Ahead Of Captain Kirk's Flight To The Edge Of Space: 5 Things You Probably Didn't Know About William Shatner

Real life will imitate reel life on Oct. 12 when William Shatner, best known as Captain Kirk in the “Star Trek” franchise, will travel to the edge of space as a passenger on a Blue Origin rocket – alas, without Jeff Bezos, the former Amazon.com AMZN CEO who also launched Blue Origin.

However, there is much more to Shatner’s career than “Star Trek.” Here are five fun facts that you may not know about the 90-year-old Canadian-born actor.

1. A First Break, Courtesy Of Christopher Plummer. In 1956, Shatner landed work as Christopher Plummer’s understudy in the lead of Shakespeare’s “Henry V,” which was being staged by Canada’s Stratford Festival. During the run, Plummer was hospitalized with a kidney stone and Shatner was tapped to go on stage.

Serendipitously, a few prominent critics were in the audience for Shatner’s performance and he was favorably reviewed. Plummer would later recall in his memoir “In Spite of Myself” that Shatner sought to put an original stamp on the role rather than imitate his performance.

“Shatner made sure he did everything I didn’t do – stood up where I had sat down, lay down where I stood up,” he wrote. “He was original to the last. I knew then that the SOB was going to be a star.”

Shatner would later admit that his handling of the role was largely based on ignorance, noting that while he memorized the part, he never rehearsed the physical aspects of the performance.

“I knew the lines, but I’d never said the words out loud,” Shatner said. “I didn’t know the blocking. I didn’t know whether to stand or sit.”

2. Captain Kirk Meets Batman. In 1964, Shatner was tapped to play the title role in a proposed series on the life of Alexander the Great, with Adam West co-starring as his second-in-command Cleander.

A one-hour pilot episode was shot, with actor/director John Cassavetes appearing in a guest role. Although movies about ancient European society were popular at the time, the concept of a television series set during that epoch was considered too uncommon and the series was never picked up – West would later denigrate the project as “one of the worst scripts I have ever read and it was one of the worst things I’ve ever done.”

Of course, if “Alexander” was picked up and became a popular series, there would have been a good chance that Shatner would not have gained his Captain Kirk role and West would not have been cast as the eponymous crimefighter in “Batman.” The “Alexander” pilot was broadcast in 1968 when Shatner and West were established television stars and Cassavetes was shaking up independent cinema as the writer-director of the groundbreaking “Faces.”

3. The Classic Game Show Gaffe. After “Star Trek” went off the air, Shatner struggled for several years to find adequate roles. In the early 1970s, he turned up on the television game show circuit as a guest panelist, and his free-wheeling personality brought charm and humor to the competitions.

In 1974, Shatner was a guest on “The $20,000 Pyramid” and helped bring his contestant into the final round to gain the then-considerable grand cash prize. Unfortunately, Shatner accidentally blurted out the answer to the final question when he was supposed to offer a synonymous clue – and in his frustration for disqualifying the contestant he picked up his chair and threw it across the set. That moment (shown here in a not-pristine video captured by a viewer on VHS tape) became one of the most talked-about moments in game show history.

4. Survey Says…Shatner? Despite that chair-throwing error, Shatner’s presence on game shows was admired by producer Mark Goodson, who was planning a new show in 1975 for CBS called “Family Feud.” Shatner had an inside track for the hosting role – he was married to Marcy Lafferty, daughter of CBS executive Perry Lafferty.

But someone else wanted the “Family Feud” job – comic actor Richard Dawson was a panelist on Goodson’s popular “Match Game,” but was growing tired of the show’s increased reliance on smutty humor and was eager to find a show of his own. Goodson tried to appease Dawson by promising to set up an audition, but Dawson complained that Perry Lafferty “was the one who was going to make a decision whether this show would go on or not – and he doesn’t have any daughters left for me to marry!”

Goodson eventually settled on Dawson, which clearly did not sit well with Shatner’s wife and father-in-law – Goodson had to take “Family Feud” over to rival network ABC.

5. Let My People Go. While Shatner fans savor his brilliantly bizarre 1968 album “The Transformed Man,” with the actor giving hammy recitations of Shakespeare and lyrics to rock tunes including “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” against overproduced music arrangements, lesser known but perhaps more intriguing was his foray into faith-based music.

Shatner was recruited to provide Haggadah and Old Testament readings on “Exodus: An Oratorio In Three Parts.” Shatner was backed by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and a 350-member chorale under the direction of David Itkin, who created the piece.

In a 2008 interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to promote the CD release, Shatner stated that his participation in this project was not based on a late-life desire for an artistic engagement with his heritage.

“My being Jewish does not inform the things I do, necessarily,” Shatner said. “‘Exodus’ is a wonderful piece, no matter what religion you are.”

But unlike the campy-crazy trippiness of “The Transformed Man,” the sincerity of “Exodus: An Oratorio In Three Parts” was barely acknowledged upon its release and remains mostly unknown today.

Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr Creative Commons.