When did William Shatner start wearing a toupee?

The short and simple answer is sometime between 1957 and 1958. From that point onwards, he would never again choose to be photographed professionally without wearing a hairpiece. The decision may initially have been only for television and film work rather than theatrical productions - but that distinction didn't last long...

Studio One - No Deadly Medicine. (1957)

Above we have two photographs of a still toupless Shatner in December 1957, performing in a TV show called Studio One - No Deadly Medicine.

The World of Suzie Wong (1958)

Perhaps the last time he was ever photographed acting without a toupee was during the long theatrical run of The World of Suzie Wong (see above and also here).

Playhouse 90 - A Town Has Turned to Dust. (1958)

That same year, the toup (albeit a rather shabby-looking one) made an appearance in a TV show called Playhouse 90 - A Town Has Turned to Dust (see above). We also have a photograph from a year earlier (see below) from Studio One - The Defender (1957) in which Bill Shatner appears to be already wearing a hairpiece. Was this the first ever first toup appearance? The point here is that it likely wasn't entirely black & white - during the crossover period, Shats may have worn a toup in one show and still relied on sprays and combing techniques in another.

Studio One - The Defender (1957). The first toup appearance?

And of course, we also saw Shats in the movie The Brothers Karamazov (released in 1958, but filmed in 1957) - although his toup in that film is perhaps better described as a stage wig.

The Brothers Karamazov (1958)

After 1958, the toup never ever went away and by 1959, the classic Star Trek: TOS look was essentially born with Shatner now wearing an (expensive) front lace toup as well as a hairpiece that covered the crown (the pieces may or may not have been separate). These toups were almost certainly provided by the productions Shats was working for, rather than anything the struggling young actor could afford to buy for himself - the latter would likely not have been particularly suitable for filming.

However, Bill Shatner was doing a lot of very low budget TV at this time, so perhaps with the money he had made from The Brothers Karamazov he also decided to fork out for his own personal toup in case the budget of a particular production could not cover this expense - Shats may have also felt that it helped his chances at auditions. Star Trek (which was a considerably higher budget TV production) producer Bob Justman later noted that Shatner's "Own 'personal' ones were too ratty-looking [to be used in front of the cameras]." (see here).

Shatner in CBS's The Story of a Gunfighter (1959)

So, if we want to celebrate Bill Shatner's 50th anniversary of wearing a toupee, I am afraid we are a year too late. But maybe better late than never: Happy "Golden Toup Anniversary" to you...!!

More from 1957's "The Glass Eye"

Some screengrabs from a 1957 episode of Alfred Hitchcok Presents called "The Glass Eye". We would venture to say that Bill Shatner is still toupless here. The front hairline is evidently receding, but the real key is what is happening at the back. Whereas the rear toup that he soon started to wear smoothed over the crown in a rather singular fashion, here we don't see that effect yet at all. Instead, it appears that Shats has grown his front hair a little longer and is combing it back over the area of thinning.




A year later, (see previous post), the rear thinning became too prominent to conceal.

William Shatner bald-patch picture.

This is the first ever photo we've been able to locate of a toupless Shats in which we see signs of baldness in the crown area (sourced from the often factually innacurate E! True Hollywood William Shatner documentary). The picture is of a 1958 production of The World of Suzie Wong in New York. Bill was just 27 years-old at the time.

Here is the bald area closer up.

And here we enhance to highlight contrasts.

In case you've ever wondered...

This is a little gross, but the guy in this video kindly shares with viewers one of the methods of attaching a front lace toupee - the kind that Bill Shatner wore on Star Trek. We thought you might find it interesting.

Shat-no-meter ruling...

"I don’t wear a hairpiece." - William Shatner, 1994, (source here).

There is a mountain of conclusive evidence that William Shatner has worn a variety of hairpieces throughout his career. Unlike with our previous ruling on a more recent statement that gave Bill Shatner the benefit of the doubt because of a clever use of the word "it", here we find nowhere near enough wriggle room with the word "don't". The evidence of toupee wearing is so overwhelming and has, we believe, been conclusively demonstrated at this website, that this statement can only be described as ridiculous. We therefore have no choice but to give it our lowest Shat-no-meter rating - "Pants on Fire".