James Doohan, 'Star Trek's' Scotty, dead

[canadateck]

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek" TV series and motion pictures who responded to the command "Beam me up, Scotty," died early Wednesday. He was 85.

Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) at his Redmond, Washington, home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said.

The Canadian-born Doohan was enjoying a busy career as a character actor when he auditioned for a role as an engineer in a new space adventure on NBC in 1966. A master of dialects from his early years in radio, he tried seven different accents.

"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.' "

The series, which starred William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as the enigmatic Mr. Spock, attracted an enthusiastic following of science fiction fans, especially among teenagers and children, but not enough ratings power. NBC canceled it after three seasons.

When the series ended in 1969, Doohan found himself typecast as Montgomery Scott, the canny engineer with a burr in his voice. In 1973, he complained to his dentist, who advised him: "Jimmy, you're going to be Scotty long after you're dead. If I were you, I'd go with the flow."

"I took his advice," said Doohan, "and since then everything's been just lovely."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/20/obit.doohan.ap/index.html

[yoda313]

Hi,

I just posted the story from yahoo at my own website.

That's a terrible shame. He was one of the characters you always loved. He's been suffering from alzheimers for a few years now. What a loss.

He will be missed

Kevin

[tenders]

thats very sad indeed. i grew up with star trek and i always liked jimmy, much more than any other member of th cast.

R.I.P

[ZAPPER]

Aye, a sad day indeed. Farewell

[Sifaga]

scot me up beamy

[yoda313]

Hi,

?????

I think that's "beam me up scotty"

Kevin

[Sifaga]

[Garibaldi]

Very sad indeed

[Darth Paris]

Another Trek legend is lost. His work will be remembered for years to come.

[AlecWest]

Very sad. His career went back a long way to a stint with CBC radio doing radio drama. While his name is not mentioned on the page linked-to below, his best-remembered CBC performance was in Reuben Ship's radio play, "The Investigator," which was an intentional slam against Senator Joseph McCarthy and the unAmerican Activities Committee hearings in the 1950s (forcing Ship to leave the US and move to Canada).

Anyhoo, it can be listened to and/or downloaded here:

http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol3/investigator/investigator.html

[NiteLite]

Sad news indeed. Scotty always seemed such a likeable fellow.
Also sad that Star Trek is gone for good now that Paramount has give up on it. I guess the weak box office takes put it to rest. (?)
James' guest appearance on TNG was great also. Good episode.
At least Deforest has company now.

[tmaxwell2435]

[yoda313]

Hi,

Also sad that Star Trek is gone for good now that Paramount has give up on it.

Nope not gone for good. In this age of endless remakes it will return. Its just on an exteneded hiatus right now. Once they get some new creative blood in there they'll be back. I think they needed to take a break after VOYAGER finished. The resulting Enterprise fiasco proved they were burntout. Hopefully they will be back soon

Kevin

[smearbrick1]

Sad news indeed. Scotty always seemed such a likeable fellow.
Also sad that Star Trek is gone for good now that Paramount has give up on it. I guess the weak box office takes put it to rest. (?)
James' guest appearance on TNG was great also. Good episode.
At least Deforest has company now.

Not to speak ill of the dead or anything (not that I entertain such superstitions), but most things I've heard James Doohan was a huge prick. Eclipsed in prickdom by only George Takei. Of course, you never know.

[BJ_M]

i was a opening party with him once in NY and also a party with him in canada ..

both times he was smashed out of his skull ..... so i have no idea of his personality ..

[Roz]

i was a opening party with him once in NY and also a party with him in canada ..

both times he was smashed out of his skull ..... so i have no idea of his personality ..

It must have been that Klingon beer!

[Xylob the Destroyer]

sadly, I thought he had already died a few years ago...

the words "Beam me up Scotty" were never actually spoken on Star Trek.
James Doohan invented the Klingon language used in all the shows/movies/books for the Star Trek franchise.

[yoda313]

Hi,

the words "Beam me up Scotty" were never actually spoken on Star Trek.

Not on the original tv series. But didn't they come awfully close to saying it in Star Trek 4 or 5????? Seems to me they almost did say.

Kevin

[NiteLite]

Hi,

Also sad that Star Trek is gone for good now that Paramount has give up on it.

Nope not gone for good. In this age of endless remakes it will return. Its just on an exteneded hiatus right now. Once they get some new creative blood in there they'll be back. I think they needed to take a break after VOYAGER finished. The resulting Enterprise fiasco proved they were burntout. Hopefully they will be back soon
Kevin

Sad news indeed. Scotty always seemed such a likeable fellow.
Also sad that Star Trek is gone for good now that Paramount has give up on it. I guess the weak box office takes put it to rest. (?)
James' guest appearance on TNG was great also. Good episode.
At least Deforest has company now.

Not to speak ill of the dead or anything (not that I entertain such superstitions), but most things I've heard James Doohan was a huge prick. Eclipsed in prickdom by only George Takei. Of course, you never know.

yoda, I thought I read last yr. that Viacom/Paramount had ended it's relationship with all Star Trek entertainment. Even the "ST Games" were now ended along with the movie franchise. I hope you are right. I would enjoy another movie w/ TNG team. Indeed they need some new writing blood although I thing Rick Berman is a genius. Also I think it was mention that "Enterprise" the series was the swan song.
I'll have to see if some research will find any more details.
Again, I hope you are correct. Would please me.

smearbrick1, no ill intended or perceived here.....but actually the feud w/ Takei and Shatner was hilarious. Takei was on Howard Stern one night and Howard was really trying to get him to cut loose on Shatner. It was funny. Also when Shatner was on Howard would pull the reverse.
I had heard about Scotty loving the "drink" but had not heard of such attitude I guess because none of his "shipmates" talked about it and the Shatner/ Takei feud held the headlines. It would not be suprising though.
Appreciate the info guys. Interesting.
NL

[smearbrick1]

Hi,

the words "Beam me up Scotty" were never actually spoken on Star Trek.

Not on the original tv series. But didn't they come awfully close to saying it in Star Trek 4 or 5????? Seems to me they almost did say.

Kevin

I believe the quote you are thinking of is "Scotty. Beam us up."

[yoda313]

Hi,

I believe the quote you are thinking of is "Scotty. Beam us up."

Was that Star Trek 5 when they were trying to get off the planet from the fake god aka syboks evil spirit????

Kevin

[BJ_M]

another ST is coming:

It's in pre-production right now ...

#11 the pre-prequel

Though since Rick Berman contract runs out in 2006 , it may be sold off to another company ...

[yoda313]

another ST is coming:

It's in pre-production right now ...

#11 the pre-prequel

Though since Rick Berman contract runs out in 2006 , it may be sold off to another company ...

Hi,

Really???? Is it mentioned at www.startrek.com???

Kevin

[Darth Paris]

I thought the new movie was taking place after Enterprise. Wouldn't that make it a post-prequal?

I made this wallpaper when I found out. What do you guys think?

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/8428/scotty0fb.jpg

It was harder then I thought it would be to make. There seems to be a shortage of ST TOS screencaps on the net.

[yoda313]

Hi,

I thought the new movie was taking place after Enterprise

I tried some net searching. It's spotty but it was saying it would be "independent" of the Enterprise tv series.

So are they finally admitting Enterprise was a bad idea??? Maybe they're trying to retell the prequel PROPERLY?

Kevin

(by the way - nicely done with the memorial paris )

[BJ_M]

http://www.newvoyages.com/index2.html is also still slowly cranking out a few ...

[Darth Paris]

New Voyages is pretty good considering it is a fan production.

[yoda313]

Hi,

I downloaded both episodes and burned them to dvd. There quite good. I appreciate the effort and dedication the cast and crew put into the production.

Did you hear that Walter Koenig will guest star in their next episode????

Kevin

[Darth Paris]

Will he be playing Chekov?

[yoda313]

Hi,

Yes apparently so.

Kevin