William Shatner is an Emmy Award-winning Canadian actor, singer, director and author, best known as Captain James Kirk on TV’s Star Trek.
Born in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in Montreal, Shatner first performed in the early 1950s. During his McGill years (he graduated in 1952), he spent his summers with the Royal Mount Theatre Company and became a member of the National Repertory Theatre of Ottawa. He also performed with Sir Tyrone Guthrie at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.
Shatner’s first exposure to Broadway was in Tamburlaine the Great in 1956, followed by other Broadway shows. His film break came in 1958 as Alexis Karamazov, opposite Yul Brynner, Lee Cobb and Richard Baseheart in The Brothers Karamazov. TV roles followed, and in 1965, he won a role in a TV series, For the People. He also appeared on Goodyear Television Playhouse, Studio One and Playhouse 90.
The following year, Shatner took on the role of Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek. Although the show was cancelled after only three seasons, its status as a pop culture phenomenon has never abated. Shatner’s distinctive voice and character have long entered the annals of popular culture and lexicon. Shatner himself resurrected Captain Kirk in over a dozen movies, video games and other productions of Star Trek. He has over 200 acting credits and 13 director credits.
Shatner made history during a 1968 episode of Star Trek, entitled “Plato’s Stepchildren”, which allegedly broadcast the first interracial kiss on American television.
Shatner’s diverse career includes recording spoken word albums and covers of others performers. In 1966, he starred in Incubus, one of four films ever produced in Esperanto, a constructed language intended to serve as an international language to overcome linguistic differences, created by a Polish Jew at the turn of the century. Shatner has authored many books and science fiction novels. Later in his career, he starred or appeared in Rescue 911, TJ Hooker, The Practice, Boston Legal and several films.
Shatner has won a Golden Globe, the Theatre World Award, the Governor’s General Performing Arts Award and two Emmy awards for his work. He also has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
