Scotty beamed up for final time...

trickblue

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'Star Trek' Star James Doohan Dies
By BOB THOMAS

LOS ANGELES (AP)
- 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."​
 

blindzebra

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He came to speak at my college.

Talked about getting his finger shot off in WWII.

Gave a lot of inside dirt on his castmates.

Had a side hurting blooper reel from the show. The doors did not slide on their own, they were pulled open from off-camera and if the guys working the doors missed their cue...splat.

Then we watched the Tribble's episode.

What seemed to happen in every show:

Scotty saying, "Can't do'er Captain, she ain't got the power."

And, "I don't know how much longer I can hold'er together at warp speed."

The guy in red on the landing party always had one line, "Captain come over here ahhhhhhhhhhh!"

To be followed by Bones saying, "He's dead Jim."

Kirk had sex with an alien.

Spock saying how everything is illogical, but never including how the Captain and the next 3 highest ranking officers were always beaming down into harm's way.:D
 

DallasEast

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I just heard.

Gene Roddenberry...

Mark Lenard...

DeForest Kelley...

Now, James Doohan...

One by one, they're leaving. Sure, it was a campy show, but it was inspiring and socially conscious in its own way. I'm not ashamed to say that I loved the show and the characters which the actors played.

It's a sad day for Trek fans... with sadder days to come.

Unfortunately, time's a b---h.

Rest in peace, chief engineer.

< EDIT >

Can't end it with just that. It needs something appropriate enough for this actor...

link

That's better.
 

DLK150

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DallasEast said:
I just heard.

Gene Roddenberry...

Mark Lenard...

DeForest Kelley...

Now, James Doohan...

One by one, they're leaving. Sure, it was a campy show, but it was inspiring and socially conscious in its own way. I'm not ashamed to say that I loved the show and the characters which the actors played.

It's a sad day for Trek fans... with sadder days to come.

Unfortunately, time's a b---h.

Rest in peace, chief engineer.

< EDIT >

Can't end it with just that. It needs something appropriate enough for this actor...

link

That's better.

I've always loved it. My one sister and her boyfriend/future 1st husband got me watching it. Remember when Kirk and Uhura kissed? They had a hard time getting that one past the censors, but they did by saying they weren't kissing because they were emotionally involved, but rather not in control of themselves. Still a landmark event. A rare thing happened after it was canceled too. The actors and actresses never seemed to mind being forever associated with it.

BZ, the Trouble With Tribbles was one of the best along with the Changeling.

RIP Scotty.
 

WoodysGirl

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July 21, 2005, 9:43AM

Houston firm to send 'Scotty's' ashes into space

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — He made his name in Hollywood beaming his colleagues back to the safety of the Enterprise on Star Trek. Now, actor James Doohan's family is hoping to beam him up to the "final frontier" that Doohan's character "Scotty" loved so dearly.

The actor, who died Wednesday at age 85, had told relatives he wanted his ashes blasted into outer space, as was done for Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

"He'll be there with his buddy, which is wonderful," said Doohan's agent and longtime friend, Steve Stevens.

Doohan died at his home in Redmond, Wash., with his wife of 31 years, Wende, at his side. He had retired from public events last year, not long after announcing he had Alzheimer's disease.

Houston-based Space Services Inc., which specializes in space memorials, plans to send a few grams of Doohan's ashes aboard a rocket later this year. Remains are sealed in an aluminum capsule that stays in orbit up to several hundred years before falling and vaporizing in the Earth's atmosphere, the company has said.

It should be a fitting finale for an actor who, as the Starship Enterprise's frazzled chief engineer saved the Enterprise almost every week from blowing up, burning up or being overrun by renegade aliens when the warp drive, the phasers, the shields, the power cells or some other futuristic collection of doohickies failed.

As the man who commanded the Enterprise's particle beam transporter, Doohan's character also inspired the phrase, "Beam me up, Scotty." Capt. Kirk and other members of the Enterprise crew never really issued the order quite that way, however, until the fourth Star Trek film when Kirk said, "Scotty, beam me up."

———

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3276091
 

Payton34Smith22

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Not a big trek fan, but I have watched a few episodes.

He had Alzheimers the last few years, didn't he? I remember reading something about his health was declining.

He's immortalized on film now....Like so many before him.

R.I.P Scotty + :(

http://img.***BLOCKED***/albums/v661/payton34smith22/scotty_old_new.jpg
 
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