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William Shatner

Actor, director, author, singer. Born on March 22, 1931, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Perhaps best known for his roles on Boston Legal and Star Trek, William Shatner is one of the most recognizable stars working today.  His distinctive voice and cadence have been the subject of many imitations, spoofs, and parodiesóall contributing to his status as a pop icon. In addition to being an Emmy Award-winning actor, he has also written numerous books, directed several projects, and even recorded a few albums.

Shatner started his career as a child performer in radio programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. As a student at McGill University, he continued to pursue acting. Shatner spent his summers performing with the Royal Mount Theater Company. He graduated from the university in 1952 and joined the National Repertory Theater of Ottawa. Working with Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Shatner also appeared in productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario.

In 1956, Shatner made his Broadway debut in Tamburlaine the Great, which was directed by Guthrie. He also found work in the emerging medium of television, appearing on such shows as the Goodyear Television Playhouse, Studio One, and Playhouse 90. Playing one of the title characters, Shatner made his film debut in 1958ís The Brothers Karamazov with Yul Brynner. That same year, he returned to Broadway for a two-year run in The Secret Life of Suzie Wong. He won the 1959 Theatre World Award for his performance.

In 1961, Shatner had a small part in the Holocaust drama Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), playing an army captain. He had a lead part in The Intruder (1962) as a racist who fought against school integration. On the small screen, Shatner had his first television series, For the People, in 1965. He starred on the short-lived drama as an assistant district attorney in New York City.

The following year, Shatner took on the role that made him famous around the world. As Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek, he commanded the U.S.S. Enterprise, a starship traveling through space in the twenty-third century. Kirk encountered all sorts of unusual aliens and challenging situations during his journeys. Accompanying him on these adventures was his loyal crew, which included first officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and medical officer Dr. Leonard ìBonesî McCoy (DeForest Kelley). The science fiction series created by Gene Roddenberry premiered on September 8, 1966, and lasted for three seasons.

The show, however, continued to live on in syndication and became even more popular. Star Trek became a Saturday morning cartoon that ran during the mid-1970s, and it was resurrected a live action film in 1979. Returning to the role of Kirk, Shatner starred in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The filmís warm reception by film-goers showed how much affection the public had for the old series. At the beginning of the film, Kirk has become an admiral, Bones has retired, and Spock has returned to the planet Vulcan. But the three return to work on a new version of the Enterprise to solve a crisis involving a mysterious cloud that has destroyed several spaceships.

In the sequel Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Kirk had to overcome an old adversary, Khan Noonien Singh (Richardo Montalban), who was out for revenge. Around the time of the sequelís release, Shatner took on a new leading television role.

On T. J. Hooker, Shatner played a veteran police officer who turned in his detectiveís badge to return to a street beat.

Shatner, however, never abandoned the part that made him famous. During the run of T. J. Hooker, Shatner appeared in two more Star Trek films, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). He remained a fixture on television even after T. J. Hooker went off the air, becoming the host for Rescue 911 in 1989.

 For Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Shatner not only returned as Kirk, but made his debut as a feature film director as well and the Star Trek film series continued at warp speed. The next installments were Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) and then Star Trek Generations (1993). In Generations, the members of the original Star Trek hand the franchise baton to the cast of the spin-off series Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

With the character of Kirk at an end, Shatner moved forward in new directions. He appeared as a beauty pageant host on Miss Congeniality (2000) and its sequel Miss Congeniality 2 (2005) with Sandra Bullock. In 2003, Shatner made a guest appearance as a talented, but eccentric lawyer on The Practice. His turn as Denny Crane brought him his first Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He had been previously nominated for his guest appearance on the science fiction sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun in 1999.

The Practice creator David E. Kelley created a spin-off series, Boston Legal, featuring Shatnerís character Denny Crane in 2004. Law partner and master litigator Crane acts as a mentor of sorts to Alan Shore (played by James Spader). For his work on the series, Shatner won his second Emmyóthis time for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Seriesóin 2005. Two nominations in this category followed in 2006 and in 2007.

In addition to acting, Shatner has experienced great success as an author. During the writersí strike of 1987, he transformed a screenplay idea into a novel. The result was TekWar (1989), a work of science fiction featuring a middle-aged private detective working in the twenty-second century. More Tek titles followed and were later adapted for television. More recently, Shatner has worked with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens to create a series of Star Trek novels.

Also a veteran of nonfiction, Shatner co-authored Star Trek Memories (1993) and Star Trek Movie Memories (1994) with Chris Kreski. He and Kreski also worked together on Get a Life! (1999), a look at the whole Star Trek fan phenomenon. His most recent work is Up Till Now: The Autobiography (2008) with David Fisher.

His personal life has been filled with many ups and downs. From 1956 to 1969, he was married to Canadian actress Gloria Rand. The couple had three children together. Shatner married actress Marcy Lafferty in 1973. That marriage ended in divorce in 1996. Shortly thereafter, he married model Nerine Kidd. Kiddís life came to a tragic end in 1999. She accidentally drowned in a pool at the Shatnersí home in Studio City, California.

After such a tragic loss, Shatner was able to find happiness with Elizabeth J. Martin, a horse breeder. The couple married in 2001. As part of his own love of horses, Shatner started the annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show to raise funds for childrenís charities in 1990.

JG Hertzler

John Garman "J.G." Hertzler was born 18 March 1949 is an American actor from Savannah, Georgia, who has portrayed many different roles on several Star Trek series. He is one of only five actors to play seven or more different characters in the Star Trek franchise, the others being Jeffrey Combs, Randy Oglesby, Vaughn Armstrong and Thomas Kopache. Hertzler's best-known role is Martok, whom he played for four seasons on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also wrote the continuation of his character's story in The Left Hand of Destiny novel diptych with Jeffrey Lang.

In addition, Hertzler has provided voice-over roles on several Star Trek computer games, including Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Armada II as the voice of Martok. Hertzler also played the role of Koval in the independent production Star Trek: Of Gods and Men. In 2007, it was announced that Hertzler would play Harry Mudd in a forthcoming edition of Star Trek: New Voyages, which he would also direct.

Hertzler made his film debut in the 1978 independent horror film The Redeemer: Son of Satan!, which starred Jeanetta Arnette. He then appeared in the Academy Award-nominated film ...And Justice for All., along with Keith Andes and Robert Symonds. In both the 1970s and the 1980s, however, he worked primarily on stage, including a stint on Broadway in an adaptation of the Greek tragedy The Bacchae.

One of Hertzler's first major television roles was a guest spot in the 1990 Quantum Leap episode "Sea Bride - June 3, 1954", where he appeared with Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Hertzler then became a regular on the 1990s series Zorro, playing Alcalde Ignacio de Soto during the show's third and fourth seasons. Duncan Regehr was the star of this series, and Henry Darrow was also a regular.

Hertzler has since guest-starred on such shows as The Adventures of Brisco Country, Jr., Diagnosis Murder, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Seinfeld, and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman . In 2000, Hertzler and Jeff Corey appeared as council members in an episode of Charmed. Hertzler also guest-starred on the science fiction series Roswell in an episode written by Ronald D. Moore; William Sadler was a regular on this series. Later that year, Herzler worked with Lee Meriwether, Keith Szarabajka, and Ray Walston on an episode of Touched by an Angel.

He had a recurring role as a gallery owner on the HBO series Six Feet Under, during which time he worked with Joanna Cassidy, James Cromwell, Ann Cusack, Matt Malloy, Chris Pine, Anne Ramsay, and Jeff Yagher. His other TV credits include the role of Black Dog in the 1994 family-oriented fantasy TV movie Treasure Island: The Adventure Begins, in which Anthony Zerbe portrayed Long John Silver and Shannon Cochran played the mother of the young protagonist. Hertzler also appeared in the 1996 mini-series Innocent Victims, along with Sam Anderson, Richard Fancy, Gregory Itzin, Don Keefer, Don McManus, Glenn Morshower, and Leon Russom. In 1999, Hertzler played director Ridley Scott in the biographical TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, which also featured Jeffrey Nordling and Marc Worden.

Hertzler has appeared in few feature films since the 1970s. His first film credit since 1979's ...And Justice for All. was the 1998 direct-to-video horror thriller The Prophecy II, which also featured Elizabeth Dennehy and Tom Towles. In 2000, Hertzler acted in a short film called Jane along with Gary Combs. He has since appeared in two films starring Battlestar Galactica's Richard Hatch: 2005's The Great War of Magellan (which Hatch also wrote, produced, and directed) and InAlienable. The former movie also starred Brad Dourif and Richard Lynch, while the latter project was written by Walter Koenig and featured fellow Star Trek alumni Erick Avari, Gary Graham, Richard Herd, Andrew Koenig, Judy Levitt, Lisa LoCicero, Courtney Peldon, Jeff Rector, Alan Ruck, and Marina Sirtis.

In addition to his film and television work, Hertzler has supplied his voice to a number of video games, in addition to the Star Trek games mentioned above. He and his DS9 co-star Armin Shimerman both had voice-over roles in the 2007 computer game BioShock. More recently, Hertzler voiced Captain Benjamin Mathius in the computer game Dead Space, which also featured the voices of Scott MacDonald, Peter Mensah, Andy Milder, and the aforementioned Keith Szarabajka.

In a special feature on the DS9 7th Season DVD set , Hertzler remarks, "You know, the thing about Star Trek is they use more theater people, Shakespearian-trained (I've done a lot of Shakespeare -- most of the Klingons have done a lot of Shakespeare) and that's something that Star Trek was unique. Is unique. They tend to go with people who can operate in a strangely heightened reality and somehow make it as close to reality as you can. That's sci-fi, you know, that's what you need."

Robert O'Reilly

Robert O'Reilly was born in 1950 in New York and is an American film, television and stage actor who has appeared in a variety of roles. He is known to Star Trek fans most notably for his recurring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Chancellor Gowron, the leader of the Klingon Empire.
He has also guest starred in numerous television shows, including Cheers, Knight Rider, Sledge Hammer!, MacGyver, In the Heat of the Night, and NYPD Blue.

Robert O'Reilly's appearances on the last season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine marked a decade of work on Star Trek. O'Reilly's introduction to Star Trek: The Next Generation was in the episode entitled "Manhunt" in which he portrayed the gangster "Scarface." He then successfully auditioned for the part of the Machiavellian Klingon leader, Gowron, for the episode, "Reunion."
Besides the many appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Gowron, Robert has participated in many Star Trek related extra-curricular activities including a Decipher VCR Interactive Board game, lithographs sold nationwide on QVC, a sci-fi Fantasy model, three action figures, life-sized, stand-up Gowron poster, and most recently, starring in the CD-ROM "Star Trek: Klingon" for which Robert won the Sci-Fi Universe Reader's Choice Universe Award for Best Achievement in Genre Multi-Media. In this game not only will Robert teach you how to be a Klingon, he also will teach you how to speak like one.

Robert's stage work has spanned a broad spectrum from Shakespeare ("King Lear" and "Hamlet") and Sam Shepard ("True West") to original plays ("When The Bough Breaks") and the original production of "The Grapes of Wrath." He is proud to have starred in the original productions of "The Martian Chronicles" and "Fahrenheit 451" (plays written by and based on the books by Ray Bradbury, who has since become a friend).

Robert directed his play in 1981—Marsha Norman's "Getting Out—and was promptly nominated by the Los Angeles Drama Circle for Best Director of the Year, the most prestigious award given to a Los Angeles theater director. Since then he has won or been nominated for every other major directing award the Los Angeles area has to offer. His original production of "Generations" by Dennis Clontz received National Honors as a runner-up to August Wilson's "Piano Lesson" for the best play produced outside of New York City.

In spite of his busy schedule, Robert continues, each year, to direct one play and act in at least one theater production. He is a member and Artistic Advisor at the Colony Studio Theater Playhouse, a repertory company in Los Angeles that boasts a 90% subscription rate.

Robert has appeared in over 100 films, made-for-TV movies, and television episodes.
 He has also appeared in the "The Mask" starring Jim Carrey, as well as ten other feature films. Mini-series and movie-of-the-week appearances include "Desperado: Badlands Justice," "World War III," "From Here To Eternity" and "By The Dawn's Early Light." Television series include NYPD Blue and two seasons on In the Heat of the Night and Dark Justice. Other episodic television credits include such series as Murder, She Wrote, Dallas, Hunter, Falcon Crest, The Flash, Hill Street Blues, Max Headroom, The Equalizer, Sledgehammer, Paradise, Jake and the Fatman, MacGyver, and many more. Robert generally portrays villains or antagonists and is particularly expert in the use of a variety of dialects and accents.

Robert resides with his wife and three sons (triplets!) in Los Angeles. During his infrequent times of rest and recreation, you may find him playing a round of golf, attending an enjoyable game of baseball, or watching a good film or television show, particularly if it's set in the Star Trek universe.