William Shatner

I just finished reading Up Till Now, the autobiography of William Shatner, probably best known as Captain Kirk on the original Star Trek series in 1966-68, but also from “T.J.  Hooker”, “Rescue 911”, Priceline.com, and most recently Denny Crane in “Boston Legal” – which I have to admit, I’ve seen ZERO episodes of (yes, and I’m a lawyer).  I’ve already covered “Star Trek”, and his career is far too varied to cover everything, so I’ll just touch on some brief topics.

Career.  Born in 1931, in Montreal, Canada.  He started out in local theater, much Shakespeare, on stage, before going to NYC to seek a professional career.  He did various different TV shows and movies, some better than others, before Star Trek came around, and has done various shows since Star Trek, plus a fair amount of movies, far beyond the Star Trek movies themselves.   

He’d been criticized over the years for being indiscriminate in the roles, both TV and movies, that he’s taken.  To him it’s work, which is what actors do, and what might be considered a minor or bullshit role can lead to something much better… plus it pays the mortgage and keeps him busy.  That includes commercials; when his idol Edward G. Robinson, revealed that commercial work helped pay for his impressive art collection, Shatner realized there was no shame in an otherwise serious actor doing commercials. 

He’s had several wives – including one, Nerine, who drowned in their swimming pool (she was an alcoholic) – but is happily married now (sorry, ladies).

            Shatner took all sorts of risks, erring on the side of doing something stupid or risky rather than chosing to miss out.  In fact, it was his critically panned Transformed Man album which got him his highly paid and successful Priceline.com gig.  This is a man who throws himself 100% into any role, and into life itself, never letting failures or setbacks discourage him for long.  He even remarried after the shock and heartache of his second wife Nerine’s death, though it took him some time before he was ready, and considerable effort to get his third wife, Elizabeth, to even take him seriously as a suitor, much less a husband.

Incubus.  One of the only films in Esperanto, the so-called universal language.   It’s in black & white, dating from 1965, before “Star Trek”.  He plays a good man, Marco, who is chased by a beautiful demoness, Kia, who is trying to seduce him and claim his soul for the devil.  But she falls in love with him, and her sister sends an incubus (male demon) to destroy them both.  The lighting and music is amazing, I actually enjoyed the film so much I bought it on DVD.  This is pretty underrated (even by Shatner himself).

Up Till Now.  His autobiography.  Amazingly funny – far more so than books written by comedians.  As you can imagine, he covers his childhood, the development of his acting career, and spends some time – less than you would expect, oddly enough – on “Star Trek”.  Yes, he does describe his famous SNL appearance.  What’s remarkable about this, and what kept me reading it nonstop, was his unusual style.  He’ll zip off into some tangent, very similar to “The Family Guy”, and come back, but it’s always to prove a pertinent point.  He’s also very self-deprecating, as we’ve come to expect from him by now.  Rather than an endless litany of impressive accomplishments (“start at the beginning,” said the Mad Hatter, “and when you get to the end....stop.”) he zips around and takes us on a roller coaster ride all along the way.  You never know where he’ll go next.  I suppose it’s a fitting microcosm of his own life:  unpredictable but somehow always entertaining.

The Transformed Man. His 1968 album of spoken-word performances, including “Mr Tamborine Man” (Dylan), “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” (Beatles) and “How Insensitive” (Jobim & Moraes).  Somewhat pedantic, in fact very similar to Days of Future Passed by the Moody Blues.  Yet again, it shows that, in many ways like Kirk himself, Shatner is fearless in taking on projects which might reflect poorly on him, or be misunderstood or ridiculed.  Maybe it didn’t work, maybe it’s unintentional comedy, but it’s certainly interesting – just like the man himself.