WILLIAM Shatner became a household name thanks to his role in the sci-fi TV series Star Trek.
Reports now suggest that the Canadian actor may be heading into space.
2
Who is Star Trek actor William Shatner?
William Shatner was born March 22, 1931 in Montreal (Quebec). He has been an author, producer and director as well as a screenwriter. However, he is most famous as an actor.
He became famous for his role as Captain James T Kirk on Star Trek.
After appearing on the second pilot of the NBC series, Shatner was cast as the USS Enterprise captain.
After the show’s third season, which saw modest ratings, Shatner played the captain of the USS Enterprise from 1966 to 1969.
He found it difficult to find acting work after the show. Many people thought he was being typecast for the sci fi role. However, he did land roles in films and TV shows along with commercials.
Even though it was difficult to find new roles, Shatner was becoming a cult hero in the 1970s due to syndicated Star Trek reruns.
Paramount released Star Trek: The Motion Picture, starring Shatner as well as the original cast, in 1979 due to growing interest in the series.
Shatner was Kirk in the six subsequent Star Trek films.
He also appeared in Airplane II: The Sequel and National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 which sent up his Kirk character.
He also played a role in Star Trek from 1982 to 1986 as a TJ Hooker cop.
In addition to his acting, he also wrote a few sci-fi books such as the TekWar.
The Transformed Man, Shatner’s 1968 album, featured cover versions of popular songs. He also recited famous speeches from plays.
Over the years he has sporadically issued other records, including Has Been in 2004 which contained a cover of Pulp’s Common People.
2
Is he going into space?
Shatner could finally “boldly go” into space for real, reports now suggest.
He could have a seat on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Shepherd civilian rocket for a flight set for October 2021, according to TMZ.
At 90 years old it would make Shatner the oldest ever person to be “launched into space,” the report says.
Shatner, however, has not confirmed this report.
Unsubtle hints have been dropped by Shatner that he wants to fly into space.
He shared a photohopped image of him in a spacesuit with his Twitter followers last year and sent it to Nasa.
He asked if he could join the SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 commercial spaceflight to the International Space Station and wrote: “Just in case; the suit does fit!”