One of the most beloved characters and — in real life, cast members — of the original Star Trek has died: Actor James Doohan, AKA Scotty, the feisty, Scottish-accented chief engineer on television’s original “Star Trek” series.
Doohan was a favorite to fans of Star Trek, the most enduring science fiction television/movie franchise of the 20th century. And fellow actors and “Trekies” who met him offscreen loved him as well. He was 85.
Doohan, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease last summer, died of complications from that degenerative illness and pneumonia, Steve Stevens told Reuters.
A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, Doohan was a prolific voice actor on Canadian radio before making his move into television in the 1950s.
But he will be remembered for playing Lt. Commander Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, the can-do chief engineer aboard the starship USS Enterprise on the original “Star Trek” series, which ran from 1966-69 on NBC. He reprised the role for several big-screen “Star Trek” features.
One of his character’s chief functions on the show was to operate the transporter used to “beam” crew members to and from the Enterprise — often in response to an order that entered the pop culture as the catch phrase “Beam me up Scotty.”
Doohan’s last public appearance was in October, when he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Actor Wil Wheaton, who is also now a popular professional writer with one of the biggest non-political weblogs on the Internet writes on his great website:
I’m too shocked for a thoughtful eulogy right now. Everyone who watched Star Trek liked Scotty, but everyone who met him loved Jimmy . . . I’m sure I’m not the only person today who feels like they lost a friend. My thoughts are with his family.
Read our co-blogger Jack Grant’s post below and you’ll see that Doohan’s portrayal actually helped influence Grant to become a scientist (he is a scientist today, working and living in France).
Indeed, here is another personal story. Our bookeeper here in San Diego is
a fervent Star Trek fan and she goes to all of the conventions. She explained a yhear ago that hardcore Trek fans learned on the grapevine before it was that he was ill so they immediately began planning a special “farewell” tribute to him at an upcoming conventions. E Online has some info about it:
It was a year ago last month that Doohan’s family disclosed the Trek star had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. That, combined with Parkinson’s and diabetes, led Doohan to sign off from the lucrative convention and college circuit, which he had worked like few other Enterprise alums. But first there was to be one more con. Last August, Doohan’s longtime costars and fans converged in Hollywood for three days of roasting, toasting and starring the actor on the Walk of Fame.
At the time, Walter Koenig, who played the Russian navigator Chekov to Doohan’s Scotsman on Trek, called the event “a beautiful gesture.” He said he wished DeForest Kelley, the starship’s Dr. McCoy, had had a similar public farewell. Kelley died in 1999.
Why was he so popular that you see an outpouring of sadness at news of a supporting character actor’s death? You can say it was due to Captain Kirk’s phrase “beam me up Scotty” which became part of the American culture — but that wouldn’t be accurate. There are simply some actors who have a kind of grace, dignity and humanity that connects with people. Doohan was one of them blessed with that gift. He was appreciated during his stint on the show and Star Trek fans never ceased in showing their love of and appreciation of him.
And, as Wheaton’s post suggests, he never ceased showing his love of and appeciation of them.
We all know many people in the world today who are destined to be beamed down….
Doohan will be beamed all the way up.
RELATED LINKS
James Doohan.com
BBC posts reader tributes to Scotty
Detailed AP report/bio
Wikipedia on Doohan
TrekWeb on James Doohan’s farewell last year
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.