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Star Trek's Scotty Dies at 85
darkworm writes "James Doohan, better known to Trekkies everywhere as Scotty, has died at the age of 85. James was suffering from both Parkinsons and Alzheimer's and died earlier today at his home"
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There's a mirror here and a better obit from CNN here.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Correct me if im wrong, but an article I read said that he was suffering from Pneumonia and Alzheimers, not Parkinsons ...?
"Beam me up, Scotty!"
"He's dead, Jim."
Ok, now that that's out of the way, I'm sure the rest of the slashdot article comments will be thoughtful, insightful commentary on Doohan's passing.
Such as:
He lost a finger during the D-Day invasion as a captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery.
He was also a linguist, and devised the Vulcan and Klingon lanuages for the original Star Trek motion picture.
He had his youngest daughter in 2000, when he was 80 (!), with his wife Wende, whom he'd been married to since 1975. Way to go, James.
More
I loved the scene in the documentary Trekkies where Doohan talks befriending a suicidal fan.
. shtml
I found this link which gave more info about that part of the documentary.
http://www.treknation.com/interviews/roger_nygard
Q: Trekkies like to hear anecdotes. Tell us of some funny incident during the production of the movie.
A: Right in the middle of the most emotional moment of our interview with James Doohan the camera ran out of film, interrupting Mr. Doohan in the middle of his story about a suicide note he had received from a fan. He couldn't wait until the camera was reloaded because he was already late to be on stage. The convention security people said there would not be time for a second interview so it seemed like we would never find out what happened to the suicidal woman. We were determined to find out so we waited four hours until after Mr. Doohan spoke on stage and then signed several hundred autographs and then Denise asked him if he could kindly come back to finish his story. Despite being exhausted from the day's convention events, he graciously agreed, and he told us the rest of the story, which became the most touching moment in the film. I can't believe we almost didn't get that story.
Mostly by his 5 year old son I should think.
Sarah Doohan is a girl.
The mind boggles - how much of an asshole do you have to be to have children at that age?
These things are not always planned. It's easy to call other people assholes when you can imagine whatever circumstances you like to support your judgement. Jackass.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
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 apocryphal command "Beam me up, Scotty," died early Wednesday.
Isn't it "watery tarts distributing swords"?
I can never think of Agnes Moorehead as her bewitched character, I just think of the way her voice almost imperceptibly chokes when she says "it's been packed for weeks".
James Doohan did a lot of stuff apart from Trek - check out his IMDB entry. In the Man from U.N.C.L.E. twice, the Fugitive (also twice - they always seemed to reuse actors in those days), Bonanza, Twilight Zone, Outer Limits (very good in that as I recall). I remember seeing him in "The Bold and the Beautiful" and doing a double-take.
Oh, and he was in Bewitched! Series two, not with Agnes Moorehead, alas.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
Beam Me Up Scotty of 'Star Trek' Dead at 85
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
LOS ANGELES James Doohan (search), the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star (search) 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. at his Redmond, Wash., 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 (search) as Capt. James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy (search) 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."
"Star Trek" continued in syndicated TV both in the United States and abroad, and its following grew larger and more dedicated. In his later years, Doohan attended 40 "Trekkie" gatherings around the country and lectured at colleges.
The huge success of George Lucas's "Star Wars (search)" in 1977 prompted Paramount Pictures, which had produced "Star Trek" for TV, to plan a movie based on the series. The studio brought back the TV cast and hired a topflight director, Robert Wise. "Star Trek -- The Motion Picture" was successful enough to spawn five sequels.
The powerfully built Doohan, a veteran of D-Day in Normandy, spoke frankly in 1998 about his employer, Paramount, and his TV commander:
"I started out in the series at basic minimum -- plus 10 percent for my agent. That was added a little bit in the second year. When we finally got to our third year, Paramount told us we'd get second-year pay! That's how much they loved us."
He accused Shatner of hogging the camera, adding: "I like Captain Kirk, but I sure don't like Bill. He's so insecure that all he can think about is himself."
James Montgomery Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia, youngest of four children of William Doohan, a pharmacist, veterinarian and dentist, and his wife Sarah. As he wrote in his autobiography, "Beam Me Up, Scotty," his father was a drunk who made life miserable for his wife and children.
At 19, James escaped the turmoil at home by joining the Canadian army, becoming a lieutenant in artillery. He was among the Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. "The sea was rough," he recalled. "We were more afraid of drowning than the Germans."
The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger (he managed to hide the missing finger on the screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. Fortunately the chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case.
After the war Doohan on a whim enrolled in a drama class in Toronto. He showed promise and won a two-year scholarship to New York's famed Neighborhood Playhouse, where fellow students included Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall and Richard Boone.
There is a post on his website - http://www.wilwheaton.net/
...no two people are not on fire.
I remember Scotty explaining to LaForge one day that his secret was to always exaggerate the time it takes to do something by a factor of eight.
Not quite - the actual conversation went as follows:
Scott: "Do you mind a little advice? Starfleet captains are like children. They want everything right now, and they want it their way. But the secret is to give only what they need, not what they want!"
LaForge: "Yeah, well I told the captain I'd have this analysis done in an hour."
Scott: "How long would it really take?"
LaForge: "An hour!"
Scott: "Oh, you didn't tell him how long it would *really* take, did you?"
LaForge: "Well of course I did."
Scott: "Oh, laddie, you've got a lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker!"
I met him once, ages ago, at a ST convention that he was attending as guest of honor. Mr. Doohan was simply the nicest celebrity I have ever met in any venue. He was always my favorite charater in the Star Trek Universe, and will always be dear in my heart.
Hope they play Amazing Grace for him on the pipes... it would be fitting.
"Our funds have never taken part in toxic or death spiral convertible financings of any sort" -BayStar's managing partne
This is one of the best writeups I've seen on him.
There's nothing Scottish about it.
Guess again. It's "Kirk" in Scots Gaelic.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I've generally heard it referred to as the "Montgomery Scott Time Management System".
RTEFA. (E = Entire)
The last two paragraphs:
In a 1998 interview, Doohan was asked if he ever got tired of hearing the line "Beam me up, Scotty" -- a line that, reportedly, was never actually spoken on the TV show.
"I'm not tired of it at all," he replied. "Good gracious, it's been said to me for just about 31 years. It's been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It's been fun."
Here's a little blurb taken straight from the CNN obit:
To most people, James Doohan was Scotty, is Scotty, and always will be Scotty. It's not insulting at all. Here's a guy who knew what he was, accepted it, and lived an enjoyable, pleasant life for it. We'd all be better off by learning a lesson from him.
We have a province called "Nova Scotia" -- New Scotland. A large number of immigrants to Canada in the 18th century were Scots and it permeates many aspects of Canadian culture. Look at our early Prime Ministers... "MacDonald", "MacKenzie", etc.
Sir Sanford Flemming -- world famous Scottish engineer, Scottish descent. Probably the inspiration for Scotty given Doohan's Canadian origins.
Mike Meyers is known to do a scottish accent or two...
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
Here's the lines from the TNG episode "Relics":
Scotty: "Starfleet captains are like children. They want everything right now and they want it their way. But the secret is to give them only what they need, not what they want."
LaForge: "Yeah, well, I told the captain I'd have this analysis done in an hour."
Scotty: "How long will it really take?"
LaForge: "An hour."
Scotty: "You didn't tell him now long it would really take, did you?"
LaForge: "Of course I did."
Scotty: "Laddie, you got a lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker!"
And those words are one of the guiding principles in everything I do professionally. I always undersell and overexecute. RIP good man, RIP.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Doohan really gave so much back to the community.
Doohan's contributions were great, but he wasn't the only one. I can't summarize George Takei's vast undertakings, but his involvement with the Japanese-American National Museum and Independent Task Force on Television Measurement are notable.
George Takei attended James Doohan's last convention and the reception of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and his retelling is an moving account.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/20/obit
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
segment in questiony Id=4762683
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
Actually the C-beams weren't improvised by Hauer, the C-beams survived being cut out in the improvisation by Hauer.
t xt
http://www.rutgerhauer.org/filmography/brdir.php
They were originally added to the 1981 version of the script by David Peoples
http://brmovie.com/Downloads/Docs/BR_Script_1981.
C-beams are likely referring to Cerenkov (radiation) beams (radiation given by particles moving FTL for a given medium). Their observation (in vacuum) near the Tanhauser Gate would imply the presence of charged tachyon (faster than light) particles coming from the gate. Which makes sense because "gate" likely refers to the sci-fi concept of "jump gate" (a kind of access point for FTL travel - like the terminus a wormhole)
Back in the days of Blade Runner, there was still a little science left in the science fiction.