William Shatner

At 93 years old, William Shatner has this physical status:

William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor, writer, producer, screenwriter, and singer.

Shatner's portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk of the US Enterprise in the Star Trek film became a cultural icon in his seven decades of television.

He has written a series of books about his experiences as Captain Kirk and being a part of Star Trek, as well as other Star Trek novels.

He has also written a series of science fiction books called TekWar that were later published on television. Shatner appeared in T. J. Hooker (1982–1986) and produced the reality-based television series Rescue 911 (1989–1996), which received a People's Choice Award for the Most Popular New TV Dramatic Series.

Shatner appeared in seasons 4 and 5 of NBC's 3rd Rock from the Sun as the "Big Giant Head" that the alien characters were referring to. He appeared on The Practice and in the spinoff series Boston Legal, earning him two Emmy Awards from 2004 to 2008.

In both seasons of the comedic NBC real-life travelogue with other male friends "of a certain age" in Better Late Than Never, from 2016 to 2017.

Shatner has been active in music and spoken-word recordings since the late 1960s, having sold eight albums.

Early life

Shatner was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on March 22, 1931, to a Conservative Jewish household. Ann (née Garmaise) and Joseph Shatner, a clothing company, were his parents. He is the middle child of three siblings: Joy Rutenberg (1928-1928–) and Farla Cohen (1940–). Schattner, his patrilineal family name, was anglicized; it was his grandfather, Wolf Schattner, who anglicized it. Both four of Shatner's grandparents are Jews immigrants from settlements in Ukraine and Lithuania, but not under the Russian Empire's rule.

Shatner attended two schools in Notre Dame-de-Grâce, Willingdon Elementary School, and West Hill High School, and is an alumnus of the Montreal Children's Theatre. He studied Economics at the McGill University Faculty of Management in Montreal, where he earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1952. In 2011, McGill University granted him the Doctorate of Letters honorary. In May 2018, the New England Institute of Technology conferred him the same accolade.

Personal life

Shatner is displeased with his appearances. He claims there are episodes of the original Star Trek television series that he has never seen, and he is just as opposed to watching his performance in Boston Legal. He has claimed that the only Star Trek movie he has seen is one that he produced and so clearly watched when it was being edited, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Robert Wise's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but he recalled how disappointed he was when he saw the premiere of the first Star Trek film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in his 1993 book Star Trek Memories, he was disappointed.

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Shatner is a long-serving resident of the United States and holds a green card.

Shatner has been married four times. Gloria Rand (née Rabinowitz), a Canadian actress, married on August 12, 1956, was his first wife. Leslie (born in 1958), Lisabeth (born in 1961), and Melanie (born in 1964). When performing in Star Trek: The Original Series, Shatner divorced Rand, after which he divorced her in March 1969.

Marcy Lafferty, the daughter of TV producer Perry Lafferty, was Shatner's second wife. Shatner's marriage, from 1973 to 1996, was their longest, but they did not have any more children.

Nerine Kidd, Shatner's third wife, married in 1997. She was discovered lifeless at the bottom of their backyard swimming pond about 10 p.m. on August 9, 1999. She was forty years old. The coroner determined that accidental drowning caused her death by accident, although the Los Angeles Police Department, acknowledging that there were no signs of foul play, closed its file. Shatner said she had "meant everything" to him after his wife's death, although obviously in a state of shock, and that she described him as his "beautiful soulmate" in a soaring fashion. Since trying to free themselves from alcoholism or other forms of heroin use, he urged the public to help women re-establish their lives. In an interview with Larry King, "my wife, whom I adore deeply and who adored me, was suffering from an illness we don't like to discuss: alcoholism. And because of it, she had a tragic ending.

Shatner's book Up To Now: The Autobiography of 2008, Stephen Nimoy, a no stranger to alcoholism, told how Leonard Nimoy, a no stranger to alcoholism, had done his best to prevent the tragedy that Kidd's illness had posed: a deadly reminder of his illness.

Shatner was planning to write and direct The Shiva Club, a dark comedy about the grieving process influenced by his wife's death, according to a Reuters article in 2000. "What Have You Done," Shatner's 2004 album Has Been, a spoken word piece that refers to his surprise at finding Nerine's body.

Shatner married Elizabeth Anderson Martin in 2001. On Shatner's album Has Been, she co-wrote the song "Together" in 2004. In 2019, Shatner filed for divorce from Elizabeth. In January 2020, the divorce was finalized.

When both actors guest-starred in an episode of The Man From U.C.L.E., "The Project Strigas Affair," Shatner appeared on screen with Leonard Nimoy in 1964. Shatner and Nimoy were involved in a career feud that developed into a close friendship, much like their characters on Star Trek. Shatner and Nimoy reunited in the production of Star Trek: The Animated Series, as well as The $20,000 Pyramid, where "Kirk vs. Spock" appeared on two separate tables after the show's cancellation in 1969. In addition to this, Nimoy appeared on T. J. Hooker, in which Shatner appeared as the title character. Shatner revealed that he and Nimoy did not meet in the five years before his death the year before.

During the Star Trek years, Nimoy talked about their common rivalry:

"Bill Shatner hogging the stage," Nimoy said at an episode of A&E's Biography, where it was also revealed that Nimoy was Shatner's best man at his wedding with his fourth wife Elizabeth." No. I am not familiar with Bill Shatner's knowledge. "I loved him like a brother" when Nimoy died in 2015, Shatner said. We'll all miss his humour, his natural abilities, and his ability to love." Although Shatner was unable to attend Nimoy's funeral due to other commitments, his children attended in his place, and Shatner created his own online memorial for Nimoy.

Since 1988, Shatner has been friends with actress Heather Locklear, who co-starred with him on T. J. Hooker. Dynasty, Locklear, was asked by Entertainment Tonight whether her schedule was arduous as she was also playing in another Aaron Spelling production. "I'd get really excited and want to be prepared" for Shatner and the Dynasty's veteran cast members. Shatner helped Locklear assist in various capacities after T.J. Hooker's resignation. When Shatner was mourning Nerine's death in 1999, she aided her. Locklear appeared in two episodes of Shatner's Boston Legal as Kelly Nolan, a woman being tried for murdering her much older, wealthy husband. Shatner's character is attracted to Nolan and he attempts to insert himself into her defense. Locklear replied when asked how she came to be on Boston Legal, "I love the show." It's my all-loved show, and I sorta said, "Shouldn't I be William Shatner's illegitimate daughter or his love interest?"

For years, some of Shatner's Star Trek co-stars accused him of being difficult to work with, particularly George Takei, Walter Koenig, and James Doohan, the latter two of whom Shatner acknowledges in his autobiography Star Trek Movie Memories. Koenig appeared on Shatner's Raw Nerve in 2011 and made it clear that the animosity he once held was long over. In Takei's 2004 memoir, To the Stars, his rivalry with Takei was mentioned.

Shatner made numerous attempts to reconcile with Doohan in the 1990s, but it was ultimately unsatisfaction with Doohan's refusal to be interviewed by Shatner for his 1993 book Star Trek Memories. Doohan appeared in the 1994 sequel to Star Trek Movie Memories, and an Associated Press story published at the time of Doohan's last convention appearance in August 2004 revealed that Doohan, who was already suffering from serious health issues, forgave Shatner and they broke their relationship. Sky Conway, the convention's president, said, "At our show: The Great Bird of the Galaxy" in El Paso, Texas, a tribute to Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek, was on stage together, leading to Doohan's last convention. They hugged, apologized, and expressed their admiration for each other behind the scenes and before going on stage. Bill specifically advised me to get them together so he could make amends and clear the air between the two of them before it was too late."

Shatner suffers from tinnitus, which he believes might have occurred on set while shooting the 1967 Star Trek episode "Arena," although he didn't experience symptoms until the early 1990s. Shatner is a member of the American Tinnitus Association. "Helped his brain put the tinnitus in the background," a process that is known as habituation, was involved in his disease.

Shatner revealed in 2020 that he suffers from swelling in joints and other age-related "aches and pains." He uses CBD oil to treat his pain.

Shatner's kidney stone was sold for $25,000 to GoldenPalace.com in 2006. Shatner said the $25,000 and an additional $20,000 received from the cast and crew of Boston Legal for the construction of a house for Habitat for Humanity in a appearance on The View on May 16, 2006.

Shatner likes raising and showing American Saddlebreds and Quarter Horses in his spare time. In Star Trek Generations, he rode one of his own horses, Great Belles of Fire. Shatner farms near Versailles, Kentucky, named Belle Reve Farm (from French beau rêve, "Beautiful Dream"), where he raises American Saddlebreds. Call Me Ringo, Revival, and Sultan's Great Day are three of his most popular horses. The farm's activities support the Central Kentucky Riding for Heroes' "Horses for Heroes" initiative. Shatner is also on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home Games, where celebrities compete for their favorite charities. He has been a driving force behind the Hollywood Charity Horse Show, which raises funds for children's charities since 1990.

In 2018, Shatner was named National Reining Horse Association Lifetime Achievement Award in the National Reining Horse Association Hall of Fame. While exhibiting at the Kentucky State Fair World's Championship Horse Show in Louisville, he won a world championship with his Standardbred road horse Track Star.

Shatner was the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, on New Year's Day 1994. He rode his horse down the parade route rather than riding in a classic vehicle. He appeared in the pregame ceremonies including the coin toss between the University of Wisconsin Badgers and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Bruins during the 80th Rose Bowl game afterward. Wisconsin will win the game 21-16.

Shatner, a keen equestrian, was one of the Grand Marshals for the 102nd Calgary Stampede in 2014.

Shatner appeared at the 2016 Salt Lake Comic Con as a special guest.

Shatner was the "captain" of the maiden voyage of a Star Trek-themed cruise "Star Trek: The Cruise" in 2017. The cruise was the first licensed show on CBS Productions to commemorate the show's 50th anniversary. Shatner requested that the 2018 cruise not have any "swim with dolphins" experiences, and then inform the Norwegian Cruise Line's CEO that "exploitation of any species for profit and entertainment would have breached the Prime Directive."

Shatner appeared on the Star Trek: the Original Series set re-creation in Ticonderoga, New York, which included personally leading tours of small groups.

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Acting and literary career

Shatner's film career began while attending college. Bill Shatner's Night Off: He appeared in a Canadian comedy drama called "a crook" in 1951, but the site's credits identify him as "a crook." He spent time as an assistant manager and actor at both the Mountain Playhouse in Montreal and the Canadian National Repertory Theatre in Ottawa before attending the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. He appeared in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, in which he made his Broadway debut in 1956. Tyrone Guthrie's brief appearance in the first scene of a high-profile Sophocles Rex production introduced him to television viewers around the world. Henry V had combined playing the minor part of Gloucester with understudying Christopher Plummer as the king: Shatner's decision to present a new interpretation of his role rather than merely pleading for his senior's as a sign of initiative and potential. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the Plummer later appeared as a Klingon enemy of Captain Kirk's. Guthrie also rated the young Shatner as the most promising actor to be hired at his Festival, later recalling him as the best performing actor he had ever seen, and for a time, he was regarded as a potential peer of Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford. In the aftermath of Pat Jordan's book "work equals work," he attributed his subsequent failure to his starrier contemporaries' failure to earn the coveted accolade owed to his predecessors' success, as well as his participation in several "fortible" initiatives that undoubtedly did more harm than good during his career. In Jordan's opinion, he appeared on time, knew his lines, was efficient, and always answered his phone.

Shatner left Stratford and moved to New York City in the hopes of establishing a career on Broadway in 1954. In a children's program called The Howdy Doody Show, he portrayed Ranger Bob, co-starring with a cast of puppets and Clarabell the Clown, whose discussion with Shatner consisted entirely of honks on a bicycle horn. It was four years before he appeared in MGM's The Brothers Karamazov as Alexei, the youngest of the siblings, a cast that included Yul Brynner. He appeared in Bethlehem on the day of Jesus' birth in a Hallmark Hall of Fame live television production called The Christmas Tree, starring Margaret Hamilton, Bernadette Peters, Richard Thomas, Cyril Ritchard, and Carol Channing. His television star was raised even more when he appeared in a film called "The Glass Eye" by Alfred Hitchcock (1957–58) on August.

In 1959, Shatner received raves for his role in Lomax's Broadway appearance. While still appearing in the film, Archie Goodwin appeared in what would have been TV's first Nero Wolfe series if not cancelled by CBS after shooting a pilot and a few episodes.

Shatner appeared in two episodes of "Nick of Time" (1960) and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (1963); when a Twilight Zone portmanteau film was released twenty years later, it was with a reimagining of the former episode that culminated in the film climaxed. Wayne Gorham appeared twice in NBC's Outlaws (1960) Western series with Barton MacLane and then returned to Alfred Hitchcock Presents for a 5th-season episode, "Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?" In 1961, when co-starring Julie Harris, he appeared on Broadway in A Shot in the Dark, directed by Harold Clurman; Gene Saks and Walter Matthau also appeared in the film, with Matthau winning a Tony Award for his role. Shatner appeared in two episodes of the NBC television series "The Grim Reaper" and "The Hungry Glass") as well as the film The Explosive Generation (1961). He played a leading role in Roger Corman's film The Intruder (1962) and received raves for his important role in the Stanley Kramer film Judgment (1961). He appeared in an episode of the ABC series Channing in the 1963–64 season. He appeared in "The Soldier" in the Family Theater production in 1963 and gained recognition in other areas of The Psalms collection. In the episode "Build Your Houses with Their Backs to the Sea," he appeared in Route 66 that year.

Shatner appeared in the second episode of ABC's science fiction anthology series "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" in 1964. He appeared in an episode of CBS drama "He Stuck in His Thumb" and co-starred Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Newman, and Edward G. Robinson in the Western feature film The Outrage earlier this year. In an episode of The Man from U.C.L.E., 1964, Shatner appeared alongside him. Leonard Nimoy appeared in Star Trek's later years, and he's later to be his co-star. In 1964, Alexander the Great as the titular Alexander in a new series called Alexander the Great alongside Adam West as Cleaner. The pilot was not picked up, and it did not return to television until 1968, when it was repackaged as a television show to cash in on the success that West and Shatner had won in the interim. Shatner hoped that the series would be a hit, but West was apparently surprised by the pilot's death, referring to it as "one of the worst scripts I've ever read" and referring to it as "one of the worst things I've ever read."

In 1965, Shatner appeared in 12 O'Clock High as Major Curt Brown in the film "I Am the Enemy." He was the lead actor in a legal drama starring a woman played by Jessica Walter in the first year; ironically, it was only the show's cancellation that allowed him to walk onto the Enterprise's bridge the following year. In the 1966 gothic horror film Incubus (Esperanto: Inkubo), the second full-length film ever made, with all dialogue in Esperanto. In 1966, Fred Bateman appeared in an episode of Gunsmoke as the protagonist. In a 1966 episode of "Time to Kill," he appeared as attorney-turned-counterfeiter Brett Skyler. Johnny Moon, a virtuous half-Comanche gunman, and Notah, a bloodthirsty warlord, appeared in the little-known spaghetti western White Comanche in 1967.

For the second pilot of Star Trek, Captain James T. Kirk was named as Captain James T. Kirk, and "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was the pilot. He was then contracted to star Kirk for the remainder of the program, and he spent time in the US Enterprise's captain's chair from 1966 to 1969. The show received only modest ratings during its initial run on NBC, and it was cancelled after three seasons and seventy-nine episodes. Plato's Stepchildren, which aired on November 22, 1968, is often cited as the first example of a white man kissing a black woman on scripted television in the United States. Shatner returned to Kirk in 1973, but only in voice, in the animated Star Trek series, which lasted for two seasons and twenty-two episodes.

Shatner had a difficult time seeking jobs in the early 1970s, especially after Star Trek's demise in 1969, having become somewhat like James Tiberius Kirk. He lost his home and was confined to living in a truck-bed camper in San Fernando Valley, with no money and no acting opportunities. He refers to this period of his life as "that period," a humbling time in which he might take any odd jobs, including small party appearances, in order to benefit his family.

Shatner's film work in this period of his career was limited to such B-movies as Roger Corman's Big Bad Mama (1974), the horror film The Devil's Rain (1975) and Kingdom of the Spiders (1977). He made a critical appearance as a prosecutor in a 1971 PBS version of Saul Levitt's The Andersonville Trial (1972) and The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973). He appeared in several well-known shows of the decade, including Columbo, Ironside, Kung Fu, Mission: Impossible, The Rookies, and The Six Million Dollar Man, as a guest star on Barbary Coast from 1975 to 1976. Shatner was able to offer casting directors an American Kenpo karate course by black belt Tom Bleecker, who had in turn been trained by American Kenpo, Ed Parker.

Shatner appeared on a number of television game shows, including Beat the Clock, Celebrity Bowling, The Hollywood Squares, Match Game, Tattletales, and Mike Stokey's Stump the Stars. His curriculum vitae in this area included visits to The $10,000 Pyramid and its more generous sequels, contestants trying to guess a word or phrase with the support of hints from a famous partner. Shatner's contributions to the Pyramid series included a week-long match-up pitting him against Leonard Nimoy in an event billed as "Kirk versus Spock." He committed a blunder on YouTube in 1977: rather than trying to direct his partner to the word "things that are blessed," he blurted out the word "blessed" instead of, as he had intended, quoting Virgin Mary. Because of his mistake, the contestant who was partnered with him was effectively barred from winning what would have been a $20,000. Shatner was so furious over his mistake that he leapt out of his chair, picked it up, and threw it out of the show's legendary Winner's Circle. Richard Dawson revealed that when Mark Goodson was considering who to cast as the host of Family Feud (1976), he would have selected Shatner if not compelled to give the job to Dawson by a threat from Dawson's agent.

Advertising companies also helped Shatner get through his post-Kirk doldrums. Among the television commercials for which he was recruited were spots promoting GM' Promise margerine, the British Columbia-based supermarket chain SuperValu and its Ontarian counterpart, Loblaws; Canadian viewers became aware that "At Loblaws is more accurate" than the price is correct. However, the price is correct," says gosh.

It became a cult following among people watching syndicated reruns of the series, and Captain Kirk became a cultural icon after Star Trek was cancelled. Fans of the show, also known as Trekkies, began arranging conventions where they could meet like-minded enthusiasts, buy Star Trek items, and enjoy question and answer sessions with members of the show's regular cast members. Many of the actors who had crewed the Enterprise became regular attendees at these performances, including Shatner.

Paramount began producing Star Trek: Phase II in the mid-1970s, citing the growing enthusiasm for Star Trek. However, despite being astonished by George Lucas' film Star Wars' overwhelming success in 1977, the studio decided that Star Trek would earn them more money if the next adventure of the Enterprise was not on television but in theaters. When Paramount released Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, Shatner and the other original Star Trek cast members returned to their roles. He went on to appear in six more Star Trek films: The Wrath of Khan (1984), Star Trek III: The Undiscovered Country (1991) and—in a story that culminated in the captain's self-sacrificial death—Star Trek Generations (1994). In a 2006 DirecTV commercial that used a clip from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Seth MacFarlane's final appearance as James Tiberius, he reprised the role as James Tiberius.

Though the revival of Star Trek from oblivion came about due to Trekkies' excitement, Shatner's reaction to them is not critical. He advised a room full of Trekkies to "get a life" in a much-discussed 1986 Saturday Night Live sketch about a Star Trek convention. The remark was an accurate summary of his supporters' opinion, which he had expressed in numerous interviews. He was adorned in unwelcome forms right from the start of his tenure as Captain Kirk; a group of them tried to rip his clothes off him as he left 30 Rockefeller Plaza in April 1968. In the romantic comedy film Free Enterprise (1998), in which he contributed a caricature of himself to a film that mocked some Trekkies' Kirk idolatry, his amusement at the conduct of his lunatic fringe of his followers was reflected. In the films Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) and National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993), he also mocked the cavalier, almost superhuman, persona of Captain Kirk.

When Shatner was first introduced as a veteran Los Angeles police sergeant in T. J. Hooker in 1982, he was once more the leading character of a high-profile television show. The series starred Shatner, Heather Locklear and James Darren, who later became a regular cast member of the third live-action Star Trek show, Deep Space Nine, for five seasons and ninety-one episodes before 1986. T. J. Hooker's popularity led to Shatner's hosting of Rescue 911, the popular re-enactment series from 1989 to 1996. When he started working as a producer, his career progress slowed even more. T. J. Hooker took over many episodes of T.J. Hooker. After Nimoy's co-directing of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Shatner was entitled to direct a Star Trek movie, but many Trekkies were dissatisfied by the film's visual effects, something he attributed primarily to the movie's visual effects' inability. His growing success on television and in movie theatres in the 1980s did not mean he would stop working for advertisers: the Commodore VIC-20 home computer, for example, was endorsed by him both on television and in print.

Captain Kirk's legendary status was celebrated at a reception on May 19, 1983, when the Hollywood Walk of Fame in honor of him. Shatner has also appeared on Canada's Walk of Fame, in honor of being the first Canadian actor to appear in major series on three US networks—NBC, CBS, and ABC.

Shatner's dream of establishing a television show in which he would play a hard-boiled former police officer serving as a private investigator in a dystopian future inspired him. Shatner began transforming his initial idea into a book when it was postponed by a Writer's Guild strike, and Ron Goulart, a veteran pulp science fiction writer, began to translate his idea into a book. Goulart said he was just an advisor to Shatner's career, but Shatner credits him with rewriting. TekWar, the first fruit of their partnership, was released in 1989 and introduced a series of books that have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Shatner was not the lead character in four TekWar television films, but Walter Bascom, the publisher's boss, was not the lead actor, but his boss, not so much. Shatner played himself in a television series that followed, as well as directing several episodes of it.

Shatner appeared in the British television series This Is Your Life in December 1989, a series in which a celebrity is first booed by the host and then led to a studio for the story of his life in a series of anecdotes related to his acquaintances. Shatner revived Columbo in 1994 to appear as the murderer-of-the-week in the episode Butterfly in shades of grey. With a first-person shooter release, William Shatner's TekWar, he narrated Peter Kuran's documentary film Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie, and his TekWar franchise extended into the world of computer games. Tooth appeared in Will Smith's television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1996, when he was first seen in an episode titled Eye. Tooth. In New Zealand A Twist, he narrated a television miniseries shot. (1998) Shatner appeared in numerous 1999–2000 episodes as the Solomon family, the same alien planet, as the Solomon family, which also becomes a womenizing party animal on Earth. Shatner was nominated for an Emmy Award for his part.

Shatner became remarkably attracted by the travel website priceline.com in the late 1990s, appearing on numerous television advertisements for the firm as a pompous caricature of himself. While he claims that his contributions for priceline earned him stock options, reports that they are now worth hundreds of millions of dollars are exaggerated, according to him. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Toronto, Ontario-based C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, a special effects studio that operated from 1994 to 2010.

Simon & Schuster's book Get a Life!, a memoir of his Trekkie experiences, was published in May 1999. The book includes interviews with some of the most passionate Trekkies, as well as anecdotes about Star Trek conventions, as well as anecdotes about the Star Trek franchise. The book includes interviews with several Trekkies who regard the show not only as entertainment but also as culturally significant.

Shatner appeared in the Sandra Bullock comedy film Miss Congeniality (2000); he also appeared in the film as Stan Fields, the co-host of the Miss United States Pageant; his future Boston Legal co-star Candice Bergen appeared in the film. Shatner appeared in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2004), in which Stan Fields is kidnapped in Las Vegas along with the winner of the previous year's pageant. (When Shatner returned to Gary, Indiana, to host the Miss USA Pageant for real), life imitated art. Shatner voiced Mayor Phlegmming in Osmosis Jones (2001), a high-concept satirical film that mixed live action and animation; the film depicted the cells and microbiota of a human body as the representatives of a community, the city of Frank, which is ruled by an egoistic politician who prioritizes convenience and political interest over human life. Shatner re-created his Star Trek V feat of directing and starring a young Amy Acker, later known as a regular collaborator of Joss Whedon, in Groom Lake, which was released the following year. Shatner appeared in Brad Paisley's Celebrity and Online music videos in 2003, along with Little Jimmy Dickens, Jason Alexander, and Trista Rehn. He appeared in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story (2004), which starred Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn. Manny Coto, one of Star Trek: Enterprise's creators, announced in the October 2004 issue that he was planning a three-episode story arc with Shatner, but the series was cancelled shortly after.

Shatner was brought on to the final season of the legal drama The Practice, after David E. Kelley watched Shatner's commercials. Denny Crane, Shatner's Emmy Award-winning role, was basically "William Shatner the man"; the character was played by Patrick Shatner. Shatner was a member of Boston Legal and earned a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 2005, 2007, and 2009. With his 2005 Emmy Award, he became one of the few actors (along with co-star James Spader as Alan Shore) to win an Emmy Award while portraying the same character in two separate shows. After five seasons and one hundred and one episodes, Shatner remained with Boston Legal until 2008.

Shatner was cast in two high-profile animated films released in 2006. He portrayed Ozzie, an opossum, in DreamWorks' Over the Hedge; in Walt Disney's The Wild, he played Kazar, the movie's villain, a megalomaniacal wildebeest. In January 2007, he began posting daily autobiographical vlogs on the LiveVideo platform as part of a project he branded ShatnerVision; the Shatner Project; rebranded as The Shatner Project; the following year, he began posting vlogging on YouTube. In December 2008, he experimented with the chat show format in Shatner's Raw Nerve, which aired until March 2011. In 2009, Don Salmonella's voice was added to the animated series The Gavones, which was also published on YouTube.

In cameos in which Shatner mocked Republican politician Sarah Palin, he appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. On July 27, 2009, he opened mock-hostilities with the recitation of the address in which she had resigned as governor of Alaska. She and Levi Johnston, the father of her grandchild's child, had published on Twitter two days later. On December 11, 2009, he returned to Palin once more to read excerpts from her autobiography Going Rogue: An American Life, and she, showing her courtesy, responded by quoting excerpts from his own book Up To Now. (Co-authored with David Fisher, who later collaborated with Shatner on a book about Leonard Nimoy and Shatner's friendship with him, up to Now was published in 2008.) Shatner also contributed to O'Brien's recurring "In the Year 3000" series, which began with Shatner's disembodied head floating in space and ending the segment's ostensible tag line: "And so we embark on a cosmic journey into the year 3000," Shatner said. It's the future, man.

Shatner was not "offered or even suggested" for a role in the 2009 film Star Trek. In July 2007, director J. J. Abrams said the production was "desperately trying to find a way to put him in," but that to "shove him in... would be a disgrace," an opinion shared by Shatner in many interviews. Shatner referred to the film as "wonderful" at a convention held in 2010. In his book Star Trek: Academy, two years before its publication, his own story about how the characters of the original series of Star Trek might have met together was published.

Shatner appeared on the Discovery Channel show Weird or What in April 2010, which aired until August 2012. Many segments of the series brought readers of arcana with news about left-field topics such as UFOs and cryptozoology. His career as a comedic television actor in a CBS sitcom based on Justin Halpern's Twitter feed — Shit My Dad Says $#*! My Dad claims that it was cancelled in May 2011 three months after the first broadcast of its final episode was cancelled. In addition, he appeared in one episode of the USA Network's Psych "In for a Penny" as the father of Junior Detective Juliet O'Hara (Maggie Lawson), a role he reprised in the show's 2012 season. Patrick Stewart of Star Trek: The Captains, his first Star Trek film since Star Trek V.A. The Captains, which he also wrote and presented, was a feature-length film in which he talked to all five of the actors who had appeared in the Star Trek sequels that had been released up to that point — Patrick Stewart of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Peter Mulgrew of Star Trek: The Captains, Greg Watson of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In addition, Shatner and his Star Trek VI co-star Christopher Plummer spoke about a partnership that began when the two actors both performed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and reflected Shatner's deep admiration for his colleague.

Shatner's 2012 debutant in theatre came with his return to his roots in theatre. He appeared in Shatner's World, a one-man exhibition, on Broadway in February: We Just Live in It. The show toured throughout the United States after a three-week absence at the Music Box. In May, he appeared on the British satirical television quiz show Have I Got News for You, gaining a footnote in neologism history by combining "pioneer" and "pensioner" into the portmanteau coinage "pensioneer." He appeared on Epix, a premium cable TV network, as the star of Get a Life!, a documentary film about Star Trek enthusiasts that he had written in the aftermath of his Saturday Night Live rebuke to them. He revived the music video game genre on September 25, appearing as a home plate umpire in Brian Evans' "At Fenway" as a crooner.

Shatner held an autobiographical one-man show on Broadway on April 24, 2014, which was shot for subsequent screening in more than 700 theatres around Australia, Canada, and the United States. A significant portion of the project's funds went to charity. Mark Twain appeared in an episode of Murdoch Mysteries and Croatoan – Audrey Parker's volatile, interdimensional father, in the last episodes of the SyFy channel's fantasy series Haven's fifth and final season. Trekkies were treated to a sequel to The Captains, which he created, scripted, and directed, as well as a film in which he appeared. The Next Generation, William Shatner.

Better Late Than Never, a NBC reality miniseries that premiered on August 23, 2016, followed Shatner and a quartet of other senior guests—Terry Bradshaw, Jeff Dye, George Foreman, and Henry Winkler—as they embarked on a grand tour around Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia. Bradshaw, the Pittsburgh Steelers' most popular quarterback, was "putty in my hands," Shatner joked. Shatner Singularity, a comic-book publisher, was another new venture to launch this year, with a list including Stan Lee's 'God Woke' by Lee and Mariano and Fabian Nicieza. The book received the Outstanding Books of the Year (IBW) Award at the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Independent Voice Award.

Shatner's best television work in 2017 was in the second season of Better Late Than Never: a preview episode from December 11, 2017 that was followed by a formal season premiere on New Year's Day of 2018. In the seventh season episode of Friendship is Magic, his equestrian enthusiasm found a home in my animated children's show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, where he appeared as Grand Pear, Applejack's defunct maternal grandfather and her siblings. In a Twitter post quoting one of the show's catchphrases, he revealed that he was himself a so-called brony, one of the show's devotees. Evans was also featured in a second music video with Brian Evans, this time promoting Evans' cover of the Dolly Parton song "Here You Come Again."

Shatner came to the center of national controversy in 2021, when it was revealed that a famous science documentary show hosted by William Shatner, I Don't Understand With William Shatner, was going to be broadcast on RT from July 12. "Captain Kirk has come over to the positive side," RT's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan said. Shatner, a Russian journalist who was chastised for his work with the government-controlled media, branded his accuser a hypocrite and compared his relationship with RT to the one in which the channel had the right to air American football games. Shatner posted a tweet four days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, expressing unqualified support for the Ukrainians in the resistance campaign against their assassination attempt. He pulled out of his show on March 2nd, citing the war as his reason for doing so. On March 3, RT America announced that it would no longer be broadcasting.

Shatner appeared in Senior Moment in 2021, which co-starred Jean Smart and Christopher Lloyd. In March 2021, the film was released in the same week as Shatner's 90th birthday.

Shatner appeared in season eight of The Masked Singer as "Knight" (depicted as a knight riding a golden goose). The golden goose that "Knight" rides keeps attacking Nick Cannon, which makes it a running gag. In the first episode with Eric Idle as "Hedgehog" and Chris Kirkpatrick as "Hummingbird," he was eliminated. Shatner, who is 91, is the oldest person to participate on the show.

Career as a recording artist

Shatner made his debut on record stores in 1968 with the debut of an album titled The Transformed Man. It included readings from classic plays as well as highly recited recitations of the texts of thematically related popular songs, both set against a backdrop of instrumental accompaniment. "Mr Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan and Lennon-McCartney's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" were two of the LP's hits during Shatnerfication. Shatner's idiosyncratic way with songs on this record, an approach that is so amusing that it barely even qualifies as Sprechstimme, was a style to which he stayed faithful throughout his recording career.

On a Lemli Records double album, Shatner Live, a performance that Shatner gave during a tour in 1971 was released. On the LPs' bill of fare, he was reminiscing about his Trek work and reading excerpts from Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, H. G. Wells's War of the Worlds, and Bertolt Brecht's Galileo. The album was reissued by another firm, this time as a double LP, with the title now titled William Shatner Live: Captain of the Starship. The album's sleeve was decorated with a snapshot of Shatner brandishing an upturned camera tripod in the style of Jim Kirk fighting with a phaser rifle, devoid of Star Trek branding due to licensing constraints.

Has Been's second studio album didn't appear until a third of a century after his first: a million-dollar tribute to Shatner's second album came out in October 2004. It was created by Ben Folds and arranged by him, as well as a re-cap of Joe Jackson's Pulp hit "Common People." Major Tom Seeking was the first major Tom to follow in October 2011. It was first revealed by Shatner under the name of Major Tom before reverting to the name he had given it originally. Shatner's coworkers included well-known musicians, including Brad Paisley, Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society, Peter Frampton, Brian May of Queen, Keith May of Queen, Yes, John Wetton of King Crimson and Asia, Ken Blackmore of Deep Purple, Alan Parsons, and Bootsy Collins of Parliament-Funkadelic. The album contained excerpts from Pink Floyd's "Learning to Fly," David Bowie's "Space Oddity," and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," astronomically themed and with a general sense of heavy metal.

Ponder the Mystere, Billy Sherwood's album, was released in October 2013. Mick Jones, Simon House, Steve Vai, Al Di Meola, Steve Howe's Yes colleague Rick Wakeman, Eli Wolf, Eric Johnson, Nik Turner, Nik Turner, George Jones, Dav Koz, George Duke, and Zoot Horn Rollo were among the musicians who participated in it. Shatner and all its song texts were attributed to Sherwood and all its song texts on the album. Why Not Me, Shatner's first venture into country music, premiered in August 2018, with Jeff Cook, best known as a founding member of the American band Alabama. This album, released on the Heartland Records Nashville label, also featured guest vocals from Neal McCoy, Home Free, and Cash Creek. Shatner Clause, a holiday setta, was launched in October 2018, with Shatner now aided and abetted by Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Todd Rundgren, Billy Gibbons, and others. The Blues, Shatner's ninth album, debuted on October 2, 2020, and it debuted in the Billboard Blues Chart's top-one slot just 15 days later. Bill, Shatner's tenth album, was unveiled on August 26, 2021, and was released on September 24.

Shatner has appeared on other artists' albums as well as recording his own series of discs. Shatner appears on two tracks, "In Love" and "Still in Love" on Ben Folds' 1998 album Fear of Pop: Volume 1 features Shatner. (Jamie Halliday, the maker of Audio Antihero, described the former as his "favourite song of all time"). Shatner appeared with Brian Evans at the San Carlos Institute Theatre in Key West, Florida, and the pair "What Kind of Fool Am I" and "The Lady Is a Tramp" were later released; Special Guest: William Shatner. On the Lemon Jelly album '64 - '95, he appeared in the track "64 - Go" on the 2005 album "64 - Go." In Craven's album Last Chance To Hear, Ben Craven's track "Spy In The Sky Part 3" appeared on Craven's album Last Chance To Hear, he provided the lead vocals. One for Ben Folds' "Landed" acetate, and two for Brad Paisley, one supporting "Celebrity" and the other "Online," the former containing a meta-reference in which Shatner appeared to be heartbroken when told that he could not sing.

Shatner's unorthodox musicianship was broadcast on television not long after Star Trek had made him popular. He appeared in 1978, during the fifth presentation of Saturn Awards bestowed by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, a film starring Elton John's Rocket Man that went on to become a staple of comedic parody. He performed Harry Chapin's "Taxi" in an episode of Dinah Shore's talk show, Dinah! He contributed his "My Way" to George Lucas' AFI Life Achievement Award on June 9, 2005, backed by a chorus line of dancers in Imperial Stormtrooper costumes who interrupted Shatner's segment by picking him up and carrying him offstage. He began Comedy Central's Last Laugh 2005 on December 11, 2005, a skit in which he appeared as a Lucifer celebrating how the year had been from the point of view of Hell. TV Land's Living in TV Land series "William Shatner in Concert" premiered on March 29, 2006. The show featured footage of him on Has Been and included a scene in which he appeared with Folds' band and Joe Jackson; it came to a conclusion with a defiant interpretation of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" that was punctuated by his gestures. On February 1, 2010, Shatner's Raw Nerve hosted World Wrestling Entertainment's flagship show WWE Raw, and he appeared on several wrestlers' entrance theme songs.

In the fourth episode of his sitcom $♯*!

My Dad, Ed Goodson, portrayed Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" in a Shatner-style Karaoke treatment. A waitress asked Ed if he wanted to face "Rocket Man" in the same scene, and he replied "not tonight." He performed a cover of Cee Lo Green's "F**k You" on November 4, during a television appearance on the Lopez Tonight show.

Several of Shatner's films featured him in a musical context. He recited an oration of Mark Antony's from Julius Caesar during a rap delivered by The Rated R, a duet listed in the movie's credits as "No Tears for Caesar." He performed "Miss United States," which was included in the film's soundtrack collection, in Miss Congeniality. In the 2000 film Buzz Lightyear's The Adventure Begins, Buzz Lightyear appeared in the Star Command anthem "To Infinity And Beyond."

Has Been, one of Shatner's albums, was acquired by writer and choreographer Margo Sappington (notable for her work on Oh!

Calcutta!)

Common People, a dance project developed for the Milwaukee Ballet, served as the basis for a dance project. Shatner attended the premiere of the work and arranged for it to be shot. When it was announced at the Nashville Film Festival on April 17, 2009, William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet was well-reced.

Shatner has given performances that, like many passages from his memoirs, are exercises in self-mockery. Instances include his interpretations of the five nominees in the Best Song from a Movie category at the 1992 MTV Movie Awards. As the lynchpin of Priceline's television advertising campaign, he also mined this vein of self-deprecating comedy. "Do You Know Where You're Going To?" the company's founder, Ben Folds, appeared in an humourous interpretation of the Diana Ross classic "Do You Know Where You're Going to?" "The" is the word that came to mind.

Space career

NASA has awakened its astronauts with specially tailored videos ever since the Apollo 15 lunar mission. The crew of STS-133 on the Space Shuttle Discovery docked to the International Space Station on March 7, 2011, with Alexander Courage's title theme for Star Trek and Shatner reciting an enhanced version of the show's famous opening: "Space, the final frontier." These have been the Space Shuttle Discovery's voyages. Her 30-year mission: To find out new science. To create new outposts. To bring countries together on the last frontier. "To boldly go and do what no spacecraft has achieved before."

On October 13, 2021, Shatner was one of the two suborbital human spaceflights of Blue Origin's second sub-orbital human spaceflight, Blue Origin NS-18. On the trip by Blue Origin's Space Creator, Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries, and Audrey Powers, he began his real-world visit to space at Blue Origin's Launch Site One in West Texas, where he rode on the RSS First Step, a New Shepard suborbital rocket capsule. He was the first person to fly into space at 90 years, 6 months, and 22 days, defeating Wally Funk, who had flown on Blue Origin's first crewed spaceflight at the age of 82 in July 2021. Shatner talked during a televised post-flight interview with Bezos that a growing awareness of the Earth's environment has only a thin, fragile skin enveloping its planet.

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