WILLIAM SHATNER

Date of Birth: 1931-03-22
O Captain, my Captain.
What can be said about legendary hambone Bill Shatner that has not been said before? He is of course most famous now and forever for the role of James Tiberius Kirk on the original Star Trek series and the follow-up movies, which got increasingly cheesier (especially the one he directed, The Final Frontier.) His unique stunted delivery (Oh…My…God…Man!) and stagy acting style likely results from his theater training and Stratford Shakespeare Festival experience.
Born in Montreal March 22, 1931, he worked his way through theater and small T.V. roles, including some memorable Outer Limits and Twilight Zone episodes. The classic Zone episode Nightmare at 20,000 Feet episode, with the monster on the wing, is the one every one remembers. It was later remade in the Twilight Zone Movie with John Lithgow in the Shatner role, which may have something to do with his later part on Lithgow’s series 3rd Rock From The Sun. He did a lot of T.V. until finding the role he was born to play, Kirk on Star Trek. As the womanizing, impetuous Captain always ready to put his vessel in danger to help a shipmate, he may not have lasted long as a captain in real life, but was loved for his portrayal. The show was not all that popular when it was on, but gathered steam in re-runs until it was an unprecedented phenomenon—the first T.V. show to become more popular AFTER it was cancelled, and the first to have a large enough cult to demand a movie version. He would never get away from Kirk, and after time found it more advantageous to simply milk it.
He was in a bunch of trash movies, too. Check out the cursed Incubus, a low-budget horror flick with all the dialogue in Esperanto. Virtually everyone associated with film had death or misfortune knock on his or her door. He gives a great performance in The Intruder, an atypical Corman film where he plays a racist who drifts from southern town to southern town, inciting people to riot against integration. In Big Bad Mama, a Corman knockoff of Bonnie and Clyde, he is paired against prime time Angie Dickinson. And hey, you can’t forget The Devil’s Rain, Kingdom of The Spiders, and Impulse!
He is best known for his T.V. work, which includes starring roles in the short-lived but well-loved Barbary Coast, and series like T.J. Hooker, Rescue 911, and Iron Chef: USA!! He has appeared as a guest on almost every show you could imagine, from Columbo to Circus of The Stars to a great turn on The Weakest Link. He wrote The Tekwar books upon which the series was based, and directed and appeared in a few of them, too.
In August 1999, he arrived home to find his third wife, Nerine, dead of a fractured neck in the pool of their house. They had separated not long before, giving rise to much innuendo about his involvement. She tested positive for Valium and had a blood alcohol level of .27, and the death was ruled accidental. He is now remarried.
Shatner is everywhere! The famous Saturday Night Live sketch, where he tells the Trek nerds to “Get A Life!” seemed to mark a period where he doesn’t have to play any role but Bill Shatner, actor famous for over-acting. His roles lately have slipped further into self-reference into outright self-parody, as in roles in Loaded Weapon and Showtime and his Priceline.com commercials illustrate. We wouldn’t have it any other way. In May 2003, his infamous “Golden Throats” version of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” was chosen by viewers of T.V. Channel Music Choice as the worst Beatles cover of all time!
He continues to work in film and T.V., and has a website (www.williamshatner.com, duh!) where he hawks his own videos. The latest is paintball epic Spplat Attack. He is involved in environmental causes and raises quarter horses and American Saddlebreds.
For more information, check out www.bringbackkirk.com, www.apeculture.com/shatner.htm, www.theta-g.com/kit/shatner/, www.shatnerology.com, or www.fusionanomaly.net/williamshatner.html, among dozens and dozens of sites dedicated to Big Bill.

- Hysteric Eric