20 lipca 2005
James Doohan, 1920-2005
James Doohan, "Scotty" on Star Trek died today. Here are some things you didn't know about him:- He wasn't Scottish at all, he was from Vancouver. So, he was one of two Canadians on the Enterprise. Chicanos don't make it into space, but cannucks do.
- He apparently didn't like fellow Canadian William Shatner. He said in a 1998 interview: "I like Captain Kirk, but I sure don't like Bill. He's so insecure that all he can think about is himself."
- He was in the Canadian Army, achieving the rank of captain. He was part of the force that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day and was hit by enemy fire six times, and lost a piece of one finger. Let Shatner beat that one.
- It was Doohan's idea that Scotty would talk like Groundskeeper Willy. Doohan had developed a mastery of dialects as a radio actor, and he tried out several accents and decided that Scottish was the most "commanding."
- He was a student at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, where his fellow students were Leslie Nielsen (another Canadian), Richard Boone and Tony Randall.
When I was young, there was a live action show on Saturday mornings called Jason of Star Command. Doohan appeared on it as Commander Canarvin, but was replaced in the second season by a blue guy. Yeah, a blue guy.
Jason was played by a fella named Craig Littler. Littler's career didn't go too well after that, you may remember him as the "Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?" guy.
I'm not even making that up.
One of my readers was apparently inspired by the bi-ethnic nature of this blog, and now he and his wife have put toghether a Chinese/Filipino/Chicano blog called Arizona Hoochness. Mexilina posts here often. Her husband goes by the name stack0verflow. (I was going to make a breast joke, but I thought better of it.) He works with computers, and seems to be a proud geek. He has the Tick as his avatar.
My brother got a mention on Mark Guerrero's home page. He visited Phoenix when his father, Lalo Guerrero, was posthumously inducted into the Arizona Music Hall of Fame. Tom introduced a resolution honoring Lalo, and Mark along with some other members of the family were there for the event.
Mark refers to Tom as "young and hip." Hip? What, because of the pony tail? That hasn't been hip since '77.
Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.
