William Shatner

The most popular television star in Germany, elected in on-line-voting by the spectators of the national television channel KabelEins. Has appeared in the final television show (aired 10/19/2005) to receive the honor personally.

Released an album titled "Has Been" in 2004. The album was produced by Ben Folds who also plays on the album. Other guest performers on the album include Joe Jackson, Aimee Mann, Henry Rollins and Adrian Belew.

His version of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was voted as the worst massacre of a The Beatles song ever. [May 2003]

Had some worries about appearing in Futurama: Where No Fan Has Gone Before (2002). He spoke with Billy West, who told Shatner that the cast and crew had nothing but respect for him. He agreed to continue.

In 2001, he married Elizabeth Shatner (Elizabeth Anderson Martin), 30 years his junior. She is a horse trainer who had lost her husband to cancer in 1997. Their grief (Shatner was a widower) and their love of horses drew them together. They reside in Southern California and in Kentucky.

On August 9, 1999, his third wife, Nerine Kidd, drowned in the swimming pool at their house in Studio City, California. The tragedy was ruled an accident.

Is the CEO of the Toronto-based Core Digital Effects company that did the effects for the adventure drama Fly Away Home (1996).

Is an expert equestrian (horse rider), which was put to good use in Star Trek: Generations (1994). Co-star Patrick Stewart, despite his classical background, had very little experience with horses, so Shatner helped teach him. One of Shatner's tips was to wear pantyhose under his pants, to reduce chafing.

He was the first person to appear in the sketch on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993) of "Celebrity Secrets". This became a regular sketch on this show featuring major celebrities such as Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, and his fellow Star Trek captains, Patrick Stewart and George Takei.

His paternal grandparents, Volf Schattner and Fruma Freyda Lecker, were Jewish emigrants from Kuty, Ukraine and Bukovina, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, respectively. William's father, Joseph Shatner, was born in Bukovina. William's maternal grandparents, Yaakov Garmaise and Yetta Kahn, were Jewish emigrants from Vilkaviskis, in Lithuania. He was mentioned in the episode The Simpsons: Like Father, Like Clown (1991) as being a famous Jewish entertainer. He was also mentioned by Adam Sandler in "The Hanukkah Song" ("You don't need Deck the Halls or Jingle Bell Rock / When you can spin a dreidel with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock").

Produces and hosts the annual "Hollywood Charity Horse Show" that he founded in 1990. More than $1.25 million has been raised for children's charities, such as "Ahead With Horses", "L.A.'s BEST" and the "Children's Museum of Los Angeles".

His daughter Melanie Shatner had a small role in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) that was directed by her father.

His daughter Lisabeth Shatner wrote the script for the T. J. Hooker episode T.J. Hooker: Partners in Death (1986).

His daughter Lisabeth Shatner was "Miss Golden Globe" 1985.

Did most of his own stunts for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), even though he had a stuntman, John Meier, to do the more difficult ones.

Hooker (1982) from 1982 to 1986, alongside spunky Heather Locklear, and surprised many fans with his droll comedic talents in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) and Miss Congeniality (2000). He has most recently been starring in the David E.

However, the 1980s saw a major resurgence in Shatner's career with the renewed interest in the original Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) series culminating in a series of big-budget "Star Trek" feature films including Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). In addition, he starred in the lightweight police series T. J.

According to Debra Hill, a Halloween mask in Shatner's likeness was painted white and used as the mask of Michael Myers in the original Halloween (1978).

His appearance on Saturday Night Live (1975) in 1986 mocked the Iran-Contra Affair figure Oliver North (with Shatner standing mute in a green uniform); his own series T.J. Hooker (1982), recently canceled, and some overzealous Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) fans. This last sketch had him grimly addressing the fans at a Star Trek convention with the phrase "Get a life!" Many Trekkers asked him later if he had meant anything by the sketch. He claimed he had not, but that that had been written by the comedy writers of Saturday Night Live. Shatner later made "Get a Life!" the title of his Star Trek fan memoir.

After "Star Trek" folded, Shatner spent the rest of the decade and the 1970s making the rounds guest-starring on many prime-time television series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968), Marcus Welby, M. D.

(1969) and Ironside (1967).

He has also appeared in several feature films, but they were mainly B-grade (or lower) fare such as the embarrassingly bad Euro western White Comanche (1968) and the campy Kingdom of the Spiders (1977).

In 1966, Shatner boarded the USS Enterprise for three seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series (1966), co-starring alongside Leonard Nimoy, with the series eventually becoming a bona-fide cult classic with a worldwide legion of fans known as "Trekkies".

Has appeared in episodes of five different series with Leonard Nimoy: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Star Trek: The Original Series (1966), Star Trek: Animated (1973), T.J. Hooker (1982) and Futurama (1999).

He was kept busy during the 1960s in films such as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and The Intruder (1962) and on television guest-starring in dozens of series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The Defenders (1961), The Outer Limits (1963) and The Twilight Zone (1959).

William Shatner has notched up an impressive 50-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U. S. S. Enterprise. Shatner was born in Côte Saint-Luc, Montréal, Québec, Canada, to Anne (Garmaise) and Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacturer. His father was a Jewish emigrant from Bukovina in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while his maternal grandparents were Lithuanian Jews. After graduating from university he joined a local Summer theatre group as an assistant manager. He then performed with the National Repertory Theatre of Ottawa and at the Stratford, Ontario Shakespeare Festival as an understudy working with such as Alec Guinness, James Mason, and Anthony Quayle. He came to the attention of New York critics and was soon playing important roles on major shows on live television. Shatner spent many years honing his craft before debuting alongside Yul Brynner in The Brothers Karamazov (1958).