The Many Iterations of William Shatner

pickens writes "The NY Times weekend magazine has a long profile, well worth reading, of self-described 'working actor' William Shatner. He began acting at age 6 and at one point in the late 1950s was mentioned in the same breath as his contemporaries Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford — until, without explanation, his career faded before it bloomed. Shatner, now 79, pulls no punches in his memories of the Star Trek years. 'I never thought it'd become a big deal, just 13 episodes and out,' says Shatner. 'I didn't think I was hard to get along with. There were a few disaffected actors who came in once a week. I had nothing to do with them. Friendly! I was working seven days a week, learning 10 pages of dialogue a day. They had one line!' Which was the beginning of the William Shatner character. 'They said I was this William Shatner character, and I figured I had to be it. Pompous, takes himself seriously, hardheaded.' Shatner said that that character evolved slowly, until one day he realized he couldn’t change it. 'So I played it. But I didn’t see it. That character doesn’t seem like me to me. I know the real William Shatner.'"

Re:SNL skit

[Anonymous Coward]

Saturday Night Live, years ago when it was funny

SNL has always been a better as a memory than when you watch it. During that very season when Shatner was on, people were saying "years ago when it was funny ..."

Shat's where it's at...

[scosco62]

Bottom line, the world will be a less place when he is gone......he is an entertainer, through and through

Re:SNL skit

[KahabutDieDrake]

This is a recuring theme with SNL. When I was a kid, I used to stay up and watch it with my cousins. Then later, I would think back to the "good old days" when SNL was funny. Another 10 years later, and SNL is still "back when it was funny". I think SNL is only funny in retrospect. It's never actually funny at the time. Maybe funny moves at half the speed of light?

Re:SNL skit

[mischi_amnesiac]

I also really liked him als big giant head in 3rd rock from the sun. Between him and John Lithgow, they cranked the overacting up to eleven.

Re:SNL skit

[Anonymous Coward]

Alec Baldwin - any of his SNL appearances are awesome.

Re:SNL skit

[KingAlanI]

SNL's main problems always seemed to me to be the following:

Hit-or-miss: some skits good, some not, each episode
Dragging out for too long a joke that might have been decent the first time

Shatner's Music

[eggy78]

I'm a bit sad they don't mention his music at all. The first album he recorded was pretty terrible, but Has Been is a surprisingly interesting, and often very good, album. Throughout this article I was reminded of several of the songs on it, most specifically "Real." The album as a whole is pretty self-reflective and fairly humorous, so you get to see another iteration of Bill. Oh, and he doesn't try to sing, which helps a lot.

If you happen to be looking for something a little different and have an open mind, I'd say it's definitely worth a listen. It is definitely one of the most pleasant nearly-random musical finds of my life. Ben Folds had a pretty big hand in it, so fans of Ben may be more likely to appreciate it than others.

From Kirk to Crane, amazing Actor

[bokmann]

Shatner might have almost been a character actor, except that all the characters he has played are so *different*. I was a fan of Boston Legal, and I'd occasionally stop and look at this Denny Crane character and have to think "Thats the same guy who player Kirk!". Granted, they were 35+ years apart, but his skillset is anything but one-dimensional.

I can't wait to see "Shit my Dad Says".

And he cracks me up, the way he signs all of his tweets "My best, Bill"...

Re:decent bloke

[dwywit]

Hmmmm, Zulu, Alfie, Ashanti, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The Italian Job all disagree with you, but then there's Blame it on Rio, the only redeeming feature of which was a young Demi Moore topless.

Re:Hmmmm...

[williamhb]

We are who we pretend to be. Our interactions with others define the kind of person we are. The "real you" that no one ever sees is an idealized fantasy...

But probably neither you nor I nor anybody else in this Slashdot thread has ever had an interaction with Shatner. Claiming that our non-interactions-just-reading-about-him-in-the-media is "the real Shatner" would be absurd. Do you think Barack Obama's interactions with family and friends are the long prosaic speeches you see on television? That the Wiggles sing and dance in yellow jumpsuits as they do their shopping at the supermarket? Do you think the stage-managed appearances of actors on Oprah is "the real them"? That the Cillit Bang guy really shouts all the time when he's cleaning his own kitchen? Shatner's pretty up-front that when he's in front of a camera, a reporter, a public appearance, or groups of people he doesn't know, he treats it like being on stage. Are you surprised? He's just telling you what should be obvious to you already, unless you've been completely taken in by the media/PR business. I dare say his family and friends probably do see quite a different persona than you do.

Re:I thought the film with the horses was Generati

[Anonymous Coward]

STFU in the theater, kthxbye

Re:Shatner's Music

[hardboiled.tequila]

'Has Been' is a brilliant album - highly recommended. It's self-referential, mockingly over-serious, and a huge amount of fun.