William Shatner Fast Facts
CNN Editorial Research
Here is a look at the life of award-winning actor William Shatner.
Personal
Birth date: March 22, 1931
Birth place: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Birth name: William Shatner
Father: Joseph Shatner, business owner
Mother: Ann Shatner
Marriages: Elizabeth (Anderson Martin) Shatner (February 13, 2001-March 3, 2020, divorced); Nerine Kidd (November 15, 1997-August 9, 1999, her death); Marcy Lafferty (October 20, 1973-1996, divorced); Gloria Rand (1956-1969, divorced)
Children: with Gloria Rand: Melanie Ann, Lisabeth Mary and Leslie Carol
Education: McGill University, B.A., Business, 1952
Other Facts
Nominated for seven Emmy Awards and has won two. Was also inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Nominated for one Grammy Award for a spoken word recording but did not win.
His family is of Ukrainian-Jewish descent.
In the shows “The Practice” and “Boston Legal,” he plays the same character, Denny Crane.
His character, Capt. James T. Kirk, appears in 10 of the 13 Star Trek franchise films. Shatner portrays Kirk in the first seven.
He breeds and owns champion horses.
Timeline
1954 – Joins the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario.
January 1956 – Makes his Broadway debut in “Tamburlaine the Great.”
1958 – “The Brothers Karamazov” premieres, his first major film role.
1963 – Appears in “The Twilight Zone” episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.”
1966-1969 – Appears in the lead role of Captain James Tiberius Kirk in “Star Trek.”
November 22, 1968 – The “Star Trek” episode “Plato’s Stepchildren” airs. It is the first interracial kiss shown on television, when Capt. Kirk is forced to kiss Lt. Uhura.
1979 – Stars in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”
1982-1986 – Stars in the police series “T.J. Hooker.”
1989 – Stars in and directs “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.”
1997-2004 – Stars in the legal drama series “The Practice.”
2004 – Wins the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama series for “The Practice.”
2004-2008 – Co-stars in “Boston Legal.”
2005 – Wins the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for “Boston Legal.”
December 14, 2006 – Is inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.
2011 – Begins performing a one-man show “Shatner’s World: We Just Live In It.”
2016 – Stars in the NBC reality TV series, “Better Late than Never,” with Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman, and Henry Winkler. The show is about a group of celebrities who travel across Asia with a young guide, comedian Jeff Dye.
March 25, 2016 – Is sued by Peter Sloan for libel and slander. Sloan says that Shatner is his biological father, a claim which Shatner denies. The case is dismissed in June 2018.
October 13, 2021 – Blasts off onboard a New Shepard suborbital spacecraft — the one developed by Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, before parachuting to a landing, making Shatner the oldest person ever to travel to space.
October 4, 2022 – Shatner’s biography, “Boldly Go,” is published.
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