http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/n ... 12920.html
07.20.2005
James Doohan: March 3, 1920 - July 20, 2005
We are deeply saddened to report that James Doohan, the beloved actor who portrayed engineer "Montgomery Scott" in the original Star Trek and seven movies, has passed away. He was 85.
Doohan died in his sleep at his home in Redmond, Washington, at 5:30 a.m. local time with his wife Wende at his side. Cause of death was pneumonia, complicated by Alzheimer's disease, according to Doohan's agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens of Los Angeles.
Private services will be held in Redmond, but a public memorial will be held in Los Angeles on a date to be announced. According to Stevens, the family will fulfill Doohan's wish to have his remains shot into space on a "Memorial Spaceflight" provided by Space Services Inc. of Houston. Similarly, a portion of Gene Roddenberry's ashes were sent on such a flight in 1997. The date of cremation and of the spaceflight are not yet known.
Doohan is survived by his wife of 28 years, Wende, and their 5-year-old daughter Sarah, along with six adult children — Larkin, Deirdre, Chris, Montgomery, Eric and Thomas — and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Doohan's memory to his favorite charity, Cowboys for Kids in Arizona (contact information can be found at www.cowboysforkids.net).
Tributes are pouring in from all over the Star Trek universe. The Associated Press obituary can be found at this CNN.com link.
Few characters in the annals of TV pop culture are as beloved as Montgomery Scott, the Scotsman nicknamed "Scotty" who always managed to give the warp engines that extra boost when the Starship Enterprise desperately needed out of a life-threatening situation. And the man who gave soul and verve to that character so brilliantly is just as beloved the world over — James Montgomery Doohan.
"Beam me up, Scotty" is one of the most familiar expressions to enter the popular lexicon from the world of television (despite the fact that, word for word, that specific phrase was never spoken in the show). Scotty was an icon, the archetypal fix-it man you could always count on to make things work. He was an inspiration to an entire generation of engineers and scientists. He was straightforward, unpretentious, and steadfast — just like the man who portrayed him.
It seems rather poetic that Doohan's date of death coincides with the anniversary of the first steps upon the Moon by Neil Armstrong. It is doubly poetic given the fact that Armstrong himself spoke at the banquet during Doohan's Farewell Convention held in Hollywood a mere 11 months ago. "From one old engineer to another — thanks Scotty," was Armstrong's tribute to Doohan. (Related story)
In fact, it is a documented fact that Doohan has been an inspiration to new generations of engineers. A few years ago Doohan was awarded an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering, because more than half the students at the school cited "Scotty" as the reason they were moved to pursue that career.
James Doohan was the son of an Irish couple who immigrated from Belfast to Canada while his mother was pregnant with him. Jimmy was born on March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia, the youngest of four, and spent most of his youth in Sarnia, Ontario. Surviving an upbringing with an alcoholic father, he left home at age 19 to join the Canadian Forces at the outbreak of World War II. Posted in England, he served through the duration of the war, becoming an officer and rising through the ranks, but without seeing actual combat until June 6, 1944 — D-Day — where he led a regiment of 33 men onto Juno Beach at Normandy, France.
You probably never noticed, while watching Star Trek in the first place, that Doohan always went to great lengths to obscure his right hand. Grab a DVD, and watch how he sits when he's in the captain's chair. Watch how he clinches his right hand in a fist when he's standing with his arms to his side. That's because "Scotty" is missing his middle finger (an incongruity, perhaps, in a futuristic setting). Well, that handicap, so cleverly hidden for years, is a direct result of that momentous day in 1944 that changed the course of the 20th century.
Lt. Doohan successfully led his Canadian troop onto Juno Beach and pushed inland to establish the best possible gun position (along the way Doohan shot two German snipers, never knowing if he killed them or just injured them). A position was secured and command posts were established, but not all Germans between the beach and their position had been captured.
At about eleven-thirty that night, I was walking back to my command post from another command post, with Tommy O'Brennan on my right, about a foot and a half away. We were walking around a large shell hole . . .
And that was when the machine gun opened up on us.
It hit me and spun me around. Staggering, I fell down into the shell hole. Tommy hadn't been hit at all, and for a moment I hadn't fully registered that I'd been struck. I just knew something had shoved me with tremendous force.
Then I looked at my right hand and saw the blood covering it. I could see the holes in my middle finger.
[From "Beam Me Up, Scotty" by James Doohan with Peter David]
He had three bullet holes in that one finger. He managed to walk to the regimental aid post, despite also having four bullets in his left leg. But as the doctor was removing those slugs, Doohan noticed a hole in his shirt. He had been shot in the chest. Miraculously, though, that bullet had been deflected by the sterling silver cigarette case he kept in his right shirt pocket — the one his brother Bill had given him when Jimmy was best man at his wedding. Four inches from his heart.
He kept that cigarette case for the rest of his life — and even continued using it (with the dent slightly taken out) until he quit smoking in the 1970's.
Though Doohan is associated with that one seminal role of "Scotty," he was quite an accomplished actor, having trained and performed alongside future stars such as Lee Marvin, Tony Randall, Leslie Nielson and Jackie Gleason. His roommate for a while was John Fiedler, who a decade later played "Mr. Hengist" in "Wolf in the Fold." (Fiedler himself died less than a month ago.)
Doohan has often credited famed acting coach Sanford Meisner for his professional success. But it was also his natural versatility and talent for dialects that earned him parts in more than 100 motion pictures and television series, including The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Fantasy Island, "Loaded Weapon 1" and "Double Trouble."
Doohan started working in Hollywood in the early 1960's, and in 1965 his agent sent him to read for the part of a Chief Engineer, a character that was not yet fully developed. During the audition, "I changed my accent eight different times," Doohan would recall, "and Mr. Roddenberry said, 'Which accent do you like?' I said, 'Well, if you want a good engineer, he better be a Scotsman!'" Since the Scottish people have many different dialects, Doohan picked the Aberdeen accent he learned from his bunkmate in the war. "And that's how I became Scotty." (For more biographical information, check the links below.)
We are indeed fortunate that Jimmy has stayed with us for so long. While we grieve alongside his family (our thoughts are particularly with his 5-year-old, Sarah), we are grateful for all his heroic contributions to the world during his many years, and celebrate a life well lived.
Jimmy, we wish you Godspeed in the next phase of your journey ... and be sure to say hi to De for us. We love you both deeply.
) il primo pailot di star trek e datato 1964 esattamente il 29/06/1964 per cui la serie classica non ha 50 anni ma solo 41 (fonte: 
) se ti interessa 
