William Shatner is a multitalented
actor, director, author, and recording artist, He has won several
Emmys and starred in many long-running television shows. He has released a
critically acclaimed album of spoken word music. You might not know that.
You probably know him as Captain James Tiberius Kirk, and only as Kirk.
Shatner was born in Quebec on March 22,
1931. Trained as a Shakespearean actor, Kirk quickly gained a reputation as
a reliable actor who’d take any role – “work equals work,” he said. Ranging
from Shakespeare festivals to minor roles in movies and guest star spots on
dozens of television shows. The role that would make Shatner a household
name and a legendary entertainment icon came finally in 1966 when he was
cast in the second pilot episode of a then-unheard of science fiction
television series – Star Trek.
Shatner starred as Captain James
Tiberius Kirk – a rough-and-ready, headstrong captain with a penchant for
getting into fistfights with oddly colored humanoids. His
overdramatic, idiosyncratic delivery of stilted, awkward dialogue aside, his
performance was enthralling – a relatable, hot-headed everyman who was just
trying to get the job done. Of course, that job often involved bedding
beautiful women of every color imaginable. In fact, Shatner’s Kirk shared
the first interracial kiss on United States television with Michelle
Nichol’s Lieutenant Uhura.
While Shatner’s star seemed to have set, cult
popularity for Trek was slowly building through syndicated rerun.
Eventually, when the series was continued in six theatrical feature films,
Shatner returned to the limelight and never quite left. Since Star Trek,
Shatner has starred as TJ Hooker, attorney Denny Crane, and a fictionalized
version of himself as Priceline’s “Negotiator” in a popular series of
advertisements. Always huge, always full of boundless energy, always
entertaining. Shatner's work has become somewhat of a loving parody of his
own larger-than-life persona - going so far as to have the Priceline
Negotiator deliver overwrought spoken-words covers of popular songs in an
echo of Shatner's own much-criticized "The Transformed Man."
We propose
celebrating his birthday with with what has become Trekkie urban legend -
William Shatner's Cappuccino Muffins. This popular recipe which has flooded
the internet for years and appeared in several recipe collections was
actually discredited by Shatner himself on Fox's The Fran Drescher
Show" in December 2010 when Fran scheduled a cooking demonstration of his famous muffins and Shatner told her that he never head of them.
However, the eponymous name persists and they are so exceptional, that
in the words of the Borg," Resistance is Futile!"