Star Trek's Scotty beams up

2005-07-20 18:35

Los Angeles - James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original Star Trek TV series and movies who responded to the command, "Beam me up, Scotty!" died on Wednesday. He was 85.

Doohan died at his Redmond, Washington, home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and long-time 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.

Preferred

"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 Mr Spock, attracted an enthusiastic following of science fiction fans, but not enough ratings power. NBC cancelled 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.

Star Trek continued in syndication 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.

Huge success

The huge success of George Lucas' Star Wars in 1977 prompted Paramount Pictures, which had produced Star Trek for television, to plan a movie based on the series.

The studio brought back the TV cast and hired 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, 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."

Vancouver

James Montgomery Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia, the youngest of four children.

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.

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."

- AP