Award-winning Canadian actor and musician William Shatner was born on March 22, 1933 in Montreal, Quebec. After graduating with a commerce degree from McGill’s University in 1952, the classically trained Shakespearean actor played in several Shakespeare plays in Canada, and later moved on to Broadway. He then took different roles in television and film, working up from minor roles until appearing in his own series, the short-lived but acclaimed drama For the People with Jessica Walter.
It was in 1966, however, when Shatner became known to many viewers. He was chosen to play Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek series, a role which he would play until the program’s conclusion in 1969. However, he reprised the role, albeit only through his voice, in Star Trek: The Animated Series, and also appeared as the character in the first seven Star Trek films; he also directed the fifth. In fact, he solely played Kirk’s character for 40 years, until Chris Pine was chosen to play him in the modern film take on the series.
The success Star Trek brought wasn’t smooth sailing for Shatner, however. In the decade between the end of the original series and the first Star Trek film, he barely received acting projects, believed to be because of him being typecast as Captain Kirk. He took several bit roles to support his family, with the exception of the lead in short-lived series Barbary Coastm and slowly he returned to prominence. After the success of the first Star Trek film, which established him as a cultural icon, he made his return to television, playing the title character in the police drama T.J. Hooker, and became the host of the reality-based series Rescue 911.
Shatner finally went full circle in 2004, when he appeared as a guest on legal drama The Practice. His role as eccentric but highly capable lawyer Denny Crane earned him an Emmy in 2004. He reprised the role in its spin-off series, Boston Legal; he won a Golden Globe and another Emmy.
Shatner’s also had some success with his musical career, starting with the 1968 spoken word album The Transformed Man. His later friendship with singer-songwriter Ben Folds led to them collaborating in the former’s well-received sophomore release, Has Been, which came out in 2004.
In 2004, Shatner won his first Emmy Award for his role as “Denny Crane” on The Practice. In 2005, he won his first Golden Globe award and a second Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his work on Boston Legal.
-Kirk: Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
-Lt. Bailey: We have phasers, I vote we blast 'em!
-Kirk: Thank you, Mr. Bailey, I'll consider that when this becomes a democracy.
-Kirk: The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play.
-Kirk: Without freedom of choice there is no creativity.
-Kirk: I'm a soldier, not a diplomat. I can only tell the truth.
-Kirk: My friend is obviously Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain.
-Spock: Perhaps the unfortunate accident I had as a child.
-Kirk: ...The unfortunate accident he had as a child. He caught his head in a mechanical... rice picker.
-Kirk: Conquest is easy. Control is not.
- Kirk: Mr. Spock, the women on your planet are logical. That's the only planet in this galaxy that can make that claim.
-Sulu: Once in Siberia, there was a meteor so great that it flattened whole forests and was felt as...
-Kirk: Mr. Sulu, If I'd wanted a Russian history lesson, I'd have brought along Mr. Chekov.