William Shatner is a Canadian actor, producer, director and writer who became famous for his role as Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek television series from 1966 to 1969. He also starred in a number of other TV shows and movies during his career including TJ Hooker from 1982-1986.
In 2017 he published an autobiography titled “Shatner Rules: Your Guide to Understanding the Shattering World of William Shatner” where he discussed how he dealt with rejection on Broadway before becoming famous for playing Captain Kirk on Star Trek and how that fame led to more opportunities later in life such as starring in TJ Hooker at age 57.
Early life and career
Shatner was raised in Montreal, his home for the first ten years of his life. His father owned a menswear manufacturer and had ambitions to make him follow suit but young Leonard instead showed an interest early on with performance arts- enrolling at age eight into acting school for kids or performing later radio productions by CBC/Montreal Children’s Theatre among other shows that involved speaking parts which were typically what you would do if your voice wasn’t suitable yet because he wanted more than anything else success as an actor despite having already graduated college without majoring solely on stage performances alone.
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Shakespeare often said “theatre is built upon tragedians” so there must have been some part.
Despite following a more pragmatic line of studies, Shatner maintained his showbiz connections while at McGill, acting in student productions and operating as a CBC reporter. He went to work as an assistant manager at the Mountains Playhouse in Montreal after graduate. He made his stage debut in a Tom Sawyer performance there (1952). That September, he accepted a similar post with the Canadian Repertory Theatre in Ottawa. In 1954, he was hired by famed English producer Tyrone Guthrie to join the newly formed Stratford Shakespeare Carnival.
Shatner spent years in a variety of supporting roles before going on to more substantial roles in a variety of classic plays. In 1956, he starred as Usumcasane in a Stage production of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great. Shatner stayed in New York and appeared in a variety of theatre and television shows.
In 1958, Shatner joined the cast Yul Brynner in a dramatization of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov as Alexi (often written Alexey) Karamazov. He then went to Broadway for a two-year run in The World of Suzie Wong (1958–60), where he received critical acclaim for his work. He went to play a role in a U.S. movie.
Star Trek and later acting credits
Shatner continued to work steadily after that, primarily in supporting roles in film and television. He did not become well-known until he was cast as Captain James T. Kirk in Gene Roddenberry’s futuristic new television venture, Star Trek (1966–69). Kirk led the crew of the starship USS Enterprise on a mission to “seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” The short-lived series became a cult hit, spawning an entire subculture of fans known as Trekkies.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a film based on the franchise, was released in 1979. Its success spawned sequels such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), and Star Trek: Generations (1993). (1994). Shatner’s later filmography includes the comedies Miss Congeniality (2000), Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2006). (2005).
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William Shatner continued to work on television between movie roles, appearing in the police drama T.J. Hooker (1982–86) and hosting the crime show Rescue 911 (1989–96), which featured reenactments of real-life crimes and other emergencies. In 2004, Shatner won an Emmy Award for outstanding guest actor in a drama series for his portrayal of lawyer Denny Crane on David E. Kelley’s legal procedural The Practice. The character was so popular that a spin-off, Boston Legal (2004–08), was created based on his relationship with a younger lawyer. In 2005, William Shatner won Golden Globe and Emmy awards for outstanding supporting actors in a drama for his performance in the film.
Following that, he appeared in the sitcom $#*! My Dad Says (2010–11). Better Late Than Never (2016–18), a travelogue series in which he traversed the world with other pop culture luminaries, was one of his final TV credits.
Other work
William Shatner was an amateur musician who published The Transformed Man (1968), an album of spoken-word renditions of popular songs that were highly derided. Star Trek Memories (1993), Star Trek Movie Memories (1994), and Up Till Now are his memoirs (2008). Get a Life! (1999) was a book about the irrational societal obsession with Star Trek. In 2012, Shatner directed a documentary of the same name. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and the television movie TekWar were among his other directorial credits (1994).
The latter was based on a novel Shatner imagined and co-wrote with another author in 1989. The novel spawned a series of sequels, as well as comic books, merchandise, and a short-lived television series, all set in the same futuristic environment. In his memoir Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man, Shatner detailed his friendship with Star Trek costar Leonard Nimoy (2016; written with David Fisher). Shatner’s other significant credits include the one-man play Shatner’s World: We Just Live in It, which premiered on Broadway in 2012 and went on tour across the United States.
When he took a suborbital trip on the second flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship on October 13, 2021, at the age of 90, Shatner became the oldest person in space.
Faq
How much are they paying Bill Shatner for his space flight participation?
Answer: $28 million. Blue Origin auctioned off a seat on its first spaceflight, which took place back in July and included billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, for $28 million.
No, William Shatner did not pay for his ticket to go to space.
What did it cost Wm Shatner to go into space?
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Star Trek actor, and Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations, didn’t pay for their tickets. They are instead listed as guests on the flight.
