Tag Archives: Star Trek

Heaven Can Wait-The Celebrities who Died in 2022

This is a tribute to some of the stars who shed their mortal coil in exchange for eternal fame.

January

Sidney Poitier KBE (20 February 1927—6 January 2022) was an American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and the first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Michael Lee Aday (27 September 1947—20 January 2022), known professionally as Meat Loaf, was an American rock singer and actor. He was noted for his powerful, wide-ranging voice and theatrical live shows. He is on the list of best-selling music artists. His Bat Out of Hell trilogy — Bat Out of Hell (1977), Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993), and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (2006) — has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

February

Gary Brooker MBE (29 May 1945—19 February 2022) was an English singer and pianist, and the founder and lead singer of the rock band Procol Harum.

Sally Clare Kellerman (2 June 1937—24 February 2022) was an American actress and singer whose acting career spanned 60 years. Her role as Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s film MASH (1970) earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

March

William Hurt (20 March 1950—13 March 2022) was an American actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he received various awards, including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor.

Madeleine Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; 15 May 1937— 23 March 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, Albright was the first woman to hold that post.

April

June Muriel Brown OBE (16 February 1927—3 April 2022) was an English actress and author. She was best known for her role as Dot Cotton on the BBC soap opera EastEnders (1985–1993; 1997–2020). In 2005, she won Best Actress at the Inside Soap Awards, and she received the Lifetime Achievement award at The British Soap Awards.

Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried (28 February 1955—12 April 2022) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He was known for his exaggerated shrill voice, a strong New York accent, and edgy, often controversial, sense of humour. His numerous roles in film and television include voicing Iago in the Aladdin animated films and series, Digit LeBoid in Cyberchase, Kraang Subprime in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Aflac Duck. He was also known for his role as Mr Peabody in the Problem Child film series.

May

Ray Liotta (18 December 1954—26 May 2022) was an American actor. He was best known for his roles as Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams (1989) and Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990). He was a Primetime Emmy Award-winning actor and received nominations for a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Andrew Fletcher (8 July 1961—26 May 2022), also known as Fletch, was an English keyboard player and founding member of the electronic band Depeche Mode. In 2020, he and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

June

Philip Baker Hall (10 September 1931—12 June 2022) was an American character actor. He was known for his collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson, including Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999). He also starred in leading roles in films, such as Secret Honor (1984) and Duck (2005). Hall had supporting roles in many films, including Say Anything… (1989), The Truman Show (1998), The Talented Mr Ripley (1999), The Insider (1999), Lost Souls (2000), The Contender (2000), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), Zodiac (2007), 50/50 (2011) and Argo (2012). He received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead for his role in Hard Eight and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture for Boogie Nights and Magnolia.

Alec John Such (14 November 14 1951—5 June 2022) was an American musician.[1] He was best known as a founding member of the rock band Bon Jovi. As their bass player from 1983 to 1994, he played on their first five albums.[3]Such started his musical career in the New Jersey band Phantom’s Opera, which performed both covers and original songs. In the early 1980s, he also played in the hard rock band Message, which included guitarist Richie Sambora.

July

James Caan (26 March 26, 1940—6 July 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (1972) — a performance which earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised his role in The Godfather Part II (1974). He received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978.

Nichelle Nichols (born Grace Dell Nichols; 28 December 1932—30 July 2022) was an American actress, singer, and dancer best known for her portrayal of Nyota Uhura in Star Trek and its film sequels. Nichols’ portrayal of Uhura was groundbreaking for African American actresses on American television. From 1977 until 2015, Nichols volunteered her time to promote NASA’s programs and recruit diverse astronauts, including some of the first female and ethnic minority astronauts.

August

Olivia Newton-John AC DBE (26 September 1948—8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including five #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100[4] and two number-one albums on the Billboard 200: “If You Love Me, Let Me Know” (1974) and “Have You Never Been Mellow” (1975). Eleven of her singles (including two platinum) and 14 of her albums (including two platinum and four 2× platinum) have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). But of course, she is mainly for her role in Grease.

Roger E. Mosley (18 December 1938—7 August 2022) was an American actor, director, and writer best known for his role as the helicopter pilot Theodore “T.C.” Calvin in the CBS television series Magnum, P.I., which, originally aired from 1980 until 1988.

September

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926—8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until she died in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and was head of state of 15 realms at the time of her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch and the longest verified reign of any female monarch in history.

Elizabeth was born in Mayfair, London, as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother). Her father acceded to the throne in 1936 upon the abdication of his brother Edward VIII, making the ten-year-old Princess Elizabeth the heir presumptive. She was educated privately at home and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In November 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, and their marriage lasted 73 years until he died in 2021. They had four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.

Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (August 1, 1963 – September 28, 2022), known professionally as Coolio, was an American rapper. First rising to fame as a member of the gangsta rap group WC and the Maad Circle, Coolio achieved mainstream success as a solo artist in the mid-to-late 1990s with his albums, “It Takes a Thief” (1994), “Gangsta’s Paradise” (1995), and “My Soul” (1997).

October

Anthony Robert McMillan OBE (30 March 1950 – 14 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor and comedian. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series. He was appointed an OBE in the 2006 New Year Honours by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama. In 1990, Coltrane received the Evening Standard British Film Award—Peter Sellers Award for Comedy. In 2011, he was honoured for his “outstanding contribution” to film at the British Academy Scotland Awards.

Jerry Lee Lewis (29 September 1935—28 October 2022) was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. Nicknamed “The Killer,” he was described as “rock ‘n‘ roll’s first great wild man.” A pioneer of rock ‘n‘ roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1952 at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, and early recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. “Crazy Arms” sold 300,000 copies in the Southern United States, but it was his 1957 hit “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” that shot Lewis to worldwide fame. He followed this with the major hits “Great Balls of Fire”, “Breathless,” and “High School Confidential.” His rock ‘n‘ roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to Myra Gale Brown, his 13-year-old cousin once removed.

November

Christine McVie (née Perfect; 12 July 1943—30 November 2022) was an English musician and songwriter. She was best known as a keyboardist and one of the vocalists of Fleetwood Mac.

McVie was a member of several bands, notably Chicken Shack, in the mid-1960s British Blues scene. She began working with Fleetwood Mac in 1968, initially as a session player, before joining the band in 1970. Her first compositions with Fleetwood Mac appeared on their fifth album, Future Games. She remained with the band through many changes of line-up, writing songs and performing lead vocals, before partially retiring in 1998. She was described as “the prime mover behind some of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits”. Eight songs written or co-written by McVie, including “Don’t Stop,” “Everywhere,” and “Little Lies,” appeared on Fleetwood Mac’s 1988 “Greatest Hits” album. She appeared as a session musician on the band’s last studio album, “Say You Will.” She also released three solo studio albums.

Irene Cara (18 March 1959—25 November 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and actress of Black, Puerto Rican and Cuban descent.[13] Cara rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film Fame, and for recording the film’s title song “Fame,” which reached No. 1 in several countries.

In 1983, Cara co-wrote and sang the song “Flashdance… What a Feeling” (from the film Flashdance), for which she shared an Academy Award for Best Original Song and won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1984. Before her success with Fame, Cara portrayed the title character Sparkle Williams in the original 1976 musical drama film Sparkle.

December

Maxwell Fraser (14 June 1957—23 December 2022), better known by his stage name Maxi Jazz, was a British musician, rapper, singer, songwriter and DJ. He was the lead vocalist of the British electronic band Faithless from 1995 to 2011 and from 2015 to 2016.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento (23 October 1940—29 December 2022), known by his nickname Pelé, was a Brazilian professional footballer who played as a forward. Regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled “the greatest” by FIFA,[1][2] he was among the most successful and popular sports figures of the 20th century. In 1999, he was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and was included in the Time list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. In 2000, Pelé was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) and was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the Century. His 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which includes friendlies, are recognised as a Guinness World Record.

source

https://news.sky.com/story/celebrity-deaths-2022-the-famous-faces-and-notable-figures-we-said-goodbye-to-this-year-12748889

The Enterprise

We all know the adventures of the Spacecraft that carries the name Enterprise. Jonathan Archer, may have been the 1st Captain of Earth’s first Warp 5 vessel, Enterprise. Of course there is the famous Captain Kirk. who commandeered the Enterprise NCC-1701.

Of course there was (or rather will be, like the other aforementioned space crafts) USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) under command of Captain Jean Luc Picard, to baldly and boldly go where no man had gone before.

However the original Enterprise had its maiden flight on on February 18, 1977, atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

So lets just remember this anniversary with a few impressions of the Enterprise.

sources

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/multimedia/imagegallery/SCA/201204270017HQ_SCA_Enterprise.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Enterprise

George Takei and Executive Order 9066.

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I am not saying I agree with Executive Order 9066, in fact I strongly disagree with it. It was a breach of basic human rights.However it is also very easy for people nowadays to judge about things retrospectively and for people who never found themselves in the unprecedented times like WWII.

Executive Order 9066 was a US presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942,less then 2 months after the Pearl Harbor attacks which dragged the US into WWII.

The order authorized the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones, clearing the way for the incarceration of Japanese Americans, German Americans, and Italian Americans in U.S. internment camps.

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Over the years the US has received a lot of negative commentary about these camps, but they were not the only countries to have internment camps for citizens perceived to be as potential enemies. Canada, Great Britain  also had these type of camps and some had worse living conditions then the American camps.

George Takei, from  Star Trek fame , spent his formative years detained with his family in Japanese-American internment camps during World War II.

In 1942 aged 5 he and his family spent 3 months in a converted Horse race track called Santa Anita Park.

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After 3 months the Takei family was transferred to the Rohwer War Relocation Center for internment in Rohwer, Arkansas.The family was later sent  to the Tule Lake War Relocation Center in California.

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George and his family remained interned until the end of the war.

Life was very hard in the internment camps but they were a far cry from the European concentration camps, therefore comparing them would be completely inaccurate.. People in the internment camps had no threat of death.

In total about 120,000 Japanese Americans ended up in the internment camps as per Executive Order 9066.

Takei had a number  relatives living in Japan during World War II. Among them were an aunt and infant cousin who lived in Hiroshima and who were both killed by the atomic bomb attack.

At the end of World War II, Takei and his family returned to Los Angeles.

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Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

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Source

Variety

IMDb

The Verge

CNN

Owlcation

 

R.U.R: Rossum’s Universal Robots

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On this day 82 years ago the BBC broadcast the first piece of television science-fiction ever.

On 11 February 1938 a thirty-five-minute adapted extract of the play RUR, written by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek, was broadcast live from the BBC’s Alexandra Palace studios. Concerning a future world in which robots rise up against their human masters, it was the only piece of science fiction to be produced until the BBC television service resumed after the war..

The play introduced the word robot, which displaced older words such as “automaton” or “android” in languages around the world. In an article in Lidové noviny Karel Čapek named his brother Josef as the true inventor of the word.In Czech, robota means forced labour of the kind that serfs had to perform on their masters’ lands and is derived from rab, meaning “slave”.

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The play had been referenced in several popular TV shows after it’s first broadcast in 1938.

n the Star Trek episode “Requiem for Methuselah”, the android’s name is Rayna Kapec (an anagram, though not a homophone, of Capek)

Rayna Kapec

In Batman: The Animated Series, the scientist that created the HARDAC machine is named Karl Rossum. HARDAC created mechanical replicants to replace existing humans, with the ultimate goal of replacing all humans. One of the robots is seen driving a car with “RUR” as the license plate number.

The 1999 Blake’s 7 radio play The Syndeton Experiment included a character named Dr. Rossum who turned humans into robots.

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In the 1977 Doctor Who serial “The Robots of Death”, the robot servants turn on their human masters under the influence of an individual named Taren Capel.

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In the 1995 science fiction series The Outer Limits, in the remake of the “I, Robot” episode from the original 1964 series, the business where the robot Adam Link is built is named “Rossum Hall Robotics.

In Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, when Wolff wakes Chalmers, she has been reading a copy of R.U.R. in her bed. This presages the fact that she is later revealed to be an android.

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Although the original play was written in 1920 nearly a 100 years later it is still referenced in Sci Fi shows and ganes. Currently a new movie version is in production with a release date in 2019.

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Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

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Star Trek to boldly go… hey wait a minute we are there already.

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Netflix has released a new series in the Star Trek franchise called “Star Trek Discovery” I don’t want to judge because I have only watched the first episode so far, which left me a bit underwhelmed to say the least.

There were just a few things that annoyed me and maybe I was to focused on that, For starters the ship isn’t called Discover but Shenzhou, and the main character although a woman is called Michael.

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Maybe there are trying to be just too political correct which leads me to the purpose of this blog. Star Trek has always been politically correct but in a positive way, for example they were the first show to show an  interracial kiss.

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But were they were really ahead of their time was in the actual science, especially the original season. Lets have a look at some of the scientific gadgets used in Star Trek that we now use on a daily basis or are available in some part of it.

The communicator

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Whenever Captain Kirk left the safe confines of the Enterprise, he did so knowing it could be the last time he saw his ship. Danger was never far away. And when in distress and in need of help in a pinch, he could always count on Bones to come up with a miracle cure, Scotty to beam him up or Spock to give him some vital scientific information. He’d just whip out his communicator and place a call.Fast-forward 30 years and wouldn’t you know it, it seems like everyone carries a communicator. We just know them as mobile or cell phones. It even looks like companies like Motorola took the ideas for their flip phones from Star Trek.

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The Tricorder

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In the TV show, a tricorder is a handheld device that scans for geological, biological, and meteorological anomalies, however it is main purpose is as some kind of medical scanning device. It is basically a handheld MRI Scan, although the current MRI scanning machines are very big, they are working on more mobile ones and good progress is made. So soon enough they will be handheld.

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In fact  NASA employs a handheld device called LOCAD, which measures for unwanted microorganisms such as E. coli, fungi and salmonella onboard the International Space Station.

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Geordi laForge’s Visor

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What made Geordi unique, perhaps even mysterious, was his funky eyewear. Geordi was blind, but after a surgical operation and aided through the use of a device called VISOR (Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement), Geordi could see throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. Though it may sound far-fetched, in reality, similar technology exists that may someday bring sight back to the blind.

In 2005, a team of scientists from Stanford University successfully implanted a small chip behind the retina of blind rats that enabled them to pass a vision recognition test. The science behind the implants, or bionic eyes as they’re commonly referred to, works much the way Geordi’s VISOR did. The patient receives the implants behind the retina, then wears a pair of glasses fitted with a video camera. Light enters the camera and is processed through a small wireless computer, which then broadcasts it as infrared LED images on the inside of the glasses. Those images are reflected back into the retina chips to stimulate photodiodes. The photodiodes replicate the lost retinal cells then change light into electrical signals which in turn send nerve pulses to the brain.

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The Replicator

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Captain Jean-Luc Picard used to say ‘Tea, Earl Gray, hot!” and it would be replicated instantly. Today’s 3D printers don’t tackle tea, but there are machines that actually can print food. And other printers, like the MakerBot Replicator 2 are quite adept at making small objects—just as they were shown to do on later episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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PADD

PADD

PADD or Personal Access Data Device. Some of you might actually be reading this blog on a  Personal Access Data Device.It is basically a tablet computer. And I don’t think it is a coincidence that Apple called their tablet computer an iPad.

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Teleporting

Kirk, Spock and crew get there fast in Star Trek

Before I get you hopes up, unfortunately Teleportation is not possible yet and never may be, but how great would it be. Visiting family in Australie or New Zealand just to have a cup of coffee and be home on time for dinner.

Some scientists believe it is not possible to teleport macroscopic objects such as human beings, but there may be teleportation in the microscopic world. Three possible kinds of teleportation in quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics have been proposed: state teleportation, energy teleportation, and particle teleportation..

In 1993, Bennett et alproposed that a quantum state of a particle could be teleported to another distant particle, but the two particles do not move at all. This is called state teleportation. There are a lot of following theoretical and experimental papers published.Researchers believe that quantum teleportation is the foundation of quantum calculation and quantum communication.

In 2008, M. Hotta proposed that it may be possible to teleport energy by exploiting quantum energy fluctuations of an entangled vacuum state of a quantum field. There are some papers published but no experimental verification.

In 2016, Y. Wei proposed that particles themselves could teleport from one place to another. This is called particle teleportation. With this concept, superconductivity can be viewed as the teleportation of some electrons in the superconductor and superfluidity as the teleportation of some of the atoms in the cellular tube. Physicists are trying to verify this concept experimentally.

But perhaps one day we could just teleport ourselves from a dreary rainy city to a tropical beach.

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To a beach were no man had boldly gone before.

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Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

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CELEBRITIES WHO CONTRIBUTED THEIR SERVICES IN WWII-Part 2

J.D. Salinger

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The author of one of the most famous books “Catcher in the rye”

Salinger was assigned to a counter-intelligence division, for which he used his proficiency in French and German to interrogate prisoners of war.In April 1945 he entered a liberated concentration camp, probably one of Dachau’s sub-camps.Salinger earned the rank of Staff Sergeant and served in five campaigns.Salinger’s experiences in the war affected him emotionally. He was hospitalized for a few weeks for combat stress reaction after Germany was defeated, and he later told his daughter: “You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live.” Both of his biographers speculate that Salinger drew upon his wartime experiences in several stories, such as “For Esmé—with Love and Squalor”, which is narrated by a traumatized soldier. Salinger continued to write while serving in the army, publishing several stories in slick magazines such as Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post. He also continued to submit stories to The New Yorker, but with little success; it rejected all of his submissions from 1944 to 1946, a group of 15 poems in 1945 alone

After Germany’s defeat, Salinger signed up for a six-month period of “Denazification” duty in Germany for the Counterintelligence Corps.

Beatrice Arthur

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Actress mainly known for he role as Dorothy in “the Golden Girls” During World War II, she worked as a truck driver and typist in the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, receiving an Honorable Discharge in September 1945.

Arthur C. Clarke

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Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008) was a British science fiction writer, science writer and futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.

He is perhaps most famous for being co-writer of the screenplay for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, widely considered to be one of the most influential films of all time.

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During the Second World War from 1941 to 1945 he served in the Royal Air Force as a radar specialist and was involved in the early-warning radar defence system, which contributed to the RAF’s success during the Battle of Britain. Clarke spent most of his wartime service working on ground-controlled approach (GCA) radar.. Although GCA did not see much practical use during the war, it proved vital to the Berlin Airlift of 1948–1949 after several years of development. Clarke initially served in the ranks, and was a corporal instructor on radar at No. 2 Radio School, RAF Yatesbury in Wiltshire. He was commissioned as a pilot officer (technical branch) on 27 May 1943.He was promoted flying officer on 27 November 1943.He was appointed chief training instructor at RAF Honiley in Warwickshire and was demobilised with the rank of flight lieutenant.

David Niven

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James David Graham Niven (1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983)was an English actor and novelist. His many roles included Squadron Leader Peter Carter in A Matter of Life and Death, Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days, and Sir Charles Lytton, (“the Phantom”) in The Pink Panther. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Separate Tables (1958).

After Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, Niven returned home and rejoined the British Army. He was alone among British stars in Hollywood in doing so; the British Embassy advised most actors to stay.Niven was recommissioned as a lieutenant into the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort’s Own) on 25 February 1940,and was assigned to a motor training battalion.

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He wanted something more exciting, however, and transferred into the Commandos. He was assigned to a training base at Inverailort House in the Western Highlands. Niven later claimed credit for bringing future Major General Sir Robert E. Laycock to the Commandos. Niven commanded “A” Squadron GHQ Liaison Regiment, better known as “Phantom”. He worked with the Army Film Unit. He acted in two films made during the war, The First of the Few(1942) and The Way Ahead (1944). Both were made with a view to winning support for the British war effort, especially in the United States. Niven’s Film Unit work included a small part in the deception operation that used minor actor M.E. Clifton James to impersonate General Sir Bernard Montgomery. During his work with the Film Unit, Peter Ustinov, though one of the script-writers, had to pose as Niven’s batman. (Ustinov also acted in The Way Ahead.) Niven explained in his autobiography that there was no military way that he, as a lieutenant-colonel, and Ustinov, who was only a private, could associate, other than as an officer and his subordinate, hence their strange “act”. Ustinov later appeared with Niven in Death on the Nile (1978).

Niven took part in the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, although he was sent to France several days after D-Day. He served in the “Phantom Signals Unit,” which located and reported enemy positions, and kept rear commanders informed on changing battle lines. Niven was posted at one time to Chilham in Kent. He remained close-mouthed about the war, despite public interest in celebrities in combat and a reputation for storytelling. He once said:

I will, however, tell you just one thing about the war, my first story and my last. I was asked by some American friends to search out the grave of their son near Bastogne. I found it where they told me I would, but it was among 27,000 others, and I told myself that here, Niven, were 27,000 reasons why you should keep your mouth shut after the war.

Yogi Berra

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Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra (May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015) was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and coach who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball.

During World War II, Berra served in the U.S. Navy as a gunner’s mate on the attack transport USS Bayfield  during the D-Day invasion of France.

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A Second Class Seaman, Berra was one of a six-man crew on a Navy rocket boat, firing machine guns and launching rockets at the German defenses at Omaha Beach. He was fired upon, but was not hit, and later received several commendations for his bravery. During an interview on the 65th Anniversary of D-Day, Yogi confirmed that he was sent to Utah Beach during the D-Day invasion as well.

Gene Roddenberry

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Eugene Wesley “Gene” Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriterand producer. He is best remembered for creating the original Star Trek television series.

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Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a police officer. Roddenberry flew eighty-nine combat missions in the Army Air Forces during World War II, and worked as a commercial pilot after the war.

He enlisted with the USAAC on December 18, 1941. He graduated from the USAAC on August 5, 1942, when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

He was posted to Bellows Field, Oahu, to join the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, of the Thirteenth Air Force, which flew the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

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On August 2, 1943, while flying out of Espiritu Santo, the plane Roddenberry was piloting overshot the runway by 500 feet (150 m) and impacted trees, crushing the nose, and starting a fire, killing two men. The official report absolved Roddenberry of any responsibility.Roddenberry spent the remainder of his military career in the United States,and flew all over the country as a plane crash investigator. He was involved in a further plane crash, this time as a passenger. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal.

Forgotten History- James Doohan a WW2:Star Trek Hero

This probably isn’t a forgotten history for the Trekkies but even though I am a Star Trek Fan I did not know about the heroics of James Doohan(Scotty) during World War 2.

 

James Montgomery “Jimmy” Doohan  March 3, 1920 – July 20, 2005) was a Canadian character actor and voice actor best known for his role as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the television and film series Star Trek.

June 6,  D-Day, the fateful evening during World War II in 1944 that Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, to battle Hitler’s Nazi forces and liberate mainland Europe. One of those soldiers, on his very first combat assignment, was a young Canadian named James Doohan, who later when on to great fame as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on Star Trek: The Original Series.

“The sea was rough,” Doohan recalled of his landing on Juno Beach that day, an anecdote included in his obituary, which the Associated Press ran on June 20, 2005. “We were more afraid of drowning than (we were of) the Germans.”

At the beginning of the Second World War, Doohan joined the Royal Canadian Artillery and was a member of the 14th midland field battery 2nd Canadian infantry division from Cobourg Ontario.

He was commissioned a lieutenant in the 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division.

juno-4-14.6 14th Field Regiment

He was sent to England in 1940 for training. His first combat was the invasion of Normandy at Juno Beach on D-Day. Shooting two snipers, Doohan led his men to higher ground through a field of anti-tank mines, where they took defensive positions for the night. Crossing between command posts at 11:30 that night, Doohan was hit by six rounds fired from a Bren gun by a nervous Canadian sentry: four in his leg, one in the chest, and one through his right middle finger. The bullet to his chest was stopped by a silver cigarette case given to him by his brother. He would later give up smoking, but at least he could say that being a smoker actually saved his life.

His right middle finger had to be amputated, something he would conceal during his career as an actor

Doohan, throughout his acting career, took measures to hide the missing finger, but it was occasionally visible to the camera, including in certain shots from Star Trek. He made no effort, however,to hide the missing finger during his decades of autograph signings and convention appearances.

finger

D-Day was the first and last action he saw in the war.  After recovering from his injuries, he became a pilot in the Canadian Air Force, but never saw action.  Despite not ever flying in combat, he was once called “the craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Force” when he flew a plane through two telegraph poles after “slaloming” down a mountainside, just to prove it could be done.  This act was not looked upon highly by his superiors, but earned him a reputation among the pilots of the Canadian Air Force

On July 20, 2005, at 5:30 in the morning, Doohan died at his home in Redmond, Washington due to complications of pulmonary fibrosis, which was believed to be from exposure to noxious substances during WWII.

A portion of his ashes, ¼ ounce (7 grams), were scheduled the following fall for a memorial flight to space with 100 others, including Project Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper.[Launch on the SpaceLoft XL rocket was delayed to April 28, 2007, when the rocket briefly entered outer space in a four-minute suborbital flight before parachuting to earth, as planned, with the ashes still inside.

Historical Inaugural launch from Spaceport America.

The ashes were subsequently launched on a Falcon 1 rocket, on August 3, 2008, into what was intended to be a low Earth orbit; however, the rocket failed two minutes after launch. The rest of Doohan’s ashes were scattered over Puget Sound in Washington. 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.

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