In roughly equal measure, the multi-talented William Shatner can be readily perceived as a beloved pop icon, amiable camp figure and shrewd entertainment industry veteran. This dynamic, flashy leading man racked up extensive stage credits in his native Canada and in New York before participating in the "golden age" of TV drama in the 1950s. Shatner made his feature debut in a supporting role in Richard Brooks' film of "The Brothers Karamazov" (1958) and acted in five others in the next half dozen years before finding the role that would make him an enduring star: the supremely confident Captain James T. Kirk of "Star Trek" (NBC, 1966-69) in its original TV and subsequent feature incarnations. Shatner began acting as a child in CBC radio productions. He was majoring in business at McGill University and planning to join his father's clothing firm when the acting bug bit decisively. He joined the Canadian Repertory Company in Ottawa and Sir Tyrone Guthrie's Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. Shatner gained some attention with his Broadway debut in Guthrie's production of "Tamburlaine the Great" (1956). He initially turned down a movie contract to remain with the repertory company. When he eventually moved to NYC, Shatner became busy in TV. His first starring vehicle, "For the People" (CBS, 1965), was a legal drama series in which he played a crusading assistant D.A. Shatner's screen acting career can be divided into several phases. The young actor of 60s TV anthologies was convincing as earnest, clean-cut men pushed to increasingly hysterical emotional heights. (His appearances on "The Twilight Zone"—"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and "Nick of Time"—are excellent examples. In the former, he's a recovering mental patient bedeviled by a gremlin on the wing of his airplane; in the latter, he's half of a newlywed couple bewitched by a fortune-telling machine.) The Shatner of "Star Trek" was a swaggering, devil-may-care sort who was equally credible barking commands, romancing a native, or engaging in fisticuffs. A classic creation, his Captain Kirk was both a formidable leader and a good drinking buddy—once you got past his peculiarly halting yet portentous line delivery. The post-"Trek" Shatner has been haunted by the persistent spirit of the Enterprise captain. However, as he aged, what was once hearty became hammy; the flashy leading man became a somewhat fleshy, but still game, character lead. His star status was restored whenever he donned that famous uniform. Part of what made Shatner such a wonderful camp figure was that the audience could never be sure just how self-aware he was. In any event, he was always fun to watch. That Shatner could also be a hoot to hear was amply demonstrated by his ineffably goofy post-Trek recordings of spoken word renditions of popular songs such as "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and "Mr. Tambourine Man". His dramatic "performance" of Elton John's "Rocket Man" at a televised sci-fi awards show in the late 1970s remains a highly coveted bootleg video. Shatner's musical talents were revisited in the late 1990s and early 2000s when, as a pitchman for the travel website Priceline.com on the then-burgeoning Internet, he filmed several commercials singing Shatner-ized tunes. The unprecedented popularity of "Star Trek" only become apparent after years of syndication and fan fetishization. Intergalactic jaunts aside, Shatner kept himself before the TV public doing guest spots and headlining several short-lived series and numerous TV-movies. Ironically, Shatner found far greater immediate commercial success as "T.J. Hooker" (ABC, CBS, 1982-86) than he did as Kirk. Improbably, Hooker was a middle-aged uniformed cop who left a higher position as a detective because he felt he could do more good on the streets. Shatner returned to features after "Trek" in mostly low-budget genre fare ("Big Bad Mama" 1974; "The Devil's Rain" 1975; "Kingdom of the Spiders" 1977). He reprised the role of a lifetime for the uneven but extremely successful "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979). Kirk was promoted to Admiral for the popular series of sequels. Shatner diversified his talents throughout the 80s. He became a frequent TV host and an occasional director, helming several episodes of "T.J. Hooker". He took off on a long, comfortable stint hosting "Rescue 911" (CBS, 1989-95), a popular 'reality-based' TV show. In 1989, Shatner made a less than stellar feature directorial debut with the critically derided "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" and also published his first novel, TekWar. This fast-moving sci-fi potboiler was so successful that it inaugurated a lucrative multimedia franchise. Shatner went on to become a prolific novelist as well as the co-author of two collections of Trek-related memoirs and one meditation on "Trek" fandom titled Get a Life—a line from his hilarious "Saturday Night Live" hosting gig which he browbeat a convention full of obsessed Trekkies . He also was the credited author of a series of "Star Trek" novels starring James T. Kirk (ghosted by a husband-and-wife team of sci-fi authors). He also remained a regular presence on TV, often appearing as a knowing and good-natured self-parody on talk shows and specials, notably hosting "Star Trek: A Captain's Log" (CBS, 1994) and co-hosting (with "Star Trek" cohort Leonard Nimoy "The Museum of Television & Radio Presents: Science Fiction—A Journey Into the Unknown" (Fox, 1994). Shatner created, executive produced, directed and took a supporting role in the 1994 syndicated TV-movie adaptation of "TekWar" and oversaw and appeared in three subsequent "TekWar" telefilms that season. He also served as executive producer, recurring character and occasional director on the cable TV series spin-off, "TekWar", which began airing on the USA Network in January 1995. Shatner returned to the helm of the Enterprise one more time in the successful "Star Trek: Generations" (1994) wherein Kirk passed the baton—and the franchise—over to Patrick Stewart's Captain Picard. Although the film wasn't as fulfilling as many hoped, Shatner's performance was one of his most endearing—and least bombastic—as Kirk, showing the good captain's self-depricating side. Entering what appeared to the a post-"Trek" phase of his career, Shatner embraced the kitschy side of his appeal and deftly employed his dry, self-depricating wit to stay in the public eye. Shatner adroitly spoofed both his hammy reputation and his sci-fi icon status in dozens of film, TV and commercial projects, typically by playing himself: some of his most memorable comedic turns in the role of Shatner include "Police Squad!", "The Larry Sanders Show," "Futurama," "The MTV Movie Awards," the Eddie MurphyRobert De Niro comedy "Showtime" (2002), the sports comedy "Dodgeball" (2004) and, most effectively, in the charming 1998 feature film comedy "Free Enterprise." The latter movie was conceived by sci-fi and film-obsessed director Robert Meyer Burnett and screenwriter/sci-fi journalist Mark Altman, who chronicled their romantic misadventures in Hollywood and originally wanted Shatner to play himself as the super-cool, Kirk-like idol of their youths. Instead, Shatner convinced the filmmakers to depict him with feet of clay, misunderstood, unlucky at love and with grand delusions of directing a film version of "Julius Caesar" with himself in all the roles. The switch resulted in an effective and endearing performance. Similarly, beginning in 1998 Shatner skewered his past recording ambitions in a series of popular and hilarious commercials from Internet airline ticket broker Priceline.com—not only did the spots, featuring Shatner improbably singing pop standards in his inimitable style, rocket the company into the public eye, they also increased stockholder Shatner's portfolio. His image also inspired several non-Shatner roles that still traded on his familiar quirks, beginning as early as 1982 with his manic turn as Murdock in "Airplane II: The Sequel." His other over-the-top creations include the villain in the action film spoof "Loaded Weapon I" (1993), the pompous beauty pageant host Stan Field of the "Miss Congeniality" films (2000, 2005)—ironically, Shatner was tapped to host the real-life Miss USA pageant a year after the first outing with Sandra Bulock—and motivational speaker Warren Wellman on the short-lived "Bob Patterson" (2001). The actor was also nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Performance by a Guest Actor in 1999 for his outrageous performance as John Lithgow's alien boss The Big Giant Head in a two-part episode of the NBC sit-com "3rd Rock From the Sun." That same year, Shatner found himself making headlines for a much sadder reason when his estranged fourth wife—actress Nerine Kidd, from whom he had separated due to her addiction problems—drowned in the swimming pool of their Los Angeles home. Ever the trooper, Shatner soldiered on and soon became a ubiquitous presence on TV as the host, narrator or subject of countless cable series, specials and documentaries. In 2002 he released the DVD/video project "Mind Meld: Behind the Voyages of a Lifetime," in which he and his "Trek" co-star and best friend Leonard Nimoyengage in a filmed conversation about their shared experience. The unusually intimate interview is, as Mr. Spock would say, fascinating as the two actors—polar opposites in personality—discuss the development of their unlikely bond and personal issues such as Nimoy's alcoholism, Shatner's troubled relationships with his wives and the resentment they've both encountered from their co-stars. The actor even proved he could forge a fresh career arc yet again after successful second and third acts: After transforming into a wily, self-deprecating comedian, Shatner shocked his fans by making a switch back to dramatic acting, appearing on six episodes of the final season of the long-running ABC legal drama "The Practice" in 2003 in a winning performance as James Spader's mentor, the power-hungry, eccentric legal legend Denny Crane. Even before Shatner won an Emmy as Best Guest Actor in a dramatic series, creator David E. Kelley carried the character over into the spin-off series "Boston Legal" (ABC, 2004- ), and Shatner won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries, Movie or Series for his portrayal in the first season, followed by another Emmy in 2005, this time as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Also in 2004, Shatner revisited his musical ambitions with the album "Has Been," which was produced by popular singer-songwriter Ben Folds--unlike his earlier efforts, this one was well-received, and its tunes ranged from the intentionaly amusing to the profoundly moving. He also had a fun turn in the 2004 comedy "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" as the Chancellor of the playground game turned ESPN-8 competitive sport, and voiced Ozzie, a possum given to highly theatrical death scenes when "playing possum," in the CGI-animated adaptation of the comic strip "Over the Hedge" (2006). Less successful was a decidedly over-the-top 2006 stint as a game show host on the short-lived ABC effort "Show Me the Money," but Comedy Centra scored major ratings with its 2006 televisied roast of the actor, in which the notorious ham was skewered by such friends, co-stars and fellow celebrities as Jason Alexander Sandra Bullock Ben Stiller, Leonard Nimoy George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Kevin Pollack. Away from show business, Shatner is an avid show horseman, and produces and hosts the annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show which he founded in 1990, raising funds for children's charities, such as Ahead With Horses, L.A.'s BEST and Children's Museum of Los Angeles.