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William Shatner (born in Montreal, Quebec, March
22, 1931) is an actor, writer and musical
performer.   Shatner is most famous for his
starring role as Captain James T. Kirk of the USS
Enterprise NCC-1701|USS Enterprise in the
television show Star Trek from 1966 to 1969 and in
seven of the subsequent movies.  Shatner has
written three books chronicling his experiences
playing Captain Kirk and being a part of the Star
Trek franchise.  He has since worked as a writer,
producer, film director|director, musician, and
best-selling author. In 2008, William Shatner will
become a full-fledged astronaut, as he is booked
to fly into suborbital space aboard a Virgin
Galactic private spacecraft. Then, he can
truthfully say that he has explored the "Final
Frontier." 

== Early life ==

Shatner, of Ukrainian Jewish descent, attended
Baron Byng High School in Montreal, Quebec, and
earned a Bachelor's degree in commerce from
Montreal's McGill University in 1952. Trained as a
classical Shakespearean actor, he performed at the
famed Shakespearean Stratford Festival of Canada
in Stratford, Ontario before going to the United
States to work. In 1959, he received good reviews
when he took on the role of Robert Lomax in the
Broadway production of The World of Suzie Wong.
His official movie debut was in the 1958 MGM film
The Brothers Karamazov with Yul Brynner, in which
Shatner starred as the pious Russian Orthodox monk
Alexei (he had earlier debuted in a 1951 Canadian
film entitled The Butler's Night Off). He also
appeared in the Stanley Kramer film Judgment at
Nuremberg, appeared in two episodes of the
acclaimed science fiction anthology series The
Twilight Zone, and starred in the unusual 1965
Gothic horror film Incubus (movie)|Incubus; the
only movie known to have all of its dialogue
spoken in Esperanto, an artificial language
developed in the 1880s.

==Star Trek career==

William Shatner was first cast as Captain James
Tiberius Kirk for the second pilot of Star Trek:
The Original Series|Star Trek, entitled "Where No
Man Has Gone Before".  He subsequently was
contracted to play Captain Kirk for the Star Trek
series and held the role from 1966 to 1969.  In
1973, Shatner returned to the role of Captain
Kirk, albeit only in voice, in the Star Trek: The
Animated Series|animated Star Trek series.  He was
slated to reprise the role of Kirk for Star Trek:
Phase II, a follow-up series chronicling the
second five-year mission of the Enterprise, but
Star Trek: Phase II was cancelled in
pre-production and expanded into Star Trek: The
Motion Picture.

Between 1979 and 1991, William Shatner played
Captain Kirk in the six Star Trek films, and
directed the fifth.  In 1994, he returned to the
role of Captain Kirk in Star Trek Generations (his
character's final role, as Kirk was killed in the
film).

In the summer of 2004, rumors circulated that the
producers of Star Trek: Enterprise were
considering bringing William Shatner back into the
Trek fold. Reports in the media indicated that the
idea was given serious thought, with series
producer Manny Coto indicating in Star Trek
Communicator magazine's October, 2004, issue that
he was preparing a three-episode story arc for
Shatner. Shortly thereafter, Enterprise was
cancelled, likely ending all hope that Shatner
would return to Star Trek.

== Post-Star Trek career ==

Shatner had a long dry spell in the decade between
the original Star Trek series and the first Trek
film, which he believes was due to his being
typecasting (acting)|typecast as Captain Kirk,
making it difficult to find other work. He says
this period was a humbling one, as he would take
any odd job, including small party appearances to
support his family. In 1970, Shatner appeared as
the prosecutor in a Public Broadcasting
Service|PBS television film of the Broadway
theatre|Broadway play The Andersonville Trial.
Trial was directed by George C. Scott and received
excellent reviews. He also took roles in
made-for-TV productions, such as The Horror at
37,000 Feet.  The dry spell ended for Shatner (and
the other Star Trek cast members) when Paramount
Pictures|Paramount produced Star Trek: The Motion
Picture in 1979, under pressure from loyal Fan
(aficionado)|fans of the series. Its success
re-established Shatner as an actor, and Captain
Kirk as a cultural icon.

While continuing to film the successful series of
Star Trek movies, he returned to television in the
1980s, starring as a uniformed police officer in
the T.J. Hooker series from 1982 to 1986; this
show became a popular hit. He then hosted the
popular dramatic reenactment series Rescue 911
from 1989 to 1996.


As the unwilling central public figure of a
widespread geek-culture of Trekkies, Shatner is
often humorously critical of the sometimes
"annoying" fans of Star Trek. He also has found an
outlet in spoofing the cavalier, almost superhuman
character persona of Captain Kirk, in films such
as Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), National
Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) and Saturday
Night Live, in which he advised Star Trek fans to
"Get a life," repeating a popular catch-phrase.
Shatner also appeared in the film Free Enterprise
in 1998, in which he played himself and tried to
dispel the Kirk image of himself from the view of
the film's two lead characters.

Shatner has enjoyed success with a series of Tek
science fiction novels. The first—published
in 1990—was entitled TekWar. This popular
series of books led to a number of television
movies, in which Shatner played a role, and to a
short-lived television series. In 1995 a
first-person shooter game named William Shatner's
TekWar was released, and was the first game to use
the Build engine.

In the 1990s Shatner appeared in several plays on
American National Public Radio, written and
directed by Norman Corwin.

Shatner has appeared in several episodes of the
television series 3rd Rock from the Sun as The Big
Giant Head, a womanizing, Drug
abuse|substance-abusing, high ranking officer from
the same alien planet as the show's protagonists. 
He was nominated for an Emmy for this role.

In 2004, Shatner was cast as the eccentric but
highly capable attorney Denny Crane for the final
season of the legal drama The Practice, for which
he was awarded an Emmy, and then its subsequent
Spinoff (television)|spin-off, Boston Legal, for
which he won a Golden Globe in 2005.

In late 2004, Shatner reserved a $200,000 seat to
fly aboard Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise, and
is expected to fly into space in 2008, along with
other paying guests.

==Family and other ventures==

William Shatner has been married four times:
# To Gloria Rand in 1956; they divorced in 1969.
# To Marcy Lafferty in 1973; they divorced in
1994.
# To Nerine Kidd on November 15, 1997; died August
9, 1999; accidentally drowned in the couple's
pool.
# To Elizabeth Martin on February 13, 2001.

Shatner has three daughters, Leslie, Lisabeth and
Melanie, and a son, Daniel. Melanie is the
proprietor of Dari, an upscale women's clothing
boutique. She currently lives in Southern
California.

In his spare time, Shatner enjoys breeding and
Horse_show|showing American Saddlebreds and
American quarter horse|Quarter Horses. Shatner has
a 360-acre (1.5 km²) horse farm in Kentucky
named Bellreve, where he raises the winning
horses.

Shatner is also the CEO of the Toronto,
Ontario-based http://www.coredp.com/ C.O.R.E.
Digital Pictures company, which provided the
special effects for the 1996 film Fly Away Home.

==Musical tangents==
Main article: William Shatner's musical career

William Shatner has had a much-parodied musical
career, starting with the 1968 album The
Transformed Man. His second studio album, Has
Been, was released in 2004.  Ben Folds acted as
producer.  Collaborating artists included Aimee
Mann, Henry Rollins, Brad Paisley and Joe Jackson.
 Has Been features the single Common People, a
cover version of the song by Pulp.

==Trivia==

* Prior to Star Trek, Shatner appeared together
with Leonard Nimoy in the first season of The Man
from U.N.C.L.E..
* His Trek character was originally named "James
R. Kirk", although some fans have suggested an
alternate explanation: That his best friend, Gary
Mitchell (Gary Lockwood), simply erred when he
created a tombstone for Kirk in the episode Where
No Man has Gone Before. The middle name "Tiberius"
(derived from the name of the Tiberius|Roman
Emperor) was established in Star Trek: The
Animated Series (Episode:
http://www.danhausertrek.com/AnimatedSeries/Be.htm
l Bem), furthered in Star Trek novels, and
officially validated in Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country.
* In 1965, Shatner starred in the
Esperanto-language film Incubus (movie)|Incubus.
* Shatner appeared in two episodes of The Twilight
Zone.
* Shatner has recently been noted for his role in
the Priceline.com commercials.
* Shatner has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
(for Television work) at 6901 Hollywood Blvd.
* The Student Society Building at McGill
University is unofficially named after William
Shatner, and contains a sign in the lobby bearing
his name.
* Shatner has been leading charity Paintball
Scenario Games to raise money for his favorite
charity, handicapped children.
* Shatner has starred in a series of
http://www.kelloggs.co.uk/all-bran/home.html
Kellogg's All-Bran cereal commercials in the UK
and Canada.
* Shatner's latest invention has been Invasion
Iowa, a fake movie shot for a reality tv series on
SpikeTV.
* Fans of the horror movie Halloween
(movie)|Halloween might know that Michael Myers
(Halloween)|Michael Myers wears a William Shatner
mask that is painted white.
* With the death of James Doohan on July 20, 2005,
he is the oldest living Star Trek: The Original
Series|Star Trek cast member at 74. Leonard Nimoy
is also 74, but Shatner is only days older,
Nichelle Nichols is 72, George Takei is 68, and
Walter Koenig is also 68.

== Memorable quotes ==

"I'm not a Starfleet commander, or T.J. Hooker. I
don't live on Starship NCC-170... (some audience
members say "1"), or own a phaser. I don't know
anybody named Leonard McCoy|Bones, Hikaru
Sulu|Sulu, or Mr. Spock|Spock (picture of Benjamin
Spock|Dr. Benjamin Spock is shown on screen behind
him). And no, I've never had green alien sex, but
I'm sure it'd be quite an evening. (Pomp and
Circumstance begins playing.) I speak English
language|English and French language|French, not
Klingon language|Klingon! I drink Labatt|Labatt's,
not Romulan ale! And when someone says to me 'live
long and prosper', I seriously mean it when I say,
'get a life'. My doctor's name is not McCoy, it's
Ginsberg (nude picture of Dr. Ginsberg shown on
screen). And tribbles were puppets, not real
animals. PUPPETS! And when I speak, I never, ever
talk like Every. Word. Is. Its. Own. Sentence. I
live in California, but I was raised in Montreal.
And I believe in priceline.com, where you never
have to pay full price for airline tickets,
hotels, and car rentals! I've appeared onstage at
Stratford, Ontario|Stratford, at Carnegie Hall,
Royal Albert Hall|Albert Hall, and the Monkland
Theatre in Notre-Dame-de-GrÃĒce|NDG. And, yes,
I've gone where no man has gone before, but... I
was in Mexico and her father gave me permission!
My name is William Shatner, and I am Canadian!"

::—from a Just for Laughs appearance; a
parody of the popular Molson Canadian Commercial
entitled "I Am Canadian".

==Filmography==
*The Butler's Night Off (1951)
*Oedipus the King|Oedipus Rex (1957)
*The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
*City Out of Time (1959) (short subject)
(narrator)
*The Explosive Generation (1961)
*Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
*The Intruder (1962)
*The Outrage (1964)
*Incubus (1965)
*White Comanche (1968)
*Big Bad Mama (1974)
*Impulse (1974)
*Land of No Return (1975)
*The Devil's Rain (1975)
*Miracles of the Gods (1976) (documentary)
(narrator)
*A Whale of a Tale (1977)
*Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)
*The Third Walker (1978)
*Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
*The Kidnapping of the President (1980)
*Visiting Hours (1982)
*Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
*Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
*Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
*Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
*Seasons (1987) (short subject) (narrator)
*Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) (also
director and writer)
*Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
*National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)
*Star Trek: Generations (1994)
*Land of the Free (1997)
*Trekkies (1997) (documentary)
*Jefftowne (1998) (documentary)
*Free Enterprise (1998)
*Falcon Down (2000)
*Miss Congeniality (2000)
*Osmosis Jones (2001) (voice)
*Festival in Cannes (2001) (Cameo)
*Shoot or Be Shot (2002) 
*Showtime (2002)
*Groom Lake (2002) (also director and writer)
*Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
*Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005)
*Over the Hedge (2006) (voice) (currently filming)
*Free Enterprise 2: My Big Fat Geek Wedding (2006)
(currently in pre-production)

==Television Work==
*Howdy Doody (cast member in 1954)
*Billy Budd (1955)
*Tactic (1959-1960)
*Julius Caesar (1960)
*The Night of the Auk (1960)
*For the People (1965-1966)
*Star Trek (1966-1969)
*Alexander the Great (1968) (filmed in 1964)
*Shadow Game (1969)
*Sole Survivor (1970)
*The Andersonville Trial (1970)
*Vanished (1971)
*Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law (1971)
*The People (1972)
*The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972)
*Incident on a Dark Street (1973)
*Go Ask Alice (1973)
*Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973)
*Star Trek: The Animated Adventures (1973-1975)
(voice)
*Pioneer Woman (1973)
*Inner Space (1974) (miniseries)
*Indict and Convict (1974)
*Pray for the Wildcats (1974)
*The Tenth Level (1975)
*Barbary Coast (1975-1976)
*Perilous Voyage (1976)
*Columbo: Fade in to Murder (1976)
*Testimony of Two Men (1977) (miniseries)
*How the West Was Won (1978) (miniseries)
*The Bastard (1978)
*Little Women (1978)
*Crash (1978)
*Riel (1979)
*Disaster on the Coastliner (1979)
*The Babysitter (1980)
*T.J. Hooker (1982-1986) (also director of
multiple episodes)
*Secrets of a Married Man (1984)
*North Beach and Rawhide (1985)
*T.J. Hooker: Blood Sport (1986)
*The Trial of Standing Bear (1988) (narrator)
*Broken Angel (1988)
*Rescue 911 (1989-1996)
*Voice of the Planet (1991) (miniseries)
*Family of Strangers (1993)
*TekWar (1994) (also director and writer)
*TekWar: TekLords (1994) (also director and
writer)
*TekWar: TekJustice (1994) (also director and
writer)
*TekWar (1994-1996) (also director of multiple
episodes, writer, and executive producer)
*Janek: The Silent Betrayal (1994)
*Prisoner of Zenda, Inc. (1996)
*Dead Man's Island (1996)
*A Twist in the Tale (1998-1999)
*The Kid (2001) (voice)
*Full Moon Fright Night (2002) (miniseries)
*A Carol Christmas (2003)
*Boston Legal (2004-present)
*Invasion Iowa (2005-present)

==Books==
===Fiction===
* Tek series
:See TekWar
* Star Trek series, all with Judith
Reeves-Stevens|Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
** Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden, 1995, ISBN
0671520350
** Star Trek: The Return, 1996, ISBN 0671526103
** Star Trek: Avenger, 1997, ISBN 0671551329
** Star Trek: Spectre, 1998, ISBN 0671008781
** Star Trek: Dark Victory, 1999, ISBN 067100882X
** Star Trek: Preserver, 2000, ISBN 0671021257
** Star Trek: Captain's Peril, 2002, ISBN
0743448197
** Star Trek: Captain's Blood, 2003, ISBN
067102129X
* War series
** Man o' War, 1996, ISBN 0399141316
** The Law of War, 1998, ISBN 0399143602
* Quest for Tomorrow series
** Delta Search, 1997, ISBN 0061052744
** In Alien Hands, 1997, ISBN 0061052752
** Step into Chaos, 1999, ISBN 0061052760
** Beyond the Stars, 2000, ISBN 0061051187
** Shadow Planet, 2002, ISBN 0061051195
* Comic book adaptations
**Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden, DC Comics graphic
novel, 1995, ISBN 1563892359

===Nonfiction===
* Captain's Log: William Shatner's Personal
Account of the Making of "Star Trek V: The Final
Frontier", as told by Lisabeth Shatner, 1989, ISBN
0671686526
* Star Trek Memories, with Chris Kreski, 1993,
ISBN 0060177349
* Star Trek Movie Memories, with Chris Kreski,
1994, ISBN 0060176172
* Get a Life!, with Chris Kreski, 1999, ISBN
0671021311
* Star Trek: I'm Working on That: A Trek from
Science Fiction to Science Fact, with Chip Walker,
2002, ISBN 067104737X

==Albums==
*The Transformed Man (Decca, 1968)
*William Shatner Live (Lemli, 1977)
*Spaced Out: The Very Best of Leonard Nimoy and
William Shatner (compilation) (Universal
International, 1997)
*Has Been (Shout! Factory,
2004)http://www.shatnerhasbeen.com/

==External links==
* http://www.williamshatner.com/ Official website
* imdb name|id=0000638|name=William Shatner
* memoryalpha
*
http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/1
2/05/1444246&mode=nocomment William Shatner
Interview at Slashdot
*
http://www.fametracker.com/fame_audit/shatner_will
iam.shtml William Shatner on Fame Tracker 
* NY Times story on
http://www.brassland.org/ahb/write/shatner.html
William Shatner's "Has Been" album with Ben Folds