James Doohan, immortalized as "Scotty" to the world, has died at age 85 after years of poor health. He is the second member of the original Star Trek cast to beam up to that great starship in the sky - Deforest Kelley, who played Dr. McCoy, died in 1999.Doohan was actually a Canadian, born in Vancouver, BC, and served in the Canadian army during World War II, where he was wounded (he lost a finger on D-Day). He later moved into radio and stage productions in Canada and later in the US. An actor of consummate professionalism, he never let his frustrations with leading man William Shatner boil over into his work, nor did he show up anything less than prepared. He was well-liked by everyone who met him, and was even granted an honourary Doctorate of Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering, having inspired much of their graduating class to pursue an engineering career. No less a figure than Neil Armstrong spoke at his last Star Trek convention, toasting him from "one geeky engineer to another". He was in good health up until his last few years, even fathering a child at age 80.
He was living in Washington state, close to his roots, when he died.
| :: posted by Ian Dawe, 7/20/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
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