James Doohan, 'Star Trek's' Scotty, dead

Wednesday, July 20, 2005 Posted: 1607 GMT (0007 HKT)


LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek" TV series and motion pictures who responded to the command "Beam me up, Scotty," died early Wednesday. He was 85.

Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) at his Redmond, Washington, home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said.

The Canadian-born Doohan fought in World War II and was wounded during the D-Day invasion, according to the StarTrek.com Web site. He was enjoying a busy career as a character actor when he auditioned for a role as an engineer in a new space adventure on NBC in 1966. A master of dialects from his early years in radio, he tried seven different accents.

"The producers asked me which one I preferred," Doohan recalled 30 years later. "I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them, 'If this character is going to be an engineer, you'd better make him a Scotsman.' "

The series, which starred William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as the enigmatic Mr. Spock, attracted an enthusiastic following of science fiction fans, especially among teenagers and children, but not enough ratings power. NBC canceled it after three seasons.

When the series ended in 1969, Doohan found himself typecast as Montgomery Scott, the canny engineer with a burr in his voice. In 1973, he complained to his dentist, who advised him: "Jimmy, you're going to be Scotty long after you're dead. If I were you, I'd go with the flow."

"I took his advice," said Doohan, "and since then everything's been just lovely."

http://www.startrek.com/imageuploads/200407/promo-doohan-obit-standby/560x175.jpg

I had no idea he was that old.

I loved Scotty on Star Trek.

RIP James Doohan.

I loved the 1992 episode of Star Trek the Next Generation where James Doohan played Scotty one more time. It was a classic episode. It was sad to hear that he had been suffering from alzheimer's. Thanks for the memories.

RIP, Jimmy...

With Jimmy Doohan having beamed up to that great United Federation Of Planets in the sky, only 7 original crewmembers of The United Space Ship Enterprise (NCC-1701) remain:

William Shatner
Leonard Nimoy
George Takei
Walter Koenig
Nichelle Nichols
Grace Lee Whitney
Majel Barrett

Aside from Lt. Uhura, Scotty was the only crewmember to make the infamous Red Shirt mean something. :D

Say hello to Bones and Capt. Pike for us, Scotty. Nobody could keep The Enterprise running in finer fettle than you.

To absent friends... :(

Truly one of the great Star Trek characters. He will be missed.

R.I.P. Jimmy. :(

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Jimmy Doohan. He was a true gentleman to everyone who came in contact with him. He always had a lot of respect for his fans. I know this from first hand knowledge. Mr. Doohan was the only star I had the privilege of ever meeting in person.

It was back in 1976. I was a senior in HS and my friends and I were BIG into the original series. Stations in the NYC area would show the reruns, and I remembered the show from the time it was originally on, when my dad was a fan of the show. We would watch it with him back then.

The Star Trek convention was coming to a hotel in NYC, opposite Penn Station sometime in the spring of that year. The exact dates and location name are elluding me at the moment(now who is old! LOL) Anyway, my sister and I (she is a year younger than I am) and 9 of my friends played hookie on a Friday and rode the Long Island RR into the city (we lived in Suffolk Co on the Island) to go to the convention. Well we found out when we got in there that the convention didn't start till that evening. We had spent good money on those RR tickets and weren't going to waste them going right back home. So we camped out in the lobby trying to think of something to do. One of my friends, who was very clever and worked on our school newspaper (we went to an all girls catholic HS) found out the room number of the press people for the convention. She called up to their room asking for an interview for our school paper. When 11 girls showed up on their doorstep, they were a bit suspicious, but she thought of a clever deception quickly, telling them that the nuns wouldn't let us travel to the city alone! LOL

While my friend was asking the people questions, one of the press people was on the phone with someone who was on their way to the airport to pick up George Takei. We finished up our 'interview' and decided to camp in the lobby to wait for some stars to check in. We were sitting facing the front doors, when from behind, Jimmy Doohan and another gentleman (we thought at the time it could be his manager) passed us on their way out the doors. We were like "OMG that's Scotty!" We followed them across the street and down the stairs of Penn Station Mall and waited out side a CVS for them to emerge. We were all so nervous, wondering if he would stop and give us time if we accosted him. Well we got up our nerve while they shopped, and when they came out, we went up to them and told them our story. Jimmy was very sympathetic and talked to us for a few minutes. Then we all got autographs. I had an album of pencil sketches of the characters of the show with me that I had done about a year earlier. I asked Jimmy to sign his sketch, which he did. I still have it all these years later. (I am attaching a scan of it).

We said our goodbyes. We never did see any of the other stars. We decided to hang out in the city till evening and then went home. Two of my friends went in the next day to the convention. I was broke so I couldn't go. While they were in an elevator with two other women, one of the women was telling the other about this large group of girls that cornered her husband in Penn station yesterday. My two friends were like "OMG that's Jimmy Doohan's wife and she is talking about us!!" They weren't brave enough to tell her that, but they related the story to the rest of us later. So that is my wonderful story about an encounter with a true gentleman. Jimmy, you will be missed. Say hello to DeForest for us! RIP on that big Enterprise in the sky! LOL

What a great story! Thanks for sharing that with us.

James Doohan had a child in 2000 at the age of 80 years old. Now why would he bring a child into the world knowing he probably would be lucky to see that child start 1st grade???

I am sure at the time he didn't know he would be sick, plus, when you marry a wife who is still able to bear a child, those things are bound to happen. I am sure he enjoyed his daughter while he was here..... and she is another person to carry on her father's wonderful legacy. I prefer not to judge other people's modivations... maybe it wouldn't be a choice I would make, but everyone is free to make the choices they do. Live and let live, I always say.


BTW for those who might not have known, Jimmy found out he had the early stages of alzheimers only last year. When it was announced he would be getting a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, he held a press conference and announced his news about his disease and told his fans he would attend the LA Star Trek Convention August 28-30, 2004 at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel and that it would be his last convention because of the alzheimers.

News of Jimmy Doohan from 2004 (http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/5181.html)