March 22 . . .
William Shatner is the patron saint of ham actors. To some, he is a walking parody of the profession, with his signature pregnant . . . pauses, inflections on the unexpected syllable, and overwrought, hand-winging, flopsweat-inducing delivery. To some (particularly his costars) he is reportedly a bullying, egotistical prima donna; but to most of us he was and always will be Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise in Star Trek.
He was born this day in 1931 in Montreal, Quebec. He appeared in numerous movies of the 50s in supporting roles and 2nd leads, including ‘The Brothers Karamozov' (1958) and ‘Judgement at Nuremberg' (1961). He starred in ‘The Intruder’, a startling 1961 Roger corman quickie about small-town prejudice and racial hatred, as a hate-fanning stranger in town. In TV, he memorably portrayed an airline passenger who sees a Gremlin crawling on the wing of his airplane in an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’.
But he finally hit pay dirt in 1966 when he was cast as the captain of a starship in the TV series ‘Star Trek’ by series creator and producer Gene Roddenberry, after original star Jeffrey Hunter bowed out. The show achieved only modest ratings and was cancelled in its third season. Shatner then went on to star in a series of B-bidget exploitation flicks and TV movies like ‘Kingdom of the Spiders’ and ‘Crazy Mama’ (where he appears in a nude scene with costar Angie Dickinson). But in reruns Star Trek became a huge hit – enough to convince Paramount Studios to invest in a big-screen version in 1979, ten years after the original series had been cancelled. ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’, directed by Robert Wise, was a big, overblown bore that somehow managed to become enough of a hit to justify a sequel.
The sequel became the best of the series (the aging crew went on to film five more installments), deftly mixing action, adventure, comedy, drama and state-of-the-art FX. ‘Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan’ (1982) was cleverly written and directed by Nicholas Meyer. You don’t have to be a fan of the TV series to enjoy the exciting story, great special effects, and effective turns from the familiar supporting cast, including DeForrest Kelly as Dr. ‘Bones’ McCoy and Leonard Nimoy as that personification of pure Vulcan logic, Mr. Spock. It’s also Shatner’s finest performance. For once, he underplays, and is all the more believable because of it. Almost as importantly, his toupee fits. And Ricardo Montalban, as the justifiably pissed-off Khan, goes mano a mano with Kirk in one of the screen’s great all-time ham-offs.
Click here to enjoy a clip . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJTi7KJPx_E
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJTi7KJPx_E"
2 comments:
Denny Crane.
I love WIlliam Shatner! And I agree that "Khan" was the best of the S.Trek flicks. "Ours is the superior intellect," right?
Did you ever see the tv production called "How William Shatner Saved the World" (I think that this was the title)? It was about how the "science" in the original Star Trek tv show actually inspired ACTUAL scientific development. It's a hoot of a show.
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