Happy Birthday William Shatner!

Happy Birthday William Shatner!  He was working in theaterical productions until his genre appearances in “Nick of Time” (1960) and the classic “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (1963) episodes of Twilight Zone.  Shatner also starred in “Cold Hands, Warm Heart” (1964) episode of The Outer Limits.  He appeared alongside Leonard Nimoy in “The Project Strigas Affair” (1964) episode of the spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Shatner’s iconic role was as Captain Kirk in Star Trek starting with “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (1966), the second pilot of the series had a strong cast and went on until 1969.  He returned to voice Captain Kirk in Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974).  Star Trek was revived as a television movie, but then given a theatrical release as Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).  He had a long running role as the lead in T.J. Hooker (1982-1986).  Shatner returned as Kirk in one of the finest Star Trek films was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).  He followed it up with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984).  

A fan favorite movie had Shatner saving the whales in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).  He took the directing reins in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). The last full cast of the original series was in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).  He published his sci fi novel TekWar in 1989.  This became a series of tv movies starting with TekWar (1994).  He also made a final appearance as James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Generations (1994).  TekWar (1994-1996) was made into a series with Shatner as Walter H. Bascom. Shatner also co-wrote many Star Trek novels starting with Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden (1995). He appeared in the sci fi comedy series 3rd Rock from the Sun (1999-2000) as The Big Giant Head.  Shatner was also the host of the beauty pageant in the comedy Miss Congeniality (2000).  He voiced himself in a 2002 episode of Futurama.  Shatner had a strong role as Denny Crane in the drama series, The Practice (2004).  He returned as the character in Boston Legal (2004-2008).  Shatner wrote and directed the documentary The Captains (2011) about the Star Trek captains.  He starred in the horror movie, Devil’s Revenge (2019), with Jeri Ryan.  Shatner has a comedy, Senior Moment, coming on March 26th with Chrisopher Lloyd.  Happy Birthday William Shatner!   

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