ST:TOS Actor James Doohan dies

douglasman

LOS ANGELES — James Doohan (search), the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek (search)" 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 (search) 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 teen-agers 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."

monkeyfudge

Oh... that's a real shame.

Didn't he actually manage to become a father only recently? I remember as it was very impressive for a man of his age to become a father.

Spocker

May he rest in peace.

Goodshape

monkeyfudge wrote:

Didn't he actually manage to become a father only recently?

Aye, at 80 years of age.

RIP and all that stuff.

Crucifix

RIP. Also I love the idea of his dentist giving him life changing advice.

Lemming

Rip

Pigman II

Beam him up Goddy!

MrVestek

Pigman II wrote:

Beam him up Goddy!

Wrong...

Anyways at least now he has a release from the pain and suffering he had to endure due to both illnesses plauging him these past few years. Let's all stand in line along the corridor as his body is loaded into the turpedo turret. *Cue whistle*

Jimmy Doohan... Live long and prosper!

aidan_walsh

He isn't dead, he's just stuck in a transporter loop. Right?

R.I.P, Mr. Scott.

LastIrishMonkey

RIP

bizmark

Rip

toiletduck

R.I.P.

when i was a kid he was my favourite trek character. now that im an engineer, i cant help but think that those hours i spent as a kid watching scotty fix the enterprise really influenced me.

monkeyfudge

toiletduck wrote:

R.I.P.

when i was a kid he was my favourite trek character. now that im an engineer, i cant help but think that those hours i spent as a kid watching scotty fix the enterprise really influenced me.

Yes. My desire to go and fix things up that tube he got to climb into was right up there with my desire to look in that little black box that Mr. Spock got to look into on the bridge.

shinzon

to remind us of the compassion of the man

In the early 1970's james doohan recieved a particularly disturbed letter from a woman who wanted to commit suicide as she had little or nothing to live for

This touched james so much that he wrote back to her saying he was going to be in her hometown for a trek convention and that he wanted to see her there

Sure enough she turned up at the weekend and he had a couple of words with her and said that he expected to see her at the following weekends convention in another town

She turned up there to and this went on for a good few months and then nothing, she just stopped turning up and James received no more letters from her

Years passed and james always wanted to know what happened to her and he got his wish, he recieved a letter from the woman thanking James for the time and effort he put into helping her anyway he could, she had now a steady job and a loving family she closed out the letter saying that James had saved her life




RIP JAMES DOOHAN 1920-2005 , you have been and always shall be our friend

Shin

toiletduck

shinzon wrote:

RIP JAMES DOOHAN 1920-2005 , you have been and always shall be our friend

nice.

Stabshauptmann

R.I.P

Gilgamesh

Rip

Spocker

Link from RTE website

Awww sad to hear that.

I remember years ago when one of the Star trek films was on HTV, the presenter said now I've always wanted to do this-beam me up Scotty
They did the sound and the wavy disappearance and then the film came on.

RIP

sutty

Rip

Pepe LeFrits

Pigman II wrote:

Beam him up Goddy!

lol!

shinzon wrote:

RIP JAMES DOOHAN 1920-2005 , you have been and always shall be our friend

Shin

*cringe*

RIP Mr Doohan, a great entertainer. He had a good run.

ando

ah sad to hear that. RIP scotty

spooky donkey

Sad to see him go. But the last interview of him id seen he dident seem to well I knew he dident have long left.

RIP Scotty.

MrVestek

Looks like his dilethium crystals finally gave out. No ok that's horrible but I'm sad to see him go. Still with Digital Technology going the way it is, it's still possible to see him in further movies/episodes of Trek if the need be. Same with Deforest Kelly. That is of course assuming that Trek is revived by Paramount.

A bloody prequal movie is in the works too, set around the year 2015 (This months Star Trek Magazine). That Berman fella needs a good kick up the warp core.

Flukey

A bit like "Play it again Sam" and Casablanca, the phrase "Beam me up Scotty" was never used in Star Trek. He was a great character in the series and I was sorry when I heard the news a few weeks back, that he had died. There is still a good few of the original cast left though, but Star Trek will live for a long time to come.