Pine portrayed Kirk in 3 Star Trek movies from 2009-2016. In the March of that year, while still performing in that production, he also played detective Archie Goodwin in what would have been television's first Nero Wolfe series, had it not been aborted by CBS after shooting a pilot and a few episodes.[33]. Pike and La'an knowing who Kirk will be or could be will allow Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to show a completely different side of Kirk as he strives to live up to a reputation that he isn't even aware he is. On March 7, 2011, the crew of STS-133 on the Space Shuttle Discovery began their last day docked to the International Space Station with Alexander Courage's title theme for Star Trek and Shatner reciting an adapted version of the show's famous introduction: "Space, the final frontier. Christopher Pikeplayed by Anson Mount in the currently airing Strange New Worlds, Star Trek s twelfth seriesis the best Star Trek captain. Sent back to stunt humanity's progress, Romulan time agent Sera (Adelaide Kane) creates an alternate timeline where Earth never founded the Federation. In 1982, Shatner was once again the leading character of a high-profile television show when he was cast as a veteran Los Angeles police sergeant in T. J. Hooker. Lippe, Jordi. The program featured footage of him working with Ben Folds on Has Been, and included a sequence in which he performed with Folds's band and Joe Jackson; it climaxed with a defiant rendition of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" that was punctuated by him giving the finger. The actor, who previously played the role of Stefan Salvatore in CW's supernatural drama series The Vampire Diaries, will join the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. On an episode of the A&E series Biography, where it was also divulged that Nimoy was Shatner's best man at his wedding with his fourth wife Elizabeth, Nimoy said, "Bill Shatner hogging the stage? Unlike Chris Pine's Captain Kirk, who exists in the alternate Kelvin Timeline of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies, Paul Wesley plays the canonical Prime Universe version of James T. Kirk. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. Nero triggers a chain of events that leads to the death of Kirk's father on the USS Kelvin and the creation of Star Trek's Kelvin timeline. This means Jim Kirk is still a Lieutenant when he appears in Strange New Worlds season 2, although Kirk is likely serving aboard the USS Farragut. In 1959, Shatner received good reviews in the role of Lomax in The World of Suzie Wong on Broadway. Heres the trailer: Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day, Inside the business of TV with breaking news, expert analysis and showrunner interviews. There is this fiction that Bill and Leonard [Nimoy] were good friends, but we know betterLeonard privately expressed his irritation with Bill. Or, better yet, someone you might aspire to be like. The role of James T. Kirk was originated by William Shatner, who played the Captain of the Enterprise from 1966-1994 in 3 seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, and 7 Star Trek movies. The success of T. J. Hooker led to Shatner's hosting the popular dramatic re-enactment series Rescue 911 from 1989 to 1996. In his 2008 book Up Till Now: The Autobiography, Shatner disclosed how Leonard Nimoy, himself no stranger to alcoholism, had done his best to try to avert the tragedy that Kidd's affliction threatened: Leonard Nimoy's personal experience of alcoholism now came to play a central role in my life and it helped us bond together in a way I never could have imagined in the early days of Star Trek. William Shatner [60][61][62][63] Two days later, he ridiculed some of the tweets that she and Levi Johnston, the father of her grandchild, had published on Twitter. [29] His curriculum vitae in this genre included several visits to The $10,000 Pyramid and its more generous sequels, shows in which contestants attempted to guess a word or phrase with the help of hints from a famous partner. [76][77] On July 28, he appeared on the premium cable TV channel Epix as the star of Get a Life!, a documentary film about Star Trek fandom developed from the 1999 book about Trekkies that he had written in the aftermath of his Saturday Night Live rebuke to them. On June 9, 2005, he contributed his version of "My Way" to the presentation of George Lucas's AFI Life Achievement Award, backed by a chorus line of dancers in Imperial Stormtrooper costumes who ended Shatner's segment by picking him up and carrying him offstage. Strange New Worlds launches May 5 on Paramount+. He was soon offered the chance to make his first appearance on American television: in a children's program called The Howdy Doody Show, he created the role of Ranger Bob, co-starring with a cast of puppets and Clarabell the Clown, whose dialogue with Shatner consisted entirely of honks on a bicycle horn. It also stars Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock. (Jamie Halliday, the founder of Audio Antihero, named the former as his "favourite song of all time". Wesley took to his Twitter account, sharing his feelings on playing Captain Kirk in the series: Fans are eager to see the 39-year-old actor play one of the greatest characters in the Star Trek franchise. Enterprise bridge. [29][30] In Henry V, he combined playing the minor role of the Duke of Gloucester with understudying Christopher Plummer as the king: when a kidney stone obliged Plummer to withdraw from a performance, Shatner's decision to present a distinctive interpretation of his role rather than imitating his senior's impressed Plummer as a striking manifestation of initiative and potential. there have only been two guys that have played the part of the famous Star Trek leading man; William Shatner and Chris Pine. Without the actors charms and skills, the films would not be what they are. All Five Actors Who Have Portrayed Captain Pike of Star Trek Sent back He appeared twice as Wayne Gorham in NBC's Outlaws (1960), a Western series with Barton MacLane, and then returned to Alfred Hitchcock Presents for a 5th-season episode, "Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?". Paul Wesley Brings Captain Kirk Down to Earth. I married Nerine in 1997, against the advice of many and my own good sense. He spent the next few days arguing with autistic people and allies, including citing anti-vaccination website NaturalNews. Even though it was modeled on Balance of Terror from 1966, I was a little more subdued and stoic. Where does Kirk intersect with Paul Wesley? Without the Federation, its member species are forced to deal with the Romulan threat individually, establishing the Empire as a dominant force in the galaxy. [27] After graduating, he worked as an assistant manager and actor at both the Mountain Playhouse in Montreal and the Canadian National Repertory Theatre in Ottawa before joining the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. Christopher Pike predated Kirk as the original Star Trek Captain, and four actors have played Pike in two Star trek timelines and Strange New Worlds. In his spare time, Shatner enjoys breeding and showing American Saddlebreds[29] and Quarter Horses. WebWilliam Shatner OC (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. William Shatner may be the iconic James T. Kirk, but he's one of five actors to have played the role in the Star Trek franchise. So, where will Paul Wesleys new Kirk fall into that timeline? However, it was revealed that she was actually working as part of the Klingon-Federation conspiracy to frame and kill Kirk and McCoy. Pike was shown this potential future as a means to convince him to accept his tragic Star Trek fate by handing the Enterprise over to Kirk. Star Trek Targets Circle Week Kicks Off with Up to $100 Off Apple Products and More, David Simon Asks for Mercy for Man Charged in The Wire Actor Michael K. 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Janice Lester (Smith), is a Starfleet officer and former lover of Kirk who forcibly switches bodies with Kirk in order to become a captain. Three of his notable horses are Call Me Ringo, Revival, and Sultan's Great Day. Its like Mad Max. Toggle Acting and literary career subsection, Toggle Career as a recording artist subsection, 19511966: Early stage, film, and television work, 20002009: Further films, and Denny Crane, Performances of songs on television and in films, "William Shatner blows $20K for a contestant". Esquire caught up with Paul Wesley to discuss playing Captain Kirk in Strange New Worlds, making whiskey, and how to know when youve really grown up. [144], Shatner revealed in 2020 that he suffers from swollen joints and various age-related "aches and pains". (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "Operation -- Annihilate! [citation needed], To supplement his income from acting, Shatner performed as a celebrity guest in a multitude of television game shows, among them Beat the Clock, Celebrity Bowling, The Hollywood Squares, Match Game, Tattletales and Mike Stokey's Stump the Stars. [90] 2017 also saw him appearing in a second music video with Brian Evans, this time promoting Evans's cover of the Dolly Parton song "Here You Come Again". )[108][109][110][111] On June 28, 2002, Shatner appeared with Brian Evans at the San Carlos Institute Theatre in Key West, Florida and duetted with him in the songs "What Kind of Fool Am I" and "The Lady Is a Tramp": the concert was later released as the album Brian Evans Live with Special Guest: William Shatner. Well, that can be a problem for a leading man who's hired as the star of the show. StarTrek.com. [130] He urged the public to support Friendly House, a non-profit organization that helps women to rebuild their lives after trying to free themselves from alcoholism or other forms of drug addiction. To promote his Biography Channel talk show Shatner's Raw Nerve, he guest-hosted World Wrestling Entertainment's flagship show WWE Raw on February 1, 2010, and performed several wrestlers' entrance theme songs. This allowed the franchise to revisit the best-known iteration of the Enterprise crew for future movies, led by Chris Pine as a slightly different James T Kirk. Perhaps most well-known for his role as immortal Stefan on The Vampire Diaries, Wesley is the opposite of a caricature. [139][140], Interviewed in London in 2023, Takei made it clear that the passage of time had done nothing to assuage his hostility towards his former colleague: "Shatner is a cantankerous old fossil. I kick it into fifth gear, immediately. 2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. With very little money and few acting prospects, he lost his home and was for a time so poor that he was reduced to living in a truck-bed camper in the San Fernando Valley. John Orquiola is Screen Rant's Star Trek Beat Editor, Senior Features staff writer, and interviewer. WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 2, episode 3, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow". [103] Shatner's ninth album, The Blues, was released on October 2, 2020,[104] and reached the number one slot of the Billboard Blues Chart fifteen days later. All 4 Actors Who Played Captain Pike In Star Trek - Screen Rant It's not only alternative timelines that account for the multiple Kirk variants in Star Trek canon, transporter malfunctions, body swap technology, and shape-shifting supermodels have all assumed the form of Kirk over the decades since he first appeared on screens in 1966. Hes the guy you trust, because he believes in people when no one else will, and hell always do the right thing, even if nobody notices or remembers. James T. Kirk is Star Trek's most iconic captain, and only a select few actors have been able to portray him in Trek TV shows and movies. 10 Versions of Captain Kirk In Star Trek Explained - Screen This smartly preserved the shock of Paul Wesley's Captain Kirk having a major role in Strange New Worlds season 1 finale, which will be the only time that particular version of Kirk will appear. Hes charming and hes got swagger, but hes also subtle and kind. But also, the man who does the right thing and is the hero. In 1954, Shatner decided to leave Stratford and move to New York City in the hope of building a career on the Broadway stage. In the 1990s, Shatner made numerous attempts to reconcile with Doohan without success; Doohan was the only former Star Trek co-star who declined to be interviewed by Shatner for his first, 1993 memoir, Star Trek Memories. Captain Kirk It's an odd plotline given Roddenberry's supposed vision of a utopian society where all mankind's contemporary issues have been solved, but Lester instigates an elaborate plot to finally achieve her dream of becoming a starship captain - using an alien device to instigate a body swap with Enterprise captain James Kirk. He had a starring role too in the western-themed secret agent series Barbary Coast during 1975 and 1976, and appeared as a guest of the week in many popular shows of that decade, including Columbo, Ironside, Kung Fu, Mission: Impossible, The Rookies and The Six Million Dollar Man. Star Trek Interviews Guest Star (and Captain Kirk's Dad!) Robert Pine In 1978, while hosting the fifth presentation of Saturn Awards bestowed by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, he performed a version of Elton John's Rocket Man that went on to become a staple of comedic parody. He was then contracted to play Kirk for the remainder of the show, and he sat in the captain's chair of the USS Enterprise from 1966 to 1969. All Rights Reserved. After the show's cancellation in 1969, they reunited in Star Trek: The Animated Series, and they also worked together on both The $20,000 Pyramid and T. J. Hooker. She said that working with both Shatner and her experienced colleagues on Dynasty could be daunting, but that her nervousness motivated her to turn up on set well prepared. In a recent episode of The Inglorious Treksperts podcast, host Mark A. Altman I was a lot more worried about working with Walter Koenig and Jimmy Doohan, two men who have made it clear on any number of occasions that my name is generally near the top of their shit lists. [136], Nimoy spoke about their mutual rivalry during the Star Trek years:[137]. I was on a downhill racing ski team when I was five, and then I transitioned to snowboarding. The Hollywood Reporter is a part of Penske Media Corporation. In 2001, Shatner married Elizabeth Anderson Martin. [148] In 2019, he won a world championship with his Standardbred road horse Track Star while showing at the Kentucky State Fair World's Championship Horse Show in Louisville. I feel like thats Captain Kirk right there. Captain Pike is defined by the tragedy that befalls him when he is no longer Captain of the Enterprise. [126][127][128], Shatner's second wife was Marcy Lafferty, the daughter of the television producer Perry Lafferty. Although the resurrection of Star Trek from oblivion only came about because of the enthusiasm of Trekkies, Shatner's attitude towards them is not uncritical. Audiences were so enamored with Mount's Pike that they clamored for him to get a spinoff alongside Spock (Ethan Peck) and Number One (Rebecca Romijn), which became Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. When Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) attempted to change his fate in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' season 1 finale, "A Quality of Mercy", he was presented with an alternate future. ", "Review: Voyage of discovery in Shatner's latest trek", "Channel: ShatnerVision on LiveVideo.com", "Sarah Palin says goodbye the William Shatner way", "Long before Palin speech, William Shatner did Elton John's "Rocket Man", "William Shatner Returns To 'Tonight' To Tackle Sarah Palin's Tweets", "See Sarah Palin out-Shatner William Shatner on 'The Tonight Show', "William Shatner Answers Rumors, Says He is Not in the New, "William Shatner on His Vision of Young Kirk and Young Spock", "CBS Announces 20102011 Primetime Schedule", "William Shatner Directing THE CAPTAINS, a Documentary About Himself", "William Shatner's Solo Show Will Play Broadway's Music Box Theatre", "William Shatner William Shatner Hosts Satirical Tv News Show", "William Shatner Sings a Clue to a Story from the Week's News", "EPIX Presents Two Legends on One Stage at Comic-Con: Roger Corman & William Shatner", "William Shatner's Get A Life Documentary Trailer", "William Shatner plays umpire in 'At Fenway' music video", "From 'Star Trek' to one-man show, William Shatner stays in the limelight", "Shatner Stars in Murdoch Mysteries Season 9", "William Shatner joins 'Haven' as Recurring Guest Star", "William Shatner Presents: Chaos On The Bridge review", "Shatner discusses Chaos on the Bridge: Exclusive", "William Shatner, Henry Winkler Set For NBC Reality Show 'Better Late Than Never', "William Shatner: Steelers legend Terry Bradshaw 'putty in my hands', "Comic-Con 2016: POW! But Doohan did contribute to Shatner's sequel, and an Associated Press article published at the time of Doohan's final convention appearance in August 2004, when he was already suffering from severe health problems, reported that he had forgiven Shatner and that the two actors had achieved the friendship as seniors that had eluded them in their youth. [116][117] Invited to join Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries and Audrey Powers on the trip by Blue Origin's creator, the entrepreneur and Trekkie Jeff Bezos, he began his real-world visit to space at Blue Origin's Launch Site One in West Texas, travelling on the RSS First Step, a New Shepard suborbital rocket capsule. Certainly not one where I've been one of the co-founders from the ground up. In the meantime, here's what fans need to know about the actors who have played Captain Kirk till date. "[29] Shatner took the Crane role to Boston Legal and won a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 2005, and was Emmy nominated again in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.