After the Trek

James Doohan had hoped that his role on Star Trek would be a big boost for his career. Unfortunately, the actor found himself typecast once the series was over. So Jimmy supported his family by doing personal appearances. He loved meeting his fans and his character 'Scotty' inspired many to go on and become engineers themselves.

Many of his roles after Star Trek were related to his Scotty character and he reprised the role for seven of the Star Trek movies. James made a guest appearance on the 130th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and on National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, Doohan played a police officer who tells his superior "I'm giving it all she has got Captain!" in the same voice he used for the role of Scotty.

As I mentioned, Doohan inspired many people to pursue a career in engineering. He once found a young fan who was considering committing suicide. He persuaded her to attend his next convention appearance and later discovered that not only had his words of encouragement and kindness saved her life but also inspired her to become an electronics engineer.

James was married three times and had five children with his first wife. His second marriage produced no children. His third marriage produced three children, the last being born around his 80th birthday.

James Doohan suffered from Parkinson's disease, pulmonary fibrosis, diabetes and, in 2004, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. After the Alzheimer's diagnosis, he withdrew from public life - his last public appearance was when he attended the ceremony for his star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

On July 20, 2005, James Montgomery Doohan died at his home in Redmond, Washington. Some of his ashes were scheduled for a memorial flight to space the following fall but that trip was delayed until 2007. The rocket spent four minutes in suborbital space before parachuting to earth with the ashes still inside.

Doohan's ashes were then launched on a Falcon 1 rocket, on August 3, 2008. This was intended to be a low Earth orbit but the rocket failed two minutes after launch. On May 22, 2012, a small urn containing some of Doohan's remains in ash form was flown into space aboard the Falcon 9 rocket as part of COTS Demo Flight 2. (The rest of his ashes were scattered over Puget Sound Washington)

Thanks to Wikipedia for the information on James Doohan.

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