This is so terribly sad.
This is so terribly sad. I got to meet "Scotty" in Boston at a Star Trek Convention (yes, the Psycho Sensei actually attended Star Trek Conventions) in the early 80s and got to speak to him. By coincidence, I was just asking my husband whether Jimmy Doohan had passed yet, when we saw him in the really awful movie "Trekkies." He had mentioned then that he received a suicide letter from a fan, and he had told her that he was going to be at a convention near her home, and therefore, she was required to attend, that he wanted to see her. He then told her she had to see him at the next convention two weeks later in another town. This went on for a few more conventions, and her depression eventually lifted, and he received a letter from her later, thanking him for saving her life. An interesting man, even when he wasn't ranting about Bill Shatner's ego :-)
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek" TV series and motion pictures who responded to the command "Beam me up, Scotty," died early Wednesday. He was 85.
Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) at his Redmond, Washington, home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said.
The Canadian-born Doohan fought in World War II and was wounded during the D-Day invasion, according to the StarTrek.com Web site. He was enjoying a busy career as a character actor when he auditioned for a role as an engineer in a new space adventure on NBC in 1966. A master of dialects from his early years in radio, he tried seven different accents.
More at CNN.com