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| Birth Name(s) : William Shatner |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
Elizabeth Anderson Martin (2001 - present) |
| Profession:
N/A |
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Full William Shatner Biography
William Alan Shatner (born on March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor who gained fame for playing Captain James Tiberius Kirk, captain of the starship USS Enterprise in the television show Star Trek from 1966 to 1969 and in seven of the subsequent movies. Shatner has written a series of books chronicling his experiences playing James T. Kirk and being a part of Star Trek. He also played the title role as veteran police sergeant T.J. Hooker, from 1982 to 1986. He has since worked as a musician, bestselling author, producer, director, and celebrity pitchman, most notably for Priceline.com. He currently co-stars as attorney Denny Crane on the television drama Boston Legal, for which he has won an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award.
Though his official movie debut was in the 1951 Canadian film entitled The Butler's Night Off, Shatner's first feature role came in the 1958 MGM film The Brothers Karamazov with Yul Brynner, in which he starred as the youngest of the Karamazov brothers, Alexei. In 1959, he received decent reviews when he took on the role of Robert Lomax in the Broadway production of The World of Suzie Wong. In 1961 he starred in the Broadway play "A Shot in the Dark" opposite Julie Harris and directed by Harold Clurman. Walter Matthau and Gene Saks were also featured in this play (in which there was no Inspector Clouseau character).
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.
In 2005, Shatner executive-produced and starred in the Spike TV reality miniseries Invasion Iowa. On October 19, 2005, while working on the set of Boston Legal, Shatner was taken to the emergency room for lower back pain. He eventually passed a kidney stone, but recovered and soon returned to work.
Shatner also plays on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games. He plays for the Wells Fargo Hollywood Charity Horse Show. Shatner has appeared in priceline.com commercials both online and on TV, as the "Chief Negotiating Officer." Shatner is also the CEO of the Toronto, Ontario-based C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, which provided the special effects for the 1996 film Fly Away Home.
Shatner has been married four times; to Gloria Rand from 1956 to 1969, Marcy Lafferty from 1973 to 1994, Nerine Kidd from 1997 to 1999, and his current wife Elizabeth Martin whom he married in 2001. Shatner has three daughters, Leslie Carol (b. 1958), Lisabeth Mary (b. 1960), and Melanie (b. 1964), from his marriage to Rand. Melanie had a brief career as an actress and is now the proprietor of Dari, an upscale women's clothing boutique. In his spare time, Shatner enjoys breeding and showing American Saddlebreds and Quarter Horses. Shatner has a 360-acre (1.5 km²) horse farm in Kentucky named Bellreve, where he raises the winning horses.
On August 9, 1999, Shatner returned home around 10 p.m. to discover the body of his wife Nerine at the bottom of their back yard swimming pool. Alcohol and Valium were detected in an autopsy, and a coroner ruled the death an accidental drowning. The LAPD ruled out foul play and the case has been long closed. Speaking to the press shortly after his wife's death, a clearly shaken and emotional Shatner said that she "meant everything" to him and called her his "beautiful soulmate." Shatner urged the public to support Friendly House, a non-profit organization that helps women re-establish themselves in the community after suffering from alcoholism and drug addiction. He later told Larry King in an interview that "...my wife, whom I loved dearly and who loved me, was suffering with a disease that we don’t like to talk about, alcoholism. And she met a tragic ending because of it."
In 2000 a Reuters story reported that Shatner was planning to write and direct The Shiva Club, a dark comedy about the grieving process inspired by his wife's death. The project is still in pre-production. Shatner's 2004 album Has Been produced with Ben Folds included a spoken word piece titled "What Have You Done" which describes his anguish upon discovering his wife's body in the pool.
Shatner performed a reading of the Elton John song "Rocket Man" during the Science Fiction Film Awards, televised in 1978. Dressed in tuxedo ruffles with a hand-rolled cigarette in hand, he spoke with Kirk-like delivery against a synthesizer-laden backdrop of the song.
Shatner provided vocals for "In Love" by Ben Folds on his Fear of Pop album. He would later provide vocals for an alternate version of Folds' song "Rockin' the Suburbs" which was contributed to the Over the Hedge soundtrack in 2006.
Entrepreneur Richard Branson, head of the space tourism company Virgin Galactic, offered William Shatner a free ride into space on the inaugural space launch of the VSS Enterprise scheduled for 2008, saving Shatner US$200,000; however, Shatner turned it down, and said, "I do want to go up but I need guarantees I'll definitely come back." |
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