William Shatner

William Shatner (born in Montreal, Quebec, March 22, 1931) is an actor, writer and musical performer. Shatner is most famous for his starring role as Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise in the television show Star Trek from 1966 to 1969 and in seven of the subsequent movies. Shatner has written three books chronicling his experiences playing Captain Kirk and being a part of the Star Trek franchise. He has since worked as a writer, producer, director, musician, and best-selling author. In 2008, William Shatner will become a full-fledged astronaut, as he will fly into suborbital space aboard a Virgin Galactic private spacecraft.

Contents

1 Early life 2 Star Trek career 3 Post-Star Trek career 4 Family and other ventures 5 Musical tangents 6 Trivia 7 Memorable quotes 8 Filmography 9 Television Work 10 Books 10.1 Fiction 10.2 Nonfiction 11 Albums 12 External links

Early life

Shatner attended Baron Byng High School in Montreal, Quebec, and earned a Bachelor's degree in commerce from Montreal's McGill University in 1952. Trained as a classical Shakespearean actor, he performed at the famed Shakespearean Stratford Festival of Canada in Stratford, Ontario before going to the United States to work. In 1959 he was given good reviews when he took on the role of Robert Lomax in the Broadway production of The World of Suzie Wong. His official movie debut was in the 1958 MGM film The Brothers Karamazov with Yul Brynner in which Shatner starred as the pious Russian Orthodox monk Alexei (he had earlier debuted in a 1951 Canadian film entitled The Butler's Night Off). He also appeared in the Stanley Kramer film Judgment at Nuremberg, appeared in two episodes of the acclaimed science fiction anthology series The Twilight Zone, and starred in the unusual 1965 Gothic horror film Incubus, the only movie known to have all of its dialogue spoken in Esperanto, an artificial language developed in the 1880s.

Star Trek career

William Shatner was first cast as Captain James Tiberius Kirk for the second pilot of Star Trek, entitled "Where No Man Has Gone Before". He subsequently was contracted to play Captain Kirk for the Star Trek series and held the role from 1966 to 1969. In 1973, Shatner returned to the role of Captain Kirk, albeit only in voice, in the animated Star Trek series. He was slated to assume the role of Kirk for Star Trek: Phase II, a follow-up series regarding the second five year mission of the Enterprise, but Star Trek: Phase II was cancelled in pre-production and expanded into Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Between 1979 and 1991, William Shatner played Captain Kirk in the six Star Trek films and directed the fifth one. In 1994, he returned to the role of Captain Kirk in Star Trek Generations. This was to be his character's final role as the character of Captain Kirk was killed in the film.

In the summer of 2004, rumors circulated that the producers of Star Trek: Enterprise were considering bringing William Shatner back to Star Trek. Reports in the media indicated that the idea is being given serious thought, with series producer Manny Coto indicating in Star Trek Communicator magazine's October 2004 issue that he was preparing a three-episode story arc for Shatner. Now that Enterprise has been cancelled any return to Star Trek seems even more unlikely.

Post-Star Trek career

Shatner had a long dry spell in the decade between the original Star Trek series and the Star Trek movies, which he attributes to his being typecast as Captain Kirk, making him unable to find other work. He says this period was a humbling one, as he would take any odd job, including small party appearances to support his family. In 1970, Shatner appeared as the prosecutor in a PBS television film of the Broadway play The Andersonville Trial. This was directed by George C. Scott and received excellent reviews. The dry spell ended for Shatner (and the other Star Trek cast members) when Paramount produced Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, under pressure from long loyal fans of the series. Its success re-established Shatner as an actor, and Captain Kirk as a cultural icon.

While continuing to film the successful series of Star Trek movies, he returned to television in the 1980s, starring as a uniformed police officer in the T.J. Hooker series from 1982 to 1986; this show became a popular hit. He then hosted the popular dramatic reenactment series Rescue 911 from 1989 to 1996.

As the unwilling central public figure of a widespread geek-culture of Trekkies, Shatner is often humorously critical of the sometimes "annoying" fans of Star Trek. He also has found an outlet in spoofing the cavalier, almost superhuman character persona of Captain Kirk, in films such as Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) and Saturday Night Live, in which he advised Star Trek fans to "Get a life!", repeating a popular catch-phrase. Shatner also appeared in the film Free Enterprise in 1998, in which he played himself and tried to dispel the Kirk image of himself from the view of the two lead characters

Shatner has enjoyed success with a series of "Tek" science fiction novels. The first—published in 1990—was entitled TekWar. This popular series of books led to a number of television movies, in which Shatner played a role, and to a short-lived television series. In 1995 a first-person shooter game named William Shatner's TekWar was released, and was the first game to use the Build engine.

In the 1990s Shatner appeared in several plays on American National Public Radio, written and directed by Norman Corwin.

Shatner has appeared in several episodes of the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun as The Big Giant Head, a womanizing, substance-abusing, higher-ranked officer from the same alien planet as the show's protagonists. He was nominated for an Emmy for this role.

In 2004, Shatner was cast as the eccentric but highly capable attorney Denny Crane for the final season of the legal drama The Practice, for which he was awarded an Emmy, and then its subsequent spin-off, Boston Legal, for which he won a Golden Globe in 2005.

In late 2004, Shatner has reserved a $200,000 seat to fly aboard Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise, and is expected to fly into space in 2008, along with other paying guests.

Family and other ventures

William Shatner has been married four times:

1. Gloria Rand whom he married in 1956; they divorced in 1969.
2. Marcy Lafferty whom he married in the fall of 1973; they divorced in 1994.
3. Nerine Kidd whom he married on November 15, 1997; died August 9, 1999; accidentally drowned in the couple's pool.
4. Elizabeth Martin whom he married on February 13, 2001

Shatner has three daughters: Leslie, Lisabeth, and Melanie, and a son, Daniel. Melanie is the proprietor of Dari, an upscale women's clothing boutique. She currently lives in Southern California.

In his spare time, Shatner enjoys breeding and showing American Saddlebreds and Quarter Horses. Shatner has a 360 acre (1.5 km²) horse farm in Kentucky named Bellreve where he raises the winning horses.

Shatner is also the CEO of the Toronto, Ontario-based C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures (http://www.coredp.com/) company, which provided the special effects for the 1996 film Fly Away Home.

Musical tangents

Main article: William Shatner's musical career

William Shatner has had a much-parodied musical career, starting with the 1968 album The Transformed Man. His second album Has Been, was released in 2004.

Trivia

• Shatner appeared (before Star Trek) together with Leonard Nimoy in the first season of The Man from U.N.C.L.E..
• In 1965 he starred in the Esperanto-language film Incubus.
• Shatner appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone.
• Shatner has recently been noted for his role in the Priceline.com commercials.
• William Shatner has a TV star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6901 Hollywood Blvd.
• The Student Society Building at McGill University is unofficially named after William Shatner, and contains a sign in the lobby bearing his name.
• Recently Mr. Shatner has been leading charity Paintball Scenario Games to raise money for his favorite charity, handicapped children.
• Most recently, William Shatner has starred in a series of Kellogg's All-Bran (http://www.kelloggs.co.uk/all-bran/home.html) cereal commercials in the UK and Canada.
• Shatner's latest invention has been Invasion Iowa, a fake movie being shot for a reality tv series on SpikeTV.

Memorable quotes

"I am not a Starfleet commander, or T.J. Hooker. I don't live on Starship NCC-170...[some audience members say "one"], 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. [Pomp and Circumstance begins playing] 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!"

—from a Just for Laughs appearance, it is a parody of the popular Molson Canadian Commercial entitled "I Am Canadian".

Filmography

• The Butler's Night Off (1951)
• Oedipus Rex (1957)
• The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
• City Out of Time (1959) (short subject) (narrator)
• The Explosive Generation (1961)
• Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
• The Intruder (1962)
• The Outrage (1964)
• Incubus (1965)
• White Comanche (1968)
• Big Bad Mama (1974)
• Impulse (1974)
• Land of No Return (1975)
• The Devil's Rain (1975)
• Miracles of the Gods (1976) (documentary) (narrator)
• A Whale of a Tale (1977)
• Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)
• The Third Walker (1978)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• The Kidnapping of the President (1980)
• Visiting Hours (1982)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
• Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
• Seasons (1987) (short subject) (narrator)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) (also director and writer)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
• National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)
• Star Trek: Generations (1994)
• Land of the Free (1997)
• Trekkies (1997) (documentary)
• Jefftowne (1998) (documentary)
• Free Enterprise (1998)
• Falcon Down (2000)
• Miss Congeniality (2000)
• Osmosis Jones (2001) (voice)
• Festival in Cannes (2001) (Cameo)
• Shoot or Be Shot (2002)
• Showtime (2002)
• Groom Lake (2002) (also director and writer)
• Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
• Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005)
• Over the Hedge (2006) (voice) (currently filming)
• Free Enterprise 2: My Big Fat Geek Wedding (2006) (currently in pre-production)

Television Work

• Howdy Doody (cast member in 1954)
• Billy Budd (1955)
• Tactic (1959-1960)
• Julius Caesar (1960)
• The Night of the Auk (1960)
• For the People (1965-1966)
• Star Trek (1966-1969)
• Alexander the Great (1968) (filmed in 1964)
• Shadow Game (1969)
• Sole Survivor (1970)
• The Andersonville Trial (1970)
• Vanished (1971)
• Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law (1971)
• The People (1972)
• The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972)
• Incident on a Dark Street (1973)
• Go Ask Alice (1973)
• Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973)
• Star Trek: The Animated Adventures (1973-1975) (voice)
• Pioneer Woman (1973)
• Inner Space (1974) (miniseries)
• Indict and Convict (1974)
• Pray for the Wildcats (1974)
• The Tenth Level (1975)
• Barbary Coast (1975-1976)
• Perilous Voyage (1976)
• Columbo: Fade in to Murder (1976)
• Testimony of Two Men (1977) (miniseries)
• How the West Was Won (1978) (miniseries)
• The Bastard (1978)
• Little Women (1978)
• Crash (1978)
• Riel (1979)
• Disaster on the Coastliner (1979)
• The Babysitter (1980)
• T.J. Hooker (1982-1986) (also director of multiple episodes)
• Secrets of a Married Man (1984)
• North Beach and Rawhide (1985)
• T.J. Hooker: Blood Sport (1986)
• The Trial of Standing Bear (1988) (narrator)
• Broken Angel (1988)
• Rescue 911 (1989-1996)
• Voice of the Planet (1991) (miniseries)
• Family of Strangers (1993)
• TekWar (1994) (also director and writer)
• TekWar: TekLords (1994) (also director and writer)
• TekWar: TekJustice (1994) (also director and writer)
• TekWar (1994-1996) (also director of multiple episodes, writer, and executive producer)
• Janek: The Silent Betrayal (1994)
• Prisoner of Zenda, Inc. (1996)
• Dead Man's Island (1996)
• A Twist in the Tale (1998-1999)
• The Kid (2001) (voice)
• Full Moon Fright Night (2002) (miniseries)
• A Carol Christmas (2003)
• Boston Legal (2004-present)
• Invasion Iowa (2005-present)

Books

Fiction

• Tek series

See TekWar

• Star Trek series, all with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
  • Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden, 1995, ISBN 0671520350
  • Star Trek: The Return, 1996, ISBN 0671526103
  • Star Trek: Avenger, 1997, ISBN 0671551329
  • Star Trek: Spectre, 1998, ISBN 0671008781
  • Star Trek: Dark Victory, 1999, ISBN 067100882X
  • Star Trek: Preserver, 2000, ISBN 0671021257
  • Star Trek: Captain's Peril, 2002, ISBN 0743448197
  • Star Trek: Captain's Blood, 2003, ISBN 067102129X
• War series
  • Man o' War, 1996, ISBN 0399141316
  • The Law of War, 1998, ISBN 0399143602
• Quest for Tomorrow series
  • Delta Search, 1997, ISBN 0061052744
  • In Alien Hands, 1997, ISBN 0061052752
  • Step into Chaos, 1999, ISBN 0061052760
  • Beyond the Stars, 2000, ISBN 0061051187
  • Shadow Planet, 2002, ISBN 0061051195
• Comic book adaptations
  • Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden, DC Comics graphic novel, 1995, ISBN 1563892359

Nonfiction

• Captain's Log: William Shatner's Personal Account of the Making of "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", as told by Lisabeth Shatner, 1989, ISBN 0671686526
• Star Trek Memories, with Chris Kreski, 1993, ISBN 0060177349
• Star Trek Movie Memories, with Chris Kreski, 1994, ISBN 0060176172
• Get a Life!, with Chris Kreski, 1999, ISBN 0671021311
• Star Trek: I'm Working on That: A Trek from Science Fiction to Science Fact, with Chip Walker, 2002, ISBN 067104737X

Albums

• The Transformed Man (Decca, 1968)
• William Shatner Live (Lemli, 1977)
• Has Been (Shout! Factory, 2004)[1] (http://www.shatnerhasbeen.com/)

External links

• Official website (http://www.williamshatner.com/)
• Template:Imdb name
• Template:Memoryalpha
• William Shatner Interview (http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/05/1444246&mode=nocomment) at Slashdot
• William Shatners' (http://www.fametracker.com/fame_audit/shatner_william.shtml) on Fame Tracker
• NY Times story on William Shatner's "Has Been" album with Ben Folds (http://www.brassland.org/ahb/write/shatner.html)de:William Shatner

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