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DeForest Kelley

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DeForest Kelley
Kelley at a 1988 Star Trek convention
Born
Jackson DeForest Kelley
SpouseCarolyn Dowling (1949-1999, his death)

Jackson DeForest Kelley (January 20, 1920 – June 11, 1999) was an American actor known for his starring role as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the USS Enterprise in the television series Star Trek and six of its subsequent movies, as well as an elderly Admiral Dr. Leonard McCoy in the Star Trek: The Next Generation pilot, Encounter at Farpoint. Shy by his own admission, Kelley was the only cast member of the original Star Trek series program never to have written or published an autobiography, however, the authorized biography From Sawdust to Stardust was written after his death by Terry Lee Rioux, a Lamar University professor.

Biography

Early life

Kelley was born in Toccoa, Georgia, the son of Clora [citation needed] (née Casey) and Ernest David Kelley, who was a Baptist minister; he was named after radio pioneer Lee De Forest.[1] Kelley was delivered in their home by his uncle, a prominent local physician. As a child, he sang in the church choir,[2] where he discovered that he enjoyed singing and was good at it. Eventually this led to solos and an appearance on radio station WSB in Atlanta. As a result of his radio work, he won an engagement with Lew Forbes and his orchestra at the Paramount Theater. In one of the Star Trek comic books it was stated that Dr. McCoy's father had been a Baptist preacher, an idea that apparently came from Kelley's own life as the son of a Baptist minister. Kelley had an older brother, Ernest Casey Kelley.

Kelley served in the Second World War as an enlisted member of the Army Air Forces between March 10, 1943 and January 28, 1946. After an extended stay at Long Beach, California, he decided to pursue an acting career and relocate to the state, living for a time with his uncle, Casey. He worked as an usher in a local theater in order to earn enough money for the move. Kelley received encouragement from his mother about this life change, but his father disliked the idea. While in California, Kelley was spotted by a Paramount scout while doing a Navy training film.

Career

Early roles

The first movie of Kelley's acting career was the feature film Fear in the Night. The low-budget movie was a blockbuster hit[citation needed], bringing him to the attention of a national audience. His next role, in Variety Girl, established him as a leading actor. A few years later, Kelley and his wife, Carolyn, decided to move to New York City. He found work on stage and on live television, but after three years in New York, the Kelleys returned to Hollywood. In California, he received a role in an installment of You Are There, "anchored" by Walter Cronkite. In turn this led to him starring in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral as Morgan Earp. This, his first major role in a big film, was a source of three movie offers.

For nine years, Kelley primarily played villains. He built up an impressive list of credits, alternating between television and motion pictures. However, he was afraid of typecasting, so he broke away from villains by starring in Where Love Has Gone and a television pilot called 333 Montgomery. The pilot was written by an ex-policeman named Gene Roddenberry, and a few years later Kelley would appear in another Roddenberry pilot, Police Story (1967), which was also not picked up.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Years before being cast as Dr. McCoy, Kelley appeared in the 1962 Bonanza episode entitled "The Decision," as a doctor sentenced to hang for the murder of a judge's wife. The judge in this episode was portrayed by John Hoyt, who played Dr. Phillip John Boyce, one of Leonard McCoy's predecessors, on the Star Trek pilot "The Cage". Kelley played Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy from 1966 to 1969 in Roddenberry's Star Trek (TOS), went on to reprise McCoy's character in a voice-over role in Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974), and the first six Star Trek motion pictures (1979 to 1991). He also had a cameo in "Encounter at Farpoint", the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as by-that-time Admiral Dr. Leonard McCoy, Star Fleet Surgeon General Emeritus. One of his best-known lines as Dr. McCoy was of the form "I'm a doctor, not a [insert other trade or profession here]!" As a nod to the original series, this phrase was also often used by the Holographic Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager, and once by Dr. Bashir in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" which merged the DS9 cast with the original series episode "Trouble With Tribbles".

During Trek's first season, Kelley's was listed in the end credits along with the rest of the cast. Only Shatner and Nimoy were listed in the opening credits. However, Kelley would receive third billing starting in the second season where the opening credits would list him after Nimoy.

He was good friends with Star Trek castmates William Shatner[citation needed] and Leonard Nimoy from 1964, when he met each of them for the first time. He was very proud of the fact he was the only one of the three who stayed married to one wife, Carolyn, for much of his life. His stock comment to them was, "I'm alive and well and living in the valley with the very same wife!"

Later career

Hollywood Walk of Fame

After Star Trek, Kelley found himself a victim of the very typecasting he had so feared. He did a few television appearances and a couple of movies, but essentially went into de facto retirement. In a TLC interview done in the late 1990s, he said one of his biggest fears was that the words etched on his gravestone would be "He's dead, Jim," a catch phrase that Dr. McCoy spoke in many Star Trek episodes. On the other hand, he stated that he was very proud to hear from so many Star Trek fans that became doctors because of his portrayal as Dr. McCoy. Kelley took up poetry as a hobby, and he published the first two books in a series, The Big Bird's Dream and The Dream Goes On, a series he would never finish.

Death

Kelley died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1999, in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 79. He was survived by his wife, Carolyn, who died in October 2004. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean. [citation needed]

Filmography

Television

References

  1. ^ Terry Lee Rioux, From Sawdust to Stardust: The Biography of DeForest Kelley, Star Trek's Dr. McCoy. Pocket Books, 2005. p. 6.
  2. ^ The Star Trek Explorer - DeForest Kelley Obituary

1973-1974 Star Trek: The Animated Series (voice of Dr. McCoy)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to DeForest Kelley.

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