James Montgomery Doohan (/ˈduːən/; March 3, 1920 – July 20, 2005) was a Canadian actor, best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the television and film series Star Trek. Doohan's characterization of the Scottish chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise has become one of the most recognizable elements in the Star Trek franchise, and inspired many fans to pursue careers in engineering and other technical fields.[1] He also made contributions behind the scenes, such as the initial development of the Klingon and Vulcan languages.
Prior to his acting career, Doohan served in the 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. He also served as an Artillery Forward Observation Officer (FOO) and pilot. He saw combat in Europe during World War II, including the D-Day invasion of Normandy, in which he was wounded, apparently by friendly fire.[2] After the war, he had extensive experience performing in radio and television, which led to his role as Scotty. Following the cancellation of the original Star Trek series, Doohan was typecast and had limited success in finding other roles; he returned to play the character in the animated and film continuations of the series, and made frequent appearances at Star Trek conventions.
In 1939, Doohan enlisted in the Royal Canadian Artillery, 14th (Midland) Field Battery of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. From there, he was moved to the 13th Field Regiment of the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division in their 22nd Field Battery. By 1940 he was a Lieutenant and was sent to train in Britain prior to Operation Overlord. He first saw combat landing in the 2nd Wave in a Recce Party at Juno Beach on D-Day. The 13th Field Regiment was interspersed with the Regina Rifle Regiment landing at "Nan" Sector of Juno Beach. After shooting two snipers, Doohan led his men to higher ground through a field of anti-tank mines, where they took defensive positions for the night. Crossing between command posts at 23:30 that night, Doohan was hit by six rounds fired from a Bren gun by a nervous Canadian sentry:[2] four in his leg, one in the chest, and one through his right middle finger. The bullet to his chest was stopped by a silver cigarette case given to him by his brother.[7] His right middle finger had to be amputated, something he would conceal on-screen during most of his career as an actor, sometimes with a flesh-colored glove with a "faux finger."[9]
Doohan graduated from Air Observation Pilot Course 40 with eleven other Canadian artillery officers[10] and flew Taylorcraft Auster Mark V aircraft for 666 (AOP) Squadron, RCAF as a Royal Canadian Artillery officer in support of 1st Army Group Royal Canadian Artillery. All three Canadian (AOP) RCAF squadrons were crewed by artillery officer-pilots and accompanied by non-commissioned RCA and RCAF personnel serving as observers.[11][12] Although he was never actually a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Doohan was once labelled the "craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Force". In the late spring of 1945, on Salisbury Plain north of RAF Andover, he slalomed a plane between telegraph poles "to prove it could be done", earning himself a serious reprimand. (Various accounts cite the plane as a Hurricane or a jet trainer; however, it was an Auster Mark IV.)[13][14]
In 1946, he had several roles for CBC radio,[16] starting January 12. For several years, he shuttled between Toronto and New York as work demanded. He made his TV debut as a detective on the show Martin Kane, Private Eye, and appeared in 54 episodes. He estimated he performed in over 4,000 radio programs and 450 television programs during this period,[17] and earned a reputation for versatility.[18]
In the mid-1950s, he appeared as forest ranger Timber Tom (the northern counterpart of Buffalo Bob) in the Canadian version of Howdy Doody. Coincidentally, fellow Star Trek cast member William Shatner appeared simultaneously as Ranger Bill in the American version. Doohan and Shatner both appeared in the 1950s Canadian science fiction series Space Command.[16] Doohan also appeared in several episodes of Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans in 1957–58.
Doohan developed a talent for accents as a child.[14] Auditioning for the role of chief engineer of the USS Enterprise, Doohan did several different accents. Producer Gene Roddenberry asked which he preferred, and Doohan replied, "If you want an engineer, in my experience the best engineers are Scotsmen."[20] He chose the name "Montgomery Scott" after his grandfather.[20] In later years, Doohan reenacted the casting process at Star Trek conventions, demonstrating a variety of possible voices and characters.[20]
Doohan was quoted as saying, "Scotty is ninety-nine percent James Doohan and one percent accent."[17][21] The character was originally conceived as semi-regular; but was elevated to be a regular supporting character. Doohan also provided voices for inanimate characters, including Sargon in "Return to Tomorrow", the M-5 in "The Ultimate Computer", the Mission Control Voice in "Assignment: Earth", and the Oracle in "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky".
Doohan returned to the role of Scotty in the early 1970s for Star Trek: The Animated Series. Walter Koenig (navigator Pavel Chekov) was not hired for this series due to budget limitations, so Doohan voiced a replacement character: alien navigator Arex. He also voiced most guest male roles, including that of Robert April, the first captain of the Enterprise and around 50 other roles, voicing as many as seven different characters in a single episode.[22][23]
Doohan hoped that Star Trek would benefit his acting career.[14] After the series ended, however, he found himself typecast and had a hard time gaining other roles. After his dentist reminded him he would "always be Scotty", he supported his family with income from personal appearances.[24]
Most of the roles Doohan subsequently played made at least oblique references to his Star Trek connection and engineering reputation. He was Commander Canarvin in the short-lived Saturday morning live-action kids' show Jason of Star Command, and had a cameo in the made-for-TV movie Knight Rider 2000 as "Jimmy Doohan, the guy who played Scotty on Star Trek". On the television series Homeboys in Outer Space, he was Pippen, a pun on Scotty and basketball star Scottie Pippen. He played himself in an episode of The Ben Stiller Show. He played Damon Warwick, father of James Warwick, on the daytime soap operaThe Bold and the Beautiful.[25] After learning about cold fusion from technical journals in 1989, he narrated the video "Cold Fusion: Fire from Water", about the physics behind cold fusion.[15]
When the Star Trek franchise was revived, Doohan reprised his role of Scotty in seven Star Trek films. Many of Doohan's film appearances centred on the role of Scotty, such as a cameo in National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, where he plays a policeman doing repair work who tells his superior officer "I am giving it all she has got, Captain!" in the same accent he used in Star Trek.
Although he continued to work with William Shatner in the Star Trek films, Doohan did not get along well with him and was once quoted in 1998 as saying, "I like Captain Kirk, but I sure don't like Bill."[24] He was the only former Star Trek co-star to decline to be interviewed by Shatner for Shatner's first Star Trek: Memories book about the show, nor did he consent to do so for Shatner's follow-up book, Star Trek: Movie Memories, though Shatner claimed in the latter that the icy relationship between the two started to thaw when both men were working on Star Trek Generations in 1993–94.[26] By Doohan's final August 2004 convention appearance, Doohan and Shatner reportedly had mended their relationship.[27]
Inspiration
Many fans told Doohan over the years that it was he who inspired them to choose engineering as a profession. AstronautNeil Armstrong, an engineer before he participated in NASA's Apollo program, becoming the first man on the moon, personally told Doohan on stage at Doohan's last public appearance in 2004, "From one old engineer to another, thanks, mate."[28]
In an interview for the first Trekkies film, Doohan related the story of a young fan who was contemplating suicide. Doohan says that he convinced her to attend his next convention appearance, and later learned that his encouragement and kind words had not only saved her life, but inspired her to go back to school and become an electronics engineer.[29]
Personal life
Doohan giving a speech
Doohan was married three times and had seven children, four of them—including Christopher—with his first wife Janet Young, whom he divorced in 1964. His marriage to Anita Yagel in 1967–72 produced no children. In early 1974, he was introduced to 17-year-old fan Wende Braunberger at a theatre performance. They were married that same year, when he was 54 and she was 18, on October 12, 1974. Star Trek guest actor William Campbell served as best man.[30] Doohan and Braunberger had three children: Eric, Thomas, and Sarah in April 2000, around his 80th birthday.[31][32] In his later years, Doohan had a multitude of health problems partially from his lifestyle, which included prodigious alcohol consumption, and partially from injuries sustained during World War II. These included diabetes, liver cirrhosis, osteoarthritis, high blood pressure, and hearing loss. In July 2004, his suffering from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease caused him to withdraw from public life.[33]
On July 20, 2005, at 5:30 in the morning, Doohan died at his home in Redmond, Washington, due to complications of pulmonary fibrosis, which was believed to be from exposure to noxious substances during World War II. His body was subsequently cremated.
A portion of his ashes, ¼ ounce (7 grams), was scheduled the following fall for a memorial flight to space with 308 others, including Project Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper.[37][38] Launch on the SpaceLoft XL rocket was delayed to April 28, 2007, when the rocket briefly entered outer space in a four-minute suborbital flight before parachuting to earth, as planned, with the ashes still inside.[39] The ashes were subsequently launched on a Falcon 1 rocket, on August 3, 2008, into what was intended to be a low Earth orbit; however, the rocket failed two minutes after launch.[40] Some of Doohan's ashes are hidden under the floor cladding of the International Space Station's Columbus module – after being smuggled aboard in 2008 by Richard Garriott.[41] The rest of Doohan's ashes were scattered over Puget Sound in Washington.[42][43] On May 22, 2012, a small urn containing some of Doohan's ashes was flown into space aboard the Falcon 9 rocket as part of COTS Demo Flight 2.[44]
Scotty's exploits as the Enterprise's redoubtable chief engineer inspired many students to pursue careers in engineering. Because of this, the Milwaukee School of Engineering presented Doohan with an honorary degree in engineering.[45] Doohan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 31, 2004. Despite his ill health, he was present at the ceremony, which was his final public appearance.[46]
Montgomery Scott was claimed by Linlithgow, Scotland, in 2007 by a commemorative plaque from the West Lothian Council for Doohan's importance.[47] His birthplace is also attributed to Aberdeen,[48] where Doohan learned the doric accent,[49] or Elgin. In the actual show, Scotty refers to himself as a one-time "Aberdeen pub-crawler", the only reference Doohan's character ever makes to a specific place in Scotland where he lived. However, Scotty's accent chosen by Doohan is not the relatively harsh Aberdonian accent; the specific accent Doohan used implies most of Scotty's formative years were spent at or near Edinburgh, something that is supported by original script notes.[50]
^"#102 Cadet Corps". The Official History Website of the Royal Canadian Army Cadets. Army Cadet League of Canada. Retrieved May 15, 2013. C/Maj James Doohan (1938–40)
^Knight, Darrell (2010). Artillery Flyers at War. Bennington, VT: Merriam Press. p. 482. ISBN978-0-557-32964-9.
^Battle History 666. Calgary: Abel Book Company. 2006.
^Fromow, D.L. (2002). Canada's Flying Gunners: A History of the Air Observation Post of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. Air O.P. Pilot's Association. ISBN978-0-9730055-0-9.
^"Ian on 'The Bold and the Beautiful'". Ian Buchanan ONLINE. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved May 15, 2013. James Doohan... guest-starred for several appearances as James' dad Damon
^Shatner, William, Star Trek: Movie Memories. Harper Collins: New York, 1994
