LichtJF
07-20-2005, 10:41 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/arts/television/21doohan.html?ei=5094&en=
d5f82e489d756113&hp=&ex=1121918400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
James Doohan, who faked a Scottish burr to create one of television's most endearing characters - Scotty, the chief engineer of the U.S.S. Enterprise on the original "Star Trek" - died yesterday at his home in Redmond, Wash. He was 85.
Mr. Doohan, who had Alzheimer's disease, died of pneumonia, his agent, Steven Stevens, said.
When Captain Kirk said, "Beam me up, Scotty" or its many variants, he was talking to Mr. Doohan's character, an irascible engineer. His 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" began its three seasons.
Mr. Doohan later appeared in seven "Star Trek" movies and in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," a television series set 75 years after the original. (The time gap was explained by Scotty's having jury-rigged a form of suspended animation, sending himself into a pattern buffer in the transporter and keeping his matter circulating in the unit through a continuous diagnostic loop. Like all "Star Trek" explanations, it sounds good if you say it fast.)
James Doohan was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 3, 1920. He was the youngest of four children, and his father, Mr. Doohan wrote in his memoir, "Beam Me Up, Scotty" (Pocket Books, 1996), was an abusive alcoholic. Mr. Doohan served in the Canadian Army during World War II and was struck by six bullets on D-Day. One bullet blew off his right middle finger, an injury he would later conceal from the "Star Trek" cameras.
When Mr. Doohan, then a character actor with extensive radio experience, tried out for the role of Montgomery Scott, the ship's engineer, with Gene Roddenberry, the creator of "Star Trek," he read the lines with various accents, including French and German. "They both decided an engineer has got to be a Scotsman," Mr. Stevens said.
If Mr. Doohan resented a role that typecast him for life, 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 Mr. Doohan.
"He accepted it," Mr. Koenig said. "He delighted in the attention."
Mr. Stevens, the agent, said 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 "Star Trek" 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."
A generation of engineers saw Mr. Doohan as a role model. The Milwaukee School of Engineering awarded him an honorary doctor of engineering degree in 1993. "He brought the field of engineering to the forefront of pop culture," Kathleen McCann, a spokeswoman for the school, said in an e-mail message.
When he attended a James Doohan Farewell Star Trek Convention and Tribute last summer, in a wheelchair but alert, one speaker was Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon 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."
Married three times, Mr. Doohan is survived by his third wife, the former Wende Braunberger; four children from his first marriage, Larkin, Deirdre, Montgomery and Christopher; and three from his third marriage, sons Eric and Thomas, and a daughter, Sarah, born in 2000, when Mr. Doohan was 80.
His family has arranged for his remains to be shot into space.
d5f82e489d756113&hp=&ex=1121918400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
James Doohan, who faked a Scottish burr to create one of television's most endearing characters - Scotty, the chief engineer of the U.S.S. Enterprise on the original "Star Trek" - died yesterday at his home in Redmond, Wash. He was 85.
Mr. Doohan, who had Alzheimer's disease, died of pneumonia, his agent, Steven Stevens, said.
When Captain Kirk said, "Beam me up, Scotty" or its many variants, he was talking to Mr. Doohan's character, an irascible engineer. His 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" began its three seasons.
Mr. Doohan later appeared in seven "Star Trek" movies and in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," a television series set 75 years after the original. (The time gap was explained by Scotty's having jury-rigged a form of suspended animation, sending himself into a pattern buffer in the transporter and keeping his matter circulating in the unit through a continuous diagnostic loop. Like all "Star Trek" explanations, it sounds good if you say it fast.)
James Doohan was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 3, 1920. He was the youngest of four children, and his father, Mr. Doohan wrote in his memoir, "Beam Me Up, Scotty" (Pocket Books, 1996), was an abusive alcoholic. Mr. Doohan served in the Canadian Army during World War II and was struck by six bullets on D-Day. One bullet blew off his right middle finger, an injury he would later conceal from the "Star Trek" cameras.
When Mr. Doohan, then a character actor with extensive radio experience, tried out for the role of Montgomery Scott, the ship's engineer, with Gene Roddenberry, the creator of "Star Trek," he read the lines with various accents, including French and German. "They both decided an engineer has got to be a Scotsman," Mr. Stevens said.
If Mr. Doohan resented a role that typecast him for life, 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 Mr. Doohan.
"He accepted it," Mr. Koenig said. "He delighted in the attention."
Mr. Stevens, the agent, said 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 "Star Trek" 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."
A generation of engineers saw Mr. Doohan as a role model. The Milwaukee School of Engineering awarded him an honorary doctor of engineering degree in 1993. "He brought the field of engineering to the forefront of pop culture," Kathleen McCann, a spokeswoman for the school, said in an e-mail message.
When he attended a James Doohan Farewell Star Trek Convention and Tribute last summer, in a wheelchair but alert, one speaker was Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon 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."
Married three times, Mr. Doohan is survived by his third wife, the former Wende Braunberger; four children from his first marriage, Larkin, Deirdre, Montgomery and Christopher; and three from his third marriage, sons Eric and Thomas, and a daughter, Sarah, born in 2000, when Mr. Doohan was 80.
His family has arranged for his remains to be shot into space.