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[#STLV] William Shatner On Feud With George Takei: It Upsets Me

William Shatner
William Shatner

William Shatner’s well-documented feud with Geoerge Takei has been burning for decades. Both former Star Trek actors have taken jabs at each other during major media interviews, including on Howard Stern, Real Time with Bill Maher, and even in their autobiographies.

On Saturday, at the Official Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas, a fan asked Shatner about the conflict and burying the hatchet during a question and answer session.

“I don’t know him. I don’t know him.”

“The hatchet? In George’s head?… Let me tell you about that, you know I’ve never expressed myself, I’ve always never answered George Takei’s mean-spirited comments on me for a life time, and I’ll take this opportunity to do that. I’ve never done it before…. I don’t know him. I don’t know him. Fifty years ago there was a young man named George Takei, who would come in… play his part, and left. I hardly knew him. ‘Hello George,’ I’d say, I was too busy reciting lines — I had a lot of work to do, so I was busy doing that and publicity… doing other things that I needed to do, whatever it was. I was an actor with ten pages of dialogue to do that day, and ten pages to learn for tomorrow, and the day after that and the day after that, and so on. I didn’t know him. I literally didn’t know him.” Shatner told the Las Vegas audience.

Takei and Shatner

Takei and Shatner

“I have no idea who he is or what he is, or what he wants.”

“The six movies we made were a couple years apart, again he’d come in, ‘Hello George.’ I had no interaction with him whatsoever. In the last fifty years, the man has blackened my reputation. I am… I pride myself on being a professional actor, I’m there on time, I know my words, I’m amiable to almost anything because what’s important is making the performance and nothing else. I don’t have to be there for the spaceship being brought up uh…. one of the things he used against me was that I wasn’t at the debut of the Enterprise someplace… I was working! So he has demeaned me, really badly, ugly. Every so often I get in touch with him and say, ‘What are you doing? I don’t know. What did I do to you? What happened?’ I have no idea who he is or what he is, or what he wants.” he added.

“I don’t have any anger towards him.”

“I’ve never answered him, but he has continued to spoil my reputation in one way or another. I thought you know, ‘That’s enough,’ why would one person in this large audience, have a bad opinion of me because of George Takei? It makes me – it upsets me. So I don’t, I’m not burying any hatchet, I don’t have any anger towards him. I do not know, I want you to hear me, I do not know who George Takei is! What drives him, what makes him, I do not know who he is. He invites me to his wedding, I don’t know him! Why would you invite someone like me to your wedding when you don’t know me? I haven’t spoken to you in twenty years, thirty years, why would you invite me to the wedding? Have you got a thought on that?”

The fan responded by saying that he doesn’t know Takei.

“Well, why would you, since you and I don’t know, why would you invite me?” Shatner asked.

The fan answered by saying: “Because you’re Captain Kirk.”

“There you go. It has nothing to do with, ‘I want you to celebrate with me, and be joyous with me at my wedding.’ It has to do with, what you just said. So I don’t have any hatchet to bury. I do not carry that hatchet. I carry a peace sign.”

(via Roddenberry Entertainment on Facebook)

[Photo: Laurie Lee/TrekNews.net]

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12 Comments

12 Comments

  1. Mark Mercieca

    August 9, 2015 at 12:45 pm

    I’m with Shatner. Bill’s did so much after Star trek. Have you ever seen George in anything but Star Trek? No. Shatner’s right because he and Leonard had to carry Star Trek on their shoulders, so it only made sense that Kirk be the first one you saw in every scene. What upsets me is that I have to see George whenever I watch a Star Trek episode or Movie with the original cast.

    • Phil Bundy

      August 9, 2015 at 1:55 pm

      A look at George Takei’s career clearly shows anything but, “Have you ever seen George in anything but Star Trek? No.”

      Takei has 203 credits to his name compared with Shatner’s 217

      https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001786/

      • nerdyredneck

        August 9, 2015 at 4:45 pm

        That was interesting but the questions was, “Have you ever saw him?”

        In spite of 204 credits when I followed your link, I have not other than on “The Big Bang Theory”

        I do follow Mr. Takai on FB and I love his humor. He also has a mean streak. (none of us are perfect)

      • Randy E Henaire

        August 9, 2015 at 5:58 pm

        Yes…as a matter of fact he did play in one episode of the “twilight zone”…….but I agree with the Captain,…of course!!

  2. Jacquelyn Delplanche

    August 9, 2015 at 12:49 pm

    I was there and I thought Mr. Shatner handled the question very well. He was both emotional and professional.

  3. JFThompson

    August 10, 2015 at 1:36 pm

    How can he say that he doesn’t know George when they were together for everything that had to do with the original series and movies? My theory is that he never cared about anyone in that cast but Nimoy. For instance; George tells the story of how the last time all the original cast members (except for DeForest Kelly who had already passed away) were together at a convention in 2004 . At this point, Jimmy Doohan was in the latter stages of Alzheimers and in a wheelchair. The cast was backstage waiting to go on for a tribute to Jimmy. Shatner refused to go on stage saying “I don’t want to do this and I really don’t want to deal with all this Alzheimer’s crap.”

    • Cullen Guzik

      September 7, 2015 at 2:08 pm

      You can work with people and never know them, I have worked with dozens of people over the last 17 years, and many of them I never knew or only saw at meetings after work. We worked a the same place but never knew each other. Plus George wasn’t in every episode, and he wasn’t the star of the show. He was a side character…period. Walter K. was more important as Chekov than Takei was as Sulu. Shatner and Doohan, that feud was well known, and Doohan was just as bad at trashing Shatner and Nimoy in public for years. Maybe that was why Shatner didn’t want to go on stage because he was angry at Doohan, but remember this is coming from Takei. So I don’t know.

    • Lizzy

      June 3, 2016 at 7:38 pm

      And who only heard it? GEORGE?WHY HASN’T HE GONE TO ANY CONVENTIONS IN CHICAGO?

  4. Milo

    August 12, 2015 at 1:21 am

    I’m not saying Shatner is perfect, but modern fans seem to forget that Takei was a guest star on the show. Shattner, Nimoy and Kelley were the stars. Why would Shatner get to know any of them?

    Actors quickly move from one role to another. There are too many people that come and go in an actor’s life, they can’t know all of them, especially if they last any amount of time.

    Later, after the films, Takei became more of a star, but one that Shatner still only saw so many times. It’s not fair to judge Shatner.

    • Lizzy

      June 3, 2016 at 7:41 pm

      Never saw George anywhere but commercials. William shatner has gone on to other things TJHOOKER was one.George has got a chip on his shoulder.never liked his character. The new one I do

  5. Librarian

    August 29, 2015 at 1:58 pm

    If I had someone who was still mad at me for something I did in the ’60’s, and went all over the media talking about it over and over again for this many years all this time – then I would consider them a stalker. And… I would wonder if they were/ actually in love with me. It’s just plain ODD that George Takei would carry on about this long for something that happened so long again. Seriously… he needs to stop talking about the past and get over it. This publicity stunt is beyond old.

    • Lizzy

      June 3, 2016 at 7:44 pm

      Maybe he did have a crush on shatner.and it was acknowledged by him. Stalker oh yeah that I belief of George needs to get a lufe.I have met shatner at several conventions.he’s a great,amazing man.Georges jealousy is sad.I pity him

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