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Here's a look at the life of award-winning actor William Shatner.
Birthdate: March 22, 1931
Place of birth: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Birth name: William Shatner
Father: Joseph Shatner, business owner
Mother: Ann Shatner
Marriages: Elizabeth (Anderson Martin) Shatner (February 13, 2001-March 3, 2020, divorced); Nerine Kidd (November 15, 1997 – August 9, 1999, her death); Marcy Lafferty (October 20, 1973-1996, divorced); Gloria Rand (1956-1969, divorced)
Children: with Gloria Rand: Melanie Ann, Lisabeth Mary and Leslie Carol
Education: McGill University, Bachelor of Business, 1952
Nominated for seven Emmy Awards and has won two. He was also inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Nominated for a Grammy Award for a spoken word recording, but did not win.
His family is of Ukrainian Jewish descent.
On the shows “The Practice” and “Boston Legal,” he plays the same character, Denny Crane.
His character, Captain James T. Kirk, appears in 10 of the 13 films in the Star Trek franchise. Shatner plays Kirk in the first seven.
Breed and own champion horses.
1954 – It joins the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario.
January 1956 – He makes his Broadway debut in “Tamburlaine the Great.”
1958 – “The Brothers Karamazov” is released, his first important film role.
1963 – Appears in the episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” of “The Twilight Zone”.
1966-1969 – He appears in the lead role of Captain James Tiberius Kirk in “Star Trek.”
November 22, 1968 – The “Star Trek” episode “Plato’s Stepchildren” airs. It is the first interracial kiss shown on television, when Captain Kirk is forced to kiss Lieutenant Uhura.
1979 – Stars in “Star Trek: The Movie.”
1982-1986 – He stars in the police series “TJ Hooker.”
1989 – He stars in and directs “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.”
1997-2004 – He stars in the legal drama series “The Practice.”
2004 – He wins the Emmy for Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series for “The Practice.”
2004-2008 – “Boston Legal” co-stars.
2005 – He wins the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for “Boston Legal.”
December 14, 2006 – He is inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.
2011 – He begins performing a one-man show “Shatner's World: We Just Live In It.”
2016 – He stars in the NBC reality series, “Better Late Than Never,” with Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman and Henry Winkler. The show is about a group of celebrities traveling through Asia with a young guide, comedian Jeff Dye.
March 25, 2016 – He is sued by Peter Sloan for defamation and slander. Sloan says that Shatner is his biological father, a claim Shatner denies. The case was dismissed in June 2018.
October 13, 2021 – He takes off aboard a New Shepard suborbital spacecraft, the one developed by Jeff Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin, before parachuting and landing, making Shatner the oldest person to travel to space.
October 4, 2022 – Shatner's biography, “Boldly Go,” is published.
March 11, 2024 – Shatner speaks publicly about his stage 4 melanoma diagnosis and treatment at the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting. He did not reveal when it occurred.
