Canadian actor who played Captain James T. Kirk across The Original Series, The Animated Series and seven films, and directed Star Trek V.
William Shatner (born 1931) is a Canadian actor, director and author. A classically trained stage actor, he worked extensively in theatre and television, including The Twilight Zone, before being cast as Captain James T. Kirk in the second Star Trek pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before.
Shatner played Kirk from 1966 to 1994: in all three seasons of the original series, in The Animated Series as a voice actor, and in the first seven feature films, ending with Kirk's death in Star Trek Generations. He directed Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and shared its story credit, making him the second cast member after Leonard Nimoy to direct a Trek film. He also co-wrote a long series of Star Trek novels.
Outside the franchise he starred in T.J. Hooker and won Emmy Awards for playing attorney Denny Crane in The Practice and Boston Legal. In 2021, aged ninety, he flew aboard a Blue Origin suborbital flight, becoming one of the oldest people to reach space.