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James Doohan
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James Doohan was a bonafide war hero. An enlisted man who rose to captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery, he was in the frontlines on D-Day, where he was shot seven times, with an eighth bullet lodging in his metal cigarette case. Three bullets shredded the middle finger of his right hand. Eventually, the finger was amputated, which is occasionally noticeable in Star Trek episodes and movies. Returning from the war, Doohan worked as an actor on Canadian radio, then came to New York, where he studied drama alongside classmates Leslie Nielsen and Tony Randall. He was a regular on the Canadian kids' science fiction series Space Command.
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James Doohan was the son of an Irish couple who immigrated from Belfast to Canada while his mother was pregnant with him. Jimmy was born on March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia, the youngest of four, and spent most of his youth in Sarnia, Ontario. Surviving an upbringing with an alcoholic father, he left home at age 19 to join the Canadian Forces at the outbreak of World War II. Posted in England, he served through the duration of the war, becoming an officer and rising through the ranks, but without seeing actual combat until June 6, 1944 — D-Day — where he led a regiment of 33 men onto Juno Beach at Normandy, France.
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James Doohan, the actor who became known the world over as the redoubtable chief engineer Scotty on the original Star Trek TV series, died earlier today. He was 85. Doohan passed away at his Redmond, WA, home at 5:30 AM, with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side; the cause was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease. Born and raised in Canada, Doohan fought with the Royal Canadian Artillery during World War II, losing the middle finger of his right hand during the D-Day invasion. After the war, Doohan embarked on a career as a character actor in a number of films and television shows throughout the 50s and early 60s (including an appearance in an episode of The Twilight Zone), initially traveling between his Canadian homeland and New York. Soon he ... began work in Hollywood, and in 1966 he was cast in NBC's new space adventure series Star Trek as chief engineer Montgomery Scott, aka "Scotty," opposite William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
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Canadian-born actor James Doohan trained for his career at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse and built much of his reputation upon his uncanny skill at foreign dialects. It was director James Goldstone who in 1965 suggested that Doohan audition for the supporting role of chief engineer of the U.S.S. Enterprise on Star Trek. After trying out a variety of accents during the audition, Doohan latched onto a Scottish brogue which tickled the fancy of Trek producer Gene Roddenberry. Thus, the chief engineer was dubbed Scotty -- or, more formally, Lt. Montgomery Scott (Montgomery happened to be Doohan's middle name). The actor remained in the role until Star Trek's cancellation in 1969, subsequently reviving the character for the 1974 cartoon series and the many theatrical films. Though he most assuredly had a career outside of Scotty (among many other projects, he was one of the stars of the 1979 Saturday-morning TV series Jason of Star Command), Doohan has frequently been called upon to play variations of the character in film and TV projects ranging from National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 to Knight Rider 2000.
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According to the Internet Movie Database's Celebrity News, James Doohan just became father for the third time in his life, as his wife Wende gave birth to baby Sarah. Doohan, who is 80, said that "there's no experience like watching your own baby come in to the universe." His wife is 43 years old. Thanks go out to Elaine Butler for this!
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor James Doohan, best known as Scotty, the feisty, Scottish-accented chief engineer on television's original "Star Trek" series, has been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, his agent said on Wednesday. Read the full story from Reuters
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James Doohan