James Doohan(1920-2005)

Best known as Scotty in Star Trek he was educated at High School in Sarnia, Ontario, where he acted in school productions.When WWII began he joined the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery eventually obtaining the rank of Captain. He was wounded on D-Day, suffering severe damage to his right middle finger which was removed ahead of first knuckle, then became a flying observer for the rest of the war. His daring aerial maneuvers flying in an observation plane got him known as the craziest pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Once the war ended, he found himself on many other adventures although none of them would come anywhere close to what he experienced before.In 1946 he won a 2 year scholarship to the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York City and from there went to teach for three years. His first professional job was a 15-minute radio show for which he was paid $12 in January 1946. He did some 4,000 radio shows in 8 or 9 years. He worked in Toronto doing 400 live TV shows and a year or two later he went to Hollywood. Throughout the 60's, he utilized his gift of speaking in many dialects in a variety of TV series. His now famous Scottish brogue was first used in an episode of Hazel (a British series) and over 100 films and television shows. He would become a popular voice actor, who participated in thousands of CBC programs, spread across both radio and television. During the mid-1960's, he would develop into the Star Trek great we now know as Montgomery Scott, "Scotty".James Doohan departed the scene at the age of 85 on 20 July 2005. Many current-day engineers credit Scotty with being their childhood inspiration. In honour of his memory, a portion of Doohan's ashes were sprinkled in space by the rocket SpaceLoft XL.