William Shatner Movies
For an actor almost universally associated with a single character -- Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise -- William Shatner has found diverse ways to stay active in the public eye, even spoofing his overblown acting style in a way far more hip than desperate. Years after he last uttered "warp speed," Shatner remains a well-known face beyond Star Trek conventions, re-creating himself as the spoken-word pitchman for priceline.com, and starring in a popular series of smoky nightclub ads that featured some of the most cutting-edge musicians of the day.The Canadian native was born on March 22, 1931, in Montréal, where he grew up and attended Verdun High School. Shatner studied commerce at McGill University before getting the acting bug, which eventually prompted him to move to New York in 1956. He initially worked in such live television dramatic shows as Studio One and The United States Steel Hour in 1957 and 1958, as well as on Broadway. His big screen debut soon followed as Alexei in the 1958 version of Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.
Throughout the 1960s, Shatner worked mostly in television. His most memorable appearance came in a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone entitled "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," in which he plays a terrified airline passenger unable to convince the crew that there's a mysterious gremlin tearing apart the wing. He also appeared in such films as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and the bizarrely experimental Esperanto-language horror film Incubus (1963). In 1966, he got his big break, though neither he nor anyone else knew it at the time. Shatner was cast as the macho starship captain James Kirk on Star Trek, commanding a crew that included an acerbic doctor, a Scottish engineer, and a logician with pointy ears, on a mission "to boldly go where no man has gone before." However, the show lasted only three seasons, considered by many to be high camp. After providing a voice on the even shorter-lived animated series in 1973, Shatner must have thought Star Trek too would pass. A costly divorce and a lingering diva reputation from Star Trek left him with few prospects or allies, forcing him to take whatever work came his way.
But in 1979, after a decade of B-movie labor in such films as The Kingdom of Spiders (1977) and a second failed series (Barbary Coast, 1975-1976), Shatner re-upped for another attempt to capitalize on the science fiction series with Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This time it caught on, though the first film was considered a costly disappointment. With dogged determination, the producers continued onward with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), at which point fans finally flocked to the series, rallying behind the film's crisp space battles and the melodramatic tête-à-tête between Shatner and Ricardo Montalban.
Shatner had to wrestle with his advancing age and the deaths of several characters in Star Trek II and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), but by Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), the actor got to indulge in his more whimsical side, which has since characterized his career. As the series shifted toward comedy, Shatner led the way, even serving as director of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), which many considered among the series' weaker entries. During this period, Shatner also began parodying himself in earnest, appearing as host of Saturday Night Live in a famous sketch in which he tells a group of Trekkies to "Get a life." He also turned in a wickedly energetic mockery of a moon base captain in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982). Shatner made one final appearance with the regular Star Trek cast in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), then served as one of the crossovers to the new series of films in Star Trek: Generations (1994), in which endlessly theorizing fans finally learned the fate of Captain Kirk.
The success of the Trek movies reenergized Shatner's TV career, even if it didn't immediately earn him more film roles. Shatner played the title role on the successful police drama T.J. Hooker from 1982 to 1987, directing some episodes, then began hosting the medical reality series Rescue 911 in 1989. Shatner returned to the movies with another parody, Loaded Weapon I, in 1993, and in 1994 began directing, executive producing, and acting in episodes of the syndicated TV show TekWar, based on the popular series of Trek-like novels he authored.
In the later '90s, Shatner was best known for his humorously out-there priceline.com ads, but also guested on a variety of TV shows, most notably as the "Big Giant Head" on the lowbrow farce Third Rock From the Sun. He also appeared as game show hosts both in film (Miss Congeniality, 2000) and real life (50th Annual Miss America Pageant, 2001). In 1999, Shatner suffered public personal tragedy when his third wife, Nerine, accidentally drowned in their swimming pool. The champion horse breeder and tennis enthusiast owns a ranch in Kentucky and remains active in environmental causes. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Season three of Alfred Hitchcock Presents gets under way with one of the series' best and most celebrated episodes -- and one which, surprisingly, is not directed by Alfred Hitchcock himself. As Jim Whitely (William Shatner) and his girlfriend Dorothy (Rosemary Harris) rummage through the possessions of Jim's late sister Julia (Jessica Tandy), they come across a curious item -- a large glass eye. In flashback, Jim recalls the history of this artefact, which stems back to the spinsterish Julia's infatuation with a mysterious, deep-voiced stage ventriloquist known as Max Collodi (Tom Conway). This brilliant episode earned an Emmy award for its director, prolific Alfred Hitchcock Presents contributor Robert Stevens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This gripping courtroom drama -- originally broadcast live on the television series Studio One in 1957 -- follows a father and son legal team (William Shatner and Ralph Bellamy) as they take on a case to defend a notorious juvenile delinquent (Steve McQueen) who has been accused of murder. Later spun off into a weekly television series, this episode of The Defender also features Martin Balsam. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Dostoyevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov is given a Hollywood screen treatment by producer Pandro S. Berman and director Richard Brooks. Yul Brynner plays Dmitri Karamazov, a callous Russian officer who cuckolds his domineering father (Lee J. Cobb) with the old man's mistress Grushenka (Maria Schell). Richard Basehart is Dmitri's intellectual brother Ivan, while William Shatner is the pious Alexey Karamazov; both men eventually enjoy the attentions of the willing Grushenka. The Karamazovs' half-brother is Smedyakov (Albert Salmi), an epileptic whose purpose in the story is clarified after the family patriarch's murder. It is now part of Hollywood folklore that Marilyn Monroe fought long and hard to be cast as the enigmatic Grushenka. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yul Brynner, Maria Schell, (more)
- 1960
William Shatner guest stars as Carl Bremmer, a London working stiff who in his off-hours volunteers as a deactivator of unexploded bombs left over from the wartime blitz. Upon finding out that she is pregnant, Carl's wife Lois (Deidre Owen) begs him to give up his dangerous job. Carl agrees--but unfortunately, there is one more bomb to be defused. That Lois' grim premonitions come true is not a surprise...but what happens after this tragedy is a genuine shocker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
This episode unfolds in flashback, during testimony at a coroner's inquest. John Crane (William Shatner) is torn between two women: his domineering mother Claire (Jesse Royce Landis), and the bewitchingly beautiful Lottie Rank (Gia Scala), whom John has met during a vacation in Vermont. When it becomes clear that Claire strongly disapproves of Lottie, the girl suggests that John murder his mother so that they can be free to marry! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Future Star Trek captain William Shatner stars as Don Carter, who is on his honeymoon with his perky young wife Pat (Patricia Breslin). Stranded in a small town while their car is being repaired, Don and Pat wander into a diner, where their attention is diverted by a curious fortune-telling machine. Out of amusement, they begin feeding coins into the machine -- and before long, Don has become "hooked" on the sinister device. Stafford Repp, who later played Chief O'Hara on TV's Batman, appears as a mechanic. Written by Richard Matheson, "Nick of Time" made its Twilight Zone debut on November 18, 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Shatner, Patricia Breslin, (more)
After the end of World War II, the world gradually became aware of the full extent of the war crimes perpetrated by the Third Reich. In 1948, a series of trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany, by an international tribunal, headed by American legal and military officials, with the intent of bringing to justice those guilty of crimes against humanity. However, by that time most of the major figures of the Nazi regime were either dead or long missing, and in the resulting legal proceedings American judges often found themselves confronting the question of how much responsibility someone held who had "just followed orders." Judgment at Nuremberg is a dramatized version of the proceedings at one of these trials, in which Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) is overseeing the trials of four German judges -- most notably Dr. Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster) and Emil Hahn (Werner Klemperer) -- accused of knowingly sentencing innocent men to death in collusion with the Nazis. Representing the defense is attorney Hans Rolfe (Maximilian Schell), while prosecuting the accused is U.S. Col. Tad Lawson (Richard Widmark). As the trial goes on, both the visiting Americans and their reluctant German hosts often find themselves facing the legacy of the war, and how both of their nations have been irrevocably changed by it. Judgment at Nuremberg also features notable supporting performances by Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, and Montgomery Clift. Originally written and produced as a play for television, the screen version of Judgment at Nuremberg was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, with Maximilian Schell and Abby Mann taking home Oscars for (respectively) Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, (more)
- 1961
In this socially conscious drama, based on a true-story, a high school teacher gets in trouble for having his students write compositions describing their feelings about sex. He is suspended; his students unite to defend him. A confrontation with the prudish school board ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Shatner, Lee Kinsolving, (more)
- 1961
The Intruder was not only Roger Corman's most daring and unusual film, but a unique movie in the history of cinema, as one of the few theatrical feature films to deal with school desegregation in the South. William Shatner gives the performance of a lifetime as Adam Cramer, a sly, rabble-rousing racist who travels the South in the wake of the Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision, fomenting protests and riots and organizing white citizens groups with himself at their head. By turns quietly soft-spoken and boldly charismatic, Cramer arrives in a small town where the local white high school is about to get its first black students and manipulates the men, women, and students around him, quietly taking control of the debate and the agenda, and turning a tense situation into a riot. He's opposed by Frank Maxwell, playing a local newspaper editor who pays a terrible price for his thoughtful and reasonable nature, Jeanne Cooper as a woman whom he tried to seduce, and Leo V. Gordon (in a rare benevolent role) as her husband, a working man without a lot of patience for rabble-rousers. In the end, after maiming one man and nearly killing another, Cramer is stopped when he is exposed for what he is -- weak and pathetic when confronted directly. The film was shot on-location in the South despite the active opposition of local authorities and threats from members of the Ku Klux Klan, and once finished, Corman discovered that there was hardly a theater anywhere in America that was willing to play it, because the movie's subject was so incendiary. Thus, The Intruder became just about the only movie Corman ever made that lost money, and was much more widely seen in Europe, where it was greeted simply as a bold, unusual, and well-made film. For reasons not entirely clear, The Intruder turned up on various "public domain" lists in the early '80s and showed up on different cable channels specializing in such fare, but it was never actually out-of-copyright, and finally surfaced in an authorized DVD edition in April of 2001. In addition to future television star Shatner, the cast includes the future soap opera star Jeanne Cooper. Charles Beaumont, a regular contributor to The Twilight Zone, among other anthology series, and whose novel was the source for the film, portrays the school principal. William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, best-known as the authors of the novel Logan's Run, also play small roles. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Shatner, Frank Maxwell, (more)
- 1963
Cited by many aficionados as the all-time best Twilight Zone episode, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" benefits immeasurably from a bravura performance by star William Shatner. While travelling through rough weather on a passenger plane, former mental patient Bob Wilson (Shatner) peers out of his window -- and sees a hideous gremlin balanced on the plane's wing. Doubting his own sanity, Bob tries to convince himself that he is merely hallucinating. . .and then the gremlin begins to tear the wing apart. Adapted by Richard Matheson from his own short story, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" was originally telecast October 11, 1963. The basic story was later incorporated into the omnibus theatrical feature Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) and has since been mercilessly lampooned in TV comedy series ranging from The Simpsons to 3rd Rock from the Sun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Shatner, Christine White, (more)
Derived from the classic 1951 Japanese film Rashomon, director Martin Ritt's The Outrage attempts to modernize the original story of rape and murder, transporting from medieval Japan to the American Southwest of the 1870's. The story is told within the framework of three men waiting at a railway station. A con-man (Edward G. Robinson) listens to the account of a trial held recently in the town as told by a prospector (Howard Da Silva) and a preacher (William Shatner) suffering from a crisis of faith in humanity. Three witnesses at the trial of a Mexican outlaw give conflicting testimony. Each version is shown in flashback. The outlaw, Juan Carrasco (Paul Newman), confesses that he bound the husband (Laurence Harvey), raped the wife, and killed the husband in a duel of honor. The wife (Claire Bloom) claims that the outlaw raped her, and then she stabbed her husband when he contemptuously blamed her for inviting the assault. The third witness, an old Indian (Paul Fix), declares that he found the dying husband who stated that he stabbed himself because he couldn't live with the humiliation. As the story continues to unfold, the validity of each of the stories is questioned before the truth is finally revealed. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, (more)
- 1964
One of the most famous of unsold TV pilots, Alexander the Great stars William Shatner in the title role. Nine months in the making, this lavish 60-minute drama recreates the battle between the Greeks and Persians at Issus (filmed near St. George, Utah). Hoping to attract as wide an audience as possible, producer Albert McCreery included an elaborate orgy sequence, with Alexander consuming mass quantities of wine as dancing girls undulate all around him. According to costar Adam West, it was this element that lost Alexander the Great several potential sponsors. The film gathered dust for four years after its production, then was given a single showing January 26, 1968, as an installment of the ABC anthology series Off to See the Wizard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1964
In Volume 40 of a collection culled from the 1963-1965 science fiction anthology television series, the speedy evolution of an alien culture is observed through a professor's telescope. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1964
In Volume 34 of a collection culled from the 1963-1965 science fiction anthology television series, an astronaut returns from Venus to find he can no longer stay warm in Earth's climate. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
One of the strangest productions ever committed to celluloid, and the first feature with all dialogue recorded in Esperanto, this bizarre supernatural art-horror epic, hailed by Famous Monsters founder Forrest J. Ackerman as "the movie-watching event of a lifetime," actually benefits from the presence of a pre-Star Trek William Shatner, whose operatic style somehow conforms to the story's deranged logic. Shatner plays Marc, a man lost in the mythical land of Nomen Tuum where he comes under psychic attack from both the evil witch Kia (Allyson Ames) and the title demon (Milos Milos), who procures female souls for Satan. The filmmakers reportedly adopted the "universal language" of Esperanto to give the dialogue a mystical feel, but the end product may leave audiences wondering if the entire project is an elaborate put-on. Thoroughly strange, Incubus is certainly not without merit: the film's strength comes primarily from sumptuous location cinematography by Conrad Hall, who may have taken inspiration from the works of Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa. Believed lost, the only surviving negative of this oddity was eventually rescued from 30 years of oblivion and released to home video. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Shatner, Allyson Ames, (more)
- 1965
William Shatner guest stars as Tony Burrell, a former policeman who runs a boy's athletic club. Posing as "John Evans", Kimble goes to work for Burrell just as the neighborhood is buzzing about the brutal murder of two cops. As the story progresses and another murder occurs, Kimble begins to wonder if the outwardly affable but inwardly troubled Burrell could possibly be a serial killer. The supporting cast includes future Matlock regular Julie Sommars) as Burrell's wife Carole, and Norman Fell, Three's Company's "Mr. Roper", as Lieutenant Green. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
As everyone on earth (to say nothing of everyone in the United Federation of Planets) must know by now, the debut episode of Star Trek's first season, "The Man Trap", was not the first episode filmed. Nor was the series' "official" pilot episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the first one to go before the cameras. The real launching pad for Star Trek was "The Cage", which stars not William Shatner as James T. Kirk, but instead Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike of the Starship Enterprise. Though Hunter was replaced by Shatner, producer Gene Roddenberry wasn't about to let the costly "The Cage go to waste: thus, the episode was reedited as a two-part "flashback" titled "The Menagerie", with an added wraparound sequence in which the Enterprise's first officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) explains at his court-martial why he attempted to kidnap the now-enfeebled and demented Captain Pike. With this out of the way, it can be said that Season One of Star Trek--or more specifically, year one of the Enterprise's five-year mission to "boldly go where no man has gone before"--contains several of the series' best and best-loved episodes, with the ensemble cast--Shatner, Nimoy, DeForest Kelley (Dr. "Bones" McCoy), James Doohan (Engineer Scott), Nichelle Nichols (communications officer Uhura), George Takei (helmsman Lt. Sulu) and Majel Barrett (Nurse Christine Chapel)--in peak form. In fact, the casting falls short of perfection in only one respect: Walter Koenig as ensign Chekov would not join the show until Season Two. This season represents the first series contributions of Richard Matheson ("The Enemy Within"), Jerry Sohl ("The Corbomite Maneuver"), Robert Bloch ("What Are Little Girls Made Of?"), Theodore Sturgeon ("Shore Leave") and Star Trek story editor D.C. Fontana ("Tomorrow is Yesterday"). Perhaps the most memorable--and certainly the most controversial--of the season's offerings is Harlan Ellison's Hugo-award winning "City on the Edge of Forever" (Alas, Ellison would never write again for Star Trek, the result of a well-publicized feud between the author and producer Roddenberry which has been exhaustively chronicled elsewhere). Finally, let us take note of two unforgettable guest star turns in Season One. First there's Roger C. Carmel, making his first appearance as intergalactic con artist Harry Mudd in "Mudd's Women". And last but not least, Ricardo Montalban plays the evil Khan, a genetically engineering superman who endeavors to take over the Enterprise in "Space Seed." Sixteen years later, Khan (again played by Montalban) would be up to his old tricks in the theatrical-movie spinoff Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, (more)
- 1967
When Captain Kirk encounters an old nemesis, his personal need to enact revenge threatens not only his own life but the safety of the Enterprise in this episode of the landmark 1960s science-fiction series. When several Enterprise crew members exploring the surface of a planet are attacked by a deadly alien resembling a gaseous cloud, resulting in a number of deaths, Kirk recognizes the extraterrestrial as an enemy from his past. Tormented by the fact that he had failed to destroy the alien during their last encounter, when it had killed a number of his fellow crew members, Kirk becomes increasingly obsessed with the creature's destruction. Ignoring the advice of his fellow officers, a determined Kirk orders the Enterprise to pursue the cloud, hoping to force an ultimate confrontation in which he can finally emerge victorious. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
In this film, the twin sons of a white man and an Indian woman must struggle to overcome both their sibling rivalry and their conflicting identities. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
The Starship Enterprise's five-year mission to "seek out new life forms and new civilizations" and "boldly go where no man has gone before" shifts into warp speed as Star Trek enters its second season. The biggest news this year is a fresh addition to the ensemble cast: Now taking his place alongside such TV immortals as William Shatner (Capt. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), James Doohan) (Engineer Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Officer Uhura) and Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel) is Walter Koenig as young Russian-born ensign Pavel Chekov (a character added to attract more teenage viewers--and NOT to pacify the Soviet Union, as has often been claimed) The season begins with one of the series' best efforts, Theodore Sturgeon's "Amok Time", in which the half-Vulcan Mr. Spock must mate or die. Spock is also the focus in D.C. Fontana's "Journey to Babel", featuring Jane Wyatt and Mark Lenard as Spock's parents Amanda and Sarek. Other Season Two highlights include the return of intergalactic con artist Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel) in "I, Mudd"; Margaret Armen's superb "The Gamesters of Triskelon", in which the crew is forced to engaged in barbaric combat, and the thematically similar "Bread and Circuses", depicting an ancient Roman society decked out with 20th-century technology; "The Changeling", with Vic Perrin (best known as the "Control Voice" on The Outer Limits) supplying the voice of the lethally "perfect" computer Nomad; "The Deadly Years", in which the crew is subjected to an accelerated aging process; and Robert Bloch's "whodunnit in space", "Wolf in the Fold". And we can't forget David Gerrold's classic "The Trouble with Tribbles", all about those incredibly prolific little furballs; the supremely silly but enjoyable "A Piece of the Action", aka "Star Trek meets The Untouchables"; and the much-maligned "Mirror, Mirror", wherein the crew comes face to face with their barbaric doppelgangers. The season finale, "Assignment: Earth", was intended as the pilot for a spinoff series, starring Robert Lansing as altruistic time traveller Gary Seven. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, (more)
The third and final season of Star Trek is frequently written off as the series' nadir, if only because creator Gene Roddenberryhad relinquished a great deal of his creative control to the NBC executives and to new producer Fred Freiberger). Another reason given for the series' decline was the decision to cut the budgets to the bone, and to depend more on "house" writers than established science- fiction specialists. Also, there was a heavier reliance upon gimmickry and gadgetry than in previous years, upsetting those purists who preferred strong characterizations and story values to the standard sci-fi/fantasy cliches. But while Season Three was overall the weakest, especially in terms of ratings, several of the individual episodes are among the finest that Star Trek has to offer. We get off to a good start with the opener, "Spock's Brain", in which the titular organ is "kidnapped" from its owner Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Attorney Melvin Belli makes his acting debut as a sinister, corruptive life force (not a lawyer, but close!) in "And the Children Shall Lead". The crew of the Starship Enterprise is forced to sacrifice themselves during the Gunfight at the OK Corral in "Spectre of the Gun". "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is an allegorical drama in which the fate of a civilization is determined by a duel to the death between its two last survivors (Frank Gorshin, Lou Antonio), whose faces are half-black and half-white. And in the series finale "Turnabout Intruder", the mind of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) is exchanged with that of his embittered ex-lover (Sandra Smith)--and vice versa. The season's most controversial episode was "Plato's Stepchildren", originally telecast November 22, 1968, in which Kirk and officer Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) share the first interracial kiss ever seen on network television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, (more)
- 1969
CBS' first made-for-TV movie, Sole Survivor is a fantasy yarn founded on fact. In 1960, the ruins of an American bomber were found in the Libyan desert...but the remains of the crew were never located. In Guerdon Trueblood's teleplay, the ghosts of a bomber crew hang around their derelict plane, awaiting the day that their bones will be recovered and given a decent burial. The sole survivor, navigator Russell Hamner (Richard Basehart), has in the intervening 25 years become a general. He joins an investigation team that has come across the wreckage, while the ghosts plot to expose Hamner as a coward who deserted his post and left his crew mates to die. Sole Survivor premiered January 9, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
