One To Beam Up

Oh No. Scotty died. 5:30 this morning.

James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original “Star Trek” TV series and movies who responded to the command “Beam me up, Scotty,” died Wednesday. He was 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.

I never knew much about Doohan. I do remember noticing at some point that he seemed to have lost a finger. This article explains that he was in the D-Day invasion and was hit by machinegun fire.

He was thrice married and a father of nine, the last of whom was born five years ago when Doohan was 80 years old.

Asked if he ever got tired of hearing “Beam me up, Scotty” he said:

“I’m not tired of it at all,” he replied. “Good gracious, it’s been said to me for just about 31 years. It’s been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It’s been fun.”