James Doohan

DoohanHe was a Canadian war veteran and a master of accents, but the world will likely remember James Doohan for his role as Scotty, the engineer of the Starship Enterprise who responded to one of the most famous cliches in television history: “Beam me up, Scotty”.

Doohan died at his home in Redmond, Washington early Wednesday (July 20, 2005) morning. He was 85 years old.

While most people know him for heroic endeavours as Montgomery Scott, or “Scotty”, in the original Star Trek series and films, he lost his middle finger on his right hand on D-Day as a member of the Royal Canadian Artillery.

When he returned home from the Second World War he started his career as an actor, taking parts with CBC radio in 1946.

Doohan was born in Vancouver, B.C. on March 3, 1920 and was raised in Sarnia, Ont., and he apparently got cracking on his future role as a sci-fi icon while he attended Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School, where he excelled in math and science.

As a young stage and radio actor, Doohan demonstrated his incredible gift for putting on accents, and he showcased several dialects when he auditioned for "Trek" in 1966. But it was the actor’s Scottish brogue that caught Gene Roddenberry’s attention.

"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."'

Montgomery, the character's first name, is Doohan’s real middle name.

While the show ended in 1969, Doohan's role never did. Like many successful icons, his character became so identified with him, he found it difficult getting any other roles. So he embraced the role instead, virtually becoming Mr. Scott for life.

"We would do these conventions," he recalled. "We would say, well, it will probably last another couple of years and that will be it. Ten years later, we were saying, 'well, it will probably last another couple of years.' Twenty years later we're saying, 'good God, it's going to go on forever.'"

His “I canna do it Captain” about some urgent request regarding the Enterprise engines became a virtual cliché that’s still recognized and used by many to this day – almost 40 years after he first made it famous.

Of course, Scotty always managed to make things work, despite his protestations that it was impossible.

But despite the Roddenberry imagined universe where all humanity got along, Doohan wasn't a big fan of star William Shatner, who played Capt. Kirk.

And he didn't make a secret of the fact he considered his fellow Canuck thespian an outright scenery chewing ham.

"I like Captain Kirk, but I sure don't like Bill," he once noted. "He's so insecure that all he can think about is himself."

Doohan reprised his Scotty role in several movies of course, but was also featured in a poignant episode of “The Next Generation” in its sixth year, playing the chief engineer who had been stuck for 75 years in a transporter beam buffer. The title of the show: “Relics”.

But no amount of science fiction could prevent the grim reality of his advanced years from surfacing. The late television star had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's disease and other ailments. Doohan’s longtime friend Steve Stevens said the cause of death was Alzheimer’s and pneumonia.

His final frontier will be one fit for such a star. His family has confirmed that, according to his wishes, his ashes will be sent into space.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001150/  IMDB Page.

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The Top 7 Things You Never Knew About James “Scotty” Doohan

Devoted Star Trek fans know almost everything there is to know about the original series and its cast. But some of the hidden facts about the man who played Scotty may come as a surprise to more casual fans.

Here’s a look back at the seven things you may never have known about the man and his most famous role.

1) Doohan served proudly in the Royal Canadian Artillery, and fought in D-Day. That’s where he suffered several injuries, including the loss of the middle finger of his right hand. Despite all his on screen time, there are only two episodes of the original "Star Trek" series where the injury is noticeable – “The Trouble with Tribbles” and “Cat’s Paw”.

2) When Doohan returned to Canada after the war, he got into local radio here, and wound up with an acting scholarship in New York City. His fellow alums at the Neighbourhood Playhouse included Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall and Jackie Gleason.

3) Doohan came by his sci-fi roots honestly. He had roles in some of TV’s very earliest space operas, including the rarely seen “Tales Of Tomorrow” in 1952, which some call the medium’s first regularly scheduled science fiction show. A year later, he was back, in the recurring role of “Phil Mitchell” on the kid friendly Canadian-produced “Space Command”.

4) Doohan earned a number of accolades, including a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. But the one that may have meant most to him came from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He won an honourary degree there after a poll indicated half the students who attended were inspired to take up the profession because of his TV character.

5) Doohan was gifted in languages, and he was the one who apparently originated the basics of the Klingon language that was first introduced in 1979’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” Since then, the faux tongue has been used to translate everything from dictionaries to the Bible.

6) James Doohan was active until quite late in life, and actually fathered a son with his wife Wendie when she was 43 – and he was 80! Sarah beamed into the world on April 11, 2000.

7) No one in the show ever actually said "Beam me up, Scotty," but like "Play it again, Sam" in Casablanca, the misquote somehow became a cultural touchstone.

Despite hearing it over and over again for four decades, Doohan always insisted it didn't bother him.

"I'm not tired of it at all," he responded. 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."

July 20, 2005