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William Shatner. Actor: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise.
- January 1, 1
- 1.75 m
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
William Shatner OC (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, from his 1966 debut as the captain of the starship Enterprise in the second pilot of the first Star Trek television series to his final appearance as Captain Kirk in the seventh Star Trek feature film, Star Trek ...
William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor, musician, singer, author, film director, spokesman and comedian. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of Captain James Tiberius Kirk, commander of the Federation starship USS Enterprise, in the science fiction television series Star Trek, from 1966 to 1969; Star Trek: The Animated Series from 1973 to ...
- Overview
- Early life and career
- Star Trek and later acting credits
- Other work
William Shatner (born March 22, 1931, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) Canadian actor whose prolific output and self-deprecating sense of humour secured him a place in the North American pop culture pantheon. He was best known for playing Capt. James T. Kirk in the science fiction television series Star Trek (1966–69) and in several Star Trek films.
Shatner was raised in Montreal. His father was a menswear manufacturer, and his mother taught elocution. He exhibited an early interest in performance, enrolling at age eight in an acting school for children and later performing in radio productions for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the Montreal Children’s Theatre. Despite his early success as a performer, he enrolled at McGill University and graduated in 1952 with a bachelor’s degree in commerce.
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Acting in student productions and serving as a CBC broadcaster during his time at McGill, Shatner retained his entertainment connections despite pursuing a more pragmatic course of studies. Upon graduation he became the assistant manager of the Mountain Playhouse in Montreal. There he debuted onstage in a production of Tom Sawyer (1952). He moved to a similar position at the Canadian Repertory Theatre in Ottawa that fall. In 1954 he was recruited to join the newly formed Stratford Shakespeare Festival, helmed by legendary English director Tyrone Guthrie. Shatner spent the ensuing several years playing supporting roles before assuming more-substantial parts, in a range of classic plays. A production of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great, in which he played Usumcasane, traveled to Broadway in 1956. Shatner remained in New York City, performing in a range of theatre and television productions.
Shatner worked steadily after that, largely in supporting roles in film and on television. He did not come to wider notice until he was cast as Capt. James T. Kirk in writer and producer Gene Roddenberry’s futuristic new television venture, Star Trek (1966–69). Kirk commanded the starship USS Enterprise on its voyage “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 and spawned an entire subculture of aficionados, known to some as Trekkies.
In 1979 the franchise was revived as a film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Its popularity led to subsequent cinematic installments, including 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 (1994). Shatner’s later film work was notable for the comedies Miss Congeniality (2000), Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005).
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Shatner was an avocational musician; he released the widely mocked The Transformed Man (1968), an album of spoken-word renderings of popular tunes. He cowrote the memoirs Star Trek Memories (1993), Star Trek Movie Memories (1994), and Up Till Now (2008). The volume Get a Life! (1999) was an exploration of the rabid cultural obsession with Star Trek...
- Richard Pallardy
TV-14. Documentary. William Shatner's Full Moon Fright Night: Prison of the Dead. 2002. 1 hr 21 min. TV-MA. Horror · Comedy. Watch William Shatner's movies and TV shows for free. Stream Osmosis Jones, Big Bad Mama, The Devil's Rain now on Tubi.
William Shatner filmography. William Shatner (born 1931) is a Canadian actor. He has had a career in movies and television for seven decades. Shatner is best known for was his portrayal of James T. Kirk in Star Trek .
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William Shatner presents a light-hearted look at how the "Star Trek" TV series have influenced and inspired today's technologies, including: cell phones, medical imaging, computers and software, SETI, MP3 players and iPods, virtual reality, and spaceship propulsion.
