William Shatner, best known for portraying Captain James T
Kirk in “Star Trek: The Original Series”, is a Canadian actor, author, producer,
director, screenwriter, and singer. It was confirmed on Monday that Blue Origin
New Shephard spacecraft will have the Captain of the USS Enterprise as a
passenger.

Born on March 22, 1931, in Montreal,
Quebec, Shatner attended Willingdon Elementary School and West Hill High School
in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and is an alumnus of the Montreal Children’s Theatre. He
then went to McGill University where he did a Bachelor
of Commerce in 1952.

Also read: Nichelle Nichols death: Star Trek team mourn her passing

Shatner is a trained Shakespearean
actor and wide range of roles in theatre. His film debut was in the Canadian
film Butler’s Night Off in 1951.

In his seven decades of acting, he
became a cultural icon for his portrayal of Captain James Kirk of the USS
Enterprise in the Star Trek franchise. Originally, the show was only a modest
hit and was cancelled after a three-season run.

Shatner had a kissing scene
with actress Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura, in the November 22, 1968, Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren”, in what is cited as the
first example of a kiss between a white man and a black woman on scripted
television in the United States.

Star Trek got a cult following
during the 1970s from syndicated reruns, and Captain Kirk became a cultural
icon. This led to Shatner appearing at Star Trek conventions. In the mid-1970s,
Paramount began pre-production for a revised Star Trek television series,
tentatively titled Star Trek: Phase II.

However, the phenomenal success of Star
Wars led the studio to instead consider developing a Star Trek motion picture.
Shatner and the other original Star Trek cast members returned to their roles
when Paramount produced “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, which was released in 1979. He
played Kirk in the next six Star Trek films, ending with the character’s death
in Star Trek Generations in 1994.