William Shatner (born March 22, 1931), actor.
Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, he is probably best-known for his role as Captain James T. Kirk in the television series Star Trek. He has since worked as a writer, producer, director, and best-selling author.
His movie debut was in the classic MGM film The Brothers Karamazov with Yul Brynner in which Shatner starred as the pious brother Alexei.
He also appeared in the Stanley Kramer film Judgement at Nuremberg.
Shatner is most famous for his starring role as Captain James T. Kirk of the Federation Starship NCC-1701 Starship Enterprise in the television show Star Trek from 1966 to 1969. Shatner has written two books chronicling his experiences playing Captain Kirk and being a part of the Star Trek franchise.
William Shatner has 3 daughters: Leslie, Lisabeth, and Melanie, and a son, Daniel. He currently lives in Southern California. In his spare time, he enjoys breeding and showing American Saddlebreds and Quarter Horses. Shatner also has a 360-acre horse farm in Kentucky named Bellreve. Interestingly, he is also the CEO of the Toronto-based Core Digital Effects company which provided the special effects for the 1996 film "Fly Away Home".
Shatner is ready to spoof himself and the entire Star Trek culture, as, for instance, in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon I (1993) and Saturday Night Live, in which he advised Star Trek fans to "Get a life!", thus popularizing the catch phrase. He appeared in several episodes of the television series Third Rock From the Sun as The Big Giant Head.
His musical record, The Transformed Man (1968), has become a camp favorite. It includes spoken-word covers of "Mr. Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by The Beatles. These are widely held to be so bad they are hilarious. Shatner also spoofed them in a series of television commercials delivered in the same style over music.