William Shatner: Captain Kirk, Boston Legal and a 70-Year Career

William Shatner is a Canadian actor, producer, director and recording artist, best known as Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek. He turned 95 in March 2026, and his career now spans more than seven decades. Few performers have been written off and then rediscovered as often as he has.

Early life and stage beginnings

Shatner was born in Montreal on 22 March 1931 and studied commerce at McGill University. Acting pulled him away from a conventional career. His first screen credit came in 1951, in a small Canadian comedy, while he was still a student.

He then trained in theatre and joined the Stratford Festival in Ontario, where he played classical roles. Work on Broadway and in American television followed, and by the early 1960s he was a busy guest actor.

One of those guest parts has lasted. In 1963 he played a frightened airline passenger in the Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", which remains one of the most referenced episodes of the series.

Star Trek and Captain Kirk

In 1966 Shatner took the lead in Star Trek, playing the commander of the starship Enterprise. The show ran for three seasons on NBC and was cancelled in 1969. Its ratings were modest at the time, but reruns built a devoted audience.

That fan base brought Kirk back. Shatner starred in seven Star Trek feature films, beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. His final outing as Kirk was Star Trek Generations in 1994.

He also directed Star Trek V: The Final Frontier in 1989. The film was poorly received, but it remains the only time he took charge behind the camera on the big-screen franchise.

The years between and the comeback

After the original series ended, work was uneven. Shatner took guest roles, theatre tours and voice work. In 1982 he found a steady hit as the title character in T.J. Hooker, a police drama that ran for several seasons. He later hosted Rescue 911, a long-running reality series about emergency calls.

He also wrote and co-wrote a long list of books, including memoirs and science-fiction novels. His self-mocking humour became part of his public image and helped his later career.

Denny Crane

His biggest second act came in the early 2000s. Shatner played the eccentric, overconfident lawyer Denny Crane, first in The Practice and then in the spin-off Boston Legal. The role won him two Emmy Awards, one for each series, and a Golden Globe for Boston Legal.

Around the same time, he became familiar to a new audience through a long run of advertisements for the travel website Priceline.

Music and spoken word

Shatner has recorded music since his 1968 album The Transformed Man. His style is dramatic spoken delivery rather than conventional singing. Critics were unkind at first, but the records developed a cult following.

His 2004 album Has Been, made with the musician Ben Folds, was widely seen as a turning point. It treated his reputation with affection, and it showed that he could laugh at himself without losing his dignity.

Going into space

In October 2021, Shatner flew on a Blue Origin suborbital flight. He was 90 at the time, which made him the oldest person to have reached space up to then. The trip lasted only a few minutes, yet it drew huge public attention given his long association with space fiction.

He later spoke about the experience in emotional terms, saying it made him more aware of how fragile life on Earth is.

Recent work in 2026

Shatner has not slowed down. Since 2019 he has hosted The UnXplained, a documentary series about unusual events and mysteries. The 2023 documentary William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill, narrated by Shatner himself, looked back on his life and was released more widely in 2024.

This year has been especially busy. Here is what has been announced or reported:

• He joined the Riot Fest lineup in Chicago in September with a new heavy metal band, performing reworked songs from his back catalogue.
• He produced and appeared in The Sixty-Year Mission, a documentary marking the anniversary of Star Trek, which reached cinemas in the autumn.
• He wrote the foreword to a new illustrated book about the original series, due out on 10 November 2026.
• The Los Angeles Press Club has named him its 2026 Legend Award winner, with the presentation planned for 6 December.

In April he also dismissed online rumours about his health, calling them false stories.

Why Shatner still matters

Shatner's legacy rests on more than one role. Kirk gave him a place in popular culture, but Denny Crane showed he had comic range. His records and public appearances prove he is willing to take risks, even at an age when most performers have stopped.

He has also supported charitable causes and remains active in equestrian sports. For Star Trek fans he will always be the original captain. For everyone else, he is an example of a performer who kept reinventing himself and, in the process, outlasted the critics who doubted him.