To many people the 79-year-old living legend that is William Shatner will for ever be best known as one Captain James T. Kirk — halting of delivery, heroic in a niftily tailored space suit and irresistible to females of any given planet. But that would be to overlook his many and varied other achievements. He has starred in 197 roles, and counting, over 60 years — including T.J. Hooker, winning an Emmy for Boston Legal and now in the sitcom S#*! My Dad Says (let’s overlook The Devil’s Rain, from 1975, in which he was melted by Satanists). He’s a YouTube phenomenon for his bizarre cover versions of classic songs (seek out his Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Common People or Cee Lo Green’s F*** You), a breeder of champion horses, an online chat-show host and all-round eccentric who sold his kidneystone on eBay. His self-satirising persona could be one big postmodern crackpot joke on us; it could just be his ego craving the spotlight in any way going. Who knows? Speaking on the phone from Los Angeles, his manner is both thoughtful and self-mockingly deadpan — and yes, his stop-start, cod-Shakesperian diction. Is in. Full. Effect.
$#*! My Dad Says is on digital channel 5*, Tuesdays, 10.30pm
...Early Roles
Incubus (1966)
I spoke fluent Esperanto in that film so that the seven million people speaking Esperanto all over the world realised that they were pronouncing words incorrectly. I learnt it phonetically. The film was a basic good-vs-evil horror, but the operative point was that it was done in Esperanto, because the producer thought that seven million people would all come to see it; he didn’t realise that there’s only two in London and five in Nottingham.
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Roger Corman’s The Intruder (1962)
I played a racist stirring up trouble. We shot it in the Deep South at a moment when schools in America were being integrated and there was tremendous sense of doom everywhere — especially towards our film company because it was known what we were doing.
The Twilight Zone
I was making a living and these were just two innocuous half-hour shows — but obviously the subject matter has touched a nerve, a universal something, as they live on all these years later. With Nightmare at 20,000ft (1963; left), this furry creature on the wing of a plane is absurd, but we forgive all that because the story touches on our basic fear of flying. The other was Nick of Time (1960), in which I was getting my fortune out of a machine and it was about being unable to fight your fate — another universal. Obviously the writers knew what they were doing, but I didn’t.
...Acting Idols
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Sir Laurence Olivier
My acting background is classical so I admired enormously the companies spearheaded by Olivier. When I was in need of a hero, I saw him on stage in The Entertainer and I recall vividly his Hamlet in film.
Marlon Brando
At the same time I had a foot in the camp of American emotionalism, exemplified by Brando.
Olivier and Brando were totally contrasting styles of acting — and I tried to do both. It was fascinating watching me erupt!
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...His Cover Versions
Elton John’s Rocket Man
The pleasure that people have had from my covers has given me great joy. But this one [above, now a YouTube phenomenon] was not well performed by me, nor was it designed to be released outside where it happened. I was fooling around at an awards show, doing Sinatra. But I’m going to do Rocket Man again in a new album I’m preparing...
Space Oddity
Major Tom is a character in several David Bowie songs. I’m doing a rock opera, if you will, that involves what happened to Major Tom. What was he thinking out there in space? He begins to think about how he learnt to fly and the love of his wife; as he dies he begins to imagine Heaven and Hell. All these are dramatised by the songs I’ve chosen. It’s either going to be the best thing you’ve ever heard or terrible things will be written about it.
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Bohemian Rhapsody
It’s fantastic to perform. I can’t do it like Freddie Mercury did it, but I’ll do it in my own way.
...Hobbies
Horses
I own numerous saddlebreds, some great champions. I’m up there knocking at the door to win world championships. And I’m a better rider than I was last year. I think it’s to do with a subtlety that I’m acquiring.
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Fast cars
I love to drive cars fast. I recently drove a car at 155mph, with my wife next to me, on the lonely reaches of some American state. I just wanted to see what it felt like. I think if you’re caught doing 155mph you’d be put in jail.
Para-motoring
You strap a propeller on your back with a sort of lawnmower engine and run like hell. I flew among the birds!
...Star Trek
Favourite Star Trek joke?
I thought some of the shows were...
Fan encounters
I’ve had the most beautiful women, painted purple (green was out of fashion), throw themselves naked at me. They twisted themselves into the most obscene shapes. It was just bizarre.
Favourite Kirk conquest
Spock, actually!