Scotty's Been Beamed Into The Great Beyond

James Doohan, who played Chief Engineer of the starship Enterprise on Star Trek, has passed away at the age of 85.

Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said.

There are several episodes and movies that I can recall fondly. The first is Trouble With Tribbles, where Scotty gets into a fight with the Klingons, not because of an insult to Captain Kirk, but because the Klingons call the Enterprise a garbage scow.

The other is when Scotty plays Amazing Grace in Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, after Spock dies so that the Enterprise can escape from the Genesis effect.

However, the news doesn't quite give a full accounting of Doohan's biography. A basic IMDB search reveals that Doohan served in World War II, and lost part of a finger during D-Day. He was among those who thanked Spielberg for not pulling any punches on the D-Day landing scene from Saving Private Ryan. All around, he seemed to be a good guy who finally realized that his acting career would be cast as Scotty, and that wasn't such a bad thing.

He will always be remembered for that.

The best diplomat I know is a fully activated phaser bank.

Capt. Kirk: Scott, you didn't transport them into space did you?
Scotty: Captain Kirk, that'd be inhuman.
Capt. Kirk: Well, where are they?
Scotty: I gave them a very good home, sir.
Capt. Kirk: WHERE?
Scotty: I gave 'em to the Klingons, sir.
Capt. Kirk: You gave them to the Klingons?
Scotty: Aye, sir. Before they went into warp, I transported the whole kit'n kaboodle into their engine room, where they'll be no tribble at all.

And let's not forget that you can't change the laws of physics!

UPDATE:
CNN does a better job of handling Doohan's bio:

James Montgomery Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia, youngest of four children of William Doohan, a pharmacist, veterinarian and dentist, and his wife Sarah. As he wrote in his autobiography, "Beam Me Up, Scotty," his father was a drunk who made life miserable for his wife and children.

At 19, James escaped the turmoil at home by joining the Canadian army, becoming a lieutenant in artillery. He was among the Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. "The sea was rough," he recalled. "We were more afraid of drowning than the Germans."

The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger (he managed to hide the missing finger on screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. The chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case.

After the war Doohan on a whim enrolled in a drama class in Toronto. He showed promise and won a two-year scholarship to New York's famed Neighborhood Playhouse, where fellow students included Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall and Richard Boone.

His commanding presence and booming voice brought him work as a character actor in films and television, both in Canada and the United States.