Western Railroad Discussion > RR Enthusiast who portrayed "Scotty" on STAR TREK dies

From internet, Associated Press and CNN reports:

.....HE WAS A RAILROAD ENTHUSIAST.....

JAMES DOOHAN, the actor who portrayed Cmdr. Montgomery Scott ("Scotty") on STAR TREK, died today at age 85.

"JIMMY," as his fellow Star Trek actors called him, WAS A RAILROAD ENTHUSIAST, and was pictured in a TV Guide issue happily working on brake rigging underneath an excursion coach (somewhere in the Los Angeles area?) about ten or so years ago.

The Canadian-born, wounded veteran of the D-Day invasion of WW2: his talent with character voices was his ticket, as an actor, aboard the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701, when Lucille Ball (at her Desilu Studios) started Gene Roddenberry's TV series Star Trek in the mid-1960s.

His international fame as "Scotty" on Star Trek is his best-known legacy; I hope to hear from ANY railroad organizations (NRHS?) that he was a member of. (One of the photos in that TV Guide issue showed his wonderful collection of scale model trains.)

(YEAR EDITED:) Born March 3, 1920 - Died July 20, 2005. And today, ironically, is said to be the 36th Anniversary of one of Mankind's greatest ENGINEERING triumphs, the Apollo 11 moon-landing.

LINK to the Washington Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/20/AR2005072000929.html

rbx551985 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> From internet, Associated Press and CNN reports:
>
> .....HE WAS A RAILROAD ENTHUSIAST.....
>
> JAMES DOOHAN, the actor who portrayed Cmdr.
> Montgomery Scott ("Scotty") on STAR TREK, died
> today at age 85.
>
> "JIMMY," as his fellow Star Trek actors called
> him, WAS A RAILROAD ENTHUSIAST, and was pictured
> in a TV Guide issue happily working on brake
> rigging underneath an excursion coach (somewhere
> in the Los Angeles area?) about ten or so years
> ago.
>
> The Canadian-born, wounded veteran of the D-Day
> invasion of WW2: his talent with character voices
> was his ticket, as an actor, aboard the Starship
> Enterprise NCC-1701, when Lucille Ball (at her
> Desilu Studios) started Gene Roddenberry's TV
> series Star Trek in the mid-1960s.
>
> His international fame as "Scotty" on Star Trek is
> his best-known legacy; I hope to hear from ANY
> railroad organizations (NRHS?) that he was a
> member of. (One of the photos in that TV Guide
> issue showed his wonderful collection of scale
> model trains.)
>
> Born March 3, 1920 - Died July 20, 2005. And
> today, ironically, is said to be the 35th
> Anniversary of one of Mankind's greatest
> ENGINEERING triumphs, the Apollo 11 moon-landing.
>
> LINK to the Washington Post article:
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic
> le/2005/07/20/AR2005072000929.html
>
>

Rest in Peace Mr. Doohan, thank you for the memories.

Chris
Star Trek Fan & Railfan

Those days of television of the 1960's and movies of the 1980's were especially fun for me. Bill Shatner and Jimmy weren't exactly the best of friends on the set. However it was good to see them bury the axe before Jimmy's last public appearence in 2004. Warp Speed Mr. Scott!

---

(snip)

"In 1974 he married Wende Braunberger, and their children were Eric, Thomas and Sarah, who was born in 2000, when Doohan was 80."

Geez, guess the third wife was happy to say "beam me up Scotty" in childbirth even with Doohan at age 80! Impressive...

And from the Cable News Network (CNN):
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/20/obit.doohan.ap/

Does anyone have that back-issue of TV Guide that showed those recnet, RAILROADING photos of Doohan...?

He said in one interview that he "liked" Captain Kirk, but he didn't like Bill Shatner.


samreeves Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Those days of television of the 1960's and movies
> of the 1980's were especially fun for me. Bill
> Shatner and Jimmy weren't exactly the best of
> friends on the set. However it was good to see
> them bury the axe before Jimmy's last public
> appearence in 2004. Warp Speed Mr. Scott!

But like someone else said, he and Shatner did make up a few years ago . . . I didn't know Jimmy Doohan was a RR modeler! How cool. He certainly made his mark on TV and movie history. Being a longtime Trek fan, it's tough seeing the classic cast begin to leave us . . . a sad day indeed.

El

and this is the comment from EspeeDad, another one of you funny Trekkies..

~~

in an email to his son, espeedad wrote:

Thanks for sharing. I didn't know that he was a rail enthusiast. He
had a very full life and definitely deserves a.............

That will do, Scotty.


Dad

El4Short Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> But like someone else said, he and Shatner did
> make up a few years ago . . . I didn't know Jimmy
> Doohan was a RR modeler! How cool. He certainly
> made his mark on TV and movie history. Being a
> longtime Trek fan, it's tough seeing the classic
> cast begin to leave us . . . a sad day indeed.
>
> El

What's even more alarming is that three of the headliners in the Motion Picture are now dead, that being Persis Khambatta, DeForest Kelley and now Jimmy Doohan.

rbx551985 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> (YEAR EDITED:) Born March 3, 1920 - Died July 20,
> 2005. And today, ironically, is said to be the
> 36th Anniversary of one of Mankind's greatest
> ENGINEERING triumphs, the Apollo 11 moon-landing.

Said to be? Has this become a misty legend that we have to rely on fading memories? Nemmermine the nutcases what think it was a fake anyway and nemmermine that prolly half the population was not around at the time of the event. It ain't a "said to be"!

Shields up!

rdsexton Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rbx551985 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > (YEAR EDITED:) Born March 3, 1920 - Died
> July 20,
> > 2005. And today, ironically, is said to be
> the
> > 36th Anniversary of one of Mankind's
> greatest
> > ENGINEERING triumphs, the Apollo 11
> moon-landing.
>
> Said to be? Has this become a misty legend that we
> have to rely on fading memories? Nemmermine the
> nutcases what think it was a fake anyway and
> nemmermine that prolly half the population was not
> around at the time of the event. It ain't a "said
> to be"!
>
> Shields up!


Okay, I'll choose my wording better next time; it DID happen, and I was one of millions who were proud of it. Maybe in the future, we'll have Space Trains magazine to read (I don't believe I'll be around to see it, though!)