Lower the flags, please

[gridlore]

and fire off the 21-phaser salute.

James Doohan dies at 85

James Doohan, who played engineer Montgomery Scott, the scrappy Scotsman who repeatedly gave the Starship Enterprise "all she's got" in the original "Star Trek" TV series and motion pictures, died Wednesday, his publicist said here. He was 85.

Almost every week, the frazzled Scott was asked to perform an engineering miracle with the warp drive, shields or phasers to save the ship from certain death at the hands of Romulans, Klingons or other assorted aliens.

Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., 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.

Doohan inspired the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty," although Capt. Kirk never issued that order until the fourth movie. He told his family he wanted his ashes blasted into space, Stevens said. Houston-based Space Services Inc., which specializes in space memorials, said it would send Doohan's remains, along with 125 others, aboard a rocket later this year.

Doohan will join "Star Trek" series creator Gene Roddenberry, whose ashes were launched into space six years after he died in 1991.

The Canadian-born Doohan 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.'"

One of nicest, most outgoing, fannish pros i've ever dealt with. Sitting around listening to him read Trek scripts in different accents one night will rank high on my list of great moments.

Comments

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

(after the appropriate moment of silence)


I would like to quote from a post made to the PYRAMID boards about a year ago, by Guy McLimore, as I think it bears repeating (this time in memoriam).

- - -

What a pro this guy is -- and what a great sport. Years ago, not long after the FASA Star Trek game came out, FASA arranged for Mr. Doohan and Walter Koenig (who were appearing at a St. Louis Star Trek convention) to sit down at the con for a game session with several fans who won their places at the table in a charity lottery. Greg Poehlein and I wrote and gamemastered the session -- and we couldn't resist restaging the bar fight scene from The Trouble with Tribbles.

We got to meet with Mr. Doohan and Mr. Koenig briefly before the session, and they both seemed enthusiastic and happy about the whole stunt. They were playing their own characters, of course, with the other players to be various Enterprise crewmen in the bar when the fight with the Klingons breaks out. I explained that we didn't expect them to deliver dialogue or anything -- just roll some dice, flow into the situation and have fun with it...

... but damned if Jimmy Doohan didn't remember -- and perfectly deliver -- his dialogue that kicks off the fight (to the delight of the players)! As GM, I took the part of the lead Klingon, and thus got to recreate one of the most memorable scenes in Star Trek history with Montgomery Scott himself. And pretty soon Doohan, Koenig and the lucky fans were sliding Klingons down the bar, jumping over tables, and having a grand old time!

This is one of my most precious memories from the Star Trek RPG years. The thought that Doohan himself is being robbed of the precious memories of his own life is almost unbearable. As former owner/operators of a senior citizens day care facility, my wife and I have seen the tragedy of Alzheimer's from close up too many times. Barbara's beloved grandfather suffered from the disease as well, with Barbara's parents as his primary caregivers. How sad to see this happen to a fine man who has brought all of us so much happiness with his portrayals.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Jimmy Doohan was a class act, all the way.

He was supposed to be one of the guests at the very first SF con I ever attended, nearly 30 years ago. Less than a week before the con, he called the con chair to cancel.

"Class act?" I hear you ask. "That doesn't sound very classy!"

Well, hear me out.

He was calling from a hospital bed. He'd had a heart attack. He told the con chair that he'd already talked with George Takei and Nichelle Nichols, and they were willing to come to the con in his stead, if the concom could come up with one more comped room and expenses. The con could, and the other two actors did, and I have respected the hell out of all three of them ever since.