In the old days, well old days to
you but not such old days to me, certain actors and actresses would become so
popular that they would go on seemingly forever in films, until they were not
able to do the job any longer or died. Some of these people were Henry Fonda,
John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and others. This was said to be attributed to their
great skill at acting. I guess you would have to say that this was the golden
age of movies. Television started to become popular. William Shatner was not an
actor that you would put into the class of a Fonda, Taylor, or Bogart. He never
claimed that he was. He began his acting career in 1950. He was born in 1931
and kept his real name which is very unusual. His full name is William Alan
Shatner and as most people know, he was born in Canada. His grandfather was Wolf
Schattner and anglicized the family name to Shatner. Shatner was raised in the
conservative Jewish religion. There is something about Shatner's personality
that seems to make us like to watch him. I remember watching him recently on an
interview show that he had on cable and he interviewed
Leonard Nimoy. Does
Shatner have some power over us that we are not aware of?
It was a very early tv show for
children that featured a marionette as Howdy Doody. Shatner played Ranger Bob
in the Canadian Version. Shatner did have some experience in the movies and was
in the movie, The Brothers Karamazov. He played the younger brother. The film
featured many big names of the time such as Yul Brynner, Lee J. Cobb, Richard
Basehart, Albert Salmi, Maria Schell, Clare Bloom and others. Although Shatner
made many movies other than Star Trek, I do not believe that is where his
popularity arose from. It came initially from television. Millions of people
have grown up watching Shatner perform some hammy acting at times in the
series, but there was that something that he had that made every episode
enjoyable. Star Trek conventions began to appear everywhere and suddenly
everything Star Trek became collectable. Kirk (William Shatner) started to
appear in small plastic statue form in all different Star Trek toys. Then came
the Star Trek movies. Shatner seemed to have perfected his acting ability to
the point where it was even more enjoyable in the films than it had been on the
tv screen. The first movie was Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The other films
featuring the original cast were Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek
IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, StarTrek VI: The
Undiscovered Country. The last Star Trek film that Shatner was to appear in was
Star Trek: Generations.
It had been some time since he had appeared
on television. Before I get into that I have to tell you that Shatner received
or was nominated for numerous awards for his acting. 2005 Golden Globe: Best
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion
Picture Made for Television - Winner
1999 Emmy: Outstanding Guest Actor
in a Comedy Series - Nominee
2004 Emmy: Outstanding Guest Actor
in a Drama Series - Winner
2005 Emmy: Outstanding Supporting
Actor in a Drama Series - Winner
2006 Emmy: Outstanding Supporting
Actor in a Drama Series - Nominee
2007 Emmy: Outstanding Supporting
Actor in a Drama Series - Nominee
2008 Golden Globe: Best Performance
by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made
for Television - Nominee
2008 Emmy: Outstanding Supporting
Actor in a Drama Series - Nominee
2009 Emmy: Outstanding Supporting
Actor in a Drama Series - Nominee
Shatner was featured in several
television series. They were the $10,000 Pyramid, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Battle of the Network
Stars, Dr. Kildare, T.J. Hooker, The Defenders, The Late Late Show with Craig
Kilborn and the Practice. He also has been the guest star on shows over 260
times and growing. He has appeared in over 52 movies as either an actor or voice.
To this we have to add that he produced some shows and directed some episodes
of shows.
At 79 years old, as of the writing
of this article, Shatner is not finished yet and currently has a new show to
fulfill our need to see him, it is called Shatner's Raw Nerve and appears on
the Bio channel. It is basically an interview show where a guest comes on and
is asked interesting questions by Shatner. I guess we will just have to satisfy
our Shatner needs without the action that used to accompany them. An old
Shatner is better than no Shatner at all.
Ken is the webmaster of
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