Scotty Embarks To The Ultimate 'Final Frontier'

Scotty's remains will go to the final frontier

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
7-21-05

     He was best known for a line he never even uttered: "Beam me up, Scotty."

     But James Doohan made peace with his legacy as "Star Trek" chief engineer Montgomery Scott decades before his death yesterday from pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease.

     Doohan, 85, died in his Redmond home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said.

     Doohan's remains will be blasted into space, where "Star Trek" series creator Gene Roddenberry's remains were launched six years after his death in 1991, Stevens said.

     Even after he bid farewell to public life last August, Doohan remained a fan favorite remembered for entertaining appearances at science-fiction conventions as much for his work on the classic TV show and movies that followed.

     "He was a very charming man and a wonderful actor," said Brannon Braga, creator and executive producer of "Star Trek" spinoffs "Enterprise," "Next Generation and "Voyager."

     The British Columbia-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 Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as the enigmatic Mr. Spock, attracted an enthusiastic following, but not enough ratings power. NBC canceled it after three seasons.

     When the series ended in 1969, Doohan found himself typecast as Scotty, 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."

     "Star Trek" continued in syndication both in the United States and abroad, and its following grew larger and more dedicated. In his later years, Doohan attended dozens of "Trekkie" gatherings around the country and lectured at colleges.

     The huge success of George Lucas' "Star Wars" in 1977 prompted Paramount Pictures to produce "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," which spawned five sequels.

     The powerfully built Doohan, a veteran of D-Day in Normandy, spoke frankly in 1998 about his employer and his TV commander.

     "I started out in the series at basic minimum -- plus 10 percent for my agent. That was added a little bit in the second year. When we finally got to our third year, Paramount told us we'd get second-year pay! That's how much they loved us."

     He accused Shatner of hogging the camera, adding: "I like Captain Kirk, but I sure don't like Bill. He's so insecure that all he can think about is himself."

     The two later made their peace, joking about their rift at the James Doohan Farewell Star Trek Convention and Tribute in Hollywood last year, according to a report on planetexpo.com.

     Nimoy told Shatner: "I think he (Doohan) loves you."

     "Yeah, now!" Shatner replied.

     James Montgomery Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, youngest of four children of William Doohan, a pharmacist, veterinarian and dentist, and his wife, Sarah. As he wrote in his autobiography, "Beam Me Up, Scotty," his father was a drunk who made life miserable for his wife and children.

     At 19, James joined the Canadian army, becoming a lieutenant in artillery. He was among the Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. "The sea was rough," he recalled. "We were more afraid of drowning than the Germans."

     The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger (he managed to hide the missing finger on screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. The chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case.

     After the war Doohan on a whim enrolled in a drama class in Toronto. He showed promise and won a two-year scholarship to New York's famed Neighborhood Playhouse, where fellow students included Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall and Richard Boone.

     Oddly, his only other TV series besides "Star Trek" was another space adventure, "Space Command," in 1953.

     Doohan's first marriage to Judy Doohan produced four children. He had two children by his second marriage to Anita Yagel. Both marriages ended in divorce. In 1974 he married Wende Braunberger, and their children were Eric, Thomas and Sarah, who was born in 2000.

     Did he ever get tired of hearing the line "Beam me up, Scotty?"

     "I'm not tired of it at all," he said in 1998. "It's been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It's been fun."

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