ForumGarden

Farewell, Scotty By Joal Ryan

Wed Jul 20, 4:21 PM ET

Once, at a convention of astronomers, James Doohan was asked what it felt like "to be beamed." The actor who'd abided by the order, "Beam me up, Scotty," countless times on the Star Trek set reported that it was "very pleasurable."

"You end up beaming all over the place," Doohan said, per StarTrek.com.



Doohan, who sweated it out in the engine room of the USS Enterprise as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on the original Trek TV series and, indeed, found himself beamed all over the world via reruns, videos and DVDs, died Wednesday at his home in Washington state. He was 85 and had been battling Alzheimer's disease and, most recently, pneumonia.

I really liked his comedy relief in the movie versions.



If anyone hears of me getting Alzheimers or any other degenerative dimentia, kill me quick. I can't imagine the fear one must feel as reality slips out of one's grip.

Goodbye James....(Jives wipes away a tear from the corner of his eye)

Across the many years, I've had many adventures and met many people.

james Doohan was one of them and he taught me a lesson I'll never forget.

It was a sunny day in Phoenix Arizona in mid-1982 (I think) The LiveAid festival was going on and I had just arrived in Phoenix with my best friend, Elmer Reeves, a big Native American with an infectious smile. (People used to joke that when we hung out together we looked like the lone ranger and tonto)

As we drove around the city, google eyed at the "big city", we listened to the radio. An advertisement came on that told of a grand opening of a record store in Scottsdale. It also said that James Doohan would be there to greet the customers and chat with them!

Excited, we drove to the store right away and bounded out of the car, anxious to see the first "real" Star Trek actor we had ever seen in person.

Sure enough, James Doohan was there! Better yet, the store was deserted! We had him all to ourselves!! I absolutely couldn't contain myself! Here, in person was one of my real heros, bigger than life. I felt a wave of affection and devotion wash over me. "Scotty" was one of the reasons that I became an electical engineer. I couldn't wait to tell him how he had personally affected my life!

I rushed over to him, flung my arms wide, and yelled out "SCOTTY!" a grin spreading from ear to ear across my face.

Imagine my chagrin when he stared at me with ice-cold eyes, cross his arms, and stated flatly (without ANY trace of scottish accent)with a slight aggravated tone:

"My name is James Doohan."

My arms dropped to my sides. My face flushed bright red and hot. I must have had the most forlorn, grief stricken look on my face ever. I was completely crestfallen.

I turned to walk away, ashamed of myself for forgetting that James Doohan was a person, not a character in an imaginary universe.

But then I heard a chuckling laugh, and felt a hand on my shoulder. Then I heard Mr. Doohan say, "Ach laddie, doona takit sou Haad." And I looked to see him smiling at me. Well...suffice to say that I stammered an apology which only seemed to make my faux pas more obvious, but he just laughed it off and told me that it was a common occurance.

Since there were no other people in the store (the most pathetic grnad opening I've ever seen) we sat down at his table and chatted about Star Trek, his home and pets, his family, and our lives in general. He was very personable and straight forward, very similar to his on screen character. I got the chance to tell him about his influence on my education and career and he was very pleased about that.

At the end of the morning, I shook his hand and told him, "I will never make the mistake again of forgetting that there is a real person behind every on screen role."

He laughed and said, "I know ye won't laddie", then without an accent, "it was very nice meeting you."

I'll never forget him!!!!! Rest well in the arms of the Lord, Scottie, God is Beaming you up.":o

Darling Scotty, who got everyone out of fix in the nick of time. One of our TV heroes from my generation, where we dreamed of space and the final frontier we have yet to conquer. I wish you a happy shore leave.

Attached files

And to top it off, he was genuinely a real-life hero and tough as nails unlike our current Hollywood "actors" like: Ed Asner, Alec Baldwin, George Clooney,

John Cusack, Matt Damon, Mike Farrell, Lawrence Fishburne, Sean Patrick Flannery, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Danny Glover, Elliot Gould, Robert Guillaume, Woody Harrelson, Ed Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Ken Howard,

Samuel Jackson, Spike Lee, Michael Moore, Ed Norton, Sean Penn,

Robert Redford, Tim Robbins.

_________________

---------------------------

"Scotty" signed up for the Royal Canadian Artillery, once the country joined the war effort in 1939. Posted in England, he served throughout the duration of the war, becoming an officer and rising through the ranks, but without seeing actual combat until June 6, 1944 ” D-Day ” where he led a regiment of 33 men onto Juno Beach at Normandy, France.

You may have never noticed, watching the Original Series and the movies, that Mr. Scott has a physical handicap ” he's missing the middle finger of his right hand. That's because the actor kept it very well hidden. (Watch the shows again carefully ” Scotty is almost always clenching his right hand, or hiding it behind a console ” but if you know to look, the missing digit is occasionally apparent.) That injury occurred on D-Day. Lt. Doohan successfully led his Canadian troop onto the beach and pushed inland to establish the best possible gun position (along the way Doohan shot two German snipers, never knowing whether he killed them). A field was secured and command posts were established, but not all Germans between the beach and their position had been captured. That night about 11:30, Doohan and another officer were walking between command posts when machine gun fire broke out. Doohan was hit; he fell into a shell hole, looked at his hand and saw blood. Three bullets struck the one finger. Never losing consciousness, he actually walked to the regimental aid post, unaware he also took four bullets in the leg.

There was an eighth bullet, and it was nothing less than a miracle that he's still with us today. It hit his chest, four inches from his heart. But it ricocheted off the sterling silver cigarette case in his pocket, the one his brother had given him for being best man at his wedding. It's like a trite plot twist, he acknowledges ” his brother saved his life from thousands of miles away. Jimmy pushed the dent out of the cigarette case and continued using it until he quit smoking years later. He stayed in the military, learned to fly and came to be known as the "craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Forces."

Accountable wrote: I really liked his comedy relief in the movie versions.



If anyone hears of me getting Alzheimers or any other degenerative dimentia, kill me quick. I can't imagine the fear one must feel as reality slips out of one's grip.


I know what you mean, my mother has it and my father-in-law did. Horrible,

horrible disease.



Check out Anastrophe's sig line for a way your computer can help find

a cure!

Far Rider wrote: Wow! Now thanks for sharing that part of his life, makes him even more interesting than before.
Scratch the surface. You never know the depth of character you may find.

Jame Stewart

Audie Murphy

many others I can't recall