Buck Murdock: Oh, cut the bleeding heart crap, will ya? We've all got our switches, lights, and knobs to deal with, Striker. I mean, down here there are literally hundreds and thousands of blinking, beeping, and flashing lights, blinking and beeping and flashing - they're *flashing* and they're *beeping*. I can't stand it anymore! They're *blinking* and *beeping* and *flashing*! Why doesn't somebody pull the plug!
Buck Murdock: We'd better get to the tower, Lieutenant.
Lt. Pervis: We have no tower, sir.
Buck Murdock: No tower?
Lt. Pervis: Just a bridge, sir.
Buck Murdock: Why the *hell* aren't I notified about these things?
The Many Iterations of William Shatner - NYTimes.com
He calls to explain. “A mix-up,” he says, and then, “I read all your stories.” Pause. “You. Are. A. Grrreat. Writer.” Another pause. “What’s your name?” I tell him. He says, “Of course it is.” I ask what his name is. “MY NAME? I. Am. William. Shatner!”McQueen, Newman, Redford, Shatner....in the imortal words of the Robot from Lost in Space, "It does not compute!"
Well, yes, but which William Shatner? The child actor from Canada, descended from Eastern European rabbis? The 23-year-old Shakespearean whom Sir Tyrone Guthrie called the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s most promising actor? The young actor who made his debut on Broadway two years later, in 1956, in “Tamburlaine the Great,” then appeared in his first Hollywood film, “The Brothers Karamazov,” with Yul Brynner in 1958 and starred on Broadway in “The World of Suzie Wong” that same year and “A Shot in the Dark” in 1961? That actor was mentioned in the same breath as his contemporaries Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Robert Redford — until, without explanation, his career faded before it bloomed.
At 35, he was a working actor who showed up on time, knew his lines, worked cheap and always answered his phone. In 1966, he accepted a starring role in a sci-fi series called “Star Trek,” joining a no-name cast, some of whom later accused him of being pompous, self-aggrandizing, clueless and insufferably William Shatner, which became his greatest role once he finally accepted the fact of it.
After “Star Trek” was canceled in 1969, he appeared in more schlock movies — “Big Bad Mama,” “The Devil’s Rain” — and as the lead in a TV series, “Barbary Coast,” that never caught on. So he guest-starred on game shows: “The Hollywood Squares,” “Celebrity Bowling,” not even a regular among C-listers. But during the ’70s, “Star Trek” became a cult phenomenon in syndication. Conventions. Star worship. He fought it at first — in a skit on “Saturday Night Live” years later he told the Trekkies to “get a life” — but finally succumbed to the adulation. From 1979 to 1994, he starred in the first seven “Star Trek” movies, on which he capitalized by later cranking out (with co-authors) a basketful of “Star Trek” novels.
After he was killed off from the “Star Trek” movies, he began doing commercials, because, he said, “every day I realized I would not be a star.” He was 66, beefy, no longer matinee-idol handsome. As always, he worked cheap. In 1997, he took a modest salary (and stock options) to become a spokesman for a little-known online discount-travel company, Priceline. As the pompous Priceline pitchman, he became an Internet sensation among the hip-and-cynical blogger set, which thought he was hilarious in spoofing himself. He didn’t know who this William Shatner character was, but he played to it anyway, which helped lead him to a role in the mid-2000s on the television series “The Practice” and its spinoff, “Boston Legal,” that earned him two Emmys and a Golden Globe. He played the pompous, clueless, self-aggrandizing 70-something lawyer Denny Crane, suffering from the onset of Alzheimer’s, which Crane calls “mad cow.” William Shatner the man was playing William Shatner the character playing the character Denny Crane, who was playing the character William Shatner. Shatner has said he once wore a William Shatner mask on Halloween — “Nobody knew who I was.”
It's a bit long but worth the read. For his shortcomings (and there are many) he is a working actor who has gotten around (won't say gotten over) the great ego and makes fun of himself to get to success. His shows like Raw Nerve are great...actually asking intelligent questions of celebrities and hitting them again and again. What a concept. If Newweak would have adapted that concept they may not have been sold for a buck...and that multi billionaire paid way too much for that.
Again to Darren at ROTLC for the link
No comments:
Post a Comment