William Shatner portrayed the handsome James T. Kirk captian of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Shatner was thirty-eight-years-old when he was cast as the captian of the Enterprise.
William Shatner is a Canadian-born actor who attended McGill University, where he was particularly active in campus theatrical productions. During his senior year Shatner produced the school's nationally famous campus variety show. He spent his summer vacations throughout his college days acting with a summer stock company, The Mount Royal Playhouse.
When he was graduated in 1952 with a B.A., he was already a well-known voice on Canadian airwaves, having done numerous shows to augment his experience, although his actual income was roughly thirty-one Canadian dollars a week.
Bill Shatner reacts rather badly when hearing the two words "fruit salad."
Shatner isn't really peculiar. It's just that the very mention of fruit salad takes him back several years when he was a fledgling actor with the Repertory Theater. In order to have a roof over his head and clean clothes to wear, Satner had to economize somewhere. He did it in his selection of food.
He says, "Daily, and sometimes twice a day, I shelled out twenty-seven cents for a plate of fruit dalad at Kresge's lunch counter in Ottawa. It helped make my budget work, but to this day I not only can't bear the sight of the stuff--I react somewhat violently at its very mention."
None of Shatner's fellow actors in the repertory company fared much better financially. "They even had to make their own booze. I was their offical taster--which is pretty funny, as I'm a nondrinker. When I keeled over from the mixture, they knew it was ready for imbibing."
To many, Shatner's early days of struggle might sound somewhat romantic. Shatner says, "They were hell. I got through them because in front of me was dream. I hoped to become as fine as an actor as Laurence Oliver."
Shatner took a gaint step forward when he joined the famous Stratford, Ontario, Shakespeare Festival as an under-study. he started with walk-on and bit parts and eventually graduated to co-starring roles in The Mercant of Venice, Henry V, and others. That year he won the "Most Promising Actor" award.
Shortly thereafter, Shatner opened to rave reviews in New York in Tamburlaine. He was immediately offered a seven-year contract by 20th Century-Fox at $500 a week. He turned it down and returned to star in a TV play in Toronto---a play he had written. ("I still had the idealistic dream of being an Olivier-type star. I didn't want to be a Hollywood actor.")
During rehearsals he met a young Canadian actress, Gloria Rand. "Rehearsing a scene with Gloria called for a long kiss and by the time it was over, I know this was the girl for me," He recalls happily. Several months they were married and spent their honeymoon in Scotland, where Shatner played a feature role in the Edinburgh Festival production of Henry V.
Returning to New York, Shatner became one of live TV's busiest actors, starring in such important dramatic shows as Goodyear Playhouse, Philco Playhouse. Studio One, Circle Theater, and Onmibus. A co-starring role with veteran actor Ralph Bellamy in a two-part production of "The Defenders" led to his movie debut in The Brothers Karamazov. He was headlined with such distinguished actors as Yul Brynner, Maria Schell, Claire Bloom, and Lee J. Cobb.
Hollywood film-making also offered him the chance to act in Westerns, and the Shakespearean-trained Shatner learned top rope, shoot, and ride bareback.
Returning to New York for a memorable role in "No Deadly Medicine" on Studio One, Shatner was offered the starring role in the Broadway production of The world of Suzie Wong, a hit that ran for two years and garnered even more critical acclaim for him. He followed this with A Shot in the Dark, in which he co-starred with Julie Harris, and then moved on to the hit comedy L'Idiote, which ran for over a year.
At this point Shatner came to a decision. "Time enough after I achieved financial security to go back to the classics and be an artist. I returned to Hollywood after 'Suzie' and worked in many films and television series, and always trying to have integrity about the roles I chose. But even that went by the board after a while. In order to survive, I had to work in anything that would pay me. Once I made that decision, I stuck to it. To everyone's surprise, I turned down starring roles in Romeo and Juliet and King John at Stratford, just ot remain in Hollywood and keep my name in front of the Hierarchy.
"When I say I decided it was time to grow up, I mean I recognized the fact that great parts come rarely to an actor. Most of the time it's slugging awayin run-of-the -mill endeavors. You do the best you can with all your resources. You work to make a living and to support your family."
When STAR TREK was offered to Shatner, he was intrigued with the challenges both in the concept and in his lead role. "I could have done equally well financially had I decided not to do a TV series in favor of guest shots and movies. But i believed in the potential of this show. We have the opportunity to do something truly worthwhile. Science fiction can be an art form. Ray Bradury has proved this."
Shatner is also a writer and finds the combination valuable.
"I've learned a great deal about acting from writing. An actor interprets a writer's work just as musician interprets a composer's work. The criterion of a good actor is how well he interprets the work of the writer. Even the writer may not know exactly what he has written---this is the nevulous area in which the actor works.
I get up at six A.M. and seldom get home before nine or ten P.M. But I'm having a ball. Usually after some three or four months of such a schedule, performers carrying a heavy load get tired. But I'm still entusiastic. I'm still having fun.
When I'm having fun, I know that all the elements that make up the show---the producer, the director, the player, the scripts---are working well. I hope this comes across on the screen. I hope STAR TREK can be as exciting to the audience as it is to me. "
A television star's time is not always his own.
"There are increasing demands on my time. I have spent maybe five lunch hours in which I haven't worked in some fashion or other, particularly publicity interviews. I enjoy the interview; I prefer to talk about other things than myself, but this is part of the job, part of the publicity attached to it. I fell after many years as an actor that this series is a very successful thing, and I want to be very sure, vey careful that I do as much to grasp this opportunity as I can."
Shatner often offers suggestions on the set during shooting.
"I know my parts, and fI know what I am capable of in many areas. I have to be very careful that I don't alienate the other people. I am in the peculiar postion of being the star of the show, and many of the things that go on reflect directly on me. So if something is bad, I am invovled, and it's for me to correct it if I can.
Now, if I were to take advatage of this, there would be a great deal of trouble, but there has never been any difficulty. Far, from it, we all bend over backwards to work together. In may instances i have been able to help in the rewriting of the script.
I sometimes have an idea that a director can use, and we have become so friendly with the directors that it has become a marvelous give-and-take relationship. In television the star of the series has much more power, to use a bad term, than is ordinarily given an actor. It's equivalent, I would think, to the power that a star--a big star-- in a film has, and it takes a very strong, powerful director to curb that star. That power can corrupt, I am sure, but at this point I don't feel it has. If it does happen, I haope someone stops me fast."
And what if STAR TREK is a huge five-year TV hit?
"That would suit me fine. It's what I've worked for. Although I've compromised my dreams, I haven't given them up entirely. If STAR TREK is a long-running success, it will mean in five or six years I can go back to the stage and do what I choose. If the series isn't successful, I'll just begin slugging it out again. They say fruit salad is healthy for a fellow."