William Shatner

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William Shatner

Shatner at the Star Trek Italian Club 2005 Convention
Born March 22, 1931 (age 76)
Flag of Canada Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Other name(s) Bill Shatner
Years active 1950-present
Spouse(s) Elizabeth Anderson Martin (2001 - present)
Nerine Kidd (1997-1999)
Marcy Lafferty (1973-1994)
Gloria Rand (1956-1969)
Official site www.WilliamShatner.com
Notable roles James T. Kirk in Star Trek
T.J. Hooker in T.J. Hooker
Denny Crane in
The Practice and Boston Legal
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Supporting Actor - Drama Series
2005 Boston Legal
Outstanding Guest Actor - Drama Series
2004 The Practice

William Shatner (b. March 22, 1931) is an Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning Canadian actor, who gained fame 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 a series of books chronicling his experiences playing James T. Kirk and being a part of Star Trek. He also played the title role as veteran police sergeant T.J. Hooker, from 1982 to 1986, on both ABC and CBS networks.

He has since worked as a musician, bestselling author, producer, director, and celebrity pitchman, most notably for Priceline.com, DirecTV and Kellogg's All-Bran. He currently co-stars as attorney Denny Crane on the television drama Boston Legal, for which he has won an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Shatner was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to Joseph Shatner and Anna Garmaise, both immigrants of Ukrainian Jewish descent. His paternal grandfather, Wolf Schattner, changed the family name.[1]

He attended Willingdon Elementary School, West Hill High School in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in Montreal, Quebec, and earned in 1952 a Bachelor's degree in commerce from Montreal's McGill University (the Student Union building of which was renamed The Shatner Building in 1989 following a referendum by the Student Union; although used by many students, the name is not officially recognized by the university, which still refers to the building as Student Union Building).

Trained as a classical Shakespearean actor, he performed at the Shakespearean Stratford Festival of Canada in Stratford, Ontario— in later years generations of Canadian high school students were startled to see[citation needed] photos of William Shatner (as well as actor Lorne Greene) in their Shakespeare texts playing a wide range of Shakespearean roles at the Stratford Festival.

In 1954 he was cast as "Ranger Bill" on the Canadian version of the Howdy Doody Show.

Shatner in The Twilight Zone: "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"
Shatner in The Twilight Zone: "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"

Though his official movie debut was in the 1951 Canadian film entitled The Butler's Night Off, Shatner's first feature role came in the 1958 MGM film The Brothers Karamazov with Yul Brynner, in which he starred as the youngest of the Karamazov brothers, Alexei. In 1959, he received decent reviews when he took on the role of Robert Lomax in the Broadway production of The World of Suzie Wong.

In 1962 he starred in Roger Corman's award-winning movie The Intruder. He also appeared in the Stanley Kramer film Judgment at Nuremberg and two episodes of the acclaimed science fiction anthology series The Twilight Zone. Shatner guest-starred in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in an episode that also featured Leonard Nimoy, with whom Shatner later would be paired in Star Trek. Shatner also starred in the 1965 Gothic horror film Incubus, the second feature-length movie ever made with all dialogue spoken in the constructed language Esperanto.

[edit] 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 was subsequently contracted to play 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 reprise the role of Kirk for Star Trek: Phase II, a follow-up series chronicling 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.

William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk

Shatner is notable for having participated in the first interracial kiss televised in the U.S., with Nichelle Nichols, in the 1968 Star Trek episode "Plato's Stepchildren." The scene provoked controversy and was seen as groundbreaking, even though the kiss was portrayed as having been forced by telekinesis. The episode was not telecast in some Southern cities for fear of protest in those states; nevertheless most viewer reaction was positive. Shatner has claimed in his memoirs that no one on the set felt the kiss to be very important until a network executive raised fears of a Southern boycott, and the kiss was almost written out of the script. Gene Roddenberry supposedly made a deal, that the scene would be shot with the kiss, and with a cut-away shot which merely implied a kiss, and then a decision would be made on which to use. The footage of the actual kiss was eventually used. Some cast members have written that this was because Shatner deliberately ruined the take for the implied-kiss footage by looking into the camera and crossing his eyes to force the real kiss to be used.[2][citation needed]

For years Shatner was accused of being difficult to work with by some of his Star Trek co-stars, most notably George Takei and James Doohan, both of whom openly professed that they despised Shatner for being an arrogant, egotistical, line-stealing showboater who tried to keep his co-stars in the background.[3][citation needed] In the 2004 Star Trek DVD sets, Takei seemed to have buried the hatchet with Shatner, but the gulf between Shatner and Doohan was more difficult. In the 1990s, Shatner made numerous attempts to patch things up with Doohan, but was unsuccessful for some time; however, an Associated Press article published at the time of Doohan's final convention appearance in late August 2004 stated that Doohan had forgiven Shatner and they had mended their relationship.

Between 1979 and 1991, William Shatner played Captain Kirk in the first six Star Trek films, and directed the fifth. In 1994, he returned to the role of Captain Kirk in Star Trek Generations—his character's final appearance in the movie series. 1997 marked his final appearance as Captain Kirk in the movie sequences of Starfleet Academy, although he recently reprised this role briefly for a Trek-parody DirecTV advertisement which began airing in late summer 2006.

In the summer of 2004, rumors circulated that the producers of Star Trek: Enterprise were considering bringing William Shatner back into the Trek fold. Reports in the media indicated that the idea was 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. Shortly thereafter, Enterprise was cancelled, likely ending all hope that Shatner would return to Star Trek.

[edit] Post-Star Trek career

Shatner had a long dry spell in the decade between the original Star Trek series and the first Trek film, which he believes was due to his being typecast as Captain Kirk, making it difficult to find other work. Moreover, his wife Gloria Rand left him. With very little money and acting prospects, he lived in a truck bed camper in the San Fernando Valley until acting bit-parts turned into higher paying roles. Shatner refers to this part of his life as "that period," a humbling one in which he would take any odd job, including small party appearances, to support his family. Perhaps the nadir was his role in Big Bad Mama, prized by Shatnerites for his saucy nude scene with Angie Dickinson. He did however land a starring role in the western-themed secret agent series Barbary Coast during 1975 and 1976, as well as a major role in the horror film The Devil's Rain. He also made guest appearances on many 1970s television series such as The Six Million Dollar Man, Columbo, The Rookies, and Mission: Impossible. 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 loyal fans of the series. Its success re-established Shatner as an actor, and Captain Kirk–now promoted to Admiral–as a cult icon.

While continuing to film the successful series of Star Trek movies, he returned to television in the 1980s, starring as a police officer in the T.J. Hooker series from 1982 to 1986. He then hosted the popular dramatic reenactment series Rescue 911 from 1989 to 1996. During the 1980s, Shatner also began dabbling in film and television directing, directing numerous episodes of T.J. Hooker and the feature film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

William Shatner's star on the Canadian Walk of Fame.
William Shatner's star on the Canadian Walk of Fame.

As the unwilling central 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 (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 film's two lead characters.

Shatner has enjoyed success with a series of science fiction novels. The first—published in 1990—was TekWar. This popular series of books led to a Marvel Comics series, to a number of television movies, in which Shatner played a role, and to a short-lived television series in which Shatner made several appearances; he also directed some episodes. 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 National Public Radio, written and directed by Norman Corwin.

Shatner was cast as "The Big Giant Head," a womanizing party-animal and high-ranking officer from the same alien planet as the show's protagonists in several episodes of the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun. The role earned Shatner a nomination for an Emmy.

In 2003, Shatner appeared in Brad Paisley's Celebrity country music video along with Little Jimmy Dickens, Jason Alexander, and Trista Rehn.

William Shatner as Denny Crane in Boston Legal
William Shatner as Denny Crane in Boston Legal

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, an Emmy in 2005 and nominated again in 2006. With the 2005 Emmy win, Shatner became one of the few actors along with co-star James Spader as Alan Shore, to win an Emmy award while playing the same character in two different series. Even rarer, Shatner and Spader each won a second consecutive Emmy while playing the same character in two different series.

In 2005, Shatner executive-produced and starred in the Spike TV reality miniseries Invasion Iowa.

On October 19, 2005, while working on the set of Boston Legal, Shatner was taken to the emergency room for lower back pain. He eventually passed a kidney stone, but recovered and soon returned to work.

In 2006 Shatner sold his kidney stone for US$75,000 to GoldenPalace.com.[4] In an appearance on The View on Tuesday, May 16, 2006, Shatner said US$75,000, with an additional US$20,000 raised from the cast and crew of Boston Legal, paid for the building of a house by Habitat for Humanity.

Shatner also plays on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games. He plays for the Wells Fargo Hollywood Charity Horse Show. Shatner has appeared in priceline.com commercials both online and on TV.

Shatner is also the CEO of the Toronto, Ontario-based C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, which provided the special effects for the 1996 film Fly Away Home.

On August 20, 2006, William Shatner was featured on Comedy Central's Roast of William Shatner. Jason Alexander acted as roastmaster with (in alphabetical order) Andy Dick, Farrah Fawcett, Greg Giraldo, Lisa Lampanelli, Artie Lange, Nichelle Nichols, Patton Oswalt, Kevin Pollak, Jeffrey Ross, George Takei, Betty White, and Fred Willard performing the roasting duties. Special, pre-taped, guest appearances were made by Leonard Nimoy, Sandra Bullock, Ben Stiller, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Kimmel, and Clint Howard.

In October 2006, Shatner accepted to host the new ABC game show Show Me the Money, which began in November 2006. The show was cancelled in December 2006 due to low ratings. Shatner continues to co-star on Boston Legal.

On March 22, 2007, Shatner was announced as the inductor of legendary professional wrestler/broadcaster Jerry "The King" Lawler at the 2007 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony, set to occur on March 31, 2007 at the Fox Theater in Detroit, Michigan. Shatner was chosen because of a memorable 1995 appearence on WWF Monday Night Raw in which Shatner, promoting the TekWar TV series, pushed Lawler to the ring canvas during an interview segment. Shatner later managed fellow Canadian Bret "Hit Man" Hart in a match against Jeff Jarrett, managed by Lawler. [5]

[edit] Family and other ventures

William Shatner has been married four times; to Gloria Rand from 1956 to 1969, Marcy Lafferty from 1973 to 1994, Nerine Kidd from 1997 to 1999, and his current wife Elizabeth Martin whom he married in 2001. Shatner has three daughters, Leslie Carol (b. 1958), Lisabeth Mary (b. 1960), and Melanie (b. 1964), from his marriage to Rand. Melanie had a brief career as actress and is now the proprietor of Dari, an upscale women's clothing boutique. She is married to actor Joel Gretsch.

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.

[edit] Death of Nerine Shatner

On August 9, 1999, Shatner returned home around 10 p.m. to discover the body of his wife Nerine at the bottom of their back yard swimming pool. Alcohol and Valium were detected in an autopsy, and a coroner ruled the death an accidental drowning. The LAPD ruled out foul play and the case has been long closed. Speaking to the press shortly after his wife's death, a clearly shaken Shatner said that she "meant everything" to him and he called her his "beautiful soulmate."[citation needed]

In 2000 a Reuters story reported that Shatner was planning to write and direct The Shiva Club, a dark comedy about the grieving process inspired by his wife's death. The project is still in production.[citation needed]

Shatner's 2004 album "Has Been" produced with Ben Folds included a spoken word piece titled "What Have You Done" which describes his anguish upon discovering his wife's body in the pool.

[edit] Musical tangents

Main article: William Shatner's musical career

William Shatner has had a much-mocked musical career, starting with the 1968 album The Transformed Man. Delivered against MOR orchestral backings with the odd "psychedelic" flourish, his exaggerated, interpretive recitations of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" became instant camp classics. Shatner would eventually parody his own musical style several times in the 1990s, including during an episode of Futurama, in which he performed a spoken word version of the rap hit song "The Real Slim Shady."

Shatner performed a reading of the Elton John song "Rocket Man," during the Science Fiction Film Awards, televised in 1978. Dressed in tuxedo ruffles with a hand-rolled cigarette in hand, he spoke with Kirk-like delivery against a synthesizer-laden backdrop of the song. This was later imitated by Stewie Griffin on the Family Guy episode And The Wiener Is...

Shatner provided vocals for "In Love" by Ben Folds on his Fear of Pop album. He would later provide vocals for an alternate version of Folds' song "Rockin' the Suburbs" which was contributed to the Over the Hedge soundtrack in 2006. A creative friendship blossomed that led to Folds producing and co-writing Shatner's well-received second studio album, Has Been, in 2004. The album centers around Shatner's often melancholy and regretful autobiographical ruminations, and features a number of prestigious guest artists such as Aimee Mann, Lemon Jelly, Henry Rollins, Brad Paisley and Joe Jackson. Has Been features the single "Common People", a cover version of the song by Pulp.

He appears on the piece "'64 - Go" by Lemon Jelly, featured on their CD entitled '64 - '95, and in Brad Paisley's music video for "Celebrity." Shatner also appears as a studio producer in the music video for "Landed" by Ben Folds.

[edit] Friendship with Leonard Nimoy

Shatner and Leonard Nimoy have been best friends since 1964, when they met as guest stars in "The Project Strigas Affair" episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E..

The two subsequently worked together on Star Trek: The Original Series (1966 - 1969), Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974), and the first six Star Trek motion pictures.

Also, in 1974 Nimoy and Shatner made cameo appearances as Spock and Kirk on The $10,000 Pyramid with Dick Clark.

Nimoy guest-starred in Shatner's T.J. Hooker and in one of Shatner's recent series of Priceline.com television ads. In March 2003, he also attended the First Annual TV Land Awards with him, which was hosted by John Ritter. In August 2006, Nimoy also made a phone call to his friend as part of Comedy Central's roast of William Shatner.

The two appeared on-stage together for the Star Trek 40th anniversary celebration at FanExpo 2006 in Toronto, Canada.

They also voiced Kirk and Spock in the same Futurama episode, titled Where No Fan Has Gone Before, at the same time - this is very unusual as voice actors tend to voice their characters separately with the audio then sent to a team dedicated to mixing the audio and video together.

[edit] Facts and figures

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.
  • Like his Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner is also a vegetarian.[6]
  • Both Shatner and Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy are of the same ethnicity, Ashkenazi Jews of Ukrainian descent.
  • Shatner and Nimoy share the same birth-month and year, separated by only 4 days. Shatner's birthday is March 22, 1931 and Nimoy's birthday is March 26, 1931.
  • The two men also both suffer from chronic tinnitus after getting too close to an exploding special effect while working on Star Trek in the episode "Arena." Shatner's was almost debilitating but has been mitigated by retraining therapy.[7]
  • Shatner appeared with Leonard Nimoy in a famous advertising campaign for Western Airlines. They would reteam for Priceline.com's advertising campaign.
  • Shatner appeared in two episodes of the television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
  • Shatner has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (for Television work) at 6901 Hollywood Blvd. He also has a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame.
  • Like many Anglophones born in the largely French-speaking province of Québec, Shatner speaks French.
  • Shatner has been a commander in Celebrity Paintball scenario games to raise money for charity.
  • Shatner has starred in a series of Kellogg's All-Bran cereal commercials in the UK and Canada.[8]
  • Shatner created Invasion Iowa, a fake movie shot for a reality tv series on SpikeTV.
  • When James Doohan died on July 20, 2005, Shatner became the oldest living male Star Trek cast member at age 74, four days older than Leonard Nimoy (at that time, Nichelle Nichols was 72, and both George Takei and Walter Koenig were 68). Grace Lee Whitney, born on April 1, 1930, is the oldest living cast member.
  • During separate appearances on the Howard Stern Show, Takei and Doohan both acknowledged despising Shatner; on the January 10, 2006 Stern show, Takei referred to Shatner as a "prima donna".
  • When Shatner was a cast member of The Howdy Doody Show in the United States in the 1950s, James Doohan was a cast member of the Canadian version of the show.
  • Shatner has also made multiple appearances on the Howard Stern Show, including a visit to the fictional "homo room" with Howard, and a visit from a seemingly obsessive Star Trek fan. Shatner consistently was a good sport during these appearances.[citation needed]
  • He provided a voice over for a character in the 2006 film Over the Hedge alongside Avril Lavigne, Steve Carell, and Bruce Willis.
  • Entrepreneur Richard Branson, head of the space tourism company Virgin Galactic, offered William Shatner a free ride into space on the inaugural space launch of the VSS Enterprise scheduled for 2008, saving Shatner US$200,000; however, Shatner turned it down, and said, "I do want to go up but I need guarantees I'll definitely come back."[9]
  • Shatner was an occasional celebrity guest on The $20,000 Pyramid in the 1970s, once appearing opposite Nimoy in a matchup billed as "Kirk vs. Spock". His appearances became far less frequent after a 1977 appearance, in which, after giving an illegal clue which deprived the contestant of a big money win, he threw his chair out of the Winner's Circle.[10]
  • In the 3rd Rock From The Sun episode "Frozen Dick", John Lithgow's character has a panic attack after seeing something on the wing of an aircraft. This is an allusion to a scene played by Lithgow in Twilight Zone: The Movie, which itself is an updated version of an original The Twilight Zone episode, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, in which the same role was played by William Shatner. In the later 3rd Rock episode "Dick's Big Giant Headache", Shatner, playing the Big Giant Head, mentions to Dick that he saw something on the wing of his plane, and Lithgow exclaims, "The same thing happened to me!".
  • Shatner sponsored a short-lived Science Fiction DVD Club in conjunction with FullTurn Media. The club existed for approximately one year (2006), after which FullTurn dissolved the club because, "his partners cannot continue to provide these movies at the current low prices."[12][citation needed]
  • Shatner briefly reprised his role as James T. Kirk for a recent 2006 DirecTV advertisement featuring footage from Star Trek VI.
  • He is Joel Gretsch's father-in-law; Gretsch is married with Shatner's daughter, Melanie Shatner and father of his two grandaughters, Kaya and Willow.
  • Shatner was a frequent guest on Mancow's Morning Madhouse, an FM Morning Radio show that was once based out of Chicago, Illinois. Mancow and Shatner once hosted a charity paintball event.

[edit] References in popular culture

  • The student society building at Montreal's McGill University was unofficially named after William Shatner after a student referendum, and contains a ceiling mounted sign in the lobby bearing his name. The University administrators have never officially accepted this name; the building is officially called University Centre.
  • In the horror movie Halloween, Michael Myers wears a William Shatner mask that is painted white.
  • In episode #166 of the TV sitcom Night Court, the bald bailiff Bull wins a free toupee, and selects the super-advanced "Shatner Turbo 2000" model, which is virtually indestructible and causes the wearer to immediately become popular with women.
  • In the satirical TV series Brass Eye, the fictional drug 'Cake' is said to affect an area of the brain known as Shatner's Bassoon.
  • The song "eBay" by "Weird Al" Yankovic includes the lyrics:
Tell me why (I need another pet rock)
Tell me why (I got that Alf alarm clock)
Tell me why (I bid on Shatner's old toupee)
They had it on eBay
  • In an episode made prior to Shatner's appearance on 3rd Rock from the Sun, Dick tries to appear slimmer by wearing a girdle dubbed the "Shatner".
  • Jim Carrey impersonated Shatner as Kirk in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.
  • In the film Stay Tuned, John Ritter's character is transported into a demonic version of Star Trek: The Next Generation, where he assumes the likeness of Patrick Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard character. When "escaping" the show, he exclaims "Holy Shatner!"
  • An episode of Family Guy features Stewie Griffin singing "Rocket Man" a la Shatner, complete with replicated camera angles and dissolves.
  • The character of Zapp Brannigan in the TV series Futurama was conceived as a mixture of both Shatner and Kirk, with Brannigan frequently exhibiting character traits associated with both. On the DVD commentary of Zapp's first appearance, the creators describe him as being "40% Kirk, 60% Shatner", and that the initial premise for the character was "What if the real William Shatner was the captain of the Enterprise instead of Kirk." Shatner himself - along with most of the rest of the surviving Star Trek cast - would appear in an episode during the series' fourth season. In a later episode the character Calculon exclaims "Great Shatner's Ghost!".
  • Tim Allen's role as Commander Peter Quincy Taggart/Jason Nesmith in Galaxy Quest was inspired by Shatner and his relationship with his fellow Star Trek stars. Allen's role is an almost perfect analogue of James T. Kirk/William Shatner; Taggart has a reputation for taking off his shirt at the flimsiest excuse, rolling on the ground during combat, and making pithy speeches at the drop of a hat, while Nesmith is an egomaniac who regards himself as the core of Galaxy Quest, and tells fans to 'get a life'.
  • "William Shatner" is the title for songs by The Wedding Present, The Bodines and The Scofflaws.
  • In the animated series Freakazoid!, William Shatner appears in the episode The Nerdator. As the audience suddenly dematerializes, he says, "Funny. They. usually don't do that. Til AFTER. I sing Rocket Man." Then his toupee flies off his head and coos like a tribble.
  • In the movie Fight Club, when asked by Brad Pitt which celebrity he would fight if he could, Edward Norton's character says, "Shatner. I'd fight William Shatner."[13]
  • In the Simpsons episode Treehouse of Horror X, Desperately Xeeking Xena, The Collector brings out what he describes as "The only working phaser ever made. It was only fired once, to stop William Shatner from making another album".
  • An episode of Robot Chicken contains a segment portraying the secret life of Shatner's toupee as a government agent action hero.

[edit] Memorable quotes

"I'm not a Starfleet commander, or T. J. Hooker. I don't live on Starship NCC-170... (some audience members say "1"), or own a phaser. I don't know anybody named Bones, Sulu, or Spock (picture of Dr. Benjamin Spock is shown on screen behind him). And no, I've never had green alien sex, but I'm sure it'd 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 (nude picture of Dr. Ginsberg shown on screen). 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 I believe in Priceline.com, where you never have to pay full price for airline tickets, hotels, and car rentals! I've appeared on stage at Stratford, at Carnegie Hall, Albert Hall, and the Monkland Theatre in NDG. 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 in a parody of the popular Molson "I Am Canadian" commercial.[14]

"I've always had sort of an ironic view of life. My belief system is that when this is over, it's over. That you don't look down from heaven and wait for your loved ones to join you. There may be some soul activity, but I'm not sure about that. But what I am sure about is that your molecules continue and in due time become something else. That's science.

"And that works for me. So that if this is it, you better take it at its right proportion. That there are serious things, but most things are temporal and ephemeral, and you should cultivate that attitude. That joy and love and all the verities are what counts. So I try not to take too many things seriously, and if I find myself caught up in the seriousness of the moment, within a period of time, I'm able to cajole myself out of it."

—from the History Channel documentary How William Shatner Changed the World

"It's a question that I find like asking somebody, 'Did you have a breast implant?' or 'When did you get your lobotomy?'"[citation needed]

—when asked if he wore a hairpiece

"Man has an indomitable spirit; unfortunately, the flesh is weak. With a certain amount of toxicity running rampant through us, it’s possibly that we are now in our death throes. But let’s not forget about the indomitable spirit – it counts for a lot."[citation needed]

—when asked if he thinks there’s still hope for the future of mankind

"You know who I am?! I'm William Tiberius Shatner!"

—from the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Television

[edit] Other work

[edit] Discography

  • The Transformed Man (Decca, 1968)
  • William Shatner Live (Lemli, 1977)
  • Spaced Out: The Very Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner (Universal International, 1997)
  • Has Been (Shout! Factory, 2004)

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Fiction

  • Tek series
See TekWar

[edit] Nonfiction

[edit] References

  1. ^ William Shatner Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
  2. ^ Nichelle Nichols also claimed this to be fact in an August 2006 Comedy Central online interview, recorded the day of her participation in the network's roast of Shatner.[citation needed]
  3. ^ Taken from comments made by Takei on the Howard Stern Show, Sirius Radio Network, January 10, 2006.[citation needed]
  4. ^ William Shatner (20 Jan 2006). Getting Stoned. William Shatner. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
  5. ^ Noah Starr (22 Mar 2007). Shatner to usher in "The King". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved on 2007-03-22.
  6. ^ MasterBastard (12 Apr 2006). Vegetarian World (1982), Director: Jonathon Kay. Internet Archive. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
  7. ^ Rachel Wray; Dan May. I've Been There. American Tinnitus Association. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
  8. ^ Take the All-Bran challenge. Kelloggs. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
  9. ^ Komfie Manalo. "Star Trek's "Captain Kirk" Does Not Want To Travel To Space", All Headline News, 6 Sep 2006. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
  10. ^ Dick Clark, William Shatner. William Shatner blows $20K for a contestant (.SWF) [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
  11. ^ The Shat hits the fan. comedycentral. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
  12. ^ From an email entitled "Important Update From the Willam[sic] Shatner DVD Club" which was sent to members of the Club on January 2, 2007.[citation needed]
  13. ^ celebrity.wav. Movie Sounds Central. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
  14. ^ I Am Canadian (William Shatner). Google Video. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:


Major Cast Members of Star Trek: The Original Series
William Shatner • Leonard Nimoy • DeForest Kelley • James Doohan • Nichelle Nichols • George Takei • Walter Koenig
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/i/l/William_Shatner_9433.html"