Just out of curiosity, I went poking around for more deets on Scotty’s D-Day heroism, and it really is quite a story indeed.
Remembering D-Day Hero James Doohan.
This Memorial Day we’re looking back at Doohan’s service during that fateful landing in the Second World WarMemorial Day is a most appropriate time to think about the sacrifices made on D-Day, the fateful evening in 1944 that the Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, to battle Hitler’s Nazi forces and liberate mainland Europe. One of those soldiers, on his very first combat assignment, was a young Canadian named James Doohan, who later when on to great fame as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on Star Trek: The Original Series. That bit of trivia — and the story that goes along with it — may be old news to longtime fans, but to the Star Trek newcomers out there, it’s a tale that’s well worth repeating.
“The sea was rough,” Doohan recalled of his landing on Juno Beach that day, an anecdote included in his obituary, which the Associated Press ran on June 20, 2005. “We were more afraid of drowning than [we were of] the Germans.”
The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren’t heavy enough to detonate the bombs, the AP story continued. At 11:30 that night, Doohan — a pilot and captain in the Royal Candian Artillery Regiment — was machine-gunned, taking six hits. One bullet blew off his middle right finger, four struck his leg and one hit him in the chest. A silver cigarette case stopped the bullet to the chest.
Throughout his acting career Doohan took measures to hide the missing finger, but it was occasionally visible to the camera, including in certain shots from Star Trek. He made no effort, however, to hide the missing finger during his decades of autograph signings and convention appearances.
In comments here, Aesop remembers:
I went to school with Scotty’s kids.
When Doohan showed up for our sports banquet, I noticed he was missing most of his left ring finger.
His sons thought it was from a childhood sledding accident.
I don’t think dad had shared the full truth with them.
Likely not, as tends to be the way with truly brave men. In a screen grab from one of the most popular ST-TNG eps, Scotty’s injury is clearly visible:
From that pic, it appears as if not only the middle finger but the ring finger also might have been involved—although the rest of the ring finger could be obscured by the excessive fluff of the darn troublesome Tribble. Whatever the case may be, a most humble tip of the CF chapeau to the honorable and admirable LT James M Doohan, a bona fide hero who—like all heroes—actually did instead of just talked.
Yet MOAR update! Turns out, Mr Scott’s maiming resulted from another of those all-too-common “friendly fire” incidents.
Around 11 PM that night, a jumpy Canadian sentry fired at Doohan as the lieutenant was walking back to his post. He was hit by six bullets: four times in the left knee, once in the chest, and once in the right hand.
Doohan recovered from his wounds and joined up with the Royal Canadian Artillery, where he was taught how to fly a Taylorcraft Auster Mark IV plane. He was later dubbed the “craziest pilot in the Canadian air force” after flying between two telephone poles in 1945 just to prove that he could.
Yep, that definitely sounds like the Montgomery Scott we all know and love. The tale of how Doohan came to involve himself in show biz in the first place is a mighty good ‘un as well.
At some point between Christmas 1945 and New Year’s 1946, though, Doohan turned on the radio and listened to “the worst drama I had ever heard,” which prompted him to head down to the local radio station on a whim and do a recording on his own.
The radio operator was impressed enough to recommend Doohan enroll at a Toronto drama school, where he eventually won a two-year scholarship to the esteemed Neighborhood Playhouse in New York.
He returned to Toronto in 1953 and performed in dozens of roles on radio, stage, and television, including some bit parts in famous American series such as Bonanza, Twilight Zone, and Bewitched. Then in 1966, he auditioned for a new NBC science fiction series that would change his life — and the life of sci-fi fans — forever.
The part Doohan auditioned for was one of an engineer aboard a futuristic spaceship. Since he had mastered dozens of different accents and voices from his years of radio work, the producers had him try out a few and asked which he liked best.
“I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them, ‘If this character is going to be an engineer, you’d better make him a Scotsman.’” The producers were thrilled with the character who was “99% James Doohan and 1% accent” and the Canadian joined William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy in the cast of Star Trek, the show that would forever cement them in pop culture history.
Indubitably so. Rest ye well, James Doohan. We shan’t see your like again.
1
1
- Entries
Never knew that about him. RIP Mr. Doohan.
Ditto
I stand corrected.
I plead the vagaries of a gradeschool memory.
The missing digit was clearly imprinted, however, from a front-row table seat.
And one of my teammates, his son Monty, related it was from a “sledding accident” when Dad was a kid, when I asked him about it. (Dads with missing fingers were pretty rare in the 1960s, as now.)
Uh huh.
Sledding accident: Not so much.
BTW, not for nothing, but if George Takei, who for all his gayness is still a legendary American story, hadn’t been such a gun-fearing wuss from a family of the same, perhaps he and his entire family wouldn’t have spent WWII in Arkansas and California, inside Japanese-American concentration camps.