At 12:59 PM 21/07/2005, Hayes Elkins wrote:
Great Canadian warrior, stormed Normandy on D-Day.
I was just reading about that. Very interesting obit.
'Star Trek' Star James Doohan Dies By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 20,12:11 PM ET
James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the
original "Star Trek" TV series and movies who responded to the command
"Beam me up, Scotty," died Wednesday. He was 85.
Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., home with his wife of 28
years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve
Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he
said.
He had said farewell to public life in August 2004, a few months after
being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
The Canadian-born Doohan was enjoying a busy career as a character actor
when he auditioned for a role as an engineer in a new space adventure on
NBC in 1966. A master of dialects from his early years in radio, he tried
seven different accents.
"The producers asked me which one I preferred," Doohan recalled 30 years
later. "I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them,
'If this character is going to be an engineer, you'd better make him a
Scotsman.'"
The series, which starred William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk and
Leonard Nimoy as the enigmatic Mr. Spock, attracted an enthusiastic
following of science fiction fans, especially among teenagers and children,
but not enough ratings power. NBC canceled it after three seasons.
When the series ended in 1969, Doohan found himself typecast as Montgomery
Scott, the canny engineer with a burr in his voice. In 1973, he complained
to his dentist, who advised him: "Jimmy, you're going to be Scotty long
after you're dead. If I were you, I'd go with the flow."
"I took his advice," said Doohan, "and since then everything's been just
lovely."
"Star Trek" continued in syndication both in the United States and abroad,
and its following grew larger and more dedicated. In his later years,
Doohan attended 40 "Trekkie" gatherings around the country and lectured at
colleges.
The huge success of George Lucas' "Star Wars" in 1977 prompted Paramount
Pictures, which had produced "Star Trek" for television, to plan a movie
based on the series. The studio brought back the TV cast and hired director
Robert Wise. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was successful enough to spawn
five sequels.
The powerfully built Doohan, a veteran of D-Day in Normandy, spoke frankly
in 1998 about his employer and his TV commander.
"I started out in the series at basic minimum_ plus 10 percent for my
agent. That was added a little bit in the second year. When we finally got
to our third year, Paramount told us we'd get second-year pay! That's how
much they loved us."
He accused Shatner of hogging the camera, adding: "I like Captain Kirk, but
I sure don't like Bill. He's so insecure that all he can think about is
himself."
James Montgomery Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, British
Columbia, youngest of four children of William Doohan, a pharmacist,
veterinarian and dentist, and his wife Sarah. As he wrote in his
autobiography, "Beam Me Up, Scotty," his father was a drunk who made life
miserable for his wife and children.
At 19, James escaped the turmoil at home by joining the Canadian army,
becoming a lieutenant in artillery. He was among the Canadian forces that
landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. "The sea was rough," he recalled. "We were
more afraid of drowning than the Germans."
The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't
heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was
machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger
(he managed to hide the missing finger on screen), four in his leg and one
in the chest. Fortunately the chest bullet was stopped by his silver
cigarette case.
After the war Doohan on a whim enrolled in a drama class in Toronto. He
showed promise and won a two-year scholarship to New York's famed
Neighborhood Playhouse, where fellow students included Leslie Nielsen, Tony
Randall and Richard Boone.
His commanding presence and booming voice brought him work as a character
actor in films and television, both in Canada and the United States.
Oddly, his only other TV series besides "Star Trek" was another space
adventure, "Space Command," in 1953.
Doohan's first marriage to Judy Doohan produced four children. He had two
children by his second marriage to Anita Yagel. Both marriages ended in
divorce. In 1974 he married Wende Braunberger, and their children were
Eric, Thomas and Sarah, who was born in 2000, when Doohan was 80.
In a 1998 interview, Doohan was asked if he ever got tired of hearing the
line "Beam me up, Scotty."
"I'm not tired of it at all," he replied. "Good gracious, it's been said to
me for just about 31 years. It's been said to me at 70 miles an hour across
four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It's been fun."
//
