William SHATNER (1931-)

William Shatner This Is Your Life

programme details...

  • Edition No: 767
  • Subject No: 758
  • Broadcast date: Wed 27 Dec 1989
  • Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
  • Recorded: Tue 21 Nov 1989
  • Venue: unknown
  • Series: 30
  • Edition: 10
  • Code name: Beam

on the guest list...

  • Harve Bennett
  • Marcy Lafferty - wife
  • Lisabeth - daughter
  • Leslie - daughter
  • Melanie - daughter
  • Dr Hilliard Jason
  • Leonard Nimoy
  • Richard Herd
  • Adrian Zmed
  • Gordon - son-in-law
  • Grant - grandson
  • Filmed tributes:
  • Julie Harris
  • Heather Locklear
  • Donna Moore

production team...

  • Researcher: Sue Green
  • Writer: Roy Bottomley
  • Director: Brian Klein
  • Associate Producer: John Graham
  • Producer: Malcolm Morris
  • names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life
related page...

The Glamorous Life

Hollywood in the spotlight

William Shatner This Is Your Life William Shatner This Is Your Life William Shatner This Is Your Life William Shatner This Is Your Life William Shatner This Is Your Life William Shatner This Is Your Life William Shatner This Is Your Life William Shatner This Is Your Life William Shatner This Is Your Life William Shatner This Is Your Life William Shatner This Is Your Life William Shatner This Is Your Life

Photographs and screenshots of William Shatner This Is Your Life

Roy Bottomley This Is Your Life book

Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...


We surprised William Shatner, Captain Kirk, on the 'flight deck' of the Starship Enterprise at Universal Studios, and he and Michael Aspel were 'beamed' – using special effects – from there to the studios.


Actress Heather Locklear, Shatner's blonde, glamorous partner in T J Hooker (and Sammy Jo in Dynasty) nearly didn't make it. Being on location, she had recorded a message, but a young lady visiting one of the team drove off with the tape in the boot of her car. It began a 'calling-all-cars' search worthy of T J Hooker himself.


But Mr Spock, alias Leonard Nimoy, was there, minus his Vulcan ears, and we closed the show by 'beaming' up Bill's twenty-month-old grandson, Grant.

Malcolm Morris biography

Producer Malcolm Morris recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is My Life...


Our relationship with the press is sometimes contradictory because, on the one hand, they represent a threat in that they can blow a programme if they find out about it before we pull our surprise. The fact that they would destroy a programme for the subject and the viewers is not a factor in their minds when it comes to creating a good front page story.


But, at the same time, our programme likes publicity from time to time. We were in the Universal Pictures Theme Park, Los Angeles, where Michael Aspel was to present the opening of a special Life surprise to William Shatner of Star Trek fame.


The wonderful thing was that the theme park featured a real life size version of the control deck of the Starship Enterprise. What better place to surprise 'Captain Kirk'. The problem was, our cameras and crew were seen by a reporter working for one of the Hollywood scandal sheets. I knew that he would not be adverse to sending an extra feature or two to the English press for some extra money.


We had invited William Shatner to the Star Trek set to have what he thought was an interview for British television. He was due at around 3pm and Michael and I were at the set working out the camera angles. The reporter became suspicious and stood at the back of the set just waiting to see what would happen. Luckily, my son, Gregory, who was 18 at the time, was with us and I persuaded him to sit in at the controls as Captain Kirk. I then began to move the cameras around him with Michael acting out the part of the surprise.


I called the reporter from the back row up to the set and told him that we were from London and that we were shooting some promotional spots with a newly discovered young lad well known on British children's television. I then asked him (from my own early press experiences) for what every reporter and photographer hates most in the world. I looked at him earnestly. 'Could you possibly take some publicity stills for use in London and perhaps you could also get them published in Los Angeles?' He was gone so fast he couldn't hear our laughter.


William Shatner arrived soon after and Captain Kirk and Michael Aspel were both 'beamed down' to the studios.

Series 30 subjects

Omar Sharif | Sarah Brightman | Yvonne Cormeau | Cyril Smith | Jean Boht | Zsa Zsa Gabor | Alec McCowen | Barbara Cartland
Douglas Fairbanks Jr | William Shatner | Barbara Taylor Bradford | Elizabeth Dawn | Billy Wright | Trevor McDonald
Stephanie Beacham | Simon Weston | Peter Scudamore | Peter Cushing | David Shepherd | Harry Secombe
Nigel Kennedy | Eluned Williams | Billy Marsh | Bob Holness | Bobby Davro | Michael Baldock | Ken Dodd