"UP TILL NOW", William Shatner's autobiography recommendation.

[chknltl]

I was going to start the book recommendation this way: "Call him Captain James Tiberius Kirk or Sargent T.J. Hooker or Denny Crane Denny Crane or Twilight Zone plane passenger Bob Wilson or the Big Giant Head or Henry V or the Priceline Negotiator or Usumcasane or Alexander The Great or the monk in The Brothers Karamozov or..."

I. Could. Start this book. Recommendation. In the odd. Vocal pattern Shatner has made. Famous. But then my period key finger would be at risk...did you know that Mr. Shatner has no idea where that strange method of pausing (often) mid-sentence came from?

I tried to start this with his encounter with Koko the gorilla but then I recalled his Eddie Rickenbacker jacket and almost started there until I recalled how he was not saved in real life by an alien, (contrary to what many to this day believe because of an early story he made up... that jacket was a made up story as well!).

I could have started with this poignant song he wrote regarding the tragic death of his wife Nerine Shatner:
"My love was supposed to protect her
It didn't
My love was supposed to heal her
It didn't
You had said don't leave me
We did"

William Shatner starts his autobiography in a way similar to how I started this book recommendation. I am only about a third of the way through it and now I feel compelled to post my thoughts regarding William Shatner and this new book. I knew him as Captain Kirk, I had little use for cop or law shows and an incredible body of his work as an actor came before Star Trek, (while I was too young to appreciate who played what in the entertainment field) so I was stuck with knowing him only as James T Kirk.

The book has opened my eyes to a man that is...well quite impressive, someone I wish were my friend. His deep love for acting, his astonishing wit, his humanitarianism for children, his career, his family...it is all there. The book reads in a way I am utterly unused to. For instance in one case Shatner weaves the reader deep into his concerns with doing a nude scene with a young Angie Dickenson and just when the story gets to the 'good' part, he interrupts the story to tell us about how he first discovered the very real magic that goes on when horses are paired with handicapped children! "So if you'd like to make a difference in a child's life, please visit www.Horseshow.org for details. Now let us return to Angie Dickenson's naked body."

I have said perhaps a bit too much from his autobiography but I can not rave on enough about this book! I have read many books in 50 years but precious few so enjoyable. It is barely a month or so new so perhaps you may not know about it. If you have ever been remotely a fan of Mr. Shatner, I strongly urge you to get this treasure at your local bookstore.

[Hugin]

1. Thanks, I'll check it out.

"I wish were my friend." <--- In his odd way, I think he's everyone's friend. :)

[chknltl]

14. I agree...in a way he is indeed everyone's friend. nt

[Frank Cannon]

2. I've seen excerpts from this book, and it looks terrific

The guy really seems to have a sense of humor and a flair for telling a tale.

Thanks for that review! I'll put it on my list.

[chknltl]

15. I had heard about his sense of humor....

...but his style of telling a story is simply something else indeed! I have NEVER read another author quite like Shatner...he can be quite mischievous and poignant on the same page. He has a way of drawing one in that is both unique and exceptional. I expected something a bit pompous but that was not the case, his life truly is a tale worth the telling and he tells it well.

[Darth_Kitten]

3. I heard he learned his habit of pausing......

from the way he learned his lines.

I learned this in an acting seminar a few weeks back. Weird, I know.

[chknltl]

16. Well,Bill. Shatner. Puts. It. This way:

Quote from UP TILL NOW:

"Apparently I was becoming known for. Pausing, between words, in. Unusual places. People have commented that it calls attention to the. Words, I'm saying. It provides a different kind of emphasis on a line. I have no idea where that. Came from. Possibly it came from the fact that I was working in so many different types of plays and television program(s) and movies I did need to hesitate to remember my next words. Possibly that's just an assumption but the reality is I don't even hear it. I can mock the idea. I understand people hear me speaking. That way. They've even put a name to it, calling it Shatnarian. But it's certainly nothing I'm doing intentionally, nor do I do it in real life.

I've seen several William Shatner impersonators speak in that. Clipped. Punctuated manner. Okay, if people recognize the impersonation as me, then it must be me. When an impressionist did Jimmy Stewert or Edward G. Robinson or Jimmy Cagney or Cary Grant, I knew exactly who they were doing. I always wondered if Jimmy Cagney and James Stewert were having dinner at home, did Cagney say, "Pass the salt, you dirty rat!" And did James Stewert reply, "Um, ah, ah, ah, I...I...here...here it is." But when I watch them doing me, speaking that. Way. The audience laughs. So it must be what. I'm doing. But I don't recognize it in myself."

(another-words you are correct...I believe when he reflects upon the origination of that way of speaking, he is referring to a period well before Star Trek when he was doing lots and lots of performances and had more lines to learn than what he would normally have had to learn if he had been working on only one show at a time. He was quite the driven young actor back then, he was not getting paid a whole lot yet he was trying to have the American dream of a house, kids a car and etc. He was barely keeping up so he took on more jobs than most young actors would have. Learning all those lines must have been tough indeed.)

[jus_the_facts]

4. Just ordered it the other day.....

...thanks for the review! :thumbsup:

[chknltl]

17. Quite glad to have passed it along.

[chknltl]

5. Kicked for Nerine Shatner

[lildreamer316]

6. All I know is, Denny Crane is played to perfection.

I think he's the shit; the bee's knees, etc. I can see him shining through that character, with all his life wisdom. It's great,an just makes me smile.

[stuntcat]

7. I'm gonna order it

I first liked him for his CD, every song is so great. And now I've been catching up with the 60's Star Treks on TVLand and I'm just crazy about him! I didn't know of the book though, I'll order it.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

8. The Shat is The Shit !

for realz.

[PeaceNikki]

9. OMFG, is the audiobook read by him?!?

Going to look....

[PeaceNikki]

11. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:bounce:

[stuntcat]

12. omg

sweet sweetness :loveya:

[arcadian]

10. "Up Till Now"? Won't he have to keep putting in addenda?

n't

[chknltl]

18. LOL ..... likely so.

[chknltl]

19. deleted extra post

[NewJeffCT]

13. thanks for posting that

I remember he used to have a reputation as a something of a jerk, but he's definitely turned that on its ear over the past 10 years or so...

I didn't realize he did that much before Star Trek, either.

[chknltl]

20. I didn't know about it either...until his book that is.

Now I am newly aware that he did much more prior to Star Trek than some actors get to do in a career. He did some amazing stuff early on too. In one case he played lead in a movie called The Intruder. In it he portrayed a white supremacist who traveled throughout the south organizing Klan meetings and fomenting trouble. It was filmed in 1961 on location in a racially charged Charleston Missouri. I would love to cite more about the filming...it in itself is quite the story. I would also love to cite further stage, movie and television examples but I have given away more in this review than I should have, I suspect.

[Frank Cannon]

22. He was in two of the greatest Twilight Zone episodes ever

"Nick of Time" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet".

[NewJeffCT]

23. I knew about the "nightmare at 20,000 feet"

on the Twilight Zone, but not much more than that.

[Frank Cannon]

25. "Nick of Time" is another great episode

Shatner plays a guy who develops an unhealthy fascination with a fortune-telling machine in a small-town diner.

[Fire Walk With Me]

21. Only if it comes with a CD of The Transformed Man.

[KG]

24. wait. Angie Dickenson did a nude scene?

i'll be in my bunk.

[Frank Cannon]

26. Was there ever a time Angie Dickinson DIDN'T appear nude?

Her stint on TV's Police Woman doesn't count.

There was a long period of time where I don't think I would have recognized Angie Dickinson with her clothes on.