A pre-toupular combover.

Bill Shatner aged 25.

An interesting picture via a reader's tip from a program for the 1956 Stratford Shakespeare Festival (note: we've done some perspective correction, original via eBay here). At this festival, Christopher Plummer starred in Henry V with a young Bill Shatner performing a small role in the play and also serving as the actor's understudy. At three hours notice, Bill Shatner had to take over the title role when Plummer became ill, suffering from the effects of a kidney stone.


The actor recalls the incident in his biography Up Till Now:

"Could I go on that night? Replace Plummer in one of the greatest roles written for the stage? Absolutely. Without doubt. Of course. Clearly I was insane. I had never even said the lines out loud...It never occurred to me that I was risking my career - not that I actually had a career, of course - but if this turned out to be a debacle I was the one who was going to get the blame for it."

Bill Shatner's performance, full of highly original searching pauses (the actor was trying to remember his lines), won rave reviews. And the rest is history...

Christopher Plummer is deliberately photographed showing the contours of his scalp - a subtle message to his friend and colleague Bill Shatner?

Christopher Plummer and William Shatner would, of course, later be reunited in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).

Although a wig was already designed, Plummer insisted on appearing bald in ST:VI - another signal to his friend?

But back to the hair. The image underscores the thinning that appeared to kick in with great rapidity in 1956. We see the beginnings of a combover - fortunately, this style was not maintained as the hair began to really go in the ensuing years.

With a collation of empirical evidence, we can try to put together a time-line of toupular events:

-Up to the mid 1950s: Bill Shatner's hair is thick and plush. The young aspiring actor frequently takes to straightening out his curly hair.



-1955-66: The hair begins to thin rapidly. A bald patch becomes visible at the rear.

"All Summer Long" (1956).

Clever combing techniques begin to be used:


-1957: On-screen performances now require considerable intervention from hairstylists to bulk up the remaining hair. Roles that demand deviations from this - such as The Brothers Karamazov (1958, filmed 1957) - require wigs....


Underneath is this:


...Bill Shatner then grows his hair long in order to bulk up what remains.

"The Glass Eye" (1957)

-1958: The thinning reaches the point where hairstyling efforts become increasingly intricate and insufficient. Bill Shatner gradually and then decisively turns to the lace frontal hairpiece aka the "Jim Kirk lace".

"The Protégé" (1958).

-1958-1969: This single toupee style then sustains the actor for more than a decade.


As we discussed in our latest toupological analysis, there are still a few mysteries to do with the transition, but by in large, we think the time-line holds up.

Thanks to several readers for tips and pictures!

Shatner and toupology.

Why does Bill Shatner's real hair in the late 1950s seem thicker in some photos and less thick in others - seemingly defying the chronological order of the touposphere? That is a question some of you have been asking, with a few even wondering if we aren't getting our toup versus no toup calls flat wrong. Let's try to explore this a little.

First, let's begin with a challenge. Take a look at the picture below of Jack Nicholson in the classic film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975):


Sure, he's receding, but otherwise he looks relatively thick on top, right?

Now look at a different image from the very same film of the very same Jack Nicholson:


Hey, he looks really bald! But then here...

...he looks more like this...

How is it possible for the levels of baldness in these images to appear so different? The first point is that hair stylists can achieve wonders with very little. A spray or a gel coupled with some clever combing, (not forgetting the role of lighting) can create an illusion of plenty - or at least more than there actually is. And let's not forget that Jack Nicholson wasn't even making an effort to hide his baldness in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

So now let's try to look over what we know of Bill Shatner's real hair. Of course, he once had a thick head of it before it started to thin:


But by the mid fifties, the process had begun. This toup-less image from December 1957...


...shows Shats pretty darn thin on top. However, the image must be read in conjunction with this photo taken at the same time. The thinning is real, but not as severe-looking as in the previous photo.


The first image, because of a direct overhead light, actually gives the illusion of greater thinning than there actually was at this time. A similar effect is true of the below toup-less images, likely taken on the same day from mid-1957. Very, very thin...?


...Or less thin?

The point here is that the hair was thinning at the front, but not nearly as much as some pictures appear to show - but also, conversely, more than other pictures suggest. Favorable light and combing can make the hair seem thicker. Crucially, Bill Shatner switched to toupees long before his baldness became really severe. He did so at a time when the thinning was becoming ever more difficult to conceal. The pictures we have show the process of thinning:


...and the processes of concealment. Yet, by the end of the 1950s, Bill Shatner still had a distinct frontal hairline, as a toup-less 1957 TV appearance shows:

It was at the rear that the most thinning took place first as this late 1956 image underlines:

Initially, special sprays and combing techniques were used to conceal this - hence the longer hair here, which doesn't quite reach as far as would be ideal - the rest is sprays:


Meanwhile, the thickness at the front of the slowly thinning hair would depend on how it was styled:


And photographed:


The shape of this frontal hairline was distinctly different (rounder) than that which the lace toups created - and indeed that is one of the easiest giveaways regarding toup or no toup.

Shats likely went bald at the rear of the head while still having - an albeit ever-thinning - real and distinctive frontal hair line. The bald patch at the rear then made its way upwards - his hair on top became fluffy and then tufty and finally, years later was no more. But the frontal hair line, however thin, likely did not begin to actually retreat northwards until the very early 1960s. And it was still there, hidden away, even after Shats began to turn to the lace toupee. He had real hair, but it was no longer photographable under harsh lights. We believe that it wasn't until the late 1960s/ early 1970s that Bill Shatner went completely "shiny dome on top" bald.

On a separate note, it also appears that Bill Shatner's real hair was indeed "T.J. curly" style (as some of the toup-less pictures we have here underline). Shats likely did what was common in those days and straightened it with combing, hair oils etc.

Toup-less in Studio One: "The Defender".

We have to admit to previously not paying 1957's live television two-parter Studio One: "The Defender" a close enough look. But there is much to look at in the realm of Bill Shatner's hair - we had assumed that this was a straight-forward example of toupage, but upon closer examination, things now appear a little different.

Studio One: "The Defender" featured Bill Shatner, Steve McQueen, Martin Balsam, Ralph Bellamy and several other actors in a made-for-TV courtroom drama. According to Imdb.com: "A young criminal attorney and his firm-owning father defend a 19 year-old on trial for a murder that he swears he did not commit. Personal conflicts arise with the attorney and his father while the prosecution puts on a dramatic and convincing argument of guilt." Shatner plays lawyer Kenneth Preston. The two episodes were later cleverly referenced and partially utilized in the third season Boston Legal episode "Son of the Defender".

In some scenes (perhaps a full episode) of this two-part broadcast, Bill Shatner appears to be toup-less. 1957 was the pivotal year in Shats' career when he finally started to use hairpieces (for example in the movie The Brothers Karamazov) - though not yet always.

We can say with some confidence that Shats is toup-less in the below image, likely relying on sprays to thicken up the increasingly thinning hair at the top and back:

More toup-less images - the same comb-back that has become slightly ruffled:


Yet there are a few pictures (possibly including the one at the top of this post) out there of the same show, where it seems possible that Shats was wearing a toup to thicken up the top of his head:


The hair in the above photos appears far too thick for Shatner's real hair state at this time.

Is it possible that during part one there was no toup and then by part two, Shats decided to thicken up?

We really don't know at this point, and are merely speculating based on a few pictures. But we certainly believe that this deserves more toupological study. In the meantime, let's look at the overall visual evidence chronologically. Below is Bill Shatner in Goodyear Television Playhouse: "All Summer Long"- filmed 28th October 1956. No toup:


The first part of Studio One: "The Defender" was filmed on 25th February 1957; the second on 4th March 1957:


Below is Shats, still toup-less, in 1957's Alfred Hitchcock Presents story "The Glass Eye" broadcast 6th October 1957. In this case, the episode was filmed and edited before broadcast, which means it probably represents Shatner at around June-September 1957, though possibly even earlier:


This is Shats in Studio One: "No Deadly Medicine" - filmed 9th December 1957 - the hair loss was now evidently taking place very, very quickly. The longer hair designed to comb over thinner areas has now been cut:


And after that, it was all toup, toup, toup all the time. Below is Shats fully touped-up and ready to go in Playhouse 90: "A Town Has Turned to Dust" - filmed June 19th 1958:


UPDATE: We've since done a more detailed analysis of "The Defender" - click here to read.

100th post: A very moving Bill Shatner story.

Actor William J. Campbell

Did you ever think that a blog that is dedicated to William Shatner's toupee would be celebrating its 100th posting? Neither did we to be honest - yet here we are! So to mark the occasion, we want to bring you a somewhat moving story - one that is pivotal in understanding Bill Shatner's sensitivity to his hair. Imagine if Shats' autobiography had contained the following passage (it doesn't):

"In mid-November 1966, we started preparations on the first season Star Trek episode 'The Squire of Gothos'. There were some complicated sword scenes in the episode, so Bill Campbell (who was cast as Trelane) and I decided to take a little time out beforehand to rehearse our moves in order to avoid piercing each other's eyes out on the set.

"Bill suggested his backyard would be the ideal location for choreographing our sword-fighting follies, so the next day I headed over to his house on my motorcycle. Things seemed to be going very well until...have I mentioned that with every purchase over $10 at WilliamShatner.com, you get a free un-signed photo of Captain Kirk (me)? Of course, we also sell autographed merchandise, but that is just a little bit more expensive - but well worth it! For example, an autographed picture of me in the Star Trek episode 'Mirror, Mirror' will cost you a very reasonable $79.95...anyway, back to the story.

"So one day I arrive at Bill's house for some more running and jumping around his backyard. But unbeknownst to me, he had invited some of the neighborhood children from the area to 'see Captain Kirk!'. I wished he had told me. I wasn't prepared for that at all. The kids rushed up to see Captain Kirk just as I was taking off my helmet. At that point, I experienced something so horrible and hurtful that it still makes me shudder to think about it today. Imagine a group of kids standing there laughing at you. Why were they laughing? Because, they didn't believe that I was Captain Kirk. Why? Because thanks to certain makeup secrets that I don't really wish to discuss (I really don't get why so many people out there seem to be so fascinated with this subject), Kirk looked a little different from the man that was standing in front of these youngsters. And they weren't shy in letting me know just how disappointed they were by that!

"For some reason, in the midst of their cruel laughter, my mind went back to that moment when I was six-years-old, performing the play Winterset to a bunch of kids at Jewish summer camp. You know the story - I played a boy who had to say goodbye to his dog because the Nazis were coming. Everybody cried. I cried. My father hugged me. It was incredible how I had finally been able to empathically reach everyone around me. And now, thirty-years later: this! Kids laughing at me! It was just horrible.

"At that moment, I vowed that I wouldn't ever let that happen again. The fans loved Captain Kirk, but apparently weren't so forgiving of the many flaws of Bill Shatner. So, I started to wear my 'makeup secrets' home; I would never again let myself be photographed or seen in public without those 'secrets' in place. Perhaps it was a comfort blanket of sorts - I really don't know - but for years now I have lived with the fear that something similar may happen again. Humiliation and ridicule is one of the most painful experiences a person can experience and who wouldn't want to do all they could to avoid that?

"So now you know! And can we please talk about something else? Like the time that I hung Leonard's bike up in...Oh, by the way, our rehearsals couldn't have helped us that much as Bill Campbell still managed to briefly dislocate his shoulder while we filmed one of those scenes!"

Just to repeat, this story is not in Bill Shatner's book Up Till Now; rather, we tried to write it up as if it had been.

Now, a disclaimer - Normally, we are very meticulous in providing sources for what we publish here. In this case, things are a little different. This is a story (we've added for dramatic purposes Shatner's pondering on his experiences during Winterset, and, of course, his toupee-related ruminations and decisions) that was apparently told by Bill Campbell many years ago to somebody - an industry insider - who wishes to remain anonymous. We have contacted that person and are satisfied that they are telling the truth. As another layer of verification, the person mentioned another man that was present at the event where he had met Bill Campbell. We contacted this person to double-check that part of the claim - although they did not remember hearing the story, they did confirm that they had been at the function and that they had met Bill Campbell. This was enough to satisfy us.

You are free, of course, to disbelieve both us (we could just be making all of this up - we promise that we are not) and/or the teller of this story. The latter is a valid point. The only two people (other than the kids in the garden) that can verify this incident are William Shatner and Bill Campbell. Until then, officially it is hearsay, but unofficially, we think that it is an incredibly revealing and important incident, perhaps the most pivotal that we have ever chronicled here.

1973, the toupee nadir and more old meets new...

Impulse (1974).

We've previously tried to find examples where old toupee styles make a sudden reappearance. There aren't many of them, but we have managed to unearth a new great example from 1974 - the same year that Shatner reached a toupee low-point with the movie Impulse. More on the old styles making a comeback in a moment.

The book Encyclopedia Shatnerica lists the 1974 film Impulse as its choice of Shatner's worst ever toupee. We've been reluctant to get into this, as we try to be a little more detached (if you'll pardon the pun) here at Shatner'sToupee. But if we were pressed, we would have to choose the photos of Bill Shatner's wedding (to actress Marcy Lafferty) from just a year before for that honor. The toupee is so bad and the occasion so wanting of Bill not to be wearing a bad toup that we felt we had no choice here but to label it our own personal worst ever toupee moment.


Yet, Bill appears to have decidedly moved away from this toupee wedding-related and then Impulse nadir very quickly. Call it a toupee renaissance, if you will. The birth of better times. Very soon after, the old "Jim Kirk look" (or something very close to it) makes a sudden return. Here are two stills from Shatner's 1974 appearance on Good Night America (video uploaded to YouTube by "FilmsRreel").


Not only is the toupee better, but Bill is far leaner and far happier-looking.


He has a new wife and flattering Star Trek revival talk is reaching fever-pitch across America. Were the bad toupees a cry for help? Is toupee quality correlated to Bill Shatner's emotional state? Did the "Jim Kirk"-style toupee bring back good memories? Who knows? A year later, Bill was evidently still on a high, and still wearing his revived "Jim Kirk" toupee for the TV movie The Tenth Level. Was this a way to get Paramount to notice that Shatner was still in good shape should a new Star Trek film or TV series truly be considered?

The Tenth Level (1975).

This "Jim Kirk-Phase II" look even lasted through the 1975 feature-film The Devil's Rain, albeit somewhat more diluted (meaning more wig, less lace). This is evidently not the same toupee that Shatner wore in his 1974 appearance on Good Night America - that was likely his own expensive toupee bought as a result of some decent paycheck coming through from a recent project, maybe even the Star Trek animated series. But toupees wear out quickly and the "Jim Kirk" look is expensive and cumbersome to attach compared to hairpieces that obscure the hairline.

The Devil's Rain (1975).

The short-lived 1975 TV series Barbary Coast is yet another example of this "Jim Kirk-Phase II" look.

There are probably a few examples during this period of the dreadful toupees of the early 1970s making a return - possibly on some of the gameshow appearances Shats did during this time, but the "Jim Kirk-Phase II" (1974-1975) has emerged as a fresh subcategory in our toupee timeline.

Then, only a year later, the new "curly look" of the later Star Trek movies as well as T.J. Hooker was born, most notably in the Columbo episode "Fade in to Murder". Did Bill decide it was time to stop looking back? Did the rollercoaster ride of Star Trek's long and as yet still unrealized road to revival make the actor consciously decide to move on with a new hairstyle? We can only guess as to the many motivations at play in the world of Shatner's toupee.

Bill Shatner in the very entertaining and well worth watching 1976 Columbo episode "Fade in to Murder".