Actually, that is not true. Since I got your attention, I like to review Shatner’s autobiography, Up Until Now: The Autobiography. Certainly it is not a movie, but since it is about a movie star I’m not breaking any rules on this movie blog.
Some have been lucky enough to see the many faces of Shatner- from stage actor to sci-fi icon, to hammy actor, to Emmy award winning hammy actor. Oh, and let’s not forget the spokesman for Priceline.com
Autobiographies always offered readers the advantage of enjoying the many facets of one’s life and from the point of view of that very person himself, in addition to discovering something you may have otherwise not known about the subject at all. You get both in Up Until Now.
The following are things I have not known about Shatner until reading this book:
1) Shatner was the star of 1965 movie, Incubus. That is not fascinating in and of itself. However, this is: Incubus was the only movie done entirely of Esperanto, an artificial language constructed in the 1800′s.
2) Shatner loves horses. Many of you might reply, “duh” but Shatner does not seem to be the type to ride and raise horses.
3) Shatner has a business degree. Can you believe that? Imagine him saying “Pleassssee. You must. Calculate your traveling the expenses by the… Utilization of the accrual method. And don’t forget to go on priceline.com. ” ( I kid because I love). But perhaps since Shatner obtained the degree from a Canadian University or because he obtained it in the 1950′s, he officially has a “commerce” degree.
4) Shatner did most of his stunts on T.J. Hooker. With lawsuits and liability insurance, do you really think someone can do that today?
5) He says Star Trek positively changed his life.
Yes, Shatner mentions about Star Trek. He even gives Trekkies like me inside info as the first unofficial Star Trek convention( Newark Library, 1969) and the official one( New York 1972, three years before Shatner first convention appearence. And did you know that the first Spock fan club was established before the first Star Trek fan club? Set you phasers to Wow.
The highlight of this book is Shatner’s unconventional style. There are times in the book where he “pauses” to go online to his website or make an antidote, which at first seems to have nothing to do with his previous point; but it does. In the first chapter alone, Shatner goes on a tangent about how it was to write the first chapter of the book.
Overall, it was an enjoyable, funny reading. It was one of the few books, which I felt the intense tone of the entire narrative- a feet usually made in literary classics. With the exception of the a few serious moments, Up Until Nowis funny from cover to cover. If this book does not make you a converted Shatner fan, nothing will.
Bill Shatner was not the first Hollywood star to use Esperanto in their films. Charlie Chaplin used it in “The Great Dictator” on all the shop signs, and Laurel & Hardy used it their film “The Road to Morocco”.
Parts of Charlie Chaplin’s Esperanto contribution can be seen on http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670
Interesting. Thanks
I became a fan of Shatner when he guest starred on The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire. Now that was hard core.
Oh, and I’m embarrassed to admit-but I like the cover of “Ordinary People” he did.
*Hides under a rock*