This Is Your Life: William Shatner

William SHATNER (1931-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - William Shatner, actor, was surprised by Michael Aspel on the set of the Starship Enterprise at Universal Studios in Hollywood, having been led to believe he was there to be interviewed about the new Star Trek film.

William was born in Montreal, Canada, and after graduating from McGill University in 1952 he became the assistant manager for the city's Mountain Playhouse, before joining the Canadian National Repertory Theatre in Ottawa, where he trained as a classical Shakesperian actor. This led to appearances at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, where he won the Tyrone Guthrie award.

In 1961 he starred in the Broadway play A Shot in the Dark, and in the same year had a significant role in the film Judgement at Nuremberg. He is best known for his portrayal of Captain James T Kirk in the Star Trek franchise - a role he first played on television in 1966 and one that made him a cultural icon.

"You're kidding? Oh my lord! You mean you're actually doing this?"

programme details...

Edition No: 767
Subject No: 758
Broadcast date: Wed 27 Dec 1989
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Tue 21 Nov 1989
Venue: unknown
Series: 30
Edition: 10
Code name: Beam

on the guest list...

Harve Bennett
Marcy Lafferty - wife
Lisabeth - daughter
Leslie - daughter
Melanie - daughter
Dr Hilliard Jason
Leonard Nimoy
Richard Herd
Adrian Zmed
Gordon - son-in-law
Grant - grandson
Julie Harris
Heather Locklear
Donna Moore

production team...

Researcher: Sue Green
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Director: Brian Klein
Associate Producer: John Graham
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related page...

The Glamorous Life

Hollywood in the spotlight

Photographs and screenshots of William Shatner This Is Your Life

Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...

We surprised William Shatner, Captain Kirk, on the 'flight deck' of the Starship Enterprise at Universal Studios, and he and Michael Aspel were 'beamed' – using special effects – from there to the studios.

Actress Heather Locklear, Shatner's blonde, glamorous partner in T J Hooker (and Sammy Jo in Dynasty) nearly didn't make it. Being on location, she had recorded a message, but a young lady visiting one of the team drove off with the tape in the boot of her car. It began a 'calling-all-cars' search worthy of T J Hooker himself.

But Mr Spock, alias Leonard Nimoy, was there, minus his Vulcan ears, and we closed the show by 'beaming' up Bill's twenty-month-old grandson, Grant.

Producer Malcolm Morris recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is My Life...

Our relationship with the press is sometimes contradictory because, on the one hand, they represent a threat in that they can blow a programme if they find out about it before we pull our surprise. The fact that they would destroy a programme for the subject and the viewers is not a factor in their minds when it comes to creating a good front page story.

But, at the same time, our programme likes publicity from time to time. We were in the Universal Pictures Theme Park, Los Angeles, where Michael Aspel was to present the opening of a special Life surprise to William Shatner of Star Trek fame.

The wonderful thing was that the theme park featured a real life size version of the control deck of the Starship Enterprise. What better place to surprise 'Captain Kirk'. The problem was, our cameras and crew were seen by a reporter working for one of the Hollywood scandal sheets. I knew that he would not be adverse to sending an extra feature or two to the English press for some extra money.

We had invited William Shatner to the Star Trek set to have what he thought was an interview for British television. He was due at around 3pm and Michael and I were at the set working out the camera angles. The reporter became suspicious and stood at the back of the set just waiting to see what would happen. Luckily, my son, Gregory, who was 18 at the time, was with us and I persuaded him to sit in at the controls as Captain Kirk. I then began to move the cameras around him with Michael acting out the part of the surprise.

I called the reporter from the back row up to the set and told him that we were from London and that we were shooting some promotional spots with a newly discovered young lad well known on British children's television. I then asked him (from my own early press experiences) for what every reporter and photographer hates most in the world. I looked at him earnestly. 'Could you possibly take some publicity stills for use in London and perhaps you could also get them published in Los Angeles?' He was gone so fast he couldn't hear our laughter.

William Shatner arrived soon after and Captain Kirk and Michael Aspel were both 'beamed down' to the studios.

Rehearsing with my son, Gregory, who's standing in for our next subject, William Shatner, in 1989

Series 30 subjects