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William Shatner was born on March 22, 1931 in Montreal, Canada. He studied commerce at McGill University in Montreal, later switching to acting. While there he was in many student productions, and went on to perform with the Stratford (Ontario, Canada) Shakespeare Festivals, playing a number of Shakespearean roles. The ‘Shatner Building’ at McGill is named after him. In 1956, he moved to New York, and worked in live TV dramas and on Broadway, where he attracted the attention of TV producers. His first TV appearance was in the Goodyear Television Playhouse, episode - ‘All Summer Long’ on October 28, 1956. His onscreen debute was in, The Brothers Karamazov, in 1958, as ‘Alexi Karamazov’. The first TV series he starred in was, For the People (January 31, 1965 - May 9, 1965), as ‘David Koster’. The next TV series was Star Trek - The Original Series (September 8, 1966 - September 2, 1969), and he also played the voice of Captain Kirk in Star Trek - The Animated Series (September 8, 1973 - October 12, 1974). He played ‘Jeff Cable’ in The Barbary Coast (September 8, 1975 - January 9, 1976), ‘Captain Harrison’ in How The West Was Won (1978), ‘T.J. Hooker’ in T.J. Hooker (March 13, 1982 - September 17, 1987), Himself in Rescue 911 (1989), and ‘Bascom’ in the TekWar series (1994). Movies he’s been in include: The Intruder, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Explosive Generation, The Outrage, Incubus, Star Trek (Pilot), Comanche Blanco, Sole Survivor (TV), The Andersonville Trial (TV), Owen Marshall Counsellor at Law (TV), Vanished (TV), The People (TV), Incident on a Dark Street (TV), The Hound of the Baskervilles (TV), Horror at 37,000 Feet(TV), Go Ask Alice (TV), Pioneer Woman (TV), Indict and Convict (TV), Pray for the Wildcats (TV), Impulse, Big Bad Mama, Land of No Return, The Devil’s Rain, The Barbary Coast (Pilot), A Whale of a Tale, The Tenth Level, Perilous Voyage (TV), Kingdom of the Spiders, Testimony of Two Men (TV), The Third Walker, Crash of Flight 401 (TV), The Kent Chronicles (TV), Little Women (TV), Disaster on the Coastliner (TV), Reil, The Babysitter (TV), Kidnapping of the President, Airplane II: The Secquel, Visiting Hours, T.J. Hooker (Pilot), Secrets of a Married Man (TV), North Beach and Rawhide (TV), Broken Angel (TV), Happy Birthday Bugs!: 50 Looney Years (TV), National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon, Family of Strangers (TV), TekWar Movies (TV), Janek: The Silent Betrayal (TV), Trinity and Beyond, Prisoner of Zenda (TV), Dead Man’s Island (TV), Land of the Free, and of course, Star Trek (I-VII). He has made guest appearances in many TV series: Thriller, Dr. Kildare, Twelve O’Clock High, The Nurses, Mannix, The Music Scene, Barnaby Jones, Medical Center, Studio One, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The United States Steel Hour, The Twilight Zone, Naked City, The Defenders, Route 66, The Outer Limits, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Virginian, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater, The Fugitive, The Big Valley, Gunsmoke, The F.B.I., Cade’s County, Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, Dr. Simon Locke, The Amazing World of Kreskin, The Six Million Dollar Man, Kung Fu, Police Story, The Magician, Petrocelli, Columbo, Police Squad, Madame’s Place, The Ray Bradbury Theatre, Saturday Night Live, The Larry Sanders Show, SeaQuest DSV, Eek! the Cat, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Muppets Tonight, Perversions of Science, Space Cadets, Dateline NBC, and Politically Incorrect. Some of his other works include TV commercials: ‘Commodore Computers’ (1982), Oldsmobile (1989) with his daughter, Melanie, Web TV (1998), ‘NFL on Fox’ (1998), and a Radio commercial for priceline.com (1998).
His daughter Lisbeth wrote the script for the T.J. Hooker episode ‘Partners in Death’ (1986). He is active in conservation and environmental causes and loves horses. He breeds and shows his many American Saddlebreds and Quarter Horses. He is also an avid tennis player. He has written several books, including the TEK series. He appeared in the music video and sang in the choir on the song ‘Voices That Care’. He married and divorced Gloria Rand in the 50’s. He married Marcy Lafferty in 1976, but later divorced. Since 1997 he’s been married to Nerine Kidd. He has 3 daughters, Lesley, Lizebeth, and Melanie, and 1 son, Daniel. He lives in Southern California and also has a 360 acre horse farm in Kentucky.
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