Bill Shatner in 1967: "So I had to have a full wig"!

Utilizing Google's research tools (more here), reader "ttttttttt" has found a great little article from a May 19th 1967 issue of the now defunct Pittsburgh Press. The article (sourced here) reports on Bill Shatner's involvement with the movie White Comanche, which was filmed during the hiatus between Star Trek's first and second seasons (this gap in filming ran from February to May 1967 - more here). In the article, the actor mentions having to wear a wig:

"William (Star Trek) Shatner, who made a movie 'White Comanche,' in Spain, in which he played dual roles - brothers, one reared as an Indian and one as a cowboy:

He Had to Be Doctored

'One brother had to be blond and I couldn't bleach my hair because of the series. So I had to have a full wig. One character is light-eyed, and one dark, so I had to have contact lenses made.'"



Has Bill Shatner been caught in some sort of toupological fib? A closer inspection reveals layers of nuance and considerable room for maneuver:

"I couldn't bleach my hair because of the series" - Bill Shatner did have his own real hair at the back and sides, and bleaching that may indeed have presented a problem.


A closer inspection of the above image from White Comanche reveals that Bill Shatner's own hair at the very base of the wig is indeed darker and has not been intensively dyed.

"So I had to have a full wig."

This one is a little more tricky. Is Bill Shatner emphasizing the words "had to" or "full"? If the first is true, then he is essentially saying that he had to wear a wig, even though he need not have - not true: baldness meant Bill Shatner wore a toupee, irrespective of hair color issues. Although, here, the distinction could be between a toupee, hairpiece or wig - he had to wear a wig, instead of the toupee. If the emphasis is on the latter "full", then the meaning is somewhat different. "So I had to have a full wig" - meaning "a wig larger than the hairpiece I normally wear."

Since there is only clever parsing and no overt verifiable deception, our Shat-no-Meter rates this one as "Mostly True".


To hear Bill Shatner say the word "toupee" click here, and to hear him say the word "hairpiece" click here.

Oh, Bill!

Unintended irony...you start seeing things that aren't there...extra layers (if you'll pardon the pun) of meaning...you can't help it!!!

The above image is a publicity still for the 2006 animated film Over the Hedge. Bill Shatner gives his voice to Ozzie, an Opossum. Come on class...stop it now! Here's a picture of an Opossum:


We also wanted to have a serious discussion about this image...

Publicity photo for "The Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" - read our analysis of the episode here.

OK, everyone...due to constant sounds of smirking at the back, class is dismissed...

Disaster on the Coastliner - a toupological analysis.

Disaster on the Coastliner is a 1979 TV movie that features an all-star ensemble cast, which includes Lloyd Bridges, E.G. Marshall and William Shatner.

The plot centers on a disgruntled former railroad company employee who, demonstrating great technological skills, commandeers a train and sets it on a collision course with another train on the same track, which is carrying the US Vice-President's wife.

"I'm the bad guy."

Unless his demands are met, the clock is ticking on a catastrophic collision.

"I'm the stubborn driver of the other train."

Back at train control HQ, dispatcher E.G. Marshall along with Secret Service agent Lloyd Bridges are stunned by the clever plot - the driver of the other train refuses to stop because the hijacker, pretending to be HQ, has told him that terrorists have taken over his train and he must not believe what he is being told to do by the authorities.

Lloyd Bridges and E.G. Marshall.

Bill Shatner plays a passenger on the commandeered train, a lovable conman on the run from the law.


This delightfully convoluted plot is also highly improbable. One suspects that there are far more ways to stop a train than are depicted here. Perusing the Internet, it is evident that nitpickers have been having a field day with this movie - one such example: "The script conveniently overlooks emergency brakes found in every car and has you believe there are no crossovers or switches of any kind for the 90 minutes the two trains are on the same track." (sourced here).


Nonetheless, as even most of these nitpickers concede, Disaster on the Coastliner is highly entertaining, fun and eminently watchable - one of the better disaster movies from this era. The pace is tight, the characters interesting and some of the stunts (a helicopter flying in front of a speeding train) seem frighteningly dangerous.


Bill Shatner, as he notes in his autobiography Up Till Now, performed many of his own stunts, which we'll deal with as part of our toupological analysis...

The actor is wearing his stage one curly "TJ Curly" weave here - the kind that he wore in the first two Star Trek movies.

Early on in the movie, we see his character donning fake fair and a mustache.


A little later, we see Bill Shatner removing this fake hair. These kinds of moments are always inherently fascinating to watch for obvious reasons.

Flash forward to Bill Shatner's character charming a woman on the train in order to throw on-board cops off his scent. The woman grows suspicious and opens his briefcase only to find a secret stash of fake hair (does actor Bill Shatner also carry spare toups when he travels?).

A suitcase full of toupee secrets.

The rest of the movie appears to flow along without further toupological incident. Perhaps fans of the toupee should be satisfied with the above, right?

But, towards the end, Bill Shatner surprises and rewards toupee fans with an extraordinary feat of toupological endurance that precedes his underwater antics in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and casts aside his hat-wearing apprehension from only a year before in The Crash of Flight 401.


Stepping out into some potentially toupee-lifting gusts, Bill Shatner climbs on top of a speeding train carriage.

Bill Shatner's toupee is thoroughly tested in this movie.

In all but a few wide overhead shots in which a stuntman doubles for the actor, that really is Bill Shatner on the train!

There is a great sense of double-jeopardy here - the audience fears not just for the safety of Bill Shatner and the character he portrays, but also for the safety and security of the toupee. It's a real nail-biter!


Many of you might be wondering how such seemingly dangerous stunts could have been performed. Have no fear! We have no doubt that all precautions were taken beforehand, including various tests and rehearsals, to make sure that the toupee was safely attached to Bill Shatner's head at all times. Such stunts could easily end in disaster, but thanks to generous sprinkles of Hollywood skill, professionalism and very strong toupee glue, we are confident that the toupee was never in any real danger.

Sadly, this movie is unavailable commercially, but can be viewed, at present, on YouTube. A fun film and well worth watching.

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to give up appearing in disaster movies!"

Ask the question...

In 2004, US radio hosting team Greg Hughes and Anthony Cumia, known as "Opie and Anthony" conducted a live telephone interview with Bill Shatner. Perhaps inspired by the toupological tensions of the notorious MJ Kelli incident, at one point, applauding the actor's performance in the 1960 Twilight Zone episode "Nick of Time" (see our toupological analysis here) one of the DJs, noted "...and your hair looks fantastic in it!" Therein followed a brief pause, after which Bill Shatner asked "Say that again?" Sadly, the issue was not followed up and a potentially important moment of toupological discussion was missed. Listen to the clip below:

The compliment seems genuine (our toupological analysis also applauded Bill Shatner's hair in this installment) but also appears to be just a little provocative, hoping to broach a subject that has struck a paralyzing terror into even the most seasoned and probing interviewer. Hughes and Cumia do not pursue the matter, perhaps afraid of being crushed by the weight of Bill Shatner's personality.


Truth is, the entire interview (which can be heard in two parts on YouTube) is a little odd. Bill Shatner evidently can take all manner of banter directed at him (half of his career is built on that!), including banter levelled at his toupee (see the Comedy Central Roast), but what is clear from this interview is that if you show just a little obsequiousness or uncertainty or amateurishness or a dark undertones that seek mere mockery (as one of the DJs evidently does), he will destroy you.


A better example of this can be heard here, in which a director in a sound recording studio evidently does not know what he wants from Bill Shatner. The actor, quite rightly in our view, tears the wimpy director a new one. The guy ends up apologizing for even trying to do his job while Bill Shatner, very calmly, even makes the humiliated director admit that he does not know what he is doing - Shats really does shred the guy to pieces and it is a joy to behold!

But back to the above clip. Did Bill Shatner really not hear the question? Or did he hear it, but go into a kind of shock at the audacity of toup? Or did he hear the question and simply pretend that he didn't? Let us know what you think...

UPDATE: In January 2010, Bill Shatner was again interviewed, this time in the studio, by Opie and Anthony - listen here.

Poll Result.

Well, well, well...essentially a tie. Half of respondents would like to see Bill Shatner go toup-less in "Sh*t My Dad Says" - the other half aren't sure if they could deal with the shock of seeing a bald Shatner! Whatever the actor has decided (let's be honest, chances of a bald Shats are slim), the pilot is already in the can.

Thanks for voting!