Beamed Up For Good
The Ultimate Beam-Up
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Scotty has been beamed up for
the last time. James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty on Star
Trek, passed away yesterday. He suffered from Alzheimer's
and Parkinson's Diseases, and at the very end, a bout with
Pneumonia. Doohan handled the onset of Alzheimer's with utter
class and dignity. He went public with the diagnosis
just before the official Star Trek Convention and Tribute to him. It culminated with the
dedication of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on August 31,
2004. The decision was made to do it before the disease took too
great a toll, thus enabling him to enjoy the honor, the moment, the
glee.
Perhaps the most fitting tribute to this actor, linguist and
career-long voicework pro, came from Neil Armstrong, the first man on
the moon. At the tribute dinner during Doohan's Farewell
Convention last year, Armstrong turned to Doohan and said, "From one old
engineer to another ó thanks Scotty." More on that dinner and about Doohan can be found all over the net, perhaps most poignantly here, at startrek.com.
How eerie, yet somehow poetic, that he died on the anniversary of Armstrong's moon landing.
