Captain Quirk: The Unauthorized Biography of William Shatner is a curious 1995 biography written by paranormal investigator Dennis William Hauck. For the most part it is a perfectly decent biography, and despite the exploration of some negative sides to the actor, one senses a great affection for Shatner from the author.
On the other hand, the book's opening two chapters are consumed with Hauck's personal experience of working with Shatner in 1976's Mysteries of the Gods documentary. Mixed in with this are some truly idiotic deductions with regards to Shatner, UFO's, Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry etc. It is true that Shatner had claimed to have had a UFO experience in the California desert, although he later admitted he made it up. The author of the book not only explores this alleged encounter but then attributes a great deal of Shatner's later work to a personal quest to interpret this deeply moving experience. He also makes several very spurious deductions in this regard. Baloney. Shats went where the work was, simple as that.
Mysteries of the Gods (1976).Anyway, here is a quote from the book with regards to Shatner's (rather long) toup. The actor is interviewing a scientist on the roof of a COMSAT technical center and the author of Captain Quirk is present at the scene:
The scene described in the extract below."Unfortunately, the bright sunlight made Shatner's long-haired toupee all the more obvious. The black hairpiece clashed against his blonde eyebrows and yellow jacket, giving him the appearance of a Beatle doll. His natural light-brown hair had steadily receded over the last decade. leaving a bald spot at the crown of his head. His efforts to cover it up were betrayed by his inability to decide on one style or color. This was the longest hairpiece he had ever worn, and the unkempt look and dark color were dead giveaways."
Have you seen the back covers of some of those TekWar or Star Trek books that Shat was involved in during the early 90's? In one portrait photo, the toupee adhesive had lost its grip and the toupee edge is lifting off from the side of his head in one area. Very odd photo...but great.
ReplyDeleteOne would think that those studio photos would have been airbrushed...
ReplyDeleteI remember that photo! I think it was on the first TekWar book, or maybe the first Trek book he wrote (after Generations). Those were the only two of his books I ever read. Anyway, I thought I must be interpreting it wrong as there was no way an editor would let that photo get through without retouching it.
ReplyDeleteJust to give a shout-out to "Mysteries of the Gods" - if you haven't seen it, it is a hoot and a half.
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