Shatner

December 23, 2019
Biographer Starr (Ringo: With a Little Help) offers a lightweight, admiring look at actor William Shatner. As Starr shows, the sheer scope of Shatner’s showbiz career is staggering. After beginning in theater in his native Canada, Shatner made dozens of TV guest appearances in the 1950s and ’60s (including two attention-grabbing stints on The Twilight Zone), had a Broadway hit with The World of Suzie Wong, starred in multiple television series (in addition to Star Trek, he was in T.J Hooker and Boston Legal, for which he won an Emmy), reprised his Trek role as James T. Kirk in blockbuster films, and authored a string of bestselling sci-fi novels and career memoirs. More recently, he reinvented himself as a phenomenally successful Priceline pitchman and as a notably quirky spoken-word artist (and, notoriously, as a Twitter troll). Still active at age 88, Shatner is a test case in celebrity endurance. Starr has less to say, however, about his personal life; Shatner himself didn’t participate, and asked some acquaintances not to grant Starr any interviews. Trek fans will be interested to read about Shatner’s problematic relationships with his Trek costars, but too much time is spent on his numerous affairs. While Starr is thorough in tracing Shatner’s career, readers may wish this biography offered a deeper understanding of Shatner the man.