Holy Shat! It’s William Shatner’s 80th Birthday

I guess it’s gonna be a long, long time.

There’s. Some. THING. On the wing.

It could. Be. Anything. But, it is, William Shatner’s. Birthday. The man. Is. Eighty. Eighty. Light years. Old.

Age. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Shatner, as he boldly goes where statistically 17% of the population have already gone: 80 years old. This particular octogenarian’s resume, though, reads less like that of a senile old fool and more like that of a true American hero, which would be true, if he wasn’t secretly Canadian.

After being trained as a classical Shakespearean actor (now there’s an image you won’t be able to get out of your head*), Shatner moved to Hollywood and performed in many, many forgettable roles** before finally landing the classic lead role of Captain James Kirk in the now culturally regarded juggernaut that is the original “Star Trek” series. While there is always a (yawn) predictable debate as to who was the best captain, not to mention talks of a new Star Trek show, my money is on the Shat-man. Or whatever he likes to be called.

While many a paragraph could be spent hemming and hawing over Shatner’s cultural legacy as Kirk, it should be noted that motherfucker lived out of a truck bed camper for the first half of the 70′s due to the inevitable typecasting that comes with playing such an iconic character. When the show went into syndication in 1977 Shatner picked up more roles including returning as Kirk for a series of Star Trek movies and, voila, tada, and kudos: he is now the cultural touchstone that we know today. Did we mention his musical career?

The thing about Shatner, though, in my opinion, is that he gets the joke about who he is. His vocal cadence alone*** is something of a national treasure on both sides of the border to the north, and Shatner has made a career out of understanding that he’s a big, bawdy ham of an actor****, but what a ham. I mean that in the absolute best sense of the word “ham”; some of the not technically best but truly some of the most beloved actors of the last 50 years (Burt Reynolds and Ben Stiller come to mind) have been hams. Ah, fuck it. It’s like trying to explain the difference between Stevie Ray Vaughn and Sid Vicious: some people just have an innate and inborn talent to get you to perk up and watch them, and William Shatner, God bless ‘im, is just one of those people.

You can see him currently in the Twitter-cum-sitcom “Sh*t My Dad Says” on CBS.

Here’s William performing Elton John’s “Rocket Man” at the 1978 Saturn Awards. There he goes, a living legend. Bless ya, Shatner. You’re the rocket. MAN.

* “A… ROSE. By. Anyothername. Would smell. As sweet.”
** Including the lead in one of only two movies ever to be made in the language of Esperanto.
*** Check out these amazing audio excerpts from a recent GQ issue….
**** … and check out the full GQ interview here. It’s a great read.