R.I.P James "BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY" Doohan

joel the ornery · Post by **joel the ornery** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:17 am

We should all be so blessed.

LOS ANGELES - James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek" 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 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 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."

"Star Trek" continued in syndicated TV both in the United States and abroad, and its following grew larger and more dedicated. In his later years, Doohan attended 40 "Trekkie" gatherings around the country and lectured at colleges.

The huge success of George Lucas's "Star Wars" in 1977 prompted Paramount Pictures, which had produced "Star Trek" for TV, to plan a movie based on the series. The studio brought back the TV cast and hired a topflight director, Robert Wise. "Star Trek — The Motion Picture" was successful enough to spawn five sequels.

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

James Montgomery Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, B.C., 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 escaped the turmoil at home by joining 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 the screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. Fortunately 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.

His commanding presence and booming voice brought him work as a character actor in films and television, both in Canada and the U.S. 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, when Doohan was 80.

In a 1998 interview, Doohan was asked if he ever got tired of hearing the line "Beam me up, Scotty."

"I'm not tired of it at all," he replied. "Good gracious, it's been said to me for just about 31 years. 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."

Martiansky · Post by **Martiansky** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:46 am

RIP Mr. Scott

Seems the Original Trekkie list keeps getting smaller......Bummer.

Apollonaris Zeus · Post by **Apollonaris Zeus** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 5:29 pm

Captain! if we keep it at this speed, I think she'll blow!

Every star space offshoot show started with him and the trekies.

Somehow, I think he's hyperspacing it all over the Universe and coming back to party in spirit at BM.

AIIZ

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:15 pm

he's on another planet...that's all......

Martiansky · Post by **Martiansky** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 8:51 am

Mr. Scott didn't die...He just went HOME!!

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:08 am

And apparently he's going to be blasted into space ala Roddenbury and Leary.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:13 am

I propose this tribute to Scotty:
Tonight, go into a bar and order something green. Instruct the bartender to NOT tell you what it is. (Detail-obsessed fans of the show'll know what I mean.)
Perhaps for the Ceilidh I'll create a high-proof concoction, to be simply called "Green".

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:13 pm

I'll join you in a drink of GREEN robotland.

joel the ornery · Post by **joel the ornery** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:20 pm

how about plaid instead.

Scotty was supposed to be from Scotland.

the land of plaid.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 5:49 am

joel the ornery wrote:how about plaid instead.

Scotty was supposed to be from Scotland.

the land of plaid.

"It's Green" is a line that Doohan delivers while trying to get an alien drunk with liquor of whose pedigree Scotty is uncertain...

Alien: Do you have any more?
Scotty: (slurring)I got this on Gammarum....Gammermere...(producing bottle of green liquor from the visor of a Medeival helmet)
Alien: What is it?
Scotty: (nonplussed) Its........it's green. (properly rolling the "r", and pouring. Alien drinks.)
Alien: It's good...but....I feel...a little strange...(passes out)
Scotty: (procuring Important Alien Widget from the alien's belt) I'll take this to the captain! (He makes it to the door, and then slides down the bulkhead unconscious.)

This dialog is REPRODUCED FROM MEMORY....Yeah, I'm as scared as you are.

joel the ornery · Post by **joel the ornery** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 6:22 am

oops, nevermind.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 6:57 am

I'M the one who's embarassed. YOU'RE the one whose brain has a lot more room in it for good new stuff 'cuz it's not stuffed with Star Trek dialog. (I'd do an Eternal Sunshine on it if I could!)

Magikal · Post by **Magikal** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:17 pm

robotland wrote: "It's Green" is a line that Doohan delivers while trying to get an alien drunk with liquor of whose pedigree Scotty is uncertain...

Alien: Do you have any more?
Scotty: (slurring)I got this on Gammarum....Gammermere...(producing bottle of green liquor from the visor of a Medeival helmet)
Alien: What is it?
Scotty: (nonplussed) Its........it's green. (properly rolling the "r", and pouring. Alien drinks.)
Alien: It's good...but....I feel...a little strange...(passes out)
Scotty: (procuring Important Alien Widget from the alien's belt) I'll take this to the captain! (He makes it to the door, and then slides down the bulkhead unconscious.)

This dialog is REPRODUCED FROM MEMORY....Yeah, I'm as scared as you are.

Yeah, I forget what the name of the episode was, but the aliens had taken over the Enterprise and had warped her completely out of the galaxy, and they had to get her back. *Shudders* You're not the only one who has large chunks of his cerebral cortex hard-wired with episodes of a space opera that only lasted three seasons.

RIP Mr. Doohan, may you be whizzing freely around the galaxy like the character you so famously played.

Last Real Burner · Post by **Last Real Burner** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 6:07 pm

A big Green Toast to Scotty.....