Much has been written about William Shatner’s relationship with his fellow Star Trek actors. He and Leonard Nimoy are apparently close friends. James Doohan disliked him, although they reportedly reconciled prior to Doohan’s death. George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Nichelle Nichols also express varying degrees of distaste for Shatner as a person, although they all rejoined him for six to seven Star Trek films and Nichols and Takei famously attended Shatner’s roast on Comedy Central. I have heard almost nothing about Kelley’s relationship with Shatner, however, even though Bones McCoy was Kirk’s doctor, his closest friend, and confidante. Were he and Shatner friendly? By all accounts, Kelley was a very gracious but somewhat private man. Did he dislike Shatner, but was just too too much of the Southern gentleman to say anything, unlike his co-stars? Or did they not socialize, but were friendly when working together? Does anybody have the inside story?
I don’t know how trustworthy it is, but I read in a Shatner bio that, during the filming of TOS episide “The Deadly Years” Shatner wasn’t doing very well at portraying an Old Man. DeForest Kelly gave him some tips, which helped Shatner enormously, and he then started hogging the “Old Man” scenes and trying to get more for himself. Kelly was then annoyed that Shatner would use a technique that Kelly gave him in order to steal more of Kelly’s screen time.
It rings true, based on what others have said. Hoe indicative of their overall relationship it is, I don’t know.
From everything I’ve read about Kelley (which is mainly a bio that came out a few years ago), he really didn’t mingle with the cast that much outside of work and conventions. He and his wife bought a comfortable but modest house in Sherman Oaks before Star Wars ever aired and once it was paid for and he learned the conventions would bring him enough to live comfortably he really didn’t even pretend to work save for an occasional Star Trek gig (probably the only Star Trek alum to routinely turn down roles). He seems to have basically gone to make his movie/cameo/conventions and then come home to his wife and their family (they didn’t have kids but they had some relatives they were close to) until the next one.
A touching aspect of him revealed after his death was that he was extremely generous financially to some of his groupies. I mean nothing sordid by this, but for example when he learned that a fan who’d been writing him for years was in dire straights due to medical bills and other problems he basically saved her house from foreclosure, and he paid for one or two that he liked in their pen pal correspondence to come see him and gave one money for college tuition, etc., all under conditions of strict anonymity. (You can understand this, for in addition to being modest he wasn’t superrich [very comfortable by the end certainly, but not inexhaustible] and if word had ever gotten out McCoy was giving handouts he’d have heard from every Trekkie in 18 countries who was having a hard time paying the bills.)
The Straight Dope on this question is to be found in the slashfic.
You know you’re going to burn in hell, right?
I would just add that Shatner’s been picked on for years for his choice of hairpieces. No one’s ever said a word about Kelley’s, though–and he was wearing one during the original run of “Star Trek.” This might be because Kelly was always thought of as being likeable, both onscreen and off. Shatner, not so much.
Kelley’s comfortable but modest house (15463 Greenleaf Ave. for those who know Sherman Oaks, though as he and his wife are dead now I doubt they’re home). He enlarged and remodelled it when he started making the “big money” from the movies, but as you can see it’s not exactly Pickfair or Green Acres*- just a house that a guy who didn’t earn millions could maintain (which increases my respect for him- whenever a Lifestyles of the R&F/Cribs style shows when they show some actor or actress who last year was sharing a studio walk-up and who’s now in a 24,000 square foot Navin Johnson style place with “a rotating bed with pink chiffon and zebra stripes, a bathtub shaped like a clam, an all red billiard room with a giant stuffed camel, a big backyard with Grecian statues, S-shaped hedges, and three swimming pools” place I feel the urge to yell “Damn fool! What are you gonna do if that sitcom doesn’t get picked up and you have a $30,000 house payment and 12 employees!”
*Green Acres- not as well known as Pickfair perhaps, it was the mansion of silent film superstar Harold Lloyd but is probably bka the estate where Woltz wakes up with a horsey head in The Godfather.
Just a “me, too” when it comes to hearing stories of Kelley’s graciousness over the years. Kelley was probably the most exstablished of the actors coming into Trek and even Shatner probably accorded him his props. But, as noted, he was very private. Nimoy said on one of the DVD movie commentaries that he never visited De and Carolyn at their home.
Sir Rhosis
Didn’t he make a name for himself well before *Star Trek, * (
Sampiro) by acting in several Westerns?
I saw him in a rerun of Bonanza a few months ago in which he played - surprise, a doctor who was wrongly accused of murder and was sentenced to be hanged. Hoss was wounded and Ben not only persuaded Kelley’s character to treat Hoss, he also got him cleared of the murder charges.
Eh, Star Wars, Star Trek, what’s the difference? One has wookies and the other has hobbits.
Speaking of the book I read on him, it’s one of those “can’t really recommend it” bios not because it’s poorly written but because… well, it’s like reading a bio of your favorite uncle the retired swimming pool salesman. Kelley comes across as the type of guy you’d like to know but he was a homebody who stayed married to the same woman for 54 years and occasionally took a vacation and played with his roses and liked to swim and fa ifija ijaoidjf ao… Save for smoking like a fiend he didn’t do drugs, never trashed a hotel room or got caught with a 15 year old Taiwanese hooker or with 3 pounds of uncut heroin in his suitcase or went into a rant condemning Zionists and taxidermists as the twin scourges of the Earth on an awards show, etc… In short, a low key well balanced nice guy, and unfortunately they’re just not as interesting to read about. 
DeForest Kelley - IMDb He shows a long career. Not as a star but apparently active career for years.
Westerns, and also a certain cult B-horror flick.
You want an interesting evening? Invite your Trekker friends over for a double feature consisting of **The Devil’s Rain ** [starring Shatner] and **The Night of the Lepus ** [featuring Kelley]. For that finishing touch, leave a copy of an early volume of Leonard Nimoy’s romantic poems and photographs in a prominent spot on the coffee table. Depending on their sensibility and degree of Trek orthodoxy, they’ll either love it or hate it…
I believe this story originated with David Gerrold, but I’m too lazy to look it up.
Supposedly at one point in TOS, tensions were running high among the cast and various feelings were hurt. Gene Roddenberry wrote a memo to all the regulars filled with praise, criticism and detailed comments.
Shatner, as the star and the character with the most screen time, got the majority of the comments. Nimoy came next, with the rest of the cast getting various, lesser amounts.
After the memo was distrbuted Kelley supposedly yelled in mock rage, “SEE? Shatner gets seven pages, Nimoy gets five pages and all I get is a lousy page and a half!”
Yeah. Probably the only actor to fight on BOTH sides at the O.K. Corral.
No, no, no! One has wookies, the other has tribbles!
Jeesh–and you call yourself a librarian…
he was also into turtle rescue. i read the bio and enjoyed it. he was a very nice, down to earth guy, who happened to be an actor.
He’s a doctor, not a librarian.
There’s the apocryphal story about Dee having his dog get run over and killed (not by Shatner), but when Bill heard about it he started laughing hysterically.
If you are like most Dopers and watch Futurama, the personality of Zapp Branigan was based on Shatner (moreso than Kirk).