{"id":13904,"date":"2014-05-05T06:57:59","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T12:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=13904"},"modified":"2014-05-05T06:58:22","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T12:58:22","slug":"from-star-trek-to-one-man-show-william-shatner-stays-in-the-limelight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/from-star-trek-to-one-man-show-william-shatner-stays-in-the-limelight\/","title":{"rendered":"From &#8216;Star Trek&#8217; to one-man show, William Shatner stays in the limelight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By ROBERT GLUCK<\/p>\n<p>(JNS.org) &#8212; On April 24, audiences around the country had the chance to feel what it is like to be William Shatner, the Jewish actor best known for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk on \u201cStar Trek.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For one night only, Shatner\u2019s one-man show \u201cShatner\u2019s World\u201d\u2014which was on Broadway and toured Canada, Australia, and the United States\u2014was presented in nearly 700 movie theaters nationwide. Sponsored by Fathom Events and Priceline.com (for whom Shatner has famously served as a pitchman), the critically acclaimed show gives audiences a behind-the-scenes look at Shatner\u2019s career and life.<\/p>\n<p>Born to Conservative Jewish parents in the Cote Saint-Luc neighborhood of Montreal, Canada, Shatner\u2019s path to stardom\u2014traced in the film\u2014took him from trained Shakespearean actor to cultural icon. The son of Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacturer, and Anne (n\u00e9e Garmaise), William\u2019s grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Austria, Poland, Hungary, and Ukraine.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13905\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Shatner_now.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13905\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13905 lazyload\" title=\"Shatner_now\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Shatner_now-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Shatner_now-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Shatner_now.jpg 500w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 200px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 200\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13905\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13905 \" title=\"Shatner_now\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Shatner_now-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Shatner_now-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Shatner_now.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-13905\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Shatner. (Photo by Manfred Baumann)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cBeing Jewish is a part of what I am,\u201d Shatner said in an interview with JNS.org. \u201cWhat I am is what I bring to the world as an artist. &#8230; As in many cases of people I know, where their religion is everything to them and is very imperative, for me being Jewish is not, but being spiritual is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shatner has taken an eclectic journey as an actor, musician, singer, author, film director, spokesman, and comedian. He gained worldwide fame for his portrayal of Captain Kirk, commander of the Federation starship USS Enterprise, in the science fiction television series \u201cStar Trek\u201d from 1966 to 1969, \u201cStar Trek: The Animated Series\u201d from 1973 to 1974, and in seven of the subsequent \u201cStar Trek\u201d feature films from 1979 to 1994. Shatner wrote a series of books chronicling his experiences playing Captain Kirk and being a part of \u201cStar Trek\u201d and has co-written several novels set in the \u201cStar Trek\u201d universe. He also authored a series of science fiction novels called \u201cTekWar\u201d that were adapted for television.<\/p>\n<p>Besides his \u201cStar Trek\u201d role, Shatner played the eponymous veteran police sergeant in the television show \u201cT. J. Hooker\u201d from 1982 to 1986. Afterwards, he hosted the reality-based television series \u201cRescue 911\u201d from 1989 to 1996, which won a People\u2019s Choice Award for Favorite New TV Dramatic Series. He has since worked as a musician, author, director, and celebrity pitchman. From 2004 to 2008, he starred as attorney Denny Crane in the television dramas \u201cThe Practice\u201d and its spin-off \u201cBoston Legal,\u201d for which he won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe theme of Shatner\u2019s World is the joy of life, saying yes to life,\u201d Shatner said. \u201cWhat I\u2019m able to do by the end of the evening is involve you the audience in this joyful experience about life. Life has many facets, including grief, sorrow, and death. I go through all that. But it is a joyful experience in the end, with multi-media visual effects as well as me speaking. I talk about gorillas and motorcycles and comedy and music and discuss \u2018Star Trek\u2019 and horses. The multiplicity of subject matters is there. It\u2019s a very funny show.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13906\" style=\"width: 244px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Star_Trek_William_Shatner.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13906\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13906 lazyload\" title=\"Star_Trek_William_Shatner\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Star_Trek_William_Shatner-234x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"234\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Star_Trek_William_Shatner-234x300.jpg 234w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Star_Trek_William_Shatner.jpg 500w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 234px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 234\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13906\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13906 \" title=\"Star_Trek_William_Shatner\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Star_Trek_William_Shatner-234x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"234\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Star_Trek_William_Shatner-234x300.jpg 234w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Star_Trek_William_Shatner.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-13906\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Shatner as Captain Kirk on &quot;Star Trek.&quot; (Photo credit: NBC Television via Wikimedia Commons.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Frequently involved in charitable causes, Shatner\u2019s excitement for horses led him to the Central Kentucky Riding for Hope organization and the Hollywood Charity Horse Show. The Priceline.com Hollywood Charity Horse Show, sponsored by Wells Fargo, was scheduled for Saturday night, April 26.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a big party with a five-day horse show and we raise a lot of money for children\u2019s charities,\u201d Shatner said. \u201cSome of those charities are riding therapeutic programs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shatner noted how research shows the therapeutic effect of putting people with certain disabilities or impairments on a horse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrequently they\u2019re aided beyond anything you can guess,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen children who couldn\u2019t walk, walk. And children who couldn\u2019t talk, talk. What we\u2019ve also found is that applying this to returning veterans who have problems not dissimilar to the children\u2014physically, emotionally, socially\u2014riding therapy really helps them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2008, the Jewish Music Group released \u201cExodus: An Oratorio in Three Parts,\u201d a dramatic biblical reading by Shatner accompanied by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. He is also still at work on \u201cThe Shiva Club,\u201d a movie about crashing a shiva\u2014the seven-day mourning period in Judaism that follows the loss of an immediate family member.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about two comics who go to a shiva to try to find an agent,\u201d Shatner said.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his various roles, it will be \u201cStar Trek\u201d that Shatner is remembered for. In his role as Kirk, he famously kissed actress Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) in the November 22, 1968 episode, \u201cPlato\u2019s Stepchildren.\u201d The episode is cited as the first example of an interracial kiss between a white man and a black woman on a scripted television show in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m told that that is the case, that my kissing Nichelle Nichols, who happens to be black, did all that,\u201d Shatner said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s as dramatic as that. If that\u2019s what people say, I\u2019m going along for the ride. If it wasn\u2019t for \u2018Star Trek\u2019 I wouldn\u2019t be speaking to you today, so I\u2019m eternally grateful to be given the opportunity to do all the things that I\u2019ve done since \u2018Star Trek.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dan Diamond, senior vice-president of Fathom Events, said Shatner \u201ctakes fans on a unique and exciting journey through his \u2018Shatner\u2019s World\u2019 show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis remarkable performance by the legendary William Shatner is a perfect fit for the big screen,\u201d said Diamond.<\/p>\n<p>While the show charts the path of the joys and sorrows commonly part of anyone\u2019s life story, it is a positive experience overall, Shatner told JNS.org.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything can be termed positively and that\u2019s what I attempt to do in this one-man show,\u201d he said. \u201cThis one-man show is very important to me. It\u2019s the culmination of a long career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"From%20%27Star%20Trek%27%20to%20one-man%20show%2C%20William%20Shatner%20stays%20in%20the%20limelight\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1884],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13904"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13909,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13904\/revisions\/13909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}