William Shatner Biography

William Alan Shatner was born on 22 March 1931 to Anne and Joseph Shatner in Quebec. His grandparents were Jewish immigrants and he was raised as a conservative Jew. He trained as a classical Shakespearean actor but made his first movie debut in 'The Butler's Night Off' in 1951.

He married his first wife Gloria Rand on 12 August 1956 and they had three children together before divorcing in 1969.

Shatner made his feature debut in a supporting role in Richard Brooks' film of 'The Brothers Karamazov' (1958).

He appeared in five other films and plenty of TV shows over the next few years, before finding the role that would make him an enduring star - Captain James T Kirk of 'Star Trek', a role he played between 1966 and 1969 and again between 1973 and 1974. The unprecedented popularity of 'Star Trek' was not immediate, only becoming apparent after years of syndication.

On 20 October 1973, Shatner married his second wife Marcy Lafferty, who also starred in 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' and 'TJ Hooker' with her husband. They were together for 21 years before divorcing in 1996.

Shatner returned to features, in mostly low-budget genre fare ('Big Bad Mama' (1974); 'The Devil's Rain'(1975); 'Kingdom of the Spiders' (1977)) before making 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture', in 1979. Kirk was promoted to Admiral for the series of sequels which followed the initial film's success.

Shatner went on to find success as street cop, 'TJ Hooker', in the mid 1980s TV series.
After hosting US TV series 'Rescue 911', he made his directorial debut with 'Star Trek V: The Final Frontier' (1989), before going on to publish his first book, 'TekWar'.

The actor went on to become a prolific novelist and co-author of two collections of Trek memoirs and a look at Trek fandom, entitled 'Get a Life'. He is also the credited author of a series of ghost-written 'Star Trek' novels, starring James T Kirk.

Shatner created, directed and took a supporting role in the syndicated TV series adaptation of 'TekWar' (1994-1996), and oversaw and appeared in three subsequent 'TekWar' telefilms, as well as a cable TV spin-off series.

However he returned to the helm of the Enterprise for one last time in 'Star Trek: Generations', which saw Kirk passing the baton (and franchise) to Patrick Stewart's Captain Picard.

Entering his post-Trek phase, Shatner began to spoof his kitschy appeal in dozens of film, TV and commercial projects.

He managed this most effectively in the comedy 'Free Enterprise' (1998), in which he has aspirations about directing a film about Julius Caesar, with himself in all of the roles.
He also played several over-the-top creations, including Murdock in 'Airplane II' (1982); the villain in 'Loaded Weapon'; and the pompous pageant host of 'Miss Congeniality' (2000).

Ironically, he was tapped to host the real-life Miss USA pageant a year later. At the same time, Shatner found himself making headlines when his estranged third wife, actress Nerine Kidd - from whom he had split due to her addiction problems - drowned in the swimming pool of their LA home in 1999. They had been married since 1997. He then married his current wife Elizabeth in 2001.

In 2002 he released the DVD 'Mind Meld: Behind the Voyages of a Lifetime', in which he and his Trek co-star and best friend, Leonard Nimoy, engage in a deeply intimate conversation about their lives.

Since then, he has lent his voice to 'The Wild' and 'Over the Hedge' in 2006 and starred in the TV mini-series 'Everest' (2007) about the first Canadians to reach the summit.

Between 2004 and 2008, he appeared in 'Boston Legal', which was a spin-off of 'The Practice' in which Shatner acted in 2004. Shatner also released his autobiography 'Up Til Now' in 2008.

He then appeared in '$#*! My Dad Says' between 2010 and 2011 and has recently acted in two episodes of 'Psych'. In February 2012, he performed in a one-man Broadway show called 'Shatner's World'.