James T. Kirk
Species: male human
Full name: James Tiberius Kirk
Last rank: Captain, previously Rear Admiral
Date of birth: 2233
Place of origin: Iowa, Earth
Date of death: 2293 (missing, presumed dead), 2371 (actual death)
Place of origin: Iowa, North America, Earth
Brother: George Samuel Kirk (deceased)
Son: Dr. David Marcus (deceased)
Marital status: single
James T. Kirk was the commander of the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701 during its five-year mission of exploration in 2264-2269 (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before"). His Starfleet serial number was SC 937-0176 CEC (TOS: "Court Martial").
Kirk was born in 2233 (TOS: "The Deadly Years") in Iowa on planet Earth ("Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home"). In 2246, Kirk - at the age of 13 - was one of nine surviving eyewitnesses to the massacre of some 4,000 colonists at planet Tarsus IV by Kodos the Executioner (TOS: "The Conscience of the King"). James Kirk lost his older brother, George Samuel Kirk (whom only James called Sam) and sister-in-law, Aurelan Kirk, on planet Deneva due to the invasion of the Denevan neural parasites in 2267. Kirk's nephew, Peter Kirk, survived (TOS: "Operation - Annihilate!"). Sam Kirk had two other sons who were not on Deneva at the time of the tragedy (TOS: "What are Little Girls Made of?").
During his academy days, Kirk was tormented by an upperclassmen named Finnegan, who frequently chose Kirk as a target for practical jokes. Kirk found a measure of satisfaction years later, in 2267, when he had the chance to wallop a replica of Finnegan created on the amusement park planet in the Omicron Delta region (TOS: "Shore Leave"). Kirk served as an instructor at the academy, and Gary Mitchell was one of his students. The two were good friends since their teenage days. Once Mitchell took a poisonous dart on Dimorus meant for Kirk, saving Kirk's life. Mitchell set up Kirk with a "little blonde lab technician" whom Kirk almost married* (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before"). Another of Kirk's friends from his Academy days was Ben Finney, who named his daughter, Jamie, after Kirk. A rift developed between Finney and Kirk around 2250 when the two were serving together on the USS Republic. Kirk logged a mistake that Finney had made, and Finney blamed Kirk for his subsequent failure to earn command of a starship (TOS: "Court Martial"). One of Kirk's heroes at the Academy was the legendary captain Garth of Izar, whose exploits are required reading. Years later Kirk helped save his hero when Garth had become criminally insane and was being held treated at the Elba II penal colony (TOS: "Whom Gods Destroy"). Another of Kirk's personal heroes was Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States of America on Earth (TOS: "The Savage Curtain"). At the Academy, James Kirk earned something of a reputation for himself as having been the only cadet ever to have beaten the "no-win" Kobayashi Maru scenario. He did it by secretly reprogramming the simulation computer to make it possible to win, earning a commendation for original thinking in the process ("Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan").
Kirk served aboard the USS Farragut as a young officer (TOS: "Obsession"). One of his first missions as a young lieutenant was to command a survey mission to Tyree's planet in 2254 (TOS: "A Private Little War"). While serving aboard the Farragut in 2257, Lieutenant Kirk blamed himself for the deaths of 200 Farragut personnel, including Captain Garrovick, by the dilithium cloud creature at planet Tycho IV. Kirk felt he could have acted faster in firing on the creature, but learned years later that nothing could have prevented the deaths (TOS: "Obsession"). Sometime in the past, Kirk almost died from Vegan choriomeningitis (TOS: "The Mark of Gideon").
Kirk's greatest renown came from his command of a historic five-year mission of the original Starship Enterprise from 2264 to 2269 that made him a legend in space exploration ("Star Trek Generations"). By 2267, Kirk had earned an impressive list of commendations from Starfleet, including the Palm Leaf of Axanar Peace Mission, the Grankite Order of Tactics (Class of Excellence) and the Preantares Ribbon of Commendation (Classes First and Second). Kirk's awards for valor included the Medal of Honor, the Silver Palm with Cluster, the Starfleet Citation for Conspicuous Gallantry, and the Kragite Order of Heroism (TOS: "Court Martial"). In 2267, Kirk became the first starship captain ever to stand trial when he was accused of causing the death of Ben Finney. Kirk's trial, held at Starbase 11, proved Kirk innocent of wrongdoing, and he was exonerated (TOS: "Court Martial"). During that original five-year mission, Kirk recorded a tape of last orders to be played by Commander Spock and Chief Medical Officer McCoy upon his death. While trapped in a spatial interphase near Tholian space, Kirk vanished with the USS Defiant and was declared dead. His last orders conveyed the hope that his two friends would work together despite their differences (TOS: "The Tholian Web"). Kirk was once split into two personalities by a transporter malfunction (TOS: "The Enemy Within"). Several of Kirk's voyages involved travel through time. According to the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations, Kirk, who sometimes ignored regulations when he felt it was for the greater good, amassed 17 separate temporal violations during his career, more than any other person on file (DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations"). Kirk's living quarters aboard the original Enterprise were on Deck 5 (TOS: "Journey To Babel"). It was during this five-year mission that Kirk's friendships with officers Spock and McCoy developed, friendships that would last for the rest of their lives.
Kirk went back in time six times that we know of: "The Naked Time, "Assignment: Earth", "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", "City on the Edge of Forever", "All Our Yesterdays" and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home". He also went forward in time in Star Trek: Generations.
Kirk was notably unsuccessful in maintaining a long-term relationship with any woman. Although he was involved with many different women during his life, his intense passion for his ship and his career always seemed to interfere. A few years prior to his command of the first Enterprise, Kirk became involved with Dr. Carol Marcus. The two had a child, David Marcus, but Kirk and Carol did not remain together, because their respective careers took them in separate directions. Other significant romances in Kirk's life included Ruth, with whom he was involved when he attended Starfleet Academy (TOS: "Shore Leave"); Janice Lester, with whom he spent a year, also during his academy days (TOS: "Turnabout Intruder"); Janet Wallace, a scientist who later saved his life (TOS: "The Deadly Years"); Areel Shaw, who, ironically, years later prosecuted Kirk in the case of Ben Finney's apparent death (TOS: "Court Martial"); and Miramanee, a woman whom Kirk married in 2268 when he suffered from amnesia aboard a landing party. Miramanee became pregnant with Kirk's child, but both mother and unborn child were killed in a love power struggle (TOS: "The Paradise Syndrome"). Kirk fell in love with Antonia after his first retirement from Starfleet, and for the rest of his life regretted not having proposed to her ("Star Trek Generations"). Perhaps Kirk's most tragic romantic involvement was with American social worker Edith Keeler, whom Kirk met in Earth's past when he traveled into the 1930's through the Guardian of Forever. Keeler was a focal point in time, and Kirk was forced to allow her death in order to prevent a terrible change in the flow of history (TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever").
Kirk was not involved with the bringing up of his son, David Marcus, at the request of the boy's mother, Carol Marcus. Kirk had no contact with his son until 2285, when Carol and David were both working on Project Genesis, and Kirk helped rescue the two from Khan's vengeance. Later, Kirk and his son were able to achieve a degree of rapprochement ("Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"). Tragically, David was murdered shortly thereafter on the Genesis Planet, by a Klingon officer who sought to steal the secret of Genesis ("Star Trek III: The Search for Spock").
Following the return of the Enterprise from the five-year mission in 2270, Kirk received a promotion to admiral and became chief of Starfleet operations, while the Enterprise underwent an extensive refit. At the time, Kirk recommended Will Decker to replace him as Enterprise captain, although Kirk accepted a grade reduction back to captain when he regained command of the ship to meet the V'ger threat in 2271 ("Star Trek: The Motion Picture"). Kirk's retirement from Starfleet happened some time thereafter, at which time he became romantically involved with Antonia ("Star Trek Generations").**
Kirk returned to Starfleet in 2284 ("Star Trek Generations") and became a staff instructor with the rank of admiral at Starfleet Academy. Kirk was dissatisfied with ground assignment, and returned to active duty in 2285 when Khan Noonien Singh hijacked the Starship Reliant and stole the Genesis Device. Kirk's close friend, Spock, was killed in that incident ("Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan"). Upon learning that Spock's katra had survived, Kirk hijacked the Enterprise to the Genesis Planet to return Spock's body to Vulcan, where Spock was brought back to life when body and katra were reunited. Kirk ordered the Enterprise the Enterprise destroyed in the incident to prevent its capture by Klingons ("Star Trek III: The Search For Spock"). Kirk was charged with nine violations of Starfleet regulations in connection with the revival of Spock in 2285. All but one charge was later dropped, and Kirk was found guilty of the one remaining charge, that of disobeying a superior officer. The Federation Council was nonetheless so grateful for Kirk's role in saving Earth from the devastating effects of an alien probe that it granted Kirk the captaincy of the second Starship Enterprise ("Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home").
Kirk was an intensely driven individual who loved the outdoors. A personal challenge that nearly cost him his life was free-climbing the sheer El Capitan mountain face in Yosemite National Park on Earth ("Star Trek V: The Final Frontier"). He was an accomplished equestrian, and kept a horse at a mountain cabin that he owned during his first retirement. Another companion at his mountain cabin was Butler, his Great Dane. He sold the cabin some time after his return to Starfleet ("Star Trek Generations"). Kirk carried the bitterness for his son's murder for years, and opposed the peace initiative of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon in 2293. He especially resented the fact that he was chosen as the Federation's olive branch and assigned duty of escorting Gorkon to Earth. During that mission, Kirk (along with McCoy) was arrested and wrongly convicted for the murder of Gorkon by Federation and Klingon forces conspiring to block Gorkon's initiatives. Kirk nevertheless played a pivotal role in saving the historic Khitomer peace conference from further attacks. Kirk retired from Starfleet a second time about three months after the Khitomer Accords were signed ("Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country").
Shortly after his second retirement, Kirk was an honored guest at the launch of the Excelsior-class Starship Enterprise-B in 2293. Kirk was believed killed on that ship's maiden voyage, although it was later learned that he had actually disappeared into a temporal anomaly called the nexus. He remained in the Nexus until 2371, when he emerged to save the inhabitants of the Veridian system. Kirk, working with fellow Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard, was successful in saving the Veridians, but the heroic effort cost Kirk his life at the hand of the deranged scientist, Tolian Soran. James T. Kirk is buried on a mountain top on planet Veridian III. He went boldly where no one had gone before ("Star Trek Generations").
Full name: James Tiberius Kirk
Last rank: Captain, previously Rear Admiral
Date of birth: 2233
Place of origin: Iowa, Earth
Date of death: 2293 (missing, presumed dead), 2371 (actual death)
Place of origin: Iowa, North America, Earth
Brother: George Samuel Kirk (deceased)
Son: Dr. David Marcus (deceased)
Marital status: single
James T. Kirk was the commander of the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701 during its five-year mission of exploration in 2264-2269 (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before"). His Starfleet serial number was SC 937-0176 CEC (TOS: "Court Martial").
Kirk was born in 2233 (TOS: "The Deadly Years") in Iowa on planet Earth ("Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home"). In 2246, Kirk - at the age of 13 - was one of nine surviving eyewitnesses to the massacre of some 4,000 colonists at planet Tarsus IV by Kodos the Executioner (TOS: "The Conscience of the King"). James Kirk lost his older brother, George Samuel Kirk (whom only James called Sam) and sister-in-law, Aurelan Kirk, on planet Deneva due to the invasion of the Denevan neural parasites in 2267. Kirk's nephew, Peter Kirk, survived (TOS: "Operation - Annihilate!"). Sam Kirk had two other sons who were not on Deneva at the time of the tragedy (TOS: "What are Little Girls Made of?").
During his academy days, Kirk was tormented by an upperclassmen named Finnegan, who frequently chose Kirk as a target for practical jokes. Kirk found a measure of satisfaction years later, in 2267, when he had the chance to wallop a replica of Finnegan created on the amusement park planet in the Omicron Delta region (TOS: "Shore Leave"). Kirk served as an instructor at the academy, and Gary Mitchell was one of his students. The two were good friends since their teenage days. Once Mitchell took a poisonous dart on Dimorus meant for Kirk, saving Kirk's life. Mitchell set up Kirk with a "little blonde lab technician" whom Kirk almost married* (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before"). Another of Kirk's friends from his Academy days was Ben Finney, who named his daughter, Jamie, after Kirk. A rift developed between Finney and Kirk around 2250 when the two were serving together on the USS Republic. Kirk logged a mistake that Finney had made, and Finney blamed Kirk for his subsequent failure to earn command of a starship (TOS: "Court Martial"). One of Kirk's heroes at the Academy was the legendary captain Garth of Izar, whose exploits are required reading. Years later Kirk helped save his hero when Garth had become criminally insane and was being held treated at the Elba II penal colony (TOS: "Whom Gods Destroy"). Another of Kirk's personal heroes was Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States of America on Earth (TOS: "The Savage Curtain"). At the Academy, James Kirk earned something of a reputation for himself as having been the only cadet ever to have beaten the "no-win" Kobayashi Maru scenario. He did it by secretly reprogramming the simulation computer to make it possible to win, earning a commendation for original thinking in the process ("Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan").
Kirk served aboard the USS Farragut as a young officer (TOS: "Obsession"). One of his first missions as a young lieutenant was to command a survey mission to Tyree's planet in 2254 (TOS: "A Private Little War"). While serving aboard the Farragut in 2257, Lieutenant Kirk blamed himself for the deaths of 200 Farragut personnel, including Captain Garrovick, by the dilithium cloud creature at planet Tycho IV. Kirk felt he could have acted faster in firing on the creature, but learned years later that nothing could have prevented the deaths (TOS: "Obsession"). Sometime in the past, Kirk almost died from Vegan choriomeningitis (TOS: "The Mark of Gideon").
Kirk's greatest renown came from his command of a historic five-year mission of the original Starship Enterprise from 2264 to 2269 that made him a legend in space exploration ("Star Trek Generations"). By 2267, Kirk had earned an impressive list of commendations from Starfleet, including the Palm Leaf of Axanar Peace Mission, the Grankite Order of Tactics (Class of Excellence) and the Preantares Ribbon of Commendation (Classes First and Second). Kirk's awards for valor included the Medal of Honor, the Silver Palm with Cluster, the Starfleet Citation for Conspicuous Gallantry, and the Kragite Order of Heroism (TOS: "Court Martial"). In 2267, Kirk became the first starship captain ever to stand trial when he was accused of causing the death of Ben Finney. Kirk's trial, held at Starbase 11, proved Kirk innocent of wrongdoing, and he was exonerated (TOS: "Court Martial"). During that original five-year mission, Kirk recorded a tape of last orders to be played by Commander Spock and Chief Medical Officer McCoy upon his death. While trapped in a spatial interphase near Tholian space, Kirk vanished with the USS Defiant and was declared dead. His last orders conveyed the hope that his two friends would work together despite their differences (TOS: "The Tholian Web"). Kirk was once split into two personalities by a transporter malfunction (TOS: "The Enemy Within"). Several of Kirk's voyages involved travel through time. According to the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations, Kirk, who sometimes ignored regulations when he felt it was for the greater good, amassed 17 separate temporal violations during his career, more than any other person on file (DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations"). Kirk's living quarters aboard the original Enterprise were on Deck 5 (TOS: "Journey To Babel"). It was during this five-year mission that Kirk's friendships with officers Spock and McCoy developed, friendships that would last for the rest of their lives.
Kirk went back in time six times that we know of: "The Naked Time, "Assignment: Earth", "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", "City on the Edge of Forever", "All Our Yesterdays" and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home". He also went forward in time in Star Trek: Generations.
Kirk was notably unsuccessful in maintaining a long-term relationship with any woman. Although he was involved with many different women during his life, his intense passion for his ship and his career always seemed to interfere. A few years prior to his command of the first Enterprise, Kirk became involved with Dr. Carol Marcus. The two had a child, David Marcus, but Kirk and Carol did not remain together, because their respective careers took them in separate directions. Other significant romances in Kirk's life included Ruth, with whom he was involved when he attended Starfleet Academy (TOS: "Shore Leave"); Janice Lester, with whom he spent a year, also during his academy days (TOS: "Turnabout Intruder"); Janet Wallace, a scientist who later saved his life (TOS: "The Deadly Years"); Areel Shaw, who, ironically, years later prosecuted Kirk in the case of Ben Finney's apparent death (TOS: "Court Martial"); and Miramanee, a woman whom Kirk married in 2268 when he suffered from amnesia aboard a landing party. Miramanee became pregnant with Kirk's child, but both mother and unborn child were killed in a love power struggle (TOS: "The Paradise Syndrome"). Kirk fell in love with Antonia after his first retirement from Starfleet, and for the rest of his life regretted not having proposed to her ("Star Trek Generations"). Perhaps Kirk's most tragic romantic involvement was with American social worker Edith Keeler, whom Kirk met in Earth's past when he traveled into the 1930's through the Guardian of Forever. Keeler was a focal point in time, and Kirk was forced to allow her death in order to prevent a terrible change in the flow of history (TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever").
Kirk was not involved with the bringing up of his son, David Marcus, at the request of the boy's mother, Carol Marcus. Kirk had no contact with his son until 2285, when Carol and David were both working on Project Genesis, and Kirk helped rescue the two from Khan's vengeance. Later, Kirk and his son were able to achieve a degree of rapprochement ("Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"). Tragically, David was murdered shortly thereafter on the Genesis Planet, by a Klingon officer who sought to steal the secret of Genesis ("Star Trek III: The Search for Spock").
Following the return of the Enterprise from the five-year mission in 2270, Kirk received a promotion to admiral and became chief of Starfleet operations, while the Enterprise underwent an extensive refit. At the time, Kirk recommended Will Decker to replace him as Enterprise captain, although Kirk accepted a grade reduction back to captain when he regained command of the ship to meet the V'ger threat in 2271 ("Star Trek: The Motion Picture"). Kirk's retirement from Starfleet happened some time thereafter, at which time he became romantically involved with Antonia ("Star Trek Generations").**
Kirk returned to Starfleet in 2284 ("Star Trek Generations") and became a staff instructor with the rank of admiral at Starfleet Academy. Kirk was dissatisfied with ground assignment, and returned to active duty in 2285 when Khan Noonien Singh hijacked the Starship Reliant and stole the Genesis Device. Kirk's close friend, Spock, was killed in that incident ("Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan"). Upon learning that Spock's katra had survived, Kirk hijacked the Enterprise to the Genesis Planet to return Spock's body to Vulcan, where Spock was brought back to life when body and katra were reunited. Kirk ordered the Enterprise the Enterprise destroyed in the incident to prevent its capture by Klingons ("Star Trek III: The Search For Spock"). Kirk was charged with nine violations of Starfleet regulations in connection with the revival of Spock in 2285. All but one charge was later dropped, and Kirk was found guilty of the one remaining charge, that of disobeying a superior officer. The Federation Council was nonetheless so grateful for Kirk's role in saving Earth from the devastating effects of an alien probe that it granted Kirk the captaincy of the second Starship Enterprise ("Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home").
Kirk was an intensely driven individual who loved the outdoors. A personal challenge that nearly cost him his life was free-climbing the sheer El Capitan mountain face in Yosemite National Park on Earth ("Star Trek V: The Final Frontier"). He was an accomplished equestrian, and kept a horse at a mountain cabin that he owned during his first retirement. Another companion at his mountain cabin was Butler, his Great Dane. He sold the cabin some time after his return to Starfleet ("Star Trek Generations"). Kirk carried the bitterness for his son's murder for years, and opposed the peace initiative of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon in 2293. He especially resented the fact that he was chosen as the Federation's olive branch and assigned duty of escorting Gorkon to Earth. During that mission, Kirk (along with McCoy) was arrested and wrongly convicted for the murder of Gorkon by Federation and Klingon forces conspiring to block Gorkon's initiatives. Kirk nevertheless played a pivotal role in saving the historic Khitomer peace conference from further attacks. Kirk retired from Starfleet a second time about three months after the Khitomer Accords were signed ("Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country").
Shortly after his second retirement, Kirk was an honored guest at the launch of the Excelsior-class Starship Enterprise-B in 2293. Kirk was believed killed on that ship's maiden voyage, although it was later learned that he had actually disappeared into a temporal anomaly called the nexus. He remained in the Nexus until 2371, when he emerged to save the inhabitants of the Veridian system. Kirk, working with fellow Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard, was successful in saving the Veridians, but the heroic effort cost Kirk his life at the hand of the deranged scientist, Tolian Soran. James T. Kirk is buried on a mountain top on planet Veridian III. He went boldly where no one had gone before ("Star Trek Generations").
William Shatner
Born: March 22, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Nicknames: Bill, Billy
Height: 1,75 m
William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise.
Shatner was born in Côte Saint-Luc, Montréal, Québec, Canada, to Anne (Garmaise) and Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacturer. His father was a Jewish emigrant from Bukovina in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while his maternal grandparents were Lithuanian Jews. After graduating from university he joined a local Summer theatre group as an assistant manager. He then performed with the National Repertory Theatre of Ottawa and at the Stratford, Ontario Shakespeare Festival as an understudy working with such as Alec Guinness, James Mason, and Anthony Quayle. He came to the attention of New York critics and was soon playing important roles on major shows on live television.
Shatner spent many years honing his craft before debuting alongside Yul Brynner in The Brothers Karamazov (1958). He was kept busy during the 1960s in films such as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and The Intruder (1962) and on television guest-starring in dozens of series such as Príbehy Alfreda Hitchcocka (1955), The Defenders (1961), The Outer Limits (1963) and Zóna súmraku (1959). In 1966, Shatner boarded the USS Enterprise for three seasons of Star Trek (1966), co-starring alongside Leonard Nimoy, with the series eventually becoming a bona-fide cult classic with a worldwide legion of fans known as "Trekkies".
After "Star Trek" folded, Shatner spent the rest of the decade and the 1970s making the rounds guest-starring on many prime-time television series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Ironside (1967). He has also appeared in several feature films, but they were mainly B-grade (or lower) fare such as the embarrassingly bad Euro western Comanche blanco (1968) and the campy Kingdom of the Spiders (1977). However, the 1980s saw a major resurgence in Shatner's career with the renewed interest in the original Star Trek (1966) series culminating in a series of big-budget "Star Trek" feature films including Star Trek (1979), Star Trek II: Khanov hnev (1982), Star Trek III: Pátranie po Spockovi (1984), Star Trek IV: Cesta domov (1986), Star Trek V: Konečná hranica (1989) and Star Trek VI: Neobjavená Krajina (1991). In addition, he starred in the lightweight police series T.J. Hooker (1982) from 1982 to 1986, alongside spunky Heather Locklear, and surprised many fans with his droll comedic talents in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Nabitá zbraň 1 (1993) and Miss špeciálny agent (2000).
He has most recently been starring in the David E. Kelley television series Advokáti (1997) and its spin-off Boston Legal (2004).
Outside of work he jogs and follows other athletic pursuits. His interest in health and nutrition led to him becoming spokesman for the American Health Institute's 'Know Your Body' program to promote nutritional and physical health.
Nicknames: Bill, Billy
Height: 1,75 m
William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise.
Shatner was born in Côte Saint-Luc, Montréal, Québec, Canada, to Anne (Garmaise) and Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacturer. His father was a Jewish emigrant from Bukovina in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while his maternal grandparents were Lithuanian Jews. After graduating from university he joined a local Summer theatre group as an assistant manager. He then performed with the National Repertory Theatre of Ottawa and at the Stratford, Ontario Shakespeare Festival as an understudy working with such as Alec Guinness, James Mason, and Anthony Quayle. He came to the attention of New York critics and was soon playing important roles on major shows on live television.
Shatner spent many years honing his craft before debuting alongside Yul Brynner in The Brothers Karamazov (1958). He was kept busy during the 1960s in films such as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and The Intruder (1962) and on television guest-starring in dozens of series such as Príbehy Alfreda Hitchcocka (1955), The Defenders (1961), The Outer Limits (1963) and Zóna súmraku (1959). In 1966, Shatner boarded the USS Enterprise for three seasons of Star Trek (1966), co-starring alongside Leonard Nimoy, with the series eventually becoming a bona-fide cult classic with a worldwide legion of fans known as "Trekkies".
After "Star Trek" folded, Shatner spent the rest of the decade and the 1970s making the rounds guest-starring on many prime-time television series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Ironside (1967). He has also appeared in several feature films, but they were mainly B-grade (or lower) fare such as the embarrassingly bad Euro western Comanche blanco (1968) and the campy Kingdom of the Spiders (1977). However, the 1980s saw a major resurgence in Shatner's career with the renewed interest in the original Star Trek (1966) series culminating in a series of big-budget "Star Trek" feature films including Star Trek (1979), Star Trek II: Khanov hnev (1982), Star Trek III: Pátranie po Spockovi (1984), Star Trek IV: Cesta domov (1986), Star Trek V: Konečná hranica (1989) and Star Trek VI: Neobjavená Krajina (1991). In addition, he starred in the lightweight police series T.J. Hooker (1982) from 1982 to 1986, alongside spunky Heather Locklear, and surprised many fans with his droll comedic talents in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Nabitá zbraň 1 (1993) and Miss špeciálny agent (2000).
He has most recently been starring in the David E. Kelley television series Advokáti (1997) and its spin-off Boston Legal (2004).
Outside of work he jogs and follows other athletic pursuits. His interest in health and nutrition led to him becoming spokesman for the American Health Institute's 'Know Your Body' program to promote nutritional and physical health.