William Shatner

William Shatner
William Shatner speaking at the Star Trek Italian Club 2005 Convention
Born
March 22 1931 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Occupation
Actor, author, recording artist
Career milestones
The Twilight Zone Star Trek: The Original Series TekWar (novels) Boston Legal Has Been (album)
Official website
http://www.williamshatner.com

William "Bill" Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is an Emmy-winning and Golden Globe-winning actor, who gained fame for his starring role as Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise in the television show Star Trek from 1966 to 1969 and in seven of the subsequent movies. Shatner has written three books chronicling his experiences playing James T. Kirk and being a part of Star Trek. He also played the title role as veteran plainclothes detective, T.J. Hooker, from 1982 to 1986, on both ABC and CBS networks.

He has since worked as a musician, bestselling celebrity author, producer, director, and celebrity pitchman, most notably for Priceline.com. Currently, he stars as attorney Denny Crane on the ABC hit drama Boston Legal.

Biography

Early life

Shatner was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to Joseph Shatner and Anna Garmaise, both of whom were the children of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe;[1] the family name was originally "Schattner". He attended Willingdon Elementary School and Baron Byng High School (now occupied by the Sun Youth Organization) in the area known as the Mile End (Montreal), as well as West Hill High School in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in Montreal, Quebec, and earned a Bachelor's degree in commerce from Montreal's McGill University (which today has a building unofficially called the Shatner Building named after him) in 1952. Trained as a classical Shakespearean actor, he performed at the Shakespearean Stratford Festival of Canada in Stratford, Ontario—in later years generations of Canadian high-school students were startled to see photos of William Shatner (as well as actor Lorne Greene) in their Shakespeare texts playing a wide range of Shakespearean roles at the Stratford Festival.

In 1954 he was cast as "Ranger Bill" on the popular Howdy Doody Show in the United States. His official movie debut was in the 1958 MGM film The Brothers Karamazov with Yul Brynner, in which Shatner starred as the youngest of the Karamazov brothers, Alexei (he had earlier appeared in a 1951 Canadian film entitled The Butler's Night Off). In 1959, he received good reviews when he took on the role of Robert Lomax in the Broadway production of The World of Suzie Wong. In 1962 he starred in Roger Corman's award-winning movie The Intruder. He also appeared in the Stanley Kramer film Judgment at Nuremberg and two episodes of the acclaimed science fiction anthology series The Twilight Zone. Shatner guest-starred in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in an episode that also featured Leonard Nimoy, with whom Shatner later would be paired in Star Trek. Shatner also starred in the 1965 Gothic horror film Incubus, the second feature-length movie ever made with all dialogue spoken in the constructed language Esperanto.

Star Trek career

William Shatner was first cast as Captain James Tiberius Kirk for the second pilot of Star Trek, entitled "Where No Man Has Gone Before". He subsequently was contracted to play Captain James T. Kirk for the Star Trek series and held the role from 1966 to 1969. In 1973, Shatner returned to the role of Captain Kirk, albeit only in voice, in the animated Star Trek series. He was slated to reprise the role of Kirk for Star Trek: Phase II, a follow-up series chronicling the second five-year mission of the Enterprise, but Star Trek: Phase II was cancelled in pre-production and expanded into Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

File:KirkDressUniform.jpg

William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk

Shatner is notable for having participated in the first US televised interracial kiss, with Nichelle Nichols, in the 1968 episode "Plato's Stepchildren". The scene provoked controversy and was seen as groundbreaking, even though the kiss was portrayed as having been forced by mind control. The episode was not telecast in some Southern cities for fear of protest in those states; nevertheless, the majority of the feedback of the incident was positive. Shatner has claimed in memoirs that no one on the set felt the kiss to be very important until a network executive raised fears of a Southern boycott, and the kiss was almost written out of the script. Gene Roddenberry supposedly made a deal, that the scene would be shot with the kiss, and with a cut-away shot which merely implied a kiss, and then a decision would be made on which to use. The footage of the actual kiss was eventually used. Some cast members have written that this was because Shatner deliberately ruined the take for the implied-kiss footage (by staring at the camera and crossing his eyes) to force the real kiss to be used.

For years Shatner was accused of being difficult to work with by some of his Star Trek co-stars, most notably George Takei and James Doohan, both of whom openly professed that they despised Shatner for being an arrogant, egotistical, line-stealing showboater who tried to keep his co-stars in the background. In the 2004 Star Trek DVD sets, Takei seemed to have buried the hatchet with Shatner, but the gulf between Shatner and Doohan was more difficult. In the 1990s, Shatner made numerous attempts to patch things up with Doohan, but was unsuccessful for some time; however, an Associated Press article published at the time of Doohan's final convention appearance in late August 2004 stated that Doohan had forgiven Shatner and they had mended their relationship.

Between 1979 and 1991, William Shatner played Captain Kirk in the first six Star Trek films, and directed the fifth. In 1994, he returned to the role of Captain Kirk in Star Trek Generations—his character's final appearance in the movie series. 1997 marked his final appearance as Captain Kirk in the movie sequences of Starfleet Academy.

In the summer of 2004, rumors circulated that the producers of Star Trek: Enterprise were considering bringing William Shatner back into the Trek fold. Reports in the media indicated that the idea was given serious thought, with series producer Manny Coto indicating in Star Trek Communicator magazine's October 2004 issue that he was preparing a three-episode story arc for Shatner. Shortly thereafter, Enterprise was cancelled, likely ending all hope that Shatner would return to Star Trek.

Post-Star Trek career

Shatner had a long dry spell in the decade between the original Star Trek series and the first Trek film, which he believes was due to his being typecast as Captain Kirk, making it difficult to find other work. Moreover, his wife Gloria Rand left him and the Canadian actor, unfamiliar with California divorce laws, was all but wiped out financially. With very little money and acting prospects, he lived in a truck bed camper in the San Fernando Valley until acting bit-parts turned into higher paying roles. Shatner refers to this part of his life as "That Period", a humbling one in which he would take any odd job, including small party appearances, to support his family. Perhaps the nadir of this period was his role in Big Bad Mama, prized by Shatnerites for his nude scene with Angie Dickinson. He did however land a starring role in Cowboy series The Barbary Coast dueing 1975-1976. The dry spell ended for Shatner (and the other Star Trek cast members) when Paramount produced Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, under pressure from loyal fans of the series. Its success re-established Shatner as an actor, and Captain Kirk - now promoted to Admiral - as a cult icon.

While continuing to film the successful series of Star Trek movies, he returned to television in the 1980s, starring as a police officer in the T.J. Hooker series from 1982 to 1986; this show became a popular hit. He then hosted the popular dramatic reenactment series Rescue 911 from 1989 to 1996.

William Shatner's star on the Canadian Walk of Fame.

As the unwilling central figure of a widespread geek-culture of Trekkies, Shatner is often humorously critical of the sometimes "annoying" fans of Star Trek. He also has found an outlet in spoofing the cavalier, almost superhuman character persona of Captain Kirk, in films such as Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon (1993) and Saturday Night Live, in which he advised Star Trek fans to "Get a life," repeating a popular catch-phrase. Shatner also appeared in the film Free Enterprise in 1998, in which he played himself and tried to dispel the Kirk image of himself from the view of the film's two lead characters.

Shatner has enjoyed success with a series of science fiction novels. The first—published in 1990—was entitled TekWar. This popular series of books led to a Marvel Comics series, to a number of television movies, in which Shatner played a role, and to a short-lived television series. In 1995, a first-person shooter game named William Shatner's TekWar was released, and was the first game to use the Build engine.

In the 1990s, Shatner appeared in several plays on National Public Radio, written and directed by Norman Corwin.

Shatner was cast as "The Big Giant Head," a womanizing, party animal of a high-ranking officer from the same alien planet as the show's protagonists in several episodes of the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun. He was nominated for an Emmy for this role.

In 2003, Shatner appeared in Brad Paisley's Celebrity country music video along with Little Jimmy Dickens, Jason Alexander, and Trista Rehn.

File:Shatner as Denny Crane.jpg

William Shatner as Denny Crane in Boston Legal

In 2004, Shatner was cast as the eccentric but highly capable attorney Denny Crane for the final season of the legal drama The Practice, for which he was awarded an Emmy, and then its subsequent spin-off, Boston Legal, for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 2005. (He was nominated again in 2006.) With the 2005 Emmy win, Shatner became one of the few actors (along with co-star James Spader as Alan Shore) to win an Emmy award while playing the same character in two different series. (Even more rare, Shatner and Spader each won a second consecutive Emmy while playing the same character in two different series).

In 2005, Shatner executive-produced and starred in the Spike TV reality miniseries Invasion Iowa.

On October 19, 2005, while working on the set of Boston Legal, Shatner was taken to the emergency room for lower back pain. He eventually passed a kidney stone, but recovered and soon returned to work.

In 2006 Shatner sold his kidney stone for $75,000 to GoldenPalace.com. The money will go to a housing charity. [2] (In an appearance on The View on Tuesday, May 16, 2006, Shatner stated that the $75,000, along with an additional $20,000 raised from the cast and crew of Boston Legal, paid for the building of a house by Habitat for Humanity.)

Shatner also plays on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games. He plays for the Wells Fargo Hollywood Charity Horse Show.

Shatner is also the CEO of the Toronto, Ontario-based C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures company, which provided the special effects for the 1996 film Fly Away Home.

On August 20, 2006, William Shatner was featured on Comedy Central's Roast of William Shatner. Jason Alexander acted as roastmaster with (in alphabetical order) Andy Dick, Farrah Fawcett, Greg Giraldo, Lisa Lampanelli, Artie Lange, Nichelle Nichols, Patton Oswalt, Kevin Pollak, Jeffrey Ross, George Takei, Betty White, and Fred Willard performing the roasting duties. Special, pre-taped, guest appearances were made by Leonard Nimoy, Sandra Bullock, Ben Stiller, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Kimmel, and Clint Howard.

Family and other ventures

William Shatner has been married four times, to Gloria Rand (1956-69), Marcy Lafferty (1973-94), Nerine Kidd (1997-99) and Elizabeth Martin (2001 to present)

Shatner has three daughters, Leslie Carol (1958), Lisabeth Mary (1960) and Melanie (1964), born from his marriage to Rand. Melanie had a brief career as actress and is now the proprietor of Dari, an upscale women's clothing boutique. She is married to actor Joel Gretsch.

In his spare time, Shatner enjoys breeding and showing American Saddlebreds and Quarter Horses. Shatner has a 360-acre (1.5 km²) horse farm in Kentucky named Bellreve, where he raises the winning horses.

Personal tragedy

On August 9, 1999, Shatner returned home around 10 p.m to discover the body of his wife Nerine at the bottom of their back yard swimming pool. Alcohol and Valium were detected in an autopsy, and a coroner ruled the death an accidental drowning. While various conspiracy theories have circulated online suggesting Shatner's wife died under mysterious circumstances, the LAPD ruled out foul play and the case has been long closed. Speaking to the press shortly after his wife's death, a clearly shaken Shatner said that she "meant everything" to him and he called her his "beautiful soulmate."

In 2000 a Reuters story reported that Shatner was planning to write and direct The Shiva Club, a dark comedy about the grieving process inspired by his wife's death. The project was never completed.

Shatner's 2004 album "Has Been" produced with Ben Folds included a spoken word piece titled "What Have You Done" which describes his anguish upon discovering his wife's body in the pool.

Musical tangents

Main article: William Shatner's musical career

Shatner's 2004 Has Been album cover

William Shatner has had a much-parodied musical career, starting with the 1968 album The Transformed Man. His exaggerated, interpretive reading of "Mr. Tambourine Man" became an instant camp classic. Shatner would eventually parody his own musical style several times in the 1990s, including during an episode of Futurama, in which he performed a spoken word version of the rap hit "The Real Slim Shady".

Shatner performed a reading of the Elton John song Rocket Man, during the Science Fiction Film Awards, televised in 1978. Dressed in tuxedo ruffles with cigarette in hand, he spoke with Kirk-like delivery against a synthesizer-laden backdrop of the song.

Shatner provided vocals for In Love, and Rockin the Suburbs, written by Ben Folds for the Fear of Pop album. This started a relationship that would ultimately bring Shatner to ask Ben Folds to produce his second studio album, Has Been, in 2004. Collaborating artists included Aimee Mann, Henry Rollins, Brad Paisley and Joe Jackson. Has Been features the single "Common People", a cover version of the song by Pulp.

He appears on the piece "'64 - Go" by Lemon Jelly, featured on their CD entitled '64 - '95, and in Brad Paisley's music video for "Celebrity".

Friendship with Leonard Nimoy

Shatner and Leonard Nimoy have been friends since 1964, when they met as guest stars in The Project Striges Affair episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. The two subsequently worked together on Star Trek: The Original Series (1966 - 1969) and Star Trek: The Animated Series(1973 to 1974). Nimoy guest-starred in Shatner's T.J. Hooker and in one of Shatner's recent series of Priceline.com television ads. In August 2006, Nimoy also made a phone call to his friend as part of Comedy Central's, Roast of William Shatner.

Facts and figures

• Both Shatner and Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy are of the same ethnicity, Ashkenazi Jews of Ukranian descent.
• Shatner and Nimoy share the same birth-month and year, separated by only 4 days. Shatner's birthday is March 22, 1931 and Nimoy's birthday is March 26, 1931.
• The two men also both suffer from chronic tinnitus. Shatner's was almost debilitating but has been mitigated by retraining therapy.[3]
• Shatner appeared with Leonard Nimoy in a famous advertising campaign for Western Airlines.
• Shatner appeared in several episodes of the television anthology series The Twilight Zone
• Shatner has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (for Television work) at 6901 Hollywood Blvd.
• Like many Anglophones born in the largely French-speaking province of Québec, Shatner speaks French.
• Shatner has been a commander in Celebrity Paintball's scenario games to raise money for his favourite charity, handicapped children.
• Shatner has starred in a series of Kellogg's All-Bran cereal commercials in the UK and Canada.
• Shatner created Invasion Iowa, a fake movie shot for a reality tv series on SpikeTV.
• When James Doohan died on July 20, 2005, Shatner became the oldest living Star Trek cast member at age 74, four days older than Leonard Nimoy (At that time, Nichelle Nichols was 72, George Takei 68, and Walter Koenig 68).
• During separate appearances on the Howard Stern Show, Takei and Doohan both admitted to despising Shatner; on the January 10, 2006 Stern show, Takei referred to Shatner as a "prima donna".
• When Shatner was a cast member of The Howdy Doody Show in the United States in the 1950s, James Doohan was a cast member of the Canadian version of the show.
• Shatner has also made multiple appearances on the Howard Stern Show, including a visit to the fictional "homo room" with Howard. Shatner consistently was a good sport during these appearances.
• He provided a voice over for a character in the 2006 film Over the Hedge alongside Avril Lavigne, Steve Carell, and Bruce Willis.
• Shatner was an occasional celebrity guest on The $20,000 Pyramid in the 1970s, once appearing opposite Nimoy in a matchup billed as "Kirk vs. Spock". His appearances became far less frequent after a 1977 appearance, in which, after giving an illegal clue which deprived the contestant of a big money win, he threw his chair out of the Winner's Circle. Video: YouTube.com.
• In the 3rd Rock From The Sun episode "Frozen Dick", John Lithgow's character has a panic attack after seeing something on the wing of an aircraft. This is a reference to an episode of the The Twilight Zone, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, where William Shatner - who plays the "Big Giant Head" in 3rd Rock - played an airline passenger tormented by a monster on the airplane. Twenty years later, in Twilight Zone: The Movie, John Lithgow played the same role in an updated version of Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. Later in the 3rd Rock episode, Shatner mentions he saw something on the wing of the plane, and Lithgow exclaims, "The same thing happened to me!"
• Shatner was roasted by Comedy Central on Comedy Central's Roast on August 13, 2006. It was being advertised with the catchphrase "The Shat hits the fan". The roast aired August 20, 2006. [4]

• It is known commonly throughout the paintball community that Shatner is an avid paintball player.

References in popular culture

• The Student Society Building at Montreal's McGill University was unofficially named after William Shatner after a student referendum, and contains a ceiling mounted sign in the lobby bearing his name. The University administrators have never officially accepted this name and later officially called the Brown Student Building.
• In the horror movie Halloween, Michael Myers wears a William Shatner mask that is painted white.
• In episode #166 of the TV sitcom Night Court, the bald bailiff Bull wins a free toupee, and selects the super-advanced "Shatner Turbo 2000" model, which is virtually indestructible and causes the wearer to immediately become popular with women.
• In the satirical TV series Brass Eye, the fictional drug 'Cake' is said to affect an area of the brain known as Shatner's Bassoon.
• The song "eBay" by "Weird Al" Yankovic includes the lyrics:

Tell me why (I need another pet rock)

Tell me why (I got that Alf alarm clock)

Tell me why (I bid on Shatner's old toupee)

They had it on eBay

• In an episode made prior to Shatner's appearance on 3rd Rock from the Sun, Dick tries to appear slimmer by wearing a girdle dubbed the "Shatner".
• The character of Zapp Brannigan in the TV series Futurama was conceived as a mixture of both Shatner and Kirk, with Brannigan frequently exhibiting character traits associated with both. On the DVD commentary of Zapp's first appearance, the creators describe him as being "40% Kirk, 60% Shatner", and that the initial premise for the character was "What if the real William Shatner was the captain of the Enterprise instead of Kirk." Shatner himself - along with most of the rest of the surviving Star Trek cast - would appear in an episode during the series' fourth season.
• Tim Allen's role as Commander Peter Quincy Taggart/Jason Nesmith in Galaxy Quest was inspired by Shatner and his relationship with his fellow Star Trek stars. Allen's role is an almost perfect analogue of James T. Kirk/William Shatner; Taggart has a reputation for taking off his shirt at the flimsiest excuse, rolling on the ground during combat, and making pithy speeches at the drop of a hat, while Nesmith is an egomaniac who regards himself as the core of Galaxy Quest, and tells fans to 'get a life'.
• "William Shatner" is the title for songs by The Wedding Present and The Scofflaws.
• In the movie Fight Club, when asked by Brad Pitt which celebrity he would fight if he could, Edward Norton's character says, "Shatner. I'd fight William Shatner." Sound Clip

Memorable quotes

"I'm not a Starfleet commander, or T.J. Hooker. I don't live on Starship NCC-170... (some audience members say "1"), or own a phaser. I don't know anybody named Bones, Sulu, or Spock (picture of Dr. Benjamin Spock is shown on screen behind him). And no, I've never had green alien sex, but I'm sure it'd be quite an evening. (Pomp and Circumstance begins playing.) I speak English and French, not Klingon! I drink Labatt's, not Romulan ale! And when someone says to me 'live long and prosper', I seriously mean it when I say, 'get a life'. My doctor's name is not McCoy, it's Ginsberg (nude picture of Dr. Ginsberg shown on screen). And tribbles were puppets, not real animals. PUPPETS! And when I speak, I never, ever talk like Every. Word. Is. Its. Own. Sentence. I live in California, but I was raised in Montreal. And I believe in priceline.com, where you never have to pay full price for airline tickets, hotels, and car rentals! I've appeared onstage at Stratford, at Carnegie Hall, Albert Hall, and the Monkland Theatre in NDG. And, yes, I've gone where no man has gone before, but... I was in Mexico and her father gave me permission! My name is William Shatner, and I am Canadian!"

—from a Just for Laughs appearance; a parody of the popular Molson Canadian Commercial entitled "I Am Canadian"

"I've always had sort of an ironic view of life. My belief system is that when this is over, it's over. That you don't look down from heaven and wait for your loved ones to join you. There may be some soul activity, but I'm not sure about that. But what I am sure about is that your molecules continue and in due time become something else. That's science.

"And that works for me. So that if this is it, you better take it at its right proportion. That there are serious things, but most things are temporal and ephemeral, and you should cultivate that attitude. That joy and love and all the verities are what counts. So I try not to take too many things seriously, and if I find myself caught up in the seriousness of the moment, within a period of time, I'm able to cajole myself out of it."

—from the History Channel documentary How William Shatner Changed the World

"It's a question that I find like asking somebody, 'Did you have a breast implant?' or 'When did you get your lobotomy?'"

—when asked if he wore a hairpiece

"Don't you know who I am!? I'm William Tiberius Shatner!!"

—from Comedy Central Roast of himself

Filmography

• The Butler's Night Off (1951)
• Oedipus Rex (1957)
• The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
• City Out of Time (1959) (short subject) (narrator)
• The Explosive Generation (1961)
• Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
• The Intruder (1962)
• The Outrage (1964)
• Incubus (1965)
• White Comanche (1968)
• Big Bad Mama (1974)
• Impulse (1974)
• Land of No Return (1975)
• The Devil's Rain (1975)
• Miracles of the Gods (1976) (documentary) (narrator)
• A Whale of a Tale (1977)
• Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)
• The Third Walker (1978)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• The Kidnapping of the President (1980)
• Visiting Hours (1982)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
• Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
• Seasons (1987) (short subject) (narrator)
• Rescue 911 (1989-1996) (narrator)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) (also director and writer)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
• National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)
• Star Trek: Generations (1994)
• Land of the Free (1997)
• Trekkies (1997) (documentary)
• Jefftowne (1998) (documentary)
• Free Enterprise (1998)
• Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie (1999) (documentary) (narrator)
• Falcon Down (2000)
• Miss Congeniality (2000)

• Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (2000) (singing the song "To Infinity and Beyond")
• Osmosis Jones (2001) (voice)
• Festival in Cannes (2001) (Cameo)
• Shoot or Be Shot (2002)
• Showtime (2002)
• Groom Lake (2002) (also director and writer)
• American Psycho II: All American Girl (2002)
• Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
• Lil' Pimp (2005) (voice)
• Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005)
• The Wild (2006) (voice)
• Over the Hedge (2006) (voice)
• Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner (2006)

Upcoming:

• Free Enterprise 2: My Big Fat Geek Wedding (2006)

Television work

Shatner (left) on The Twilight Zone episode, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

• Howdy Doody (cast member in 1954)
• Billy Budd (1955)
• Tactic (1959-1960)
• Julius Caesar (1960)
• The Night of the Auk (1960)
• The Twilight Zone (1960 & 1963)
• Thriller (US TV series) (1961)
• The Outer Limits (1964)
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964)
• For the People (1965-1966)
• Dr. Kildare (1966) (multiple episodes)
• Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966) (2nd pilot for series)
• Star Trek (1966-1969)
• Alexander the Great (1968) (filmed in 1964)
• Shadow Game (1969)
• Sole Survivor (1970)
• The Andersonville Trial (1970)
• Vanished (1971)
• Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law (1971)
• The People (1972)
• Kung Fu (1972) (Irish Bareknuckle Boxer)
• The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972)
• Incident on a Dark Street (1973)
• Go Ask Alice (1973)
• Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973)
• Star Trek: The Animated Adventures (1973-1975) (voice)
• Pioneer Woman (1973)
• Inner Space (1974) (miniseries)
• Indict and Convict (1974)
• Pray for the Wildcats (1974)
• The Tenth Level (1975)
• Barbary Coast (1975-1976)
• Perilous Voyage (1976)
• Columbo: Fade in to Murder (1976)
• Testimony of Two Men (1977) (miniseries)
• How the West Was Won (1978) (miniseries)
• The Bastard (1978)
• Little Women (1978)
• Crash (1978)
• Riel (1979)
• Disaster on the Coastliner (1979)
• The Babysitter (1980)
• T.J. Hooker (1982-1986) (also director of multiple episodes)
• Secrets of a Married Man (1984)
• North Beach and Rawhide (1985)
• T.J. Hooker: Blood Sport (1986)
• The Trial of Standing Bear (1988) (narrator)
• Broken Angel (1988)
• Rescue 911 (1989-1996)
• Voice of the Planet (1991) (miniseries)
• Family of Strangers (1993)
• TekWar (1994) (also director and writer)
• TekWar: TekLords (1994) (also director and writer)
• TekWar: TekJustice (1994) (also director and writer)
• TekWar (1994-1996) (also director of multiple episodes, writer, and executive producer)
• Janek: The Silent Betrayal (1994)
• WWF Monday Night Raw (1995)
• Prisoner of Zenda, Inc. (1996)
• Dead Man's Island (1996)
• Third Rock from the Sun (1996)
• A Twist in the Tale (1998-1999)
• The Kid (2001) (voice)
• Full Moon Fright Night (2002) (miniseries)
• A Carol Christmas (2003)
• Boston Legal (2004-present)
• Invasion Iowa (2005)
• Merry F#%$in' Christmas (2005)
• Atomic Betty: The No-L 9 (2005)
• How William Shatner Changed the World (2005)
• Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner (2006)
• Everest '82 (2007)

Other work

• Star Trek: Legacy (2006, video game)

Books

Fiction

• Tek series

See TekWar

• Star Trek series, all with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
  • Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden, 1995, ISBN 0-671-52035-0
  • Star Trek: The Return, 1996, ISBN 0-671-52610-3
  • Star Trek: Avenger, 1997, ISBN 0-671-55132-9
  • Star Trek: Spectre, 1998, ISBN 0-671-00878-1
  • Star Trek: Dark Victory, 1999, ISBN 0-671-00882-X
  • Star Trek: Preserver, 2000, ISBN 0-671-02125-7
  • Star Trek: Captain's Peril, 2002, ISBN 0-7434-4819-7
  • Star Trek: Captain's Blood, 2003, ISBN 0-671-02129-X
  • Star Trek: Captain's Glory, 2006, ISBN 0-7434-53433
• War series
  • Man o' War, 1996, ISBN 0-399-14131-6
  • The Law of War, 1998, ISBN 0-399-14360-2
• Quest for Tomorrow series
  • Delta Search, 1997, ISBN 0-06-105274-4
  • In Alien Hands, 1997, ISBN 0-06-105275-2
  • Step into Chaos, 1999, ISBN 0-06-105276-0
  • Beyond the Stars, 2000, ISBN 0-06-105118-7
  • Shadow Planet, 2002, ISBN 0-06-105119-5
• Comic book adaptations
  • Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden, DC Comics graphic novel, 1995, ISBN 1-56389-235-9

Nonfiction

• Captain's Log: William Shatner's Personal Account of the Making of "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", as told by Lisabeth Shatner, 1989, ISBN 0-671-68652-6
• Star Trek Memories, with Chris Kreski, 1993, ISBN 0-06-017734-9
• Star Trek Movie Memories, with Chris Kreski, 1994, ISBN 0-06-017617-2
• Get a Life!, with Chris Kreski, 1999, ISBN 0-671-02131-1
• Star Trek: I'm Working on That: A Trek from Science Fiction to Science Fact, with Chip Walker, 2002, ISBN 0-671-04737-X

Discography

• The Transformed Man (Decca, 1968)
• William Shatner Live (Lemli, 1977)
• Spaced Out: The Very Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner (compilation) (Universal International, 1997)
• Has Been (Shout! Factory, 2004)[5]

External links

• Official website
• William Shatner DVD Club
• William Shatner at Amazon Reviews
• William Shatner at IMDb
• William Shatner at Memory Alpha
• William Shatner Interview at Slashdot
• William Shatner fan site
• William Shatner on Fame Tracker
• NY Times story on William Shatner's "Has Been" album with Ben Folds
• Saturday Night Live transcript of the Get A Life! skit
• World Poker Tour Profile