in The Canadian Conspiracy mockumentary (1985) and the satirical movie Canadian Bacon (1995) in a list of Canadians supposedly trying to take over the USA by infiltrating its media. If Geneviève Bujold had been kept for the role of Kathryn Janeway , then he would have been one of two Montreal natives to have played a Star Trek captain.

Appearances as Kirk [ ]

Shatner appeared as Kirk in

• Star Trek: The Original Series : every episode except for " The Cage "
• Star Trek: The Animated Series : every episode except for " The Slaver Weapon "
• TAS : " The Slaver Weapon " (main title voice footage)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• Star Trek Generations
• Star Trek Beyond (photo only)
• DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations " (archive footage)
• ENT : " These Are the Voyages... " (archive voice footage)
• ST : " Ephraim and Dot " (archive voice footage)

Additional appearances [ ]

Star Trek interviews [ ]

• TNG Season 5 DVD special feature "A Tribute to Gene Roddenberry " ("Gene Roddenberry Building Dedicated to Star Trek's Creator"), interviewed on 6 June 1991

External links [ ]

• WilliamShatner.com – official site
• William Shatner  at MySpace.com
• William Shatner at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• William Shatner at Wikipedia
• William Shatner at the Internet Movie Database
• William Shatner at the Internet Broadway Database
• William Shatner at the Notable Names Database
• William Shatner at TriviaTribute.com
• Transcript of the Saturday Night Live "get a life" sketch
• Interview at the Archive of American Television
• William Shatner at SF-Encyclopedia.com
• 3 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

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TV & Film

William Shatner facts: Star Trek actor's age, movies, wife, children and career explained

14 February 2024, 15:32

By Tom Owen

William Shatner is a Canadian actor who has achieved iconic status in the world of entertainment.

Listen to this article

He is best known for his portrayal of Captain James T Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, a role that he played for nearly three decades across TV and film.

He has also starred in many other popular shows and movies, such as TJ Hooker, Boston Legal , and Miss Congeniality . He has won several awards, including two Emmys and a Golden Globe, and has been honoured as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

• William Shatner in tears after he becomes oldest man in space: "It was unbelievable"

Besides acting, Shatner is also a prolific writer, musician, producer, and philanthropist. He has authored dozens of books, ranging from science fiction novels to memoirs, and has recorded several albums, featuring his distinctive spoken-word style of singing.

He has also been involved in various charitable causes, such as animal welfare, environmentalism, and space exploration. William Shatner is a remarkable figure who has left an unforgettable mark on the culture and history of the 20th and 21st centuries.

How old is William Shatner and where was he born?

William Shatner is 92 years old as of 2024, and he was born on March 22, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

His parents were Joseph Shatner and Ann Garmaise. His father was a clothing manufacturer and his mother was a homemaker.

He had two sisters, Joy (who died in 2023) and Farla.

His paternal grandfather, Wolf Schattner, anglicized the family name to Shatner. Shatner’s grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Austria, Poland, and Hungary, and Shatner was raised in Conservative Judaism.

How did he get his start in acting?

William Shatner got his start in acting by performing in radio productions for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the Montreal Children’s Theatre as a child.

He also acted in student productions at McGill University, where he graduated with a degree in commerce in 1952. He then joined the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 1954, where he played supporting roles in various classic plays under the direction of Tyrone Guthrie.

He moved to the United States in 1956 and began appearing in Broadway shows and television dramas. He made his film debut in The Brothers Karamazov (1958) and his first major TV role was in the series For the People (1965).

Is William Shatner married and does he have children?

William Shatner has been married four times:

• Gloria Rand (1956–1969), a Canadian actress and the mother of his three daughters
• Marcy Lafferty (1973–1996), the daughter of a television producer and an actress who appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture .
• Nerine Kidd (1997–1999), a model and actress who tragically drowned in their pool.
• Elizabeth Martin (2001–2020), a horse trainer whom he divorced in 2020

He has three children from his first marriage to Gloria Rand: Leslie, Lisabeth, and Melanie.

What are his most famous film and TV roles?

William Shatner has had a long and diverse career in film and television, but some of his most famous roles are:

• James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, including six feature films and the original TV series
• T.J. Hooker in the police drama T.J. Hooker (1982–1986)
• Denny Crane in the legal comedy-drama Boston Legal (2004–2008), for which he won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award
• Buck Murdock in the comedy film Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
• Stan Fields in the comedy films Miss Congeniality (2000) and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005)
• Kazar in the animated film The Wild (2006)
• Santa Claus in the animated film Gotta Catch Santa Claus (2008)

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Published Apr 23, 2014

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: William Shatner, Part 2

William Shatner moves at a pace that would exhaust most people half his age – and Star Trek ’s legendary Captain James T. Kirk turned 83 years old in March. Last year, he starred in Shatner’s World , a one-man stage show that played on Broadway and toured the country. That’s now a movie… with Shatner’s World set to play for one night only in 600-plus theaters on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. local time, presented by Fathom Events and Priceline.com.

Shatner will also host his annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show on April 26. And, not at all shockingly, there’s more, lots more: he’s got a new album, Ponder the Mystery , out now, not to mention a book on the way (it’s called Hire Yourself ), another Star Trek documentary in the works, plenty of convention appearances lined up and two new TV projects in development. StarTrek.com recently caught up with the man himself to discuss all those aforementioned enterprises and more. Below is part two of our exclusive conversation; click HERE to read part one.

Your latest book is Hire Yourself . What inspired that?

SHATNER: The fact that people over 50 are being rehired at a much slower rate because they want more. They want more, but they have more to offer. And in many cases, they’re failing to be rehired. Corporations are hiring younger people with less experience and less knowledge and paying them less. So I’m advocating… hire yourself.

The 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek series is almost upon us. For you, it was one job that lasted three years. Some people might call it a failed series or, at best, semi-successful. So how surreal has this all been for you, that Star Trek snowballed into what it’s become?

SHATNER: It is surreal. It has an aura of unreality about it. It’s a phenomenon. There’s never been anything like it before. If you talk in 50-year terms, then we need to go another 50 years before we think there’s something like it again, but we’ll all be dead, so we won’t know. So we can safely say that (in our lifetimes), it’s never happened before and it will never happen again.

We ran a story recently on StarTrek.com in which we commented on some of your best non- Star Trek work and asked readers to share their thoughts on the matter. We were talking about your acting, but people included other things, too, so the list encompassed The Brothers Karamazov, Judgment at Nuremberg , your episodes of Twilight Zone and Columbo, Rescue 911, The Andersonville Trial, Airplane 2: The Sequel, Third Rock from the Sun , and, of course, Boston Legal . We know you tend to joke about not remembering things, but in all seriousness, what of your non- Trek work are you proudest of?

SHATNER: My attitude towards what I do as an actor is more about hitting a moment. Did I play that moment with honesty and with truthfulness and in character? Did I hit the right notes? So that breaks itself down into moments, and that means that every one of the shows and movies you mentioned I may have hit a moment that resonated in me and for other people. Certainly the ones I can remember the best are from Boston Legal , when there moments when I thought I’d brought to life a line within the character dimensions, moments that were truthful, that conveyed the meaning, that had layers of meaning, so that if you were to see it again, you’d think, “Maybe he meant ‘Hello’ in a different way.” So I don’t break those things down into, “That was my favorite,” because everything I have done has something about it that I really like. That includes the commercials I’ve done for Priceline.

We had people state the case for T.J. Hooker

f that more as a guilty pleasure than as some of your fine e of your finest work, but you may disagree…

SHATNER: I did have moments there, too. And I will give you an instance of a moment. I directed quite a few of the T.J. Hooker s. One of my shots is used in the opening sequence, and that is a silhouetted policeman – which happens to be me – running down a tunnel. The cinematographer wanted to light the tunnel and I said, “No, leave it in shadow.” And it was dramatic. It paid off. I felt exultant having conceived the shot, fought for the shot, made the shot and that people agreed with me by using it not only in the show, but as part of the opening credits.

And many fans pointed out that Airplane 2 , in which you pretty much spoofed Kirk, sent you down the comedy path. How much of your performance was ad-libbed?

SHATNER: A lot of it was ad-libbing. To hear a laugh… Here’s the delineation of the situation. You do something on the set and a year later you see it in a film. I went to see Airplane 2 , and one of the lines that I’d ad-libbed, which I forget now, but which I knew when I did it I had timed correctly, got a huge laugh in the movie theater. So I felt terrific, warmed by the reaction to the delivery of that one line a year later.

We talked about some of your new endeavors, but there are actually more. If you have a few more minutes for us, let’s go through them. One that most people probably have not heard about yet is The Shatner Project . What is that?

SHATNER: The Do-It-Yourself Network, DIY, is shooting me and my wife as we renovate our house. We’re having a terrific time. And they’re making what I say in the beginning part of the show is a perfectly fine house into a much better house. But I fought the change for quite a while. This is my house in L.A.

And what else do you have going on?

SHATNER: The Hollywood Charity Horse Show is on April 26. We’ve raised several million dollars for charity. We usually raise between $300,000 and $400,000 a year and I’ve been doing it for nearly 30 years, so it’s the millions of dollars that we’ve raised. Wynona Judd will be coming to sing for us. If people go to www.horseshow.org , they can contribute $1 or $5 or $10 even if they can’t come to the show. Every penny goes to the charities. We have a private donor who takes care of the expenses. So every dollar goes straight to children and veterans.

My album, Ponder the Mystery , is out there now. I’m inordinately proud of Billy Sherwood’s work and my own. I’ve also sold an interview show called Brown Bag Wine Tasting . It’s been on my website, but a company has bought it, so we’re going to make some more. It’s me interviewing people. Talking to people, it can take time for them to warm up. My insertion, if you will, is a sip of wine from a brown bag. We analyze the wine and then the guests talk about themselves, and they’re mostly man on the street people rather than celebrities. They’re literally man on the street; they’ll be walking by and I’ll accost them and start talking to them.

Visit StarTrek.com to read part one of our exclusive interview with William Shatner, and check out his official site at williamshatner.com . Also, go to fathomevents.com for details about a Shatner's World screening near you.

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At 90, William Shatner becomes the oldest person to reach ‘the final frontier.’

By Daniel E. Slotnik

• Oct. 13, 2021

When William Shatner , 90, traveled to the edge of space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard on Wednesday he became the oldest person ever to reach such heights.

Mr. Shatner, whose name has been synonymous with space exploration since he played Captain James T. Kirk in the original “Star Trek” series more than half a century ago, became the first nonagenarian to cross the Kármán line, the widely recognized boundary between the atmosphere and space about 63 miles above the Earth.

Mr. Shatner became emotional when he emerged with three other passengers from the spacecraft’s capsule after it set down in West Texas and was met by the Blue Origin’s owner, Jeff Bezos.

The actor spoke of how the experience of seeing the blue earth from space and the immense blackness of outer space had profoundly moved him, demonstrating what he called the “vulnerability of everything.” The atmosphere keeping humanity alive is “thinner that your skin,” he said.

“I’m so filled with emotion with what just happened,” Mr. Shatner said to Mr. Bezos, breaking into tears. “I hope I never recover from this,” he added.

Mr. Shatner’s voyage came hot on the heels of one by Wally Funk , who at 82 was the oldest person to travel to space when she took part in a Blue Origin flight in July with Jeff Bezos, the company’s owner.

Ms. Funk excelled at tests for astronauts in the space program in the 1960s, before Mr. Shatner played Captain Kirk, but NASA did not allow women to become astronauts at the time.

John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, also became the oldest person to reach space when he flew aboard a space shuttle mission more than 35 years later at the age of 77. Unlike Mr. Shatner or Ms. Funk, Mr. Glenn’s trip went to orbit, which requires a much more powerful rocket than the one powering Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft.

The youngest person ever to travel to space also flew on Blue Origin’s July flight. He was Oliver Daemen , 18, of the Netherlands.

Daniel E. Slotnik is a general assignment reporter on the Metro desk and a 2020 New York Times reporting fellow. More about Daniel E. Slotnik

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William Shatner turns 93: His No. 1 secret to longevity and newly-revealed health scare

William Shatner is taking the famous "Star Trek" motto “Live long and prosper” to new heights.

The actor, who turned 93 on Friday, March 22, remains energetic and galactically busy almost 60 years after he became famous as Capt. James T. Kirk on the classic sci-fi series.

Shatner is the star of a new documentary, titled “You Can Call Me Bill.” On April 8, he’ll give a talk in front of 60,000 people at Indiana University Memorial Stadium ahead of the total solar eclipse . And he’s sailing to Antarctica on a cruise in December.

He's doing all of this on top of an already full schedule appearing at “Star Trek” fan events across the country.

What’s the secret to his longevity? When TODAY’s Craig Melvin asked him, Shatner suggested not letting people know his real age.

“Don’t tell anybody,” he said during an appearance on the show on March 18 as the co-hosts wished him a happy birthday. “I’ve always got a birthday coming up,” he added with mock frustration.

“You’ve never stopped working, you’ve never stopped staying current, you seem to reinvent yourself,” Al Roker noted.

How has William Shatner aged so well?

The actor believes luck is a big part of longevity.

“My life has been so lucky — I’ve been so fortunate in terms of health, which is really the basis of everything,” he told NBC News in 2018. “Your health and your energy is partially your doing, but partially accidental — genetic and accidental.”

In his memoir “Live Long and… : What I Learned Along the Way ” he advised people to remember the basics: Don’t smoke, stay active, eat sensibly and get as much sleep as you need.

Then, there was his ultimate No. 1 secret for longevity: “Don’t die. That’s it; that’s the secret. Simply keep living and try not to slow down,” the actor wrote.

Along with staying busy, he credits his enthusiasm for life as a factor. When the phone rings, say yes, he advises others.

“You should be looking for joy anywhere, whether it’s a hot bath or a good friend or a piece of cheese . There’s joy everywhere,” he told Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Shatner finds joy in horses, dogs, family, adventure and food, he said at the red-carpet premiere of his documentary released on birthday.

“I’m curious about everything,” he noted. “You’ve got to cherish each day.”

He flew on board Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and capsule in 2021, making him the oldest person to go to space at 90.

The actor advises people to keep their inner child alive no matter their age and avoid regrets.

“Recently when my granddaughter was worried about going to cooking school in Italy, I said to her: ‘Think of your journey as a movie. You’re the main character, go have a good time and make a great movie,’” Shatner told The Times.

William Shatner’s health

The actor recently revealed he’s a skin cancer survivor after he felt a lump near his right ear and was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, according to Managed Healthcare Executive , an industry publication.

The spot was removed and Shatner was treated with immunotherapy, he said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology on March 10. Shatner didn’t disclose when the episode happened.

In 2016, Shatner received a prostate cancer diagnosis after his PSA level — the marker for the disease — suddenly rose, but he later learned it was a false alarm.

“That was really scary,” the actor told NBC News. He said he’d been taking testosterone supplements and once he stopped, his PSA level returned to normal.

Shatner lives with tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, after he was exposed to a loud blast during the filming of “Star Trek.” He was able to find “effective management tools, and today considers himself habituated to the sound,” according to the American Tinnitus Association .

As he ages, the actor keeps thinking about his mortality.

“I don’t have long to live,” told Variety in 2023. “Whether I keel over as I’m speaking to you or 10 years from now, my time is limited, so that’s very much a factor.”

A. Pawlowski is a TODAY health reporter focusing on health news and features. Previously, she was a writer, producer and editor at CNN.

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93 Years of Shatner

A tribute to an irrepressible TV star’s ability to live long and prosper.

William Shatner, who turns 93 today, will always be best remembered for playing Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek series. Star Trek ’s creator Gene Roddenberry deserves a lot of credit for the enduring popularity and influence of the program, but it was Shatner who made the main character indelible. By the 1990s, a lot of people had begun to think of Shatner as a shameless ham—the TV actor who overplayed every role. Indeed, he was so good at playing Kirk that he was hired to do so as both a pitchman for the online travel agency Priceline and in TV shows such as The Practice and Boston Legal , in which, as a New York Times Magazine profile once noted , “William Shatner the man was playing William Shatner the character playing the character Denny Crane, who was playing the character William Shatner.”

If that sounds a bit confusing, it is probably because no actor has ever really had a career quite like Shatner’s. Scroll through his credits at the Internet Movie Database and you’ll discover that he has played himself in a wide array of projects: an episode of The Big Bang Theory , the 2002 film Showtime (starring Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy), an episode of Futurama , the 2009 film Fanboys , a Bruno Mars music video , Shatner’s own spoken-word video for It Hasn’t Happened Yet , an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air , the 2012 film Horrorween (in which Donald Trump also appeared as himself), the TV series Hashtaggers , and so on.

If you watch episodes of the original Star Trek now, Shatner may seem to be overacting. This is also true of many of his 1960s and ’70s guest-starring appearances. But Shatner wasn’t really hamming it up. He only appears to be doing so nowadays because our TVs have gotten so much bigger and their pictures have gotten so much clearer. In the 1960s, like most American families, my family owned a single TV set, which was only capable of producing black-and-white images, and it was minuscule by today’s standards (23 inches measured diagonally). It sat in our basement family room and got mediocre reception (this was long before satellite and cable television made TV images much sharper). If someone turned on an appliance in another room, it could cause the TV screen to grow fuzzy. If someone walked on the floor overhead, it could mess with the reception.

Sometimes, in order to get a clear picture, you had to toy with the “rabbit ears” (a pair of antennae) on top of the TV. Many 1960s TV sets had tinfoil connecting the two ears of the antennae. Sometimes, just the way the electrical cord was draped or coiled behind the TV could alter the picture. If the wind outside blew strong enough to cause the big antenna on our roof to vibrate, the screen could grow fuzzy. TVs were so temperamental back then that, in order to operate them, you had to be handy with knobs that read “horizontal hold,” “vertical hold,” “contrast,” and so forth. It’s possible that my current, flat-screen plasma TV has control buttons like that, but I haven’t used any of them in the ten years that I’ve owned it. And rabbit ears appear to be a thing of the distant past. 

In other words, TVs were small in the days when Shatner went to work in Hollywood, the picture and sound quality was often poor, and to top it all off, most of us in the Baby Boomer generation were raised to believe that it was dangerous to sit close to a television while watching it. Tech journalist Ian Bogost of the Atlantic recently wrote an essay titled “Your TV is Too Good for You,” in which he noted:

Years ago, sitting too close was the problem. If you’re old enough to remember watching cathode-ray-tube sets, you may have been enjoined to give them space: Move back from the TV! The reasons were many. Cold-War-addled viewers had developed the ( somewhat justified ) fear that televisions emitted radiation, for one. And the TV—still known as the “boob tube” because it might turn its viewers into idiots—was considered a dangerous lure . Its resolution was another problem: if you got close enough to the tube, you could see the color image break down into the red, blue, and green phosphor dots that composed its picture. All of these factors helped affirm the TV’s appropriate positioning—best viewed at a middle distance—and thus its proper role within the home. A television was to be seen from across the room. … The media theorist Marshall McLuhan famously described television as a “cool” medium, one that provides somewhat meager sensory stimulation, as opposed to a “hot” medium such as cinema, which intensely targets the eyes and ears.

My parents kept the TV in the basement because it was the only space big enough for us to watch it from a distance. The first and second floors of the house were divided into a variety of small rooms, but the basement was one long and empty space. Our family would gather in the basement on Saturday nights to watch TV, my parents in chairs about ten feet from the TV while my siblings and I sprawled on a sofa and chairs behind them. My parents weren’t being greedy, hogging the best spots in the room—they were protecting the eyes of their children by keeping them a good 15 feet from the screen, and it was often difficult to follow everything happening in a program from that distance.

Shatner seemed to understand all this better than just about any other TV actor of his era. While a lot of TV actors were trying to mimic the mush-mouthed vocal delivery of big-screen movie stars like Marlon Brando or James Dean, Shatner went in the opposite direction. He enunciated his words carefully and broke his sentences into bite-sized pieces, making each clause a separate unit of delivery. He would speed up his cadence at times, and then bring it to a near halt. Shatner’s unique speaking style has been parodied countless times. Among living actors, probably only Christopher Walken’s line delivery has generated more parodies. One of the more memorable Shatner impersonations was delivered by actor Jesse Plemons on the “ USS Callister ” episode of Black Mirror , which was both a loving homage to the original Star Trek and a spoof of its excesses.

Most viewers under the age of 50 probably have a difficult time appreciating what Shatner was doing back in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. But when I was growing up, it was always a treat whenever Shatner appeared on one of my favorite programs. I knew that, even sitting ten feet or more away from a tiny screen, I’d get a performance that would fill the room.

Critics appreciated what Shatner was doing in those early years. In June 1958, Shatner co-starred with Rod Steiger in an episode of CBS’s Playhouse 90 called “ A Town Has Turned to Dust ,” which was written by Rod Serling and directed by John Frankenheimer. Time magazine’s reviewer wrote:

The result was far better than anyone … had a right to expect. Director John Frankenheimer caught the drought-heightened tension of the desert town, William Shatner was terrifyingly convincing as the rabble-rousing shopkeeper bent on avenging his hurt pride, Steiger made the drunken sheriff both scruffy and appealing, as Serling intended. Seldom has the hate-twisted face of prejudice been more starkly depicted.

In the New York Times , reviewer Jack Gould noted that “A Town Has Turned to Dust” contained “two of the season’s superlative performances by Rod Steiger and William Shatner.” Those performances were all the more impressive for being broadcast live. In the early days of television, actors had just one chance to get a performance right and Shatner excelled at it.

William Shatner was born in Montreal in 1931. Television first became a widespread phenomenon in the late 1940s, just as he was reaching adulthood. He was born at exactly the right time to become one of the new medium’s first new stars. Many of the stars of TV’s first decade or so were has-been movie actors, such as William Boyd ( Hopalong Cassidy ), George Reeves ( Adventures of Superman ), Robert Young ( Father Knows Best ), and Lucille Ball ( I Love Lucy ). Others came to television from radio, and the transition was not always easy. Shatner had a small role in a 1951 Canadian film called The Butler’s Night Off . In 1958, he gave a well-received performance in director Richard Brooks’s The Brothers Karamazov , and in 1961, he appeared in Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg . But most of Shatner’s pre- Star Trek work was for television. He and Leonard Nimoy (who played Mr. Spock on Star Trek ) actually appeared together in a 1964 episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E .

Back then, a lot of people were predicting that Shatner’s career would soon follow the trajectories of Steve McQueen’s and Paul Newman’s, which began in the theater, then moved on to television, and eventually carried them to movie stardom. But it never happened. That 2010 New York Times Magazine profile notes that :

The great movie roles weren’t coming his way, so in the ’60s, waiting for stardom, he took parts in forgettable movies like The Outrage and Incubus ; guest roles on TV dramas like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone ; parts on TV serials like Route 66 and Gunsmoke and Dr. Kildare . At 35, he was a working actor who showed up on time, knew his lines, worked cheap and always answered his phone. In 1966, he accepted a starring role in a sci-fi series called Star Trek , joining a no-name cast, some of whom later accused him of being pompous, self-aggrandizing, clueless and insufferably William Shatner, which became his greatest role once he finally accepted the fact of it.

It’s easy to understand why many of Shatner’s Star Trek castmates might have resented him. With the exception of Nimoy, none of the others gained the kind of iconic status that Shatner enjoyed as a result of his association with Star Trek . His performances were big and showy and often overshadowed the performances of those who worked with him. But Captain Kirk was the show’s main character, and he was written to be big and showy. A more subtle performance might have gotten the program cancelled after a single season.

Kirk’s closest associate/friend is Spock, a half-human/half-Vulcan whose father’s alien race values logic above all else and suppresses all emotion. In order for Spock to appear truly alien, he needed to be paired with a human who embraced all of the emotions—anger, fear, joy, anguish, love—with reckless abandon. Spock and Kirk were one of the great odd couples of a 30-year period in which TV embraced many such double-acts (Lucy and Ricky, Felix and Oscar, Samantha and Darren Stevens of Bewitched , Major Nelson and Jeannie in I Dream of Jeannie , Ilya Kuryakin and Napoleon Solo in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. , Gil Favor and Rowdy Yates on Rawhide , Laverne and Shirley, etc.). If Shatner had toned down Kirk, Nimoy’s Spock would not have been as intriguing or as interesting as he became. Shatner certainly chewed a lot of scenery on Star Trek but his approach succeeded spectacularly. Unfortunately, Hollywood didn’t really appreciate how successful the show had been until it was cancelled, went into syndication, and became an entertainment juggernaut.

Science-fiction novelist Tony Daniel has written two novels set in the world of Roddenberry’s original series. Both Devil’s Bargain (2013) and Savage Trade (2015) feature Kirk, Spock, and other original crew members of the Starship Enterprise, which makes Daniel something of an authority on the original series and Shatner’s role in it. I emailed him to ask if any Shatner performances particularly impressed him. “One that’s generally considered good is the Harlan Ellison-based episode ‘ The City on the Edge of Forever ,’” he told me, “where [Kirk] goes back in time and has to decide whether to let Joan Collins live or die. It was like a little Twilight Zone stuck into Star Trek .” Daniel also noted that Shatner “was good with interacting with comic villain types, like Harry Mudd (the ‘ Mudd’s Women ,’ and ‘ I, Mudd ,’ episodes). He never just played the straight man, but brought a hint of roguish understanding to the lovable villains Kirk dealt with. What I liked most were Kirk’s love affairs. Shatner always played them in believable fashion. My favorite of these is ‘ Requiem for Methuselah ,’ where he falls for the android Rayna Kapec. It’s like a little Bladerunner in 49 minutes.”

The original Star Trek embraced the idea of Kirk as a romantic lead. Later iterations have strayed from that artistic choice, which Daniel thinks was a mistake. “One of the great strengths of the original series (which the later series utterly lost) was the depiction of sexuality. Characters were male and female. They were attracted to one another when appropriate, and showed it. It spoke to and formed many a boy’s archetypes of sexuality in the 1970s and 1980s, when we all saw it via watching afternoon reruns after school. While cartoonish and a bit sadomasochistic at the time, and very 1960s, it was far truer to our underlying forever-fixed human nature than the sexless 1990s shows. Shatner was particularly good at playing a guy with a healthy sex drive, that is, a normal adult male.”

It isn’t just a coincidence that names like Richard Matheson, Harlan Ellison, and Rod Serling crop up frequently in discussions of Shatner’s career. Academics frequently celebrate the work of various American literary schools—the American ex-pats of the so-called Lost Generation, the writers of the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats—but few literary salons have influenced American popular culture as profoundly as the Southern California fantasists who were all brought together by Rod Serling for his Twilight Zone series and later worked on other fantasy and sci-fi shows, including Star Trek .

The best known of these were Serling himself (who wrote 92 Twilight Zone episodes) and Ray Bradbury (who only wrote one but was a mentor to many of the other writers). Charles Beaumont (who wrote 22 episodes of The Twilight Zone ), Richard Matheson (14), and George Clayton Johnson (five) all had strong connections to Shatner. Johnson wrote episode one of the original Star Trek , “ The Man Trap .” Shatner starred in two of Matheson’s Twilight Zone episodes. He also starred in two live dramas written for television by Serling prior to the creation of The Twilight Zone . And he starred in an episode of the HBO anthology series The Ray Bradbury Theater .

Shatner also starred in the 1962 Roger Corman film The Intruder , which was scripted by Charles Beaumont. Both Shatner and Bradbury were good friends of Beaumont, who, like a character in The Twilight Zone , succumbed to Alzheimer’s in 1967 at the age of 38. In 2015, when Penguin Classics published Perchance to Dream , a collection of Beaumont’s short stories, they added an introduction by Bradbury and an afterword from Shatner. Shatner notes that The Intruder was a pro-integration story that was shot in southern Missouri in the early 1960s, at a time when the local population (or at least the white members of it) were mostly anti-integration. The cast and crew lived in constant fear of attack by the locals. The experience bonded Shatner and Beaumont and they remained friends after returning to LA.

Shatner notes that the founding members of the Southern California fantasists—Beaumont, Matheson, Bradbury, etc.—originally referred to themselves (for unknown reasons) as the Green Hand. The name never really caught on. But Shatner is probably the only actor who starred in productions written by nearly every member of that group. Although Shatner has written or co-written more than two dozen books, his greatest contribution to pop-fiction is probably the work he did on programs like The Twilight Zone and Star Trek to help popularize writers such as Matheson, Beaumont, Johnson, and the others.

The Times profile of Shatner notes that, “After Star Trek was cancelled in 1969, he appeared in more schlock movies— Big Bad Mama , The Devil’s Rain —and as the lead in a TV series, Barbary Coast , that never caught on. So he guest-starred on game shows: The Hollywood Squares , Celebrity Bowling , not even a regular among C-listers.” This isn’t actually fair to Shatner, and it elides a great deal of his best acting work. Some of the programs he guest-starred on may have been mediocre— Medical Center , Ironside , Owen Marshall: Councilor at Law —but the performances rarely were. What’s more, Shatner also did guest work on some of the best-known shows of the era, such as Hawaii 5-O and Mission: Impossible , programs that are still part of viable franchises.

Recently, my wife and I binged some episodes of Barnaby Jones on Amazon Prime. Our TV screen is now 35 inches (modest by today’s standards), our picture is generally razor sharp, and we sit only about eight feet from the set. Barnaby Jones , which starred Buddy Ebsen as an elderly Los Angeles private detective, ran on CBS-TV from 1973 to 1980. Shatner guest-starred on the program’s second episode . We hadn’t watched an episode of Barnaby Jones since the 1970s, and the pilot episode, which guest-starred William Conrad and Bradford Dillman (among others) was entertaining enough. All of the performances seemed properly modulated to one another. But in that second episode, “To Catch a Dead Man,” most of the performances seemed to pale in comparison with Shatner’s.

Unlike, say, Columbo or The Rockford Files , Barnaby Jones wasn’t prestige 1970s television. It was just another slightly above-average TV detective show. The plots were predictable and the characters were generally underwritten. Shatner’s character is a rich man named Phillip Carlyle who fakes his own death in order to start over under an assumed name with his mistress. We are told almost nothing of importance about Carlyle but Shatner manages to make him memorable. It isn’t just his line delivery that stands out. His facial expressions, his body language—everything about the character is eye-catching. Shatner’s highly animated performance pairs particularly well with Ebsen’s trademark laconic style. We enjoyed it tremendously, but we also noted with regret that younger viewers, seeing it for the first time, would likely find Shatner’s performance to be campy.

And sadly, on a big-screen TV with a crisp picture and excellent sound, Shatner’s performance does seem over the top. On the pilot episode of Barnaby Jones , Bradford Dillman’s villain was largely unmemorable. And viewed on a tiny TV set back in 1973, the villain would have been practically an afterthought. Nowadays, watching it on a 35-inch high-def TV, Dillman’s performance is just fine. His character (a Bobby Kennedy wannabe) is as poorly written as Shatner’s was, but the actor’s boyish good looks and slight smarminess come across in a way that wouldn’t have been nearly as effective 50 years ago. A lot of well-known actors appeared as guest stars on Barnaby Jones —Margot Kidder, Roddy McDowell, Don Johnson, Ed Harris—but none of them ever made a bigger impression than Shatner.

Shatner’s performance in “ Nightmare at 20,000 Feet ” helped to make it one of the most memorable episodes of The Twilight Zone (although Richard Matheson’s script deserves much of the credit). He was also the star of a Twilight Zone episode called “ Nick of Time ,” now regarded as a classic. In Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination , author Nicholas Parisi writes, “‘The Howling Man’ aired on November 6, 1960. The Following week, Serling’s ‘Eye of the Beholder’ debuted. And one week later came Matheson’s ‘Nick of Time.’ This three-week period likely constituted the pinnacle of the series.”

Shatner’s performance in a season-five Columbo episode called “ Fade In to Murder ” is a great piece of meta-fiction. He plays an actor named Ward Fowler who has become famous as the star of a fictional TV series called Detective Lucerne and is now such a big star that he can make all kinds of ridiculous demands of the studio and the program’s producers. This was an inside joke. Peter Falk was in the final year of a five-year contract as Lt. Columbo, and was eager to leave the series and make movies. At least, that was his claim. He used the program’s enormous popularity to negotiate a huge pay raise and then continued to play Columbo for another two seasons (later the program would be resurrected by a different network and Falk would return for more episodes, but many fans consider only the episodes made between 1968 and 1978 to be canonical).

In his book The Columbo Phile , author Mark Davidziak notes, “Shatner’s portrayal helps a good deal here. The glimpses of his Detective Lucerne remind us of how phony most television detectives are. His Ward Fowler, though, is a character with several intriguing shadings.” In his book Shooting Columbo , author David Koenig writes that Ward Fowler is “played to the hilt by William Shatner.” And in The Columbo Companion , a blogger known as The Columbophile writes: “Shatner and Falk really seem to hit it off. Both are blessed with an inherent likability which they put to excellent use in several scenes. Perhaps the best example is when Fowler finds Columbo in his trailer trying on his trademark hat and shoes. Their interchange feels charming and authentic … the chemistry between leads is unmistakable.”

Shatner would return to Columbo 18 years later, in 1994, in an episode called “ Butterfly in Shades of Gray ,” in which he played Fielding Chase, a bombastic rightwing radio host. The producers wanted Chase to be an enormous blowhard, patterned after Rush Limbaugh. But by now, TV screens were bigger and picture quality was much better and Shatner must have instinctively understood that if he played the character as broadly as the producers wanted him to, the performance wouldn’t work. Instead, according to David Koenig, “He tried to channel Firing Line ’s William F. Buckley, Jr. … ‘I tried to do his voice and his arrogance of personality,’ Shatner revealed.” Shatner’s choice was the right one. The character is bold and brash but he also comes across as intelligent and believable, something that a Limbaugh lampoon probably couldn’t have achieved.

Much of Shatner’s best guest-star work was done during his wilderness years, between the cancellation of the original Star Trek in 1969 and its triumphant revival on the big screen ten years later in Star Trek: The Motion Picture , directed by Robert Wise, one of Hollywood’s most bankable filmmakers ( The Day the Earth Stood Still , The Sound of Music , West Side Story , etc.). Despite a lukewarm critical reception, the film set a record for opening-weekend receipts at the box office and was the fifth highest grossing movie of 1979, although its huge budget ($44 million) made it less profitable than many of the year’s other big hits, such as Kramer vs. Kramer (made for $8 million) and The Amityville Horror ($4.7 million). Nonetheless, the film revived both the franchise and Shatner’s star power. It was followed by five sequels, released between 1982 and 1991, the first of which, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , also set a record for opening-weekend receipts and is still widely regarded as the best Star Trek film of all time.

Shatner wasn’t the type to sit around and relax between film roles, so he also took on the starring role in a TV action drama called T.J. Hooker , which debuted in March 1982, less than three months before the release of Star Trek II . He played the title character, a former police detective in a fictional California city (clearly meant to be Los Angeles) who goes back to being a patrol officer after his partner is killed. Hooker has plenty of Captain Kirk in him, but he is older than Kirk, divorced, despondent over the loss of his former partner, and thus Shatner often (but not always) tones down the theatrics for which he was famous, turning Hooker into a sadder but wiser version of Kirk. What’s more, Kirk was clearly intended to be the sexiest character on Star Trek, but on Hooker, Shatner is supported by much younger and more attractive actors, particularly Adrian Zmed, as Hooker’s new patrol partner, and Heather Locklear, as a rookie cop whom Hooker helps train and mentor.

Prior to landing a role on T.J. Hooker , Zmed had plenty of theatrical experience, having appeared in Grease and other stage musicals, but in 2016, he told an interviewer for Las Vegas Magazine that it was Shatner who taught him how to act for the TV cameras:

I learned so much just watching him ... it’s a very different energy on camera than onstage. Instead of reaching the last person 50 rows away from you, you’re reaching someone three feet in front of you, which is really daunting. ... His camera technique was just incredible. He was so relaxed and all. I learned so much in terms of the moment, on how you readjust your energy, how you get efficient with camera technique. And just the stories. When he directed, he would mentor me. I do consider Bill a mentor, no question about it.

T.J. Hooker isn’t remembered as a landmark television program but it was actually more commercially successful than the original Star Trek . It ran for five seasons and generated 91 episodes, while Star Trek ran for three seasons and 79 episodes. However, neither of these programs provided Shatner with his longest-running TV stint. Between 1989 and 1996 Shatner narrated 186 episodes (plus two specials) of a nonfiction program called Rescue 911 , which recreated real-life incidents that led to calls to 911 emergency dispatch centers around the country. It was the opposite of prestige TV, a low-budget program that appealed mainly to indiscriminate TV viewers, but Shatner committed to it as enthusiastically as he did to all of his projects.

As noted by the New York Times profile, Shatner had a working-class sensibility and hated to turn down any paying work. Later, he would appear in five seasons (101 episodes) of Boston Legal , which was created by David Kelley as a spinoff of his successful legal drama The Practice . British barrister and writer John Mortimer was brought in as a consultant on Boston Legal , and he seems to have injected Denny Crane (Shatner’s character) with some of the characteristics of his famous fictional barrister Horace Rumpole. Both are older men who think highly of their legal skills, are largely dismissive of their colleagues, and prefer performing in front of a jury to the actual nuts and bolts of case law and judicial procedure.

Had Shatner been born in 1962 rather than in 1932, he would have been reaching his prime just as the so-called “second golden age of television” arrived with the debut of The Sopranos in 1999. His approach to television would almost certainly have been very different than it was back in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. He might have taken his place among actors like James Gandolfini (born in ’61), Bryan Cranston (’56), Bob Odenkirk (’62), and Jon Hamm (’71), all of whom embodied iconic characters of the era. Instead, Shatner is often unfairly written off as a second-rater.

Nevertheless, Shatner may have indirectly helped usher in the era of prestige television. Not all TV authorities believe that prestige TV began with The Sopranos . As Wikipedia notes : “Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice has argued that the current golden age began earlier with over-the-air broadcast shows like Babylon 5 , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (both of which premiered in 1993), and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997).”

Both Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine are heavily indebted to the original Star Trek . J. Michael Straczynski, who created Babylon 5 , was trying to create an “anti- Star Trek ”—a show similar to Roddenberry’s original but with science that actually worked and interplanetary politics that were more complex and believable. He even occasionally employed some big names from Star Trek —writer D.C. Fontana and actor Walter Koenig, for instance—to channel some of its energy. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , as the name indicates, is an actual spinoff of Roddenberry’s original (although some have accused it of being a rip-off of Babylon 5 ). Even Buffy , with all of its alien creatures and over-the-top villains, seems to owe something to Star Trek . Shatner may not have been a big part of the second golden age of television, but Star Trek itself seems to have been.

Shatner guest-starred in some of the best TV shows of the 1970s and some of the silliest. But whether he was playing a role in Police Story or The Six Million Dollar Man or Mannix or Hawaii 5-0 or Mission: Impossible or Kung Fu , he was usually the best thing in it. In Billy Wilder’s classic 1950 film Sunset Boulevard , Gloria Swanson plays Norma Desmond, a silent film star whose career is in decline. When William Holden’s character tells her, “You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big!” Desmond responds, “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.” Something similar has happened to Shatner’s great TV performances of the mid-20th century. Nowadays, they seem overly large and elaborate. But it isn’t the performances that have gotten too big, it’s the television sets.

Alas, the only people likely to appreciate that fact now are aging Baby Boomers like me, who grew up watching him on tiny, snowy screens ten feet away. He brought us high-definition, widescreen, full-color performances despite the fact that he was working in an era of small, balky, black-and-white TV sets. And that probably explains why he has lived long and prospered.

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William Shatner

• Born March 22 , 1931 · Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Height 5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
• William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise. Shatner was born in Côte Saint-Luc, Montréal, Québec, Canada, to Anne (Garmaise) and Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacturer. His father was a Jewish emigrant from Bukovina in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while his maternal grandparents were Lithuanian Jews. After graduating from university, he joined a local Summer theatre group as an assistant manager. He then performed with the National Repertory Theatre of Ottawa and at the Stratford, Ontario, Shakespeare Festival as an understudy working with such as Alec Guinness , James Mason , and Anthony Quayle . He came to the attention of New York critics and was soon playing important roles in major shows on live television. Shatner spent many years honing his craft before debuting alongside Yul Brynner in The Brothers Karamazov (1958) . He was kept busy during the 1960s in films such as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and The Intruder (1962) and on television guest-starring in dozens of series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) , The Defenders (1961) , The Outer Limits (1963) and The Twilight Zone (1959) . In 1966, Shatner boarded the USS Enterprise for three seasons of Star Trek (1966) , co-starring alongside Leonard Nimoy , with the series eventually becoming a bona-fide cult classic with a worldwide legion of fans known variously as "Trekkies" or "Trekkers". After "Star Trek" folded, Shatner spent the rest of the decade and the 1970s making the rounds, guest-starring on many prime-time television series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968) , Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Ironside (1967) . He has also appeared in several feature films, but they were mainly B-grade (or lower) fare, such as the embarrassingly bad Euro western White Comanche (1968) and the campy Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) . However, the 1980s saw a major resurgence in Shatner's career with the renewed interest in the original Star Trek (1966) series culminating in a series of big-budget "Star Trek" feature films, including Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) , Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) , Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) , Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) , Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) . In addition, he starred in the lightweight police series T.J. Hooker (1982) from 1982 to 1986, alongside spunky Heather Locklear , and surprised many fans with his droll comedic talents in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) , Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) and Miss Congeniality (2000) . He has most recently been starring in the David E. Kelley television series The Practice (1997) and its spin-off Boston Legal (2004) . Outside of work, he jogs and follows other athletic pursuits. His interest in health and nutrition led to him becoming spokesman for the American Health Institute's 'Know Your Body' program to promote nutritional and physical health. - IMDb Mini Biography By: [email protected]
• Spouses Elizabeth Shatner (February 13, 2001 - 2020) (divorced) Nerine Kidd (November 15, 1997 - August 9, 1999) (her death) Marcy Lafferty (October 20, 1973 - December 11, 1996) (divorced) Gloria Rand (August 12, 1956 - March 4, 1969) (divorced, 3 children)
• Children Melanie Shatner Leslie Carol Shatner Lisabeth Shatner
• Parents Joseph Shatner Ann Shatner
• Clipped, dramatic narration.
• Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek (1966) and seven of the Star Trek films.
• Voice like a radio disc-jockey.
• Shortly after the original Star Trek (1966) series was canceled, his wife Gloria Rand left him and took a lot of money with her. With very little money and his acting prospects low, he resided in a pick-up truck camper until continually acting in bit parts led into higher-paying roles.
• Recorded a special message for the crew of NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-133 that woke up them at 3:23 a.m. (EST), March 7, 2011. The message included the Star Trek theme song along with Shatner's narration: "Space, the final frontier. These have been the voyages of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Her 30 year mission: To seek out new science. To build new outposts. To bring nations together on the final frontier. To boldly go, and do, what no spacecraft has done before.".
• His clipped, dramatic delivery of his lines, peppered with dramatic pauses, is often referred to as "Shatnerian".
• Auctioned a kidney stone to GoldenPalace.com for $75,000. The money went to Habitat for Humanity, a charity that builds houses for the needy.
• In 2001, he married Elizabeth Shatner (Elizabeth Anderson Martin), 30 years his junior. She is a horse trainer who had lost her husband to cancer in 1997. Their grief (Shatner was a widower) and their love of horses drew them together. They reside in Southern California and in Kentucky.
• [When asked if he wore a hairpiece] It's a question that I find like asking somebody, "Did you have a breast implant?" or "When did you get your lobotomy?".
• [When asked if he was a fan of technology] I love technology. Matches, to light a fire is really high tech. The wheel is REALLY one of the great inventions of all time. Other than that I am an ignoramus about technology. I once looked for the 'ON' button on the computer and came to find out it was on the back. Then I thought, anyone who would put the 'on' switch on the back, where you can't find it, doesn't do any good for my psyche. The one time I did get the computer on, I couldn't turn the damn thing off!
• I am not a Starfleet commander, or T.J. Hooker. I don't live on Starship NCC-1701, or own a phaser. And I don't know anybody named Bones, Sulu or Spock. And no, I've never had green alien sex, though I'm sure it would be quite an evening. I speak English and French, not Klingon! I drink Labatt's, not Romulan ale! And when someone says to me "Live long and prosper", I seriously mean it when I say, "Get a life." My doctor's name is not McCoy, it's Ginsberg. And tribbles were puppets, not real animals. PUPPETS! And when I speak, I never, ever talk like every. Word. Is. Its. Own. Sentence. I live in California, but I was raised in Montreal. And yes, I've gone where no man has gone before, but I was in Mexico and her father gave me permission! My name is William Shatner, and I am Canadian!
• We were basically one and the same, although Jim [Kirk] was just about perfect, and, of course, I am perfect.
• What he tells his kids about money: Don't buy anything on time, and that includes cars and houses. (Money magazine, 2007)
• Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) - 20,000 plus 7 1/2 percentage of the gross

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William Shatner finds a good reason for his new bio-doc: ‘I don’t have long to live’

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William Shatner is thinking a lot about death these days.

The “Star Trek” icon shared thoughts on his mortality and legacy ahead of the release of the biographical documentary “You Can Call Me Bill,” which focuses on his life and will premiere Thursday at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. After former co-star Nichelle Nichols ’ death at age 89 in 2022, Shatner is one of only three surviving members of the original show’s cast, the others being George Takei, 85, and Walter Koenig, 86 .

“I’ve turned down a lot of offers to do documentaries before,” Shatner, 91, said during an interview with Variety published Thursday. “But I don’t have long to live.”

‘Star Trek’s’ William Shatner ventures to space, in real life

At 90, William Shatner set the record for the oldest person to go to space after 10-minute flight aboard Blue Origin. “I am overwhelmed,” he said upon return.

Oct. 13, 2021

He said he also considered his grandchildren in his decision to participate in the film, calling it “a way of reaching out after I die.”

Shatner is grandfather of five children, all from his children with the first of his four wives, Canadian actress Gloria Rand. He previously said being a grandparent is “the greatest joy for me.”

“I have the time now to grab a grandchild and talk, and hug and kiss them and make sure that I’m taking time to be with them and to give them some aspect of the things I’ve learned,” he told the Guardian in 2014.

Entertainment & Arts

George Takei stokes feud, says William Shatner was a ‘prima donna’ on ‘Star Trek’ set

Actor George Takei continued his public feud with his “Star Trek” co-star William Shatner by calling him “a cantankerous old man” and “prima donna.”

Nov. 30, 2022

He said his family life is “totally encompassing” and he sees his three daughters every weekend, according to the Guardian. They take trips during holidays to ski and snorkel.

His youngest daughter, Melanie Shatner, recalled Shatner in a 2015 interview as “a wonderful, committed father” while growing up, recalling his hours-long drives to see them on weekends or taking them on set with him amid a busy filming schedule.

“So with the time I have left, I like to look at all my grandchildren and try to extract what I can out of my impressions,” Shatner said in the Variety interview.

On Twitter, William Shatner defends missing Leonard Nimoy’s funeral

March 2, 2015

When asked about his legacy, Shatner shared an anecdote about his controversial decision in 2015 to attend a Red Cross fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago instead of the funeral of “Star Trek” co-star Leonard Nimoy.

“I said to the audience, ‘People ask about a legacy. There’s no legacy. Statues are torn down. Graveyards are ransacked. Headstones are knocked over. No one remembers anyone. Who remembers Danny Kaye or Cary Grant? They were great stars. But they’re gone and no one cares,’” Shatner recalled.

“What does live on are good deeds. If you do a good deed, it reverberates to the end of time. ... That’s why I have done this film.”

Nichelle Nichols’ ‘Star Trek’ family praises ‘unique artist who was ahead of her time’

George Takei, William Shatner, Zoe Saldana and other members of the ‘Star Trek’ family mourned Nichelle Nichols, the series’ original Lt. Uhura.

Aug. 1, 2022

For the documentary, Shatner said he challenged himself to go beyond recollecting career accolades and worked to find a new way of looking at his life. One of his fresh takes: He can take nothing with him to the grave.

“The sad thing is that the older a person gets the wiser they become and then they die with all that knowledge, and it’s gone,” he said. “Today, there’s a person going through some of my clothes in order to donate or sell them, because what am I going to do with all these suits that I’ve got? What am I going to do with all these thoughts? What am I going to do with 90 years of observations? The moths of extinction will eat my brain as they will my clothing and it will all disappear.”

Even when asked about why he was overcome with emotion after returning from his trip to space on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin , he said he was “grieving about this world.”

Beam him down, Scotty: George Takei isn’t impressed by William Shatner’s space trip

George Takei continued his decades-long feud with William Shatner by shading his “Star Trek” co-star for blasting off into space at 90 years old.

Oct. 14, 2021

“I saw the Earth and its beauty and its destruction,” he said. “It’s going extinct. ... We stupid f— animals are destroying this gorgeous thing called the Earth. Doesn’t that make you angry? Don’t you want to do something about it?”

In recent months, Shatner and Takei have made headlines for their public feud. In November, Takei said Shatner was a “prima donna” whom “none” of the “Star Trek” cast got along with.

Takei seemed to be responding to Shatner‘s interview with the Times U.K. in which he called his sci-fi co-stars “bitter” and said they continually criticize him “for publicity.”

“I began to understand that they were doing it for publicity,” Shatner said. “Sixty years after some incident, they are still on that track. Don’t you think that’s a little weird? It’s like a sickness. George has never stopped blackening my name. These people are bitter and embittered. I have run out of patience with them. Why give credence to people consumed by envy and hate?”

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Jonah Valdez is a former reporter at the Los Angeles Times on the Fast Break entertainment news team. Before joining The Times as a member of the 2021-22 Los Angeles Times Fellowship class, he worked for the Southern California News Group, where he wrote award-winning features. His work can also be found at his hometown newspaper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, Voice of San Diego and San Diego Reader.

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Watch CBS News

William Shatner sets record in space with Blue Origin spaceflight

• https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-flight/ link copied

By William Harwood

Updated on: October 13, 2021 / 5:14 PM EDT / CBS News

William Shatner, the 90-year-old veteran of countless imaginary space voyages playing Star Trek's Captain Kirk, blasted off for real Wednesday, becoming the oldest person to reach the final frontier in a PR bonanza for Jeff Bezos and his rocket company Blue Origin.

Over the course of 10 minutes and 17 seconds, Shatner and three crewmates took off atop a hydrogen-fueled rocket, climbed to edge of space 65.8 miles up and enjoyed three to four minutes of weightlessness, along with spectacular views of Earth, before plunging back to a gentle parachute-assisted touchdown.

• William Shatner after launching to space: "I hope I never recover from this"

Within minutes, Bezos and Blue Origin recovery crews were on the scene to open the spacecraft's hatch and welcome Shatner, Australian entrepreneur Chris Boshuizen, microbiologist Glen de Vries and Blue Origin executive Audrey Powers back to Earth.

Shatner cautiously made his way down a few short steps to the ground and was warmly embraced by Bezos. The actor grew emotional and was occasionally at a loss for words describing the flight to the man who made it possible.

"It was so moving to me," Shatner said. "This experience is something unbelievable."

He said he was overwhelmed, and that Bezos has given him the most profound experience he can imagine. "I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened ... it's extraordinary," he told Bezos. 

"I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now," he said. "I don't want to lose it."

Video released after the flight showed Shatner and his crewmates floating about the cabin as the spacecraft reached space, all of them focused on the view outside as they unstrapped and moved about without worrying about up and down. Shatner appeared mesmerized, quietly gazing out at the black of space and the brilliant planet 65 miles below.

"Holy cow," Powers marveled.

FLYING HIGH: Video from inside the Blue Origin spacecraft shows William Shatner and the crew expressing amazement as they floated through the air and looked down on Earth from space. https://t.co/95JYKcU3HF pic.twitter.com/06niBWOJRa — CBS News (@CBSNews) October 13, 2021

Speaking with reporters at the base of their booster after the flight, de Vries said flying with Captain Kirk was "the ultimate manifestation of science fiction becoming science. But we went to space with our friend Bill."

"Scared little Billy, frightened Bill," Shatner joked. "I'm so glad you said that. Captain Kirk is a fictional figure. I'm flesh and blood."

Said Boshuizen: "I can't think of a better ambassador for the future of humanity than his character James T. Kirk on Star Trek and that amazing future. So to fly with a true ambassador for what we can become on this planet, I think it's fantastic."

The flight marked only the second crewed launch of a New Shepard capsule since Bezos, his brother Mark, 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk and Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen took off July 20 on  the company's first such flight.

Daemen, then 18, holds the record for youngest person to fly in space, but Shatner eclipsed Funk's record by eight years and John Glenn's mark before that by 13.

"I want to see space, I want to see the Earth, I want to see what we need to do to save Earth," Shatner told CBS Mornings' Gayle King before launch. "I want to have a perspective that hasn't been shown to me before. That's what I'm interested in seeing."

He got his wish.

Boshuizen and de Vries paid undisclosed sums for their seats aboard the New Shepard, but Shatner was an invited guest of Blue Origin. Powers, a former NASA flight controller now Blue Origin vice president of flight operations, flew as a company representative.

While the New Shepard rocket and capsule are only capable of up-and-down sub-orbital flights, Shatner and his crewmates endured the same liftoff accelerations space shuttle astronauts once felt — about three times the normal force of gravity — and even higher "G loads" during descent back into the lower atmosphere.

Even so, Shatner and his crewmates were considered passengers, not astronauts, aboard the automated New Shepard. But professional astronauts nonetheless welcomed them to the brotherhood of space travelers.

Especially Shatner.

"I'm impressed. I mean, he's 90 years old and showing that somebody at his age can actually fly to space," Matthias Maurer, a European Space Agency astronaut launching to the International Space Station at the end of the month, told CBS News.

"Even if it's, let's say, just a suborbital flight, I'm highly impressed, and I wish him all the best. Hopefully it will be the experience of a lifetime. And yeah, I hope many more people will follow his steps and also experience space."

Added Kayla Barron, a Navy submariner who's flying to the station with Maurer and two others aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule: "It's really awesome! Like who wouldn't want to see William Shatner fly in space? Like, I don't know anybody who wouldn't."

"For us watching these new companies with different missions, different equipment, different architectures for how they think about bringing more human beings into human spaceflight is just a win for all of us," she said. "So we're really excited to watch that flight, for sure."

Blue Origin's 18th New Shepard flight began a few minutes behind schedule when the BE-3 engine powering the company's 53-foot-tall booster ignited with a roar, throttled up to 110,000 pounds of thrust and lifted off from Launch Site One at the company's West Texas launch site near Van Horn.

Climbing straight up, the booster quickly accelerated as it consumed propellant and lost weight, reaching a velocity of about 2,200 mph and an altitude of some 170,000 feet before engine shutdown.

The New Shepard capsule then separated from the booster at an altitude of about 45 miles and both continued climbing upward on ballistic trajectories, rapidly slowing.

The onset of weightlessness began moments after separation. All four passengers were free to unstrap and float about as the capsule reached the top of its trajectory and arced over for the long fall back to Earth.

The New Shepard capsule is equipped with some of the largest windows in a currently flying spacecraft, giving Shatner, de Vries, Boshuizen and Powers hemispheric views of Earth far below.

"Yeah, you know, weightless, my stomach went up, ah, this is so weird, but not as weird as the covering of blue," said Shatner. "This is what I never expected."

"It's one thing to say, oh, the sky, and (it's) fragile, it's all true. But what ... is unknown until you do it, is there's this pure, soft blue. Look at the beauty of that color! And it's so thin, and you're through it in an instant."

Plunging back into the dense lower atmosphere, the passengers, back in their padded, reclining seats, were briefly subjected to more than five times the normal force of gravity before three large parachutes deployed and inflated, slowing the craft to about 15 mph. 

An instant before touchdown, compressed-air thrusters were programmed to fire, slowing the ship to just 2 mph or so for landing.

A few minutes earlier, the New Shepard booster flew itself back to a pinpoint landing a few miles away, reigniting its BE-3 engine, deploying four landing legs and settling to a concrete landing pad. Assuming no problems are found, the rocket will be refurbished and prepared for another flight.

Competing approaches to sub-orbital spaceflight

The mission marked the sixth crewed commercial, non-government sub-orbital spaceflight in a  high-stakes competition between Bezos'  Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic , owned by fellow billionaire  Richard Branson .

Virgin has launched four piloted flights of its winged spaceplane VSS Unity, most recently sending up Branson, two pilots and three company crewmates on July 11. At least one more flight is planned this year, with three researchers on board representing the Italian air force, before commercial passenger flights begin next year.

Blue Origin followed up the Bezos flight by launching a suite of NASA experiments on an unpiloted mission August 26. The flight Wednesday was the company's 18th overall and the second with passengers aboard.

Virgin Galactic is charging about $500,000 per seat. Blue Origin has not announced pricing for the New Shepard or how much Boshuizen and de Vries might have paid.

Shatner was flying as a guest of Blue Origin while Powers, a lawyer, a former NASA space station flight controller and Blue Origin's vice president for missions and flight operations, was flying as a company representative.

CBS News recently reported allegations of safety issues from current and former Blue Origin employees, most speaking anonymously, including complaints about a "toxic" corporate culture. 

But Powers told King "that just hasn't been my experience at Blue."

"We're exceedingly thorough," she said. "I've worked on New Shepherd for eight years now in a variety of roles, and I can't say enough about the team of professionals that work on this program. ... Safety has always been our top priority. That has always been my experience here."

The competition between Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic showcases the emerging commercial space marketplace.

Branson won the commercial sub-orbital space race in 2018 when his company launched its first piloted test flight above 50 miles, the boundary of space recognized by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration.

While Branson's July 11 sub-orbital hop was Virgin's fourth carrying pilots, it was the first with a full six-person crew and the first with the company owner on board.

Branson announced his flight after Bezos had already selected his July 20 launch date, upstaging the Amazon founder and grabbing headlines in the battle to sell a product — spaceflight — as a for-profit enterprise.

"I truly believe that space belongs to all of us," Branson said before his flight. "After more than 16 years of research, engineering and testing, Virgin Galactic stands at the vanguard of a new commercial space industry, which is set to open space to humankind and change the world for good."

He said he was "honored to help validate the journey our future astronauts will undertake and ensure we deliver the unique customer experience people expect from Virgin."

Virgin Galactic passengers enjoy a longer flight than Blue Origin's, about 90 minutes from carrier jet takeoff to spaceplane landing, but the time spent "in space" is roughly the same.

• https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-flight/#post-update-2812fb59 link copied

Shatner and his crewmates

Asked what she wanted to do most on the flight, Powers said in a Blue Origin video posted to Twitter, "I plan to spend the majority of the time looking out the window." 

Shatner agreed, saying, "I plan to be looking out the window with my nose pressed against the (glass). The only thing I don't want to see is a little gremlin looking back at me!"

He was referring to a now-classic episode of "The Twilight Zone" titled "Nightmare at 20,000 feet" in which Shatner, playing the part of an airline passenger, sees a gremlin on the plane's wing. His frantic efforts to convince his wife and fellow passengers the gremlin is real instead convinces them he's suffered a breakdown.

James T. Kirk is Shatner's most famous role, and in the Blue Origin video, Powers was asked how excited she was to fly with the legendary starship captain.

"I don't know if I'm more excited to be going to space with Denny Crane or with Captain Kirk," she said, referring to Shatner's portrayal of a lawyer in the TV series "Boston Legal."

"But Denny Crane was on the verge of senility," Shatner joked.

"That's right!" Powers laughed. "We probably want the Captain Kirk version."

"I think you're better off with that guy," Shatner replied.

"Star Trek" debuted in 1966 when NASA was still launching two-man Gemini spacecraft. The series was canceled after three seasons, but devoted fans turned it into a phenomenon. NASA named its prototype space shuttle "Enterprise," spin-off series were launched and Shatner starred in seven of the 13 feature-length "Star Trek" movies released to date.

While filming the original "Star Trek" for television, Shatner said, it was just dawning on people that astronauts would soon be flying to the moon.

"I would go down to Cape Kennedy from time to time during the series and I met all the astronauts and I was very impressed," Shatner said on CNN. "When they went to the moon, I had reached (my) nadir, they were at the apogee. I was divorced, the show was canceled and I'm looking up there ... and I'm lying in a cab trying to get some sleep because I have to perform the next day and I can't afford a hotel room.

"So 55 years later, I wrote a song for this album that's out there now called 'Bill,' and one of the songs is 'So Far From the Moon." It was all about that moment when I was looking at the sky, being so far from the moon, and here I am all this time later being a few thousand feet closer to the moon than you are."

As might be expected, Shatner is the "star" of New Shepard flight 18, and that's presumably just fine with crewmates Boshuizen and de Vries. Despite their professional and financial success, neither man has an entry in Wikipedia and both seem content to keep personal details personal.

Boshuizen, 44, is an Australian who holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Sydney. After a stint at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, he co-founded Planet Labs, a company that pioneered the use of small "nanosats" and now operates the largest fleet of commercial Earth-observation satellites.

He also is a partner at DCVC, a "deep tech" investment company in San Francisco, and is a musician in his spare time, performing under the name Dr. Chrispy.

"I'm very excited," he told King on "CBS Mornings." "I've waited my entire life to do this. I think it's pretty amazing that 2021 is the year that really the human race is finally starting to go to space at scale.

"I think we'll look back at this date 50 years from now and go, wow, this really was a special time in history, just like the Wright brothers, when people started flying passenger planes. It's really exciting to be part of history and I can't wait to fly."

de Vries, a private pilot in his spare time, was trained as a molecular biologist and co-founded Medidata Solutions, the most-used clinical research platform in the world. The company's software has managed more than 25,000 clinical trials involving more than seven million patients. Dassault Systèmes acquired the company in 1999 for $5.8 billion.

"I am actually looking forward to seeing the Earth from a different perspective than I ever had before," he said in the "CBS Mornings" crew interview. "I just can't wait to stare out that window and feel differently about humanity and our planet than I've ever had the opportunity to before."

• https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-flight/#post-update-d12502ea link copied
• Blue Origin

Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News.

William Shatner Discusses Acting, Fate, and His New Documentary

It seems as long as people have been watching television, William Shatner has been on it. Shatner's first television credit was in 1954 on the Canadian version of The Howdy Doody Show . While a trained theater actor and also a movie star, television has been where Shatner has shined. Most famous for the role of Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series , he has also had starring roles in T.J. Hooker and Boston Legal . Shatner has also appeared in some of the most famous television shows, from The Twilight Zone and Columbo up to Psych and The Bang Theory . It is hard to imagine television without William Shatner, and we don't even want to think about that.

The actor is still going strong, having recently voiced the role of Keldor in Masters of the Universe: Revolutions . But Shatner's latest project is a personal one. The documentary William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill has arrived on VOD. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe ( The People vs. George Lucas ), the documentary is a deep dive into Shatner's career, as told by Shatner. Viewers are given an insight into his thought process, as only Shatner could explain. MovieWeb had the honor to sit down and talk with Shatner about how the documentary came to be.

I had a weird career. I don't recall more than a moment or so here and there thinking, 'Oh, I hope I work.' I think sometimes I thought, 'Well, I can always go back to Toronto,' when I was in New York looking for work, but I never did.

He provided insight into his experience with acting, his personal history with future Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered co-star Christopher Plummer, and what Shatner would say to his younger self (and what he thinks his younger self would say to him).

Why Make a Shatner Documentary Now?

You can call me bill.

Release Date March 22, 2024

Director Alexandre O. Philippe

Cast William Shatner

Rating PG-13

Runtime 1h 36m

Main Genre Documentary

Writers Alexandre O. Philippe

Studio(s) FilmFrog, Falling Forward Films, Legion M

William Shatner has been featured in many documentaries but has never done one centered on his life. Why now? Well, it was the people involved in the project that finally convinced Shatner to open up. "Over the years, people would come up and say, 'We'd like to shoot a documentary about you,' and I didn't. I wasn't enthralled with the idea ," said Shatner. " First of all, it's admitting, you know, when you see this, I'll be dead . In addition to that, I didn't know the people as it wasn't the right time, but I didn't feel like it." He added:

"And then Legion M came up to me, these three guys and Legion M, two really, and they said, 'We're Legion M, we are financed by fans who own a piece of the company, and you won't get paid until they get paid,' and it sounded intriguing."

Why Star Trek Producers Didnt Want William Shatner Playing a Villain

The addition of well known documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe also enticed Shatner, who didn't just want it to be a retelling of his life. "So I took a chance. I didn't have any prearranged ideas of how a documentary goes. I was born, you know, in 1930 — I didn't want to do that," explained the actor. "So we started talking and this is the result."

The results have paid off as William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill was released in theaters on March 22, 2024, and earned positive reviews from critics. As of this writing, the movie has received an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and 71% on Metacritic. The film is a great insight into the mind of Shatner and is a must-watch documentary not only for fans of Star Trek but also for anyone interested in one of the most famous and enduring actors in history.

The Business of Becoming an Actor

An actor known across generations for different roles, it's hard to imagine Shatner as anything but an actor. " It never occurred to me to say, 'I'm going to be an actor, '" said Shatner, but he did say how his father tried to convince him to get another job:

"The only time I said that was graduating high school, going to college, and I said, 'I want to be an actor', and my father said, ' Well, no, you can't be an actor. Don't be an actor. Why don't you just take some business classes? Maybe you'll join me in his small clothing business.' I said, 'Okay, I'll take some business classes,' and I failed them."

That business course did pay off, though. "A summer theater had opened near McGill University, which is where I was, and I went to the lady who was running the theater and said, 'Can I be a part of the company?' and she said, 'No, the company is all filled up, but I do have an opening for an assistant manager.' And I said, 'Well, I'm taking business courses,' so I became a business manager until I lost tickets. So she said, 'You're fired as an assistant, but you're hired as an actor.'"

William Shatner Reveals His Biggest Star Trek Regret: 'I Failed Horribly'

Christopher plummer's kidney stones gave shatner his big break.

Shatner later served as the understudy for Christopher Plummer on a production of Henry V . Despite only being two years older than Shatner, Plummer had already gained a high reputation in the acting community. Shatner talked about Plummer's status when he served as his understudy.

"Christopher is also a Montrealer. Chris was a couple of years older than I was, but it made a huge difference because I was going to school for the time that he was free and acting, and in Montreal, Chris Plummer was the name. He was in his early 20s or late teens, but he had become a popular actor in Montreal. Classical. I don't know where he learned to do the classics, but he was elegant. An incredibly talented, upper-crust Canadian actor who could do English very well, he was very princely ."

Every Major Star Trek Movie Villain, Ranked

While serving as Plummer's understudy, a medical condition of the older actor's would throw Shatner into the spotlight. "We were a week into the opening of Henry V when Chris had kidney stones and he had to go to the hospital," explained Shatner. "A week into the opening they ask 'Bill, can you go on?' And I said, 'Can I go on?' I didn't even know the names of some of the actors, let alone the choreography of the play. And they said 'but could you go on?'"

"The critics were still in the theater. The critics didn't arrive on opening night, but during that opening week, they would come in from all over the world. Chris had received great notices, and I was asked to go on. In my idiocy, like the rest of my life, I went, 'Oh, sure.' I went on and didn't screw up and got great notices. "

Shatner and Plummer would share the screen decades later in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . It all seems to have worked out in the end. Shatner feels blessed for all of this and gives some insight into it all. " Something that has taken care of me all these years: Fate. "

What Would William Shatner Say to Young William Shatner?

What would William Shatner now say to his 30-something younger self when he was on Star Trek: The Original Series ? It sounds like the plot of an episode of Star Trek . In fact, in 2009's Star Trek , Zachary Quinto's Spock meets the older (and original) version of himself, played by Leonard Nimoy. Yet, it is an interesting question for someone to ponder, as we change constantly. Even in the manner of 10 years, someone in their 30s might feel different about who they were in their 20s, while some of us feel like our younger selves would not recognize the people we have become.

Anyone who watches You Can Call Me Bill will know Shatner is a deeply introspective man , so when posed the question, he had a rather relatable answer most people can probably identify with.

"Well, my 30-year-old self, I'm wondering whether I can support my family, the financial worries of being an actor. But I didn't fret, I didn't toss and turn at night. I never got beyond $1800 in the bank, and I had three kids and a home. So, I would probably say that to the 30-year-old from this vantage point. 'You're right not to be overwhelmed with worry. You're right to take it in your stride and just keep plugging away and people will find you to offer you work,' is what I would have said, and I probably did say it to myself."

As for any advice for actors? " Once you've learned the words, you're pretty much free ," said Shatner.

William Shatner has lived a life most people can only dream of. He has been to space, and that only ranks in the top five coolest things he has ever done. While some might not treat him as seriously as his acting idols like Marlon Brando or Laurence Oliver, it is hard to argue that William Shatner's commitment to keep working, no matter what, has made him an icon that will live on for years to come.

It's not hard to imagine that in 60 years, Captain Kirk will still be an inspiration to many, or that people will still be trying a William Shatner impersonation. From the iconic interracial kiss from Star Trek: The Original Series to performing a spoken word version of "Rocket Man," Shatner is not just a part of pop culture history but history in general.

William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill is available for purchase on VOD on April 26, 2024.

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William Shatner tells of ‘loneliness’ during Star Trek years

Still starring in films and releasing music at 90, the actor reflects on success and feeling alone

William Shatner has spoken of the “loneliness” he experienced at the height of his Star Trek fame. The actor shot to fame as Captain James T Kirk, commander of the USS Enterprise, in the sci-fi series which originally ran from 1966 to 1969.

He has reprised the role numerous times over the years, as well as starring in hundreds of films and TV shows including TJ Hooker, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Boston Legal, and Miss Congeniality.

The 90-year-old’s latest role is in Senior Moment, as a retired Nasa test pilot and self-proclaimed ladies’ man who loses his driving licence and meets a woman, played by Jean Smart, who changes his life.

Discussing why he still works so hard, Shatner told the PA news agency: “I’ve got a very full creative life, I’m more creative now than I’ve ever been. And so that aspect of my life has not slowed down.

“As a young actor, you’re always balancing on the precipice of failure and you’re about to fall all the time. And you stumble back and something comes along and it’s successful, you’re OK for a while and then you agonise over everything.”

Shatner, who will release an album called Love, Death and Horses later in the summer, said he wishes he knew when he was younger that fame and success do not prevent loneliness.

He said: “The album is autobiographical and one of the songs is about loneliness, how much loneliness was a part of my life. It is a part of everybody’s life, no matter how much attention you get, and how happily married you are, and how many children you have. As the song says, we’re all essentially alone and the big mystery is will there be anybody there at the end?”

Shatner said he attributes the energy he still has to “DNA, no question about it” and added: “I have lived a good life. I don’t do drugs, I don’t drink and smoke, and I try to exercise as much as possible, with good food.”

However, he revealed he is currently suffering from a serious injury, saying: “My shoulder is shattered right now. I cracked the bone falling off a horse a couple of weeks ago. So my left arm is bad but I keep exercising it. It’s getting better and better.

“But I’ve had the good luck of not having anything really debilitating. So nothing has sapped my energy.”

• William Shatner
• US television

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Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Captain Kirk (Shatner) in the classic  Star Trek episode "The Man Trap"

The classic  Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" was a breakthrough role for Shatner

Heather Locklear and James Darren costarred with Shatner in T.J. Hooker

William shatner on his classic tv roles, from  twilight zone to  star trek, the emmy-winning actor boldly goes for a trip down tv memory lane..

William Shatner 's decades-long relationship with fame began on the theatrical stage as a young Canadian actor before American television helped turn him into one of the medium's most noteworthy stars. 

With roles like the traumatized airline passenger aboard the classic Twilight Zone   episode, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," and, of course, his most famous part — S tar Trek 's Captain James T. Kirk — Shatner would spend more than five decades becoming a load-bearing column of pop culture. His landmark career, with all its considerable peaks (winning two Emmys for his role as attorney Denny Crane on The Practice   and Boston Legal ) and valleys (the cancellation of Star Trek ), is the subject of his latest documentary, You Can Call Me Bill . The doc, directed by Alexandre O. Phillippe, weaves key moments and events from Shatner's life and profession with the 93-year-old actor's preoccupation with his own mortality — which seems sparked by his recent trip into space at the age of 90 on Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin rocket.

In the documentary, a vulnerable Shatner reflects on his talents by saying: "Every human being is limited by who they are." If his industrious career is any indication, he seems to be the exception to the very limits he speaks of. With the pending release of You Can Call Me Bill on VOD April 26, Shatner spoke with the Television Academy and reflected on some of his most memorable TV roles and experiences. 

Television Academy: I know it's been a long, long time, but how was your experience working with the late director Richard Donner on  The   Twilight Zone episode, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet?" 

William Shatner:  I had come from live television out of New York and Donner was a very prolific director. I had worked with him several times prior in live television. So we were more or less friends, pretty good acquaintances. So when he called, it was like an old buddy saying, "Let's do this thing." And when I read it — I was of two minds. I mean, it could be laughed at. And then when I saw the suit that the Czechoslovakian acrobat was dressed in, I thought, "Well, I hope this isn't laughed at." This is good for laughs, at least.

The last thing we shot was the last shot of the episode, where my character is being carried away on the stretcher. And [while shooting], I remember thinking: "I hope that everybody takes this thing the way it was meant to be [taken] and not laugh at it." Since we're talking about it more than 60 years later, my hope seems to have come true.

Moving on to T.J. Hooker ,  1982 was a significant year for your career — with this series airing March 1982, ahead of the June premiere of the feature film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . How did the role of Hooker, which was a significant departure for you at the time, come about?

Well, before the exigencies of television got ahold of it, it was meant to be about a cop who hadn't progressed into the modern police age. So, the complex idea for  T.J. Hooker was this cop trying to work himself into the modern age. At its best, the show did that. And, at its worst, it was a good cop show. 

The series went from ABC to CBS for its fourth season. Can you recall why that change happened and how that impacted you? 

I wasn't aware. I just knew it was happening, to the best of my recollection. As long as it went on the air — on   somebody's air —   I was happy.

And T.J. Hooker  afforded you opportunities to direct, as well. How was directing television different — or maybe more exciting for you — than, say, directing feature films, like your feature directorial debut, 1989's  Star Trek V: The Final Frontier ?

Well, in television directing, the common knowledge is you're good for [getting] one artistic shot a day. Meaning a director gets that shot and you're busy doing close-ups for the rest of the day — just getting in and getting out. So I would try to take advantage of that time to set up a good shot —  whether the camera was moving, or whether it was an artistic shot where I'd want the lighting a certain way. It all took time, and I had to ration the importance of [getting] that shot that I would have thought of that morning or the night before. And I would fight to get it in, and then stick to getting fairly close shots from then on in the interest of time. So, when I got to direct a feature, I was armed with the knowledge of how to save time while filming.

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William Shatner on the Death of William Shatner

"this is a legacy to my kids." the star trek icon gets candid about his mortality and final wishes in the documentary you can call me bill..

There’s a scene in 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan where Admiral James T. Kirk is visited by his estranged son, David Marcus, following the death of Kirk’s best friend and first officer, Spock. In their exchange, Kirk admits, “I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing.” 

Unlike his most famous character, 93-year-old actor William Shatner knows he can’t cheat death. Indeed, he faces his mortality head-on in the compelling new documentary You Can Call Me Bill, available now on VOD. 

IGN recently had the opportunity to discuss the film with Shatner, who proved as candid and philosophical musing about his mortality with us as he is in You Can Call Me Bill. (This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.)

IGN: I found the documentary very moving because I've never seen a star, even in anything autobiographical, be as emotionally open, honest, and raw as you were in this. You're talking about your life, your death. At what point did you feel like, "I want to talk about this and I want to do it on camera"?

William Shatner: Well, over the years you can imagine people came up and say, "We'd like to do a documentary about you." And I would turn them down, "No, it's not time." When Legion M , with their unique way of financing, people are going to get their money back before I get paid sort of thing. And it's now going to be released and we're in a peculiar time in films. Releasing a film that doesn't have all this hullabaloo. So I've been asked over the years to do a documentary about me and I've turned them down. 

So here comes Legion M with all their smart guys and then the credentials of the director [Alexandre O. Philippe, who also directed The People vs. George Lucas ]. And then my thought [was], "Jesus, I'm an old man. I don't know when that happened. And I better if I'm going to say anything to my children rather than, 'My child, dear old dad is...' I could do it in a documentary and leave what your father, your grandfather was like, to some degree. Here I am, child, in all my blacks and whites, and take me for what I am." I am talking to my family. I keep hearing the word legacy and I keep saying legacy doesn't exist. They tear down the statues, the boats sink, the name comes off the building.

But what I can leave my kids is this documentary and the knowledge that your legacy is based on the good things you do in your life. The people you help, the good deeds, being a Boy Scout even once will make a difference. And if you can sort of keep that in mind, it's what you leave behind. The other things, the money, the fame disappear immediately. If it's not in a day, in a week, if not in a week, in a year. And if not in a year, in the blink of an eye when things rot and decay anyway. So that's what I was thinking. This is a legacy to my kids.

"How do you know when you're going to die?"

IGN: Talking about mortality can make people uncomfortable. Would you have felt as comfortable exploring that on camera or on the record back when you were a leading man?  

William Shatner: I didn't know it, I didn't consciously know it, but looking back sometimes you make intuitive choices based on “oh, that's why I did that” looking back. And I think the reason held somewhere in my brain that I didn't do a documentary before and did this documentary. And without consciously [being] like, “I'm going to be absolutely honest.” It's just that I've discovered over the years that by being yourself and calm, calmness inside and being yourself, you can't do any – if you trust yourself, you can't do anything wrong because that's you.

The question I keep asking myself [is], "How do you know when you're going to die?" How do you know that the cough you just had isn't a harbinger of a heart attack, or it's just a cough? And you get to a certain age, you think, "Wait a minute, am I dying?" You don't know when you're dying, until what? A friend of mine said – the daughter was sitting beside this friend of mine, her mother, sitting on the bed, her mother's dying. And so they're there, the daughter's keeping company. And suddenly the mother says, "Veronica, I'm dying." Like with incredulity at the grotesqueness of dying. "I'm dying." And then thereafter she died. How do you know when you're dying?

IGN: You also talk a lot in the film about nature. What do you think [Star Trek creator]   Gene Roddenberry – known for this show that's all about hope in the future – would make of the deeply precarious state of our planet?

William Shatner: I'm sure he would feel exactly what you've just described. He was a tough guy. He'd been through many careers, pilot, policeman, something else, then a writer. And then he had to learn to write. And then somehow this idea of Star Trek came about. He was also a guy who had his own demons. So he was fighting his own personal battle in life and having this Star Trek concept, this voyage to the universe. He would, like all of us, would be angry, hurt, disappointed, so many negative emotions about how... Christ's sake, in our American government today there are people that say there's no such thing as global warming. It's idiotic. All the coral are bleached because of the hot water, the air, the plastics, which we thought would save us are all infecting us. It's terrible. 

And yet, I had a program on the air called I Don't Understand , I did an interview show. And one of the guys I interviewed was an award-winner … and I said to him, "I don't understand why all the scientists in the world are [not] getting together for a Manhattan Project to find out the cure for getting rid of all these poisons." And he said, "We are." And subsequent to that conversation of a couple of years ago, I've read and heard and spoken about all kinds of incredible possibilities of cleaning the air, cleaning the water, and cleaning the ground, all kinds of weird inventions and things that scientists have come up with that are just a few years away from being useful.

So I would now do discovery on that and talk to people like yourself about, "My God, do you realize they're this close to taking the carbon out of the carbon dioxide and burying it?" There's pilot programs that are doing that. The water, the cleaning the ocean, suddenly everybody's being galvanized. Not everybody, but a lot of people are being galvanized into action to protect the world. It seems that this growing perception of the danger that we're in is becoming apparent, and it's a race between finding the answer to some of these problems and killing ourselves.

What comes to mind is in my will and now publicly, I've said, "I want to be a tree. When I'm dead, I want a tree planted over my ashes and let the earth feast on whatever I can add," as against some tombstone. And then I wrote a song for this album that's out now called I Want to Be A Tree . Ben Folds plays the piano accompaniment. So that's all apropos of the intertwining of nature. The more I read, the more I talk about it, see how intertwined everything is. So this tree and my body will be intertwined.

You Can Call Me Bill is now available on VOD.

You Can Call Me Bill

You Can Call Me Bill: Official Trailer

Fans on mission. To seek out autographs from Star Trek icon William Shatner

LAKE TWP. − For many, it was a final frontier.

To boldly go where they had never gone before — into the presence of Star Trek actor William Shatner .

Several hundred people flocked Saturday to Hartville MarketPlace & Flea Market to get autographs and pictures with the 93-year-old man known for his role as Captain James T. Kirk in the original 1960s television series Star Trek. Those 79 episodes spawned a decades-long influential cultural franchise and phenomenon.

The crowd loudly cheered when Shatner appeared at 10:50 a.m. in an area by the food court cordoned off for his appearance that was arranged by Prime Time Sports and Framing of Kent. Fans, several arriving in wheelchairs, brought Star Trek uniforms, promotional pictures from the TV series and Star Trek films, a model of the U.S.S. Enterprise and sketches to be marked with his coveted signature.

Related: 'Star Trek' legend William Shatner to appear at Hartville MarketPlace

The cost of each autograph or picture with him was $149. If you wanted both, the cost was $275. For him to write three words or less with the autograph cost $79 more. Several also paid $100 for a VIP pass to skip the line.

Shatner could be seen for the next 74 minutes signing autographs, smiling and engaging in light banter with fans. After everyone who had paid for an autograph had been served, he got onto a scooter with balloons tied to it and going nowhere close to as fast as warp speed went to All Star Sports Gallery.

Someone wearing an elaborate costume as Bumblebee the Transformer led the procession. Then, Shatner switched from the scooter to sitting on a stool to take pictures with people, with the line of those waiting for pictures stretching back to the food court area.

Dave Bell, 74, of Lake Township, who watches the classic Star Trek episodes every night, said he wasn't willing to pay $149 for an autograph. But he came to Hartville Marketplace to get a glimpse and picture of Shatner.

"I'm a Trekkie. But this is ridiculous," Bell said about the crowd. "I'm not surprised. He's a very popular guy."

Jann Henthorn drove an hour from Orrville to see the man who played the beloved Star Trek captain.

"Is William Shatner here?" she said as she tried to spot him through the autograph seekers blocking her view. "I see him! ... All of us baby boomers are all excited!"

Henthorn recalled watching Star Trek when it first aired in the 1960s long before it achieved massive cult status in syndication.

"He looks good," she said about Shatner.

Cassedy Brennan, 28, of Wadsworth stood by one of the barricades snapping pictures of Shatner. Her father, a big Star Trek fan, was in line waiting for an autograph on a poster.

"He is like a kid in a candy store today. He is so excited. It's like Star Wars, Star Trek paraphernalia in the basement. ... Unopen toys. This is his jam," she said. "I think it's cool. Not exactly my thing. But here to support my dad. It's cool to see, too."

Brennan was one of the few people in their 20s in the crowd.

"I probably wouldn't know William Shatner out of context if it weren't for my dad," she said, adding that she saw classic Star Trek episodes with her father. "There's probably some millennials that are fans. But I'm not a sci-fi kind of girl."

Michael Rothman, 38, of Lake Township said Shatner autographed his set of Star Trek DVDs.

He said the actor said to him, "'Thank you very much.' That's all he said."

His wife Shandi Rothman clarified that, "He (also) said, 'Pleasure to see you.'"

Stacy Klotz of Massillon got Shatner to autograph her Captain James T. Kirk poster. She considered the $149 cost a "once in a lifetime type of thing." A sci-fi fan, she first started seeing Star Trek in syndication in the late 1970s.

Matt Merew, 56, of Zanesville got Shatner to sign his model of the Enterprise and his picture depicting the scene where Captain Kirk fights an alien captain known as a Gorn. The picture already had the autograph of the actor who played the Gorn that Merew got at a past Star Trek convention.

Cameron Blakey, 46, of Mogadore, who watched Star Trek in the 1980s with his uncle and mother, got Shatner to autograph his sketch of Captain Kirk that Blakey drew.

"He asked me how I was. And he asked me if I drew this. I told him I did. And I told him that we basically thank you for everything and he made my day," he said. "He made my life. Awesome, awesome experience!"

Karen Isaiah of Mogadore said she watched the original Star Trek in 1967.

"I'm ecstatic. I didn't want to miss him for anything," she said. "I met (singer) Johnny Mathis. I talked to William Shatner. My life is complete."

Reach Robert at [email protected]. X formerly Twitter: @rwangREP.

Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery’s biggest time travel shock is season 1 burnham.

Captain Michael Burnham faced her younger self in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, and it was shocking how much Michael has changed from season 1.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 4 - "Face The Strange"

• Specialist Michael Burnham's shocking return in Star Trek: Discovery season 5 reveals a stark contrast to her future self, Captain Burnham.
• The time travel adventure in Discovery season 5, episode 4 sends Captain Burnham and crew on a dangerous mission to face their past and possible future.
• Captain Burnham's evolution into a compassionate leader highlights her remarkable transformation, making her the most evolved Captain in Star Trek history.

The biggest shock of Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4's time travel was seeing Specialist Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) from Star Trek: Discovery season 1 again, and how much Michael has changed. Written by Sean Cochran and directed by Lee Rose, Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange," was a thrilling time travel adventure that sent Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), and Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) into key moments of the USS Discovery's past and possible future. And what Burnham dreaded came to pass: facing her younger self.

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange," the villainous Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) smuggled a Krenim Chronophage, or a Time Bug, aboard the USS Discovery. The Time Bug trapped Discovery in a series of loops, sending the starship uncontrollably hurtling through time. However, Captain Burnham and Commander Rayner were able to operate independently in the time loops, and Stamets was also spared because his tardigrade DNA allows him to live outside of space-time. The Discovery trio went about destroying the Time Bug, but Burnham had to reveal herself to Discovery's bridge crew to save the ship. Further, Michael had to literally contend with herself from Star Trek: Discovery season 1.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

Why michael burnham was shockingly different in star trek: discovery season 1, discovery season 1 michael was defined by her biggest mistake..

Captain Burnham confronting Specialist Michael Burnham from Star Trek: Discovery season 1 was as shocking for her as it was for the viewers at home. The contrast between both Michaels, who were 5 years of age and 935 years apart after the USS Discovery time traveled to the 32nd century, was stunning. Captain Burnham is physically different from Specialist Burnham, not just because her hair is longer, and she wears a Starfleet Captain's uniform. There is a warmth and compassion to Captain Burnham that is absent from her younger self , who was just weeks removed from the biggest mistake of her life.

Specialist Michael Burnham thought Captain Burnham was a changeling imposter, as she couldn't fathom herself as a Starfleet Captain.

At the point in Star Trek: Discovery season 1 that Captain Burnham arrived at, Specialist Michael Burnham was still mired in guilt and sorrow for her mutiny that ignited the Klingon War and led to the death of her mentor, Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh). Michael was resigned to spend the rest of her life in prison, and Discovery season 1's Burnham does not believe she deserves to be in Starfleet. The younger Michael's appearance is harsher than Captain Burnham's , and she is more prone to judgment and not looking before leaping into action. Captain Burnham beat Specialist Burnham in hand-to-hand combat because she was more centered and in control of herself, but also filled with empathy for the younger Michael.

Michael Burnham Is Star Trek's Best Captain Evolution

No captain has changed for the better as much as burnham..

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4 is a powerful reminder that Michael Burnham is the most evolved Captain ever in Star Trek . By comparison to some of her peers, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) did not change very much as he aged, except for facing his own regrets. Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) in Star Trek: Prodigy is essentially the same as when she was the USS Voyager's Captain, just with a higher rank. Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) isn't as stern as he was when he was Captain of the USS Enterprise-D, but Jean-Luc never had to overcome the obstacles to the Captain's chair that Michael Burnham did.

It was incredibly touching for Michael to see how much she changed for the better.

Seeing Star Trek: Discovery season 1's Specialist Michael Burnham again is a stark reminder of how far Burnham has come. By Star Trek: Discovery season 5, Captain Burnham is confidently at peace with herself, has reconciled her gravest mistakes, and has proven her worth by saving the galaxy multiple times. Burnham has also known true love with Cleveland Booker (David Ajala), and she has the friendship and support of her found family, the crew of the USS Discovery. Specialist Michael Burnham is only at the start of her long, hard road to redemption , and becoming Captain Michael Burnham is her destiny in Star Trek: Discovery. It was incredibly touching for Michael to see how much she has changed for the better.

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 stream Thursdays on Paramount+

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He missed a chance to be the first Black astronaut. Now, at 90, he's going into space

Scott Neuman

Ed Dwight poses for a portrait in February to promote the National Geographic documentary film The Space Race during the Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP hide caption

Ed Dwight poses for a portrait in February to promote the National Geographic documentary film The Space Race during the Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif.

Edward J. Dwight Jr. has waited a long time for his ride into space.

In the 1960s, he seemed poised to become America's first Black astronaut. That dream was never realized. Now, at age 90, he's about to finally get his shot, aboard a Blue Origin rocket.

The opportunity is "a curiosity more than anything else," Dwight says. "They called me up and asked me if I was interested. And of course I said yes."

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While Dwight won't be the first African American in space — that honor went to Guion Bluford Jr. in 1983 — he will be the oldest person to go there, edging out (by a few months) Star Trek actor William Shatner , who flew aboard a Blue Origin rocket in 2021.

For many his age, a journey into space would seem unthinkable. Dwight says he's ready to go. He points out that the rigors of his upcoming flight won't be much different from what he experienced as a test pilot in the Air Force. "I've pulled more G's than any person on Earth," he says with a wry smile. "I've been high enough to see the curvature of the Earth. ... I've been doing things like that most of my life."

Space health expert Dorit Donoviel says the 11-minute flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket means many of the concerns about the long-term effects of orbital and deep-space missions won't come into play.

"The main thing we worry about is the G forces," says Donoviel, director of the Translational Research Institute for Space Health at Baylor College of Medicine.

Air Force Capt. Edward J. Dwight Jr., the first African American selected as a potential astronaut, looks over a model of the Titan III-X-20 Dyna-Soar combination during a visit to Air Force headquarters in the capital in November 1963. Getty Images/Bettman Archive hide caption

Air Force Capt. Edward J. Dwight Jr., the first African American selected as a potential astronaut, looks over a model of the Titan III-X-20 Dyna-Soar combination during a visit to Air Force headquarters in the capital in November 1963.

Those G forces cause blood to drain from the head, and that's an issue for anyone launching into space, regardless of age. However, she points out that the seats aboard Blue Origin's rocket are angled at 20 or 30 degrees. "As you're experiencing the G-forces, you're getting it through the chest, which is not affecting your head," Donoviel says. "It's distributed through the chest, which really shouldn't matter very much."

And then there's the landing. The crew capsule will separate from the booster and come down under a set of parachutes — emitting a last-minute retro thrust to reduce speed to about 2 miles per hour to cushion the impact. "It's not even a controlled crash. It's a crash," Donoviel says. Still, she anticipates no issues.

No launch date set

Blue Origin has not announced a launch date yet. But Dwight and his crewmates will train for two days before liftoff at the company's Launch Site One in western Texas, not far from the Mexico border.

The company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, declined to disclose the per-passenger cost of the flight, but says Dwight's seat is being sponsored by Space for Humanity and Blue Origin, with additional support from the Jaison and Jamie Robinson Family Foundation . (Jaison Robinson, who flew on a previous Blue Origin flight, is on the NPR Foundation Board of Trustees.)

Leland Melvin, a retired NASA astronaut who flew two space shuttle missions to the International Space Station, says it will be good to see Dwight finally "get his due" all these years after he first trained for space.

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Dwight sees his upcoming spaceflight as the "climax to an interesting story."

His own story, that is. One of the earliest chapters begins at an airfield in Kansas City, Kan. As a child, Dwight's fascination with aviation led to odd jobs cleaning aircraft owned by wealthy flyers. But even then, he had greater ambitions. "I told them I didn't want their nickels and dimes for cleaning airplanes anymore," he says. "I wanted to fly." At age 8, he got his first flight.

Dwight was equally interested in art and earned a scholarship to pursue his passion after high school. His father would have none of it. Art wasn't a real career, he insisted. Dwight should study engineering instead, so he enrolled at a junior college, receiving an associate's degree in 1953, the same year he enlisted in the Air Force.

After finishing primary flight training, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. Dwight also got a bachelor's of science in aeronautical engineering from Arizona State University. Discrimination was an ever-present reality in the armed forces at the time, but as a skilled pilot, he made captain.

Kennedy wanted a Black astronaut

That's when President John F. Kennedy — eager to link his administration's push for civil rights to the country's early space exploration efforts — asked for a Black astronaut.

At the time, it was test pilots who became astronauts, and there were no Black test pilots. So, Dwight was invited to attend the Air Force's newly opened Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS).

But when he got the invitation letter, he almost threw it out, Dwight recalls. His Air Force peers "got a big laugh out of it," telling him that "all those guys have swagger, and it's a club," he said, referring to the all-white astronaut corps. They said, "They are not going to let you get in that club."

"And, of course, they were right," he says.

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It was a huge career gamble. Dwight's father, who played baseball in the Negro Leagues, was strongly opposed. His mother, though, changed her son's mind. "She said, 'You are going to do this' because she was thinking it would be uplifting the race and racial pride," he says.

Upon entering the flight-test program, Dwight experienced immediate pushback that he says was rooted in racism. He says Chuck Yeager, the famed test pilot who ran the school, resented having to accept a Black candidate. (Yeager, who died in 2020, wrote in his memoir that his only issue was Dwight's piloting skills, which he described as "average.")

Once on the astronaut track, Dwight became a minor celebrity, especially in the Black community. He appeared on the cover of magazines such as Ebony and Jet . But he also endured taunts of "Kennedy's boy" because of the president's support.

Kennedy's 1963 assassination nearly derailed Dwight's training, he says. Days after the president's death, "Lo and behold, I had orders in my mailbox shipping me out of the country," he says.

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president's brother, intervened to keep him in the program, according to Dwight. He stayed in the Air Force for a few more years, but it became increasingly clear that he would not be selected as an astronaut. "When I found out it wasn't going to happen, that's when I left the program," he says. "I just packed my bags and left."

One of Ed Dwight's sculptures in Battle Creek, Mich., depicts escaped slaves along the Underground Railroad being led to freedom by Harriet Tubman and local abolitionist Erastus Hussey. Carlos Osorio/AP hide caption

One of Ed Dwight's sculptures in Battle Creek, Mich., depicts escaped slaves along the Underground Railroad being led to freedom by Harriet Tubman and local abolitionist Erastus Hussey.

After the Air Force, Dwight, who eventually settled in Denver, became a computer systems engineer for IBM, later opened a restaurant and worked as a real estate developer before being drawn back to his childhood love of art . Despite having little formal training, he was commissioned in 1974 to create a sculpture of Colorado's first Black lieutenant governor, George Brown.

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From there, his reputation as a sculptor blossomed. In 1977, he earned a master's of fine art in sculpture from the University of Denver. He specializes in sculpting historic African American figures. Among his more notable pieces are busts of jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie and one of Louis Armstrong on display at the National Museum of American History.

Melvin, who is African American, says when he met Dwight, he didn't know much about his backstory. "I got a copy of his book and I read some of the stuff that he had done," he says. "He reminded me of Katherine Johnson ," the NASA mathematician who led an all-woman group of "computers," who made vital orbital calculations for the agency's early crewed spaceflights. Their story was later featured in Hidden Figures, the book and 2016 film.

Dwight and Melvin became close friends. In recent months, they have worked together on The Space Race , a documentary released last year about the contributions and experiences of Black astronauts. Dwight's own story is prominent in the film.

NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Leland Melvin pose with Ed Dwight for a portrait to promote The Space Race in February at The Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, Calif. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP hide caption

NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Leland Melvin pose with Ed Dwight for a portrait to promote The Space Race in February at The Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, Calif.

"He's not only funny, he's self-deprecating," Melvin says of Dwight. And one quality stands out. "He's got grit."

"But the other thing that his mother taught him was grace," he says. So, when being an astronaut didn't work all those years ago, "he gracefully pivoted to doing something else. It was just as impactful — just as impactful, especially in the Black community, which was his sculpture."

"He will now get his chance to do some zero-G floating and look at the planet from another vantage point," Melvin says.

Correction April 25, 2024

An earlier version of this story omitted Blue Origin as a sponsor of the flight that will take Edward J. Dwight Jr. into space.

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