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James Montgomery Doohan (March 3, 1920 –
July 20, 2005) was a Canada|Canadian character
actor|character and voice actor|voice actor best
known for his portrayal of Montgomery Scott|Scotty
in the television and film|movie series Star Trek.
His characterization made him one of the most
popular characters in the Star Trek franchise
universe.

== Life and career ==

Doohan was born in Vancouver, British Columbia,
youngest of four children of William and Sarah
Doohan, recent Catholic refugees from mainly
Protestant Belfast during the Anglo-Irish War. His
family later moved to Sarnia, Ontario where he
attended high school at the Sarnia Collegiate
Institute and Technical School (SCITS) where he
excelled in mathematics and science. Doohan's
father, who worked at times as a dentist,
pharmacist, and veterinarian, is said to have
invented a high-octane gasoline in 1923, but
according to Doohan's autobiography, was an
alcoholic who tormented his family.

At the outbreak of World War II, aged 19, Jimmy
Doohan joined the Royal Canadian Artillery, and
was eventually commissioned as a lieutenant in the
Winnipeg Rifles, 13th Field Regiment, D Company,
part of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division sent to
England in 1940 for what became years of training
in beach assault tactics. His first combat
assignment was the invasion of Normandy at Juno
Beach on D-Day. Shooting two snipers along the
way, Doohan led his unit to higher ground through
a field of landmine|tank mines and took defensive
positions for the night. Crossing between command
posts at 11:30 that night, Doohan took six hits
from a Germany|German machine gun: four in his
leg, one in the chest, and one through his middle
right finger. The chest bullet was stopped by his
silver cigarette case; the shot finger was
amputated, and on screen he would generally
conceal this. Despite his wounds, Doohan remained
in the military, trained as a pilot for the Royal
Canadian Air Force, and flew an artillery
observation plane, though he was once labeled the
"craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Forces".

After the war, Doohan started his acting career
after being disheartened by the laughable quality
of a radio drama, leading him to bone up on
Shakespeare, and with his first work a CBC radio
show appearance on January 12, 1946. He took a
drama class in Toronto, and later won a two-year
scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse in New
York City, where classmates included Leslie
Nielsen, Tony Randall and Richard Boone. For
several years he would shuttle between Toronto and
New York as work demanded. During this period
Doohan appeared on some 4000 radio programs and
400 television programs, and earned a reputation
for his versatility. His credits included The
Twilight Zone, Outer Limits and Fantasy Island.

==Star Trek==

Doohan always had a gift for using foreign
accents. Auditioning for the role of Montgomery
Scott, Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise
NCC-1701|USS Enterprise, before Gene Roddenberry
(the creator of Star Trek), Doohan did several
different accents. Roddenberry asked which he
preferred, and Doohan reportedly replied "If
you're going to have an engineer, you'd better
make him Scotland|Scottish" (or "All the world's
best engineers have been Scottish"). In later
years he would revisit this casting process at
Star Trek conventions, demonstrating a variety of
possible voices and characters. When Roddenberry
produced Star Trek: The Animated Series in the
early 1970s, Doohan's ability to perform different
voices was utilized by having him perform most
"guest star" male roles in the series, including
Robert April, conjectured first captain of the
Enterprise.

The Scott character, as conceived, would have been
a semi-regular, but just as fellow cast members
Leonard Nimoy, as the alien science officer Spock,
and DeForest Kelley, as the irascible medical
officer Dr. McCoy, were elevated in importance to
leads alongside William Shatner's Capt. James T.
Kirk, it was made clear that Lt. Cmdr. Scott was
the third-in-command of the Enterprise and at
times the ship was left in his care. Scott was
frequently used in subplots regarding disabled
ship components (such as the dilithium|dilithium
crystals which powered the warp drive, the
transporter (Star Trek)|transporter teleportation
device, or just fiddling in the Jeffries tubes)
and as a foil for Kirk's ambitious tactical
approaches, which were said to strain the
propulsion and defenses of the starship. In the
end, many fans saw the Enterprise itself as the
show's star, leaving Scott in an enviable position
as her defender.

Using his considerable vocal skills, Doohan
devised the Vulcan (Star Trek)#Language|Vulcan and
Klingon language|Klingon language dialogue heard
in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Later,
professional linguists, particularly Marc Okrand,
expanded Klingon into a fully constructed language
with a working grammar.

After the series ended, Doohan found himself
Typecasting (acting)|typecast and had a hard time
getting other acting roles. After a conversation
with his dentist, he realized that he would
"always be Scotty", and he was able to support
himself with income from personal appearances.
Otherwise, he had minor, fleeting parts, often
trading on his Trek fame, such as the Captain in
the short-lived Saturday morning live-action kids'
show, Jason of Star Command, or a cameo
appearance|cameo in the made-for-TV movie Knight
Rider 2000 as "Jimmy Doohan, the guy who played
Scotty on Star Trek". When the Star Trek franchise
was revived, Doohan reprised his role of Scotty in
seven Star Trek films and made a guest appearance
on Star Trek: The Next Generation, all of which
left him financially comfortable. Even so, he
would never return to the busy, versatile career
he once had.

==Later life and death==
Scotty's exploits as the redoubtable Chief
Engineer aboard the Enterprise inspired many
students to pursue a career in engineering.
Because of this the Milwaukee School of
Engineering granted Doohan an honorary degree in
engineering.  He was immortalised with a star in
Hollywood's Walk of Fame on August 31 2004.

Doohan was married three times. He had four
children, Larkin, Deirdre, and twins Christopher
and Montgomery, with first wife Janet Young before
a 1964 divorce. A marriage to Anita Yagel from
1967 to 1972 produced no children. In 1974 he was
introduced to 19-year-old fan Wende Braunberger at
a party, and they married the next year; their
children were Eric, Thomas and Sarah, who was born
in 2000, when Doohan was 80.

He suffered from Parkinson's disease, diabetes,
and diffuse parenchymal lung disease|lung fibrosis
in later life. In 2004, he was diagnosed with
Alzheimer's disease.  On July 20 2005,  at 5:30 in
the morning, he died at his home in Redmond,
Washington with his wife Wende and long-time
friend (and agent) Steve Stevens at his side.  His
agent identified the cause as pneumonia and
Alzheimer's disease. He was the second member of
the original Star Trek cast to pass away, after
DeForest Kelley, who died in 1999.

Doohan's ashes are to be sent into space at his
request.  Space burial firm Space Services, Inc.
confirmed that he had arranged for his
cremation|cremated ashes to be released into Earth
orbit, and they could be on a Falcon 1 rocket
launching from California's Vandenberg Air Force
Base, tentatively scheduled for September.  It is
planned that the ashes of Star Trek writer John
Meredyth Lucas, who died in 2002, will also be on
the flight. 

In Star Trek lore, Scotty was born in the town of
Linlithgow, Scotland in the year 2222. In memory
of James Doohan, the West Lothian|West Lothian
Council plans to place a commemorative plaque in
the town.  Other towns have groups claiming to be
Scotty's birthplace and wishing memorials:
Aberdeen, Elgin and Edinburgh.

wikinews|James Doohan, Star Trek's 'Scotty', dies
at 85

==As a writer==
Doohan, with the assistance of longtime Star Trek
author Peter David, wrote an autobiography
entitled Beam Me Up, Scotty: Star Trek's "Scotty"
in his own words (1996, ISBN 0671520563)

He collaborated on a series of three science
fiction novel|novels with S.M. Stirling:
*The Rising (1996, ISBN 0671877585)
*The Privateer (1999, ISBN 0671578324)
*The Independent Command (2000, ISBN 0671319515)

==External links==
*
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/20/161924
3&tid=214 Slashdot Coverage and Discussion of
Doohan's Death
* imdb name|id=0001150|name=James Doohan
* memoryalpha
*http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.2
0040706.scotty20706/BNStory/Entertainment/
Alzheimer's strikes "Scotty" Globe and Mail, July
6 2004
*http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n
ews/archive/2004/08/31/state1830EDT0111.DTL 'Star
Trek' actor James Doohan gets Hollywood star,
farewell San Francisco Chronicle August 31 2004
*http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,163092,00.htm
l Beam Me Up Scotty of 'Star Trek' Dead at 85
FoxNews July 20 2005
*http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/20/obit.doo
han.ap/index.html Associated Press obituary for
James Doohan
*http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1493093.
stm BBC obituary
*http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-170199
3,00.html Times obituary
*http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?
id=103153&cat=Entertainment Towns battle over
actual birthplace of 'Scotty'.