BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY

BY DAN MILLER
(posted September 1, 2004)

We ran a story Tuesday night about actor James Doohan getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

If, by chance, his name doesn't ring a bell, you'll certainly remember his character "Scotty" on the original Star Trek TV series. He's the one always fielding the famous request from Captain Kirk - "Beam me up, Scotty".

As always, it was a festive occasion there on Hollywood Boulevard, with some co-stars from the series joining the throngs of fans lined-up to honor the 84-year old actor.

But the real celebration came a few days earlier, at a big weekend affair for Doohan.
A standing room crowd, casually dressed, gathered at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel to... in essence... say farewell to Jimmy Doohan.

Doohan has recently experienced the onset of Alzheimer's disease, and personally decided to take one last opportunity to mix and mingle with his fans (those Trekkies) before retiring from public life, and privately dealing with the cruel and inevitable course that Alzheimer's takes.

With proceeds going to Alzheimer's research, his fans paid $995 for the privilege of being there for this man, so beloved by fellow actors and those who watched his work.
Even Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin showed up.

And they called the event, appropriately, "Beam Me Up, Scotty... One Last Time".

By the way, if you look closely at some of those old Star Trek episodes, you might notice that Scotty is missing a finger.
Long before his days in radio, TV and theatre, James Doohan was a captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery, and, among his wounds, lost his finger leading troops into battle on D-Day.

As the character Scotty said in one episode of Star Trek.... "I've giv'n her all she's got captain, an' I canna give her no more"

How appropriate that Scotty gets his own 'Star'.

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