James Doohan Biography
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James Doohan was born on March 3, 1920
in Vancouver, British Columbia [not Scotland as most people believe]
to Sarah and William Doohan (pharmacist, veterinarian and dentist).
He is the youngest of four children. His family moved to Sarnia,
Ontario when he was still a youngster.
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He attended and graduated from the the
Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School (High School) in
Sarnia. His father was an alcoholic and this prompted him to leave
home and join the Canadian Forces in 1939, at the age of 19.
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As a young man he joined the Royal
Canadian Artillery and saw action during World War II. He worked
his way up to the rank of Captain while in the European Theater. He
was involved in some major action, including the invasion of Juno
Beach on D-Day on June 6, 1944. During the attack, he was hit six
times with machine gun shells (four in the leg, one in the chest and
one in middle finger of his right hand). [Note: his right middle
finger was shot off and he has hidden this fact while on screen.]
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After recuperating from his wounds, he
decided to try to get into show business. His first “gig” was not
on television, but on radio show in January of 1946. To better his
talents he enrolled in acting classes and won a competition which
awarded him a two year scholarship to a famous acting school in New
York called the Neighborhood Playhouse. During the late 1940s and
through the 1950s he was always working. He worked on hundreds of
radio programs and dozens of television shows in New York and
Ontario. He has appeared on such shows as Gunsmoke,
Bonanza, The Twilight Zone, and The Fugitive. His
first regular job on television was as Phil Mitchell on the
television series Space Command in 1953. However, none of the
roles brought him great success.
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He was married to his first wife, Janet
Young in 1949. They had four children together, three sons: Larkin
(b. 1954), Montgomery (b. 1959) and his twin brother Christopher (b.
1959) and one daughter Deirdre (b. 1957). The couple was divorced
in 1964.
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James Doohan’s big break came in 1966,
when he became a member of the infamous crew aboard the U.S.S.
Enterprise on the sci-fi series Star Trek. When he
auditioned for the show in front of the casting director and Gene
Roddenberry (science fiction writer and creator of the show), James
tried out many different accents (he was very good at imitating
different voices and accents). The one that stuck was the Scottish
accent and he was cast as Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott, the
miracle working Chief Engineer of the Enterprise. He stayed on the
show until it ended in 1969. It was not until the 1970’s that the
show became popular from its reruns.
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After the Star Trek television
series was over, he went back to doing miscellaneous television and
movie roles. Because of his talent with different voices, he also
leant his voice to Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973) and
not only voiced Mr. Scott, but also did a large number of other
characters as well.
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James Doohan married his second wife in
1967. They did not have any children before divorcing in 1972.
However, he found love again a short time later and married his
third wife Wende Doohan in 1975. They had three children together,
Eric, Thomas and Sarah who was born in 2000 when Doohan was 80 years
old.
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The 1970’s were hard for him
professionally. He became type cast into the Mr. Scott role and did
not find any steady work. Luckily, the fans of Star Trek wanted
more and in 1979, the crew of the Enterprise were reunited to bring
their talents to the big screen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
The movie and the Star Trek were so successful that it lead to
another six movies: Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982),
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The
Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
(1989), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) and
Star Trek: Generations (1994). A little known fact is that
Doohan helped to create the Vulcan and Klingon languages used in the
movies (although it has evolved ever since).
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In his role as Mr. Scott he was awarded
the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1987 for his work in
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. He not only entertained
audiences in this role, but it also helped to inspire many young
people into becoming engineers and to honor his influence in this
profession, the Milwaukee School of Engineering awarded him an
honorary degree in engineering.
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The popularity of Star Trek brought
about a second career for Doohan as a speaker and he traveled the
world doing personal appearances and speaking to large and small
groups of people and of course, he traveled the Star Trek Convention
circuit as well making numerous appearances each year.
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In 1989, the actor suffered a massive
hear attack. This made him slow down . . . but only a little.
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During the late 1990s, James Doohan
became a science fiction author and published three books, The
Rising in 1996, The Privateer in 1999 and The
Independent Command in 2000. The books were co-written with
author S.M. Stirling. He had also previously published an
autobiography, Beam Me Up, Scotty in 1996 co-written by Peter
David.
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Since the early 1990s, Doohan began to
become ill. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease, lung fibrosis and
diabetes. Then in 2004, he announced that he also had Alzheimer’s
disease.
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In August of 2004, Doohan was given a
star on the Walk of Fame which included a large three day “Farewell
Scotty” Star Trek convention.
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James Doohan passed away on the morning
of July 20, 2005 at his home in Redmond, Washington. As per his
wishes, his remains will be cremated and his ashes are to be
launched into space. He will be missed by friends, family and fans.
Biography by Ian Ripley,
PopStarsPlus.com, Sr. Staff Writer
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