James Doohan, Star Trek’s Scotty, Beams Up For the Last Time

By Linda Orlando

James Doohan, the burly and gruff chief engineer in the original "Star Trek" television series and the subsequent motion pictures, died early Wednesday morning at age 85. According to his publicist, Doohan died at his home in Redmond, Washington, with his wife, Wende, at his side. The cause of his death was pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Doohan was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and he left home at age 19 to join the Canadian Forces. Fighting with Allied troops in World War II, he became a captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery, and then led Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. "The sea was rough," he recalled during one interview years later. "We were more afraid of drowning than the Germans." Late on the night of D-Day, Doohan was hit by machine gun fire, taking six hits. One took off his middle right finger, which he managed to hide successfully on the screen years later. Four other bullets hit his leg, and one hit him in the chest, but fortunately the chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case. Most Star Trek fans know nothing about Doohan’s stint as the "craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Forces," even though his service in the war was much more heroic than that of any of the characters he later played in more than 100 motion pictures and television shows.

After he returned from the war, Doohan enrolled in a drama class in Toronto. Studying at New York’s famous Neighborhood Playhouse, he attended classes alongside other future stars including Leslie Nielsen, Richard Boone, and Tony Randall. He began a busy career as a character actor in television and movies, and then he learned of the role that would forever brand him. He auditioned for the part of an engineer in a new space adventure program on NBC in 1966. He tried seven different accents during his audition, drawing on the numerous dialects he had mastered during his early years working in radio in Canada. "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."’ And the rest, as they say, is history.

Doohan’s character, Montgomery Scott, became an instant favorite with fans of the original Star Trek series. The show did not draw the ratings NBC expected and the network canceled Star Trek after three seasons, but the show segued easily into syndicated TV both in the United States and abroad. It gradually attained a cultural icon status, and its following grew larger and more dedicated as the years passed. In his later years, Doohan attended 40 "Trekkie" gatherings around the country and lectured at colleges. Although he had numerous other roles acting in shows such as "The Twilight Zone," "The Outer Limits," "Fantasy Island," "Loaded Weapon 1," and "Double Trouble," Doohan was most beloved for his "Star Trek" character, where he often played a central role in troubleshooting problems on the Starship Enterprise to save the day.

An event was held at the Renaissance Hotel in the Hollywood & Highland complex last year called "Beam Me Up Scotty...One Last Time, the James Doohan Farewell Star Trek Convention & Tribute." Neil Armstrong, the first human to step onto the Moon, made a rare public appearance to serve as keynote speaker at the celebration of the life and career of James "Scotty" Doohan. Speaking to the assembled crowd, Armstrong said, "Now, I have a confession to make. I am an engineer. And if I get that command, I want a Chief Engineering officer like Montgomery Scott. Because I know Scotty will get the job done, and do it right. Even if I often hear him say, 'But Caeptain, I dunna have enough time!' So from one old engineer to another, thanks Scotty."

In 1998, an interviewer asked Doohan if he ever tired of hearing "Beam me up, Scotty," the line that had become the trademark of his career as an actor. "I’m not tired of it at all," he replied. "Good gracious, it’s been said to me for just about 31 years. It’s been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It’s been fun."