1769Dead
2005-07-20 22:46:07 UTC
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/20/arts/television/20cnd-doohan.html?hp&ex=1121918400&en=dd98d175c34aa262&ei=5094&partner=homepage
James Doohan, Scotty on 'Star Trek,' Dies at 85
Well, Cap'n, the engines finally blew...
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By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: July 20, 2005
James Doohan, who faked a Scottish burr to create one of television's
most endearing characters, Chief Engineer Montgomery (Scotty) Scott of
the U.S.S. Enterprise, died today at the age of 85.
Mr. Doohan, who had Alzheimer's disease, died of pneumonia at his home
early this morning, said his agent, Steven Stevens.
Whenever Captain Kirk said "Beam me up, Scotty" or its many variants,
he was talking to the character played by Mr. Doohan, an irascible
engineer whose cries of "Captain! The engines canna take nae more!"
and references to warp speed and dilithium crystals have resonated
through popular culture since 1966, when the original Star Trek's
three seasons began.
He later appeared in seven Star Trek movies and in "Star Trek: The
Next Generation," a series set 75 years after the original Star Trek
was to have taken place. (The time gap was explained by Mr. Scott's
having jury-rigged a form of suspended animation by sending himself
into a pattern buffer in the transporter and keeping his matter
circulating in the unit through continuous diagnostic loop. Like all
Star Trek explanations, it sounds good if you say it fast.)
In that show, Mr. Scott expressed astonishment at the approach of that
ship's engineer, Geordie LaForge, to telling his captain how long it
would take to work through a particular problem. "Oh, you didn't tell
him how long it would really take, did you?" When Mr. LaForge said he
had, Mr. Scott replied with exasperation, "Oh, laddie, you've got a
lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker!"
James Montgomery Doohan was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on
March 3, 1920. He was the youngest of four children, and his father,
Mr. Doohan would later write in his memoir, "Beam Me Up, Scotty," was
an abusive alcoholic. Mr. Doohan served in World War II, and was
struck by six bullets during the D-Day Invasion in Normandy. One of
the bullets blew off his middle right finger, an injury he would later
conceal from the Star Trek television cameras.
Married three times, he is survived by his third wife, the former
Wende Braunberger, and seven children. The four children from his
first marriage, now grown, are Larkin, Deirdre, Montgomery and
Christopher; his third marriage produced three children: Eric, Thomas
and Sarah, who was born in 2000 when Mr. Doohan was 80.
When he first auditioned for the role of ship's engineer with Gene
Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, Mr. Doohan read the lines with
a variety of accents, including French and German. "They both decided
an engineer has got to be a Scotsman," Mr. Stevens recalled.
Mr. Doohan became so closely associated with his character that it was
difficult for him to get other parts. But if he resented having taken
a role that all but ended his acting career, he did not show it, said
Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Pavel Chekov in the original
television series and rode the lucrative convention circuit with him.
"He accepted it," he said. "He delighted in the attention."
Mr. Stevens, the agent, said that Mr. Doohan "loved the idea that he'd
be in an airport and somebody from Kenya or some Middle Eastern
country would come up and say, 'You're Scotty!' And he'd stop and take
pictures." He even enjoyed the endless gantlet of conventions, Mr.
Stevens said. "Some people might think, 'Ugh - the poor guy's got to
sit and sign autographs.' He'd have done it for free."
Mr. Doohan influenced a generation of engineers, who saw him as role
model. The Milwaukee School of Engineering awarded Mr. Doohan an
honorary doctor of engineering degree in 1993 "after a survey of
students revealed that a large number of respondents said the
character Scotty's 'engineer' title piqued their interest in the
field," said Kathleen McCann, a spokeswoman for the school. "He
brought the field of engineering to the forefront of pop culture," she
said in an e-mail response to questions.
When he attended a special James Doohan Farewell Star Trek Convention
last summer, using a wheelchair but alert, one of the people who spoke
at the ceremony was Neil Armstrong, the first person to actually walk
on the soil of another world and a "Star Trek" fan. According to
accounts of the event, Mr. Armstrong said he hoped his next command
would be a Federation starship, and added "if I get that command, I
want a chief engineering officer like Montgomery Scott."
Mr. Koenig said that the night before the event, he held a dinner in
Mr. Doohan's honor. There were many tributes and many stories, Mr.
Koenig recalled, "and a lot of laughs all around." Mr. Doohan - as
always - basked in the attention and love.
Mr. Koenig said that at the end of the evening, as Mr. Doohan was
being wheeled out, he slowed for a word. "He said it was nice, but it
was a lot too long," he recalled with a laugh.
Mr. Doohan requested that his remains be shot into space, and his
family has arranged through Space Services Inc., a Houston company
that provides "memorial spaceflights" and which also sent the remains
of Mr. Rodenberry and Timothy Leary into space in a 1997 flight.
James Doohan, Scotty on 'Star Trek,' Dies at 85
Well, Cap'n, the engines finally blew...
*
E-Mail This
* Printer-Friendly
* Reprints
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: July 20, 2005
James Doohan, who faked a Scottish burr to create one of television's
most endearing characters, Chief Engineer Montgomery (Scotty) Scott of
the U.S.S. Enterprise, died today at the age of 85.
Mr. Doohan, who had Alzheimer's disease, died of pneumonia at his home
early this morning, said his agent, Steven Stevens.
Whenever Captain Kirk said "Beam me up, Scotty" or its many variants,
he was talking to the character played by Mr. Doohan, an irascible
engineer whose cries of "Captain! The engines canna take nae more!"
and references to warp speed and dilithium crystals have resonated
through popular culture since 1966, when the original Star Trek's
three seasons began.
He later appeared in seven Star Trek movies and in "Star Trek: The
Next Generation," a series set 75 years after the original Star Trek
was to have taken place. (The time gap was explained by Mr. Scott's
having jury-rigged a form of suspended animation by sending himself
into a pattern buffer in the transporter and keeping his matter
circulating in the unit through continuous diagnostic loop. Like all
Star Trek explanations, it sounds good if you say it fast.)
In that show, Mr. Scott expressed astonishment at the approach of that
ship's engineer, Geordie LaForge, to telling his captain how long it
would take to work through a particular problem. "Oh, you didn't tell
him how long it would really take, did you?" When Mr. LaForge said he
had, Mr. Scott replied with exasperation, "Oh, laddie, you've got a
lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker!"
James Montgomery Doohan was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on
March 3, 1920. He was the youngest of four children, and his father,
Mr. Doohan would later write in his memoir, "Beam Me Up, Scotty," was
an abusive alcoholic. Mr. Doohan served in World War II, and was
struck by six bullets during the D-Day Invasion in Normandy. One of
the bullets blew off his middle right finger, an injury he would later
conceal from the Star Trek television cameras.
Married three times, he is survived by his third wife, the former
Wende Braunberger, and seven children. The four children from his
first marriage, now grown, are Larkin, Deirdre, Montgomery and
Christopher; his third marriage produced three children: Eric, Thomas
and Sarah, who was born in 2000 when Mr. Doohan was 80.
When he first auditioned for the role of ship's engineer with Gene
Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, Mr. Doohan read the lines with
a variety of accents, including French and German. "They both decided
an engineer has got to be a Scotsman," Mr. Stevens recalled.
Mr. Doohan became so closely associated with his character that it was
difficult for him to get other parts. But if he resented having taken
a role that all but ended his acting career, he did not show it, said
Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Pavel Chekov in the original
television series and rode the lucrative convention circuit with him.
"He accepted it," he said. "He delighted in the attention."
Mr. Stevens, the agent, said that Mr. Doohan "loved the idea that he'd
be in an airport and somebody from Kenya or some Middle Eastern
country would come up and say, 'You're Scotty!' And he'd stop and take
pictures." He even enjoyed the endless gantlet of conventions, Mr.
Stevens said. "Some people might think, 'Ugh - the poor guy's got to
sit and sign autographs.' He'd have done it for free."
Mr. Doohan influenced a generation of engineers, who saw him as role
model. The Milwaukee School of Engineering awarded Mr. Doohan an
honorary doctor of engineering degree in 1993 "after a survey of
students revealed that a large number of respondents said the
character Scotty's 'engineer' title piqued their interest in the
field," said Kathleen McCann, a spokeswoman for the school. "He
brought the field of engineering to the forefront of pop culture," she
said in an e-mail response to questions.
When he attended a special James Doohan Farewell Star Trek Convention
last summer, using a wheelchair but alert, one of the people who spoke
at the ceremony was Neil Armstrong, the first person to actually walk
on the soil of another world and a "Star Trek" fan. According to
accounts of the event, Mr. Armstrong said he hoped his next command
would be a Federation starship, and added "if I get that command, I
want a chief engineering officer like Montgomery Scott."
Mr. Koenig said that the night before the event, he held a dinner in
Mr. Doohan's honor. There were many tributes and many stories, Mr.
Koenig recalled, "and a lot of laughs all around." Mr. Doohan - as
always - basked in the attention and love.
Mr. Koenig said that at the end of the evening, as Mr. Doohan was
being wheeled out, he slowed for a word. "He said it was nice, but it
was a lot too long," he recalled with a laugh.
Mr. Doohan requested that his remains be shot into space, and his
family has arranged through Space Services Inc., a Houston company
that provides "memorial spaceflights" and which also sent the remains
of Mr. Rodenberry and Timothy Leary into space in a 1997 flight.