James Doohan

James Doohan was born on March 3, 1920 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada as James Montgomery Doohan.

As a member of the Royal Canadian Artillery, he participated in the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944. He was shot seven times and had to have the middle finger of his right hand amputated. Twenty years later, he had a small role in the film 36 Hours (1964), which concerned the Nazis attempting to discover the date and location of D-Day.

Had four children with Janet Young: Larkin Doohan (born 1954), Deirdre Doohan (born 1957), and twin boys, Montgomery Doohan (born 1959) and Christopher Doohan (born 1959). Larkin is a nurse, and Deirdre is an aspiring singer/actress.

He is known for his work on Star Trek: The Original Series (1966), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). He was married to Wende Doohan, Anita Yagel and Janet Young.

He provided the voices of 53 different characters across the 22 episodes of Star Trek: Animated (1973).

According to the Director's Edition DVD of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), the Klingon language first introduced in that movie and later featured in many later movies and television episodes was initially devised by James Doohan. His original sounds were later expanded upon and refined by others, ultimately resulting in William Shakespeare plays and The Bible being translated into Klingon years later. Ironically, his character Scotty complains of difficulty reading Klingon at the beginning of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).

He used to live across the street from Ralph Thorson and his family, the main subjects and the writer of the movies The Hunter (1980) as well as the television series The Huntress (2000).

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), the character Dr. Nichols wore an "I Quit Smoking" badge. This represents an engineer's surrender of a habit. James Doohan had personal experiences with his father's alcoholism, while living in British Columbia, Canada.

His grandson, Kyle, was born in 1987. He is the son of Doohan's second daughter, Deirdre.

Was among many World War II veterans to publicly thank Steven Spielberg for not holding back on the intensity of the Normandy Invasion scene in Saving Private Ryan (1998).

Toured as celebrity spokesperson for Philips Electronics HDTV in 1999.

He and his wife Wende became parents to daughter Sarah Doohan on April 11, 2000.

Star Trek X: Nemesis (2002) was the final Star Trek film to be released before his death.

Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on August 31, 2004.

The date of his death (July 20, 2005) is the anniversary of what is arguably the greatest engineering achievement in human history, the landing of Apollo 11 on the Moon.

At 8:58 a.m. Mountain Time on April 28, 2007 (and after several delays), some of his ashes were sent about 70 miles above the earth on a private SpaceLoft XL rocket by Houston's Space Services, Inc., a company specializing in such memorials. The rocket was lost for three weeks after the flight but now has been found and all remains are still intact. Also among the participants of this flight were the ashes of U.S. astronaut Gordon Cooper and Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) writer/director/producer John Meredyth Lucas, as well as 199 others. Space Services, Inc. had previously sent up the ashes of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and LSD guru Timothy Leary in 1997.

Pictured as the character Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott on one of a set of five Canadian commemorative postage stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of the television series Star Trek: The Original Series (1966), issued May 5, 2016. Price on day of issue was 85¢. Other stamps in the set honored William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley and John Colicos.