'Star Trek's' James Doohan Dies
 

'Star Trek's' James Doohan Dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) - James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek" TV series and movies who responded to the command "Beam me up, Scotty," died 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 disease, he said.

Doohan had said farewell to public life in August 2004, a few months after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

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 as Capt. James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as the enigmatic Mr. Spock, attracted an enthusiastic following of science fiction fans, especially among teenagers 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." [/quote]

Source: The Associated Press

That's a shame, he never seemed to take himself as seriously as some of his cast members. Now he's been beamed up.

RIP Mr Doohan. :)

He's given it all she'd got.

thanks for posting jrs...beat me to it

i had no idea the man had alzheimer's...i will miss him...scotty was one of my favorites on star trek....

Look's like God beamed him up to where no man's gone before.

R.I.P. James "Scotty" Doohan

Scotty and Spock were my favorites...

RIP Scotty

R.I.P Scotty

I see everyone beat me to the Star Trek catchphrases, well he's back in the stars now. He was perhaps the most under rated part of Star Trek, despite having the 2nd most memorable line.

From one Scotie to another, RIP!
In the local news tonight that a planned memorial for James Doohan has been proposed at some obscure small Scottish village!
The most famous Scot on tv, and he was a Canadian!!!
He came across without any of the air and graces of his cast mates, cheerio to an Honorary Scot.

Ach well, he gets to break the laws of physics one last time at least... (well, the laws of gravity anyway)...

Scotty's ashes to hit outer space

Got some fond memories of that guy :yup: