title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Approximately 867 people were injured, at least 413 of them with gunshot wounds or shrapnel injuries. In the aftermath, many victims were transported to area hospitals, which included University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center, and at least one of the six hospitals of Valley Health System. Sunrise Hospital treated the largest portion of the wounded: 199 patients, 150 of whom arrived within a timespan of about 40 minutes. University Medical Center treated 104 patients. Additionally, six victims sought medical treatment in Southern California; UC Irvine Medical Center treated four and Loma Linda University Medical Center treated two. Many victims of the shooting required blood transfusions, which totaled 499 components in the first 24 hours of treatment. This blood was rapidly replaced by available blood from local and national blood banks.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: University Medical Center, the Level I trauma center in Las Vegas, was difficult to access for the more than 50 percent of patients transported by private vehicles because Interstate 15, the most direct route from the shooting location, was closed to the public. Also, an erroneous emergency services announcement made one hour after the shooting reported UMC had reached capacity and was on diversion. This confusion persisted for several hours and led to most patients being transported to Sunrise, a Level II trauma center.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Officials from the FBI and the ATF responded to assist in the investigation. According to authorities with the Clark County Commission, the name "1 October" was declared the official title for investigations into the mass shooting.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Investigators found hidden surveillance cameras that were placed inside and outside the hotel room, presumably so Paddock could monitor the arrival of others. The cameras were not in record mode. Police said a handwritten note found in the room indicated Paddock had been calculating the distance, wind, and trajectory from his 32nd floor hotel suite to the concertgoers he was targeting on the festival lot.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: At a press conference on October 4, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo stated there was evidence—which he declined to discuss—that Paddock intended to escape the scene, and that he may have had assistance from an accomplice. Investigators searched Paddock's room and found a "bulletproof vest" and breathing apparatus, neither of which were used by Paddock.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: There have been several changes in the official account and timeline of Paddock's shooting of hotel security guard Campos. Police officials described these adjustments as "minute changes" that are common in complex investigations.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: In their first statement about the incident, police officials inaccurately reported that Campos arrived on the scene after Paddock began firing into the crowd. In a second statement, police officials reported, again inaccurately, that Campos was shot six minutes before Paddock began firing into the crowd. That report had been based on a 9:59 p.m. notation in a hotel security log, which in a third statement was determined to have been the time when Campos encountered the barricaded door.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Sheriff Lombardo dismissed allegations that the changing timeline was the result of some kind of conspiracy between the police department, the FBI, and MGM Resorts International saying, "Nobody is attempting to hide anything in reference to this investigation. The dynamics and the size of this investigation requires us to go through voluminous amounts of information in order to draw an accurate picture."


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released a preliminary report on the event on January 18, 2018.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Police speculate that Paddock acted alone and have not determined his motive. No links have been identified to any hate groups, terrorist groups or ideologies, and he did not record a reason for his actions.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: On February 2, 2018, Douglas Haig, an Arizona ammunition dealer, was charged in a Nevada federal court with "conspiracy to manufacture and sell armor-piercing ammunition without a license" after his fingerprints were discovered on unfired armor-piercing ammunition inside Paddock's suite. He was sentenced in June 2020 to 13 months in prison.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: On August 3, 2018, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo held a press conference on the release of the "LVMPD Criminal Investigative Report of the October 1 Mass Casualty Shooting". He said the 10-month investigation had revealed no evidence of conspiracy or a second gunman, and that the gunman's motive had not been definitely determined. Lombardo said "What we have been able to answer are the questions of who, what, when, where and how... what we have not been able to definitively answer is why Stephen Paddock committed this act." A report published by the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit in January 2019 said that "there was no single or clear motivating factor" for the shooting.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Twenty-four firearms, a large quantity of ammunition, and numerous high-capacity magazines capable of holding up to 100 rounds apiece were found in the suite. Fourteen of the firearms were .223-caliber AR-15-type semi-automatic rifles: three manufactured by Colt, two by Daniel Defense, two by FN Herstal, two by LWRC International, two by POF-USA, one with a .223 Wylde chamber by Christensen Arms, one made-to-order by LMT, and one by Noveske. The others were eight .308-caliber AR-10-type rifles, one .308-caliber Ruger American bolt-action rifle, and one .38-caliber Smith & Wesson Model 342 revolver. Some of the AR-15 rifles were fitted with vertical forward grips and bump stocks, the latter of which allowed for recoil to actuate their triggers at a rate of 90 rounds in 10 seconds. The AR-10 rifles were equipped with various telescopic sights and mounted on bipods. Paddock was found to have fired a total of 1,058 rounds from fifteen of the firearms: 1,049 from twelve AR-15-style rifles, eight from two AR-10-style rifles, and the round used to kill himself from the Smith & Wesson revolver.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: During the subsequent investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined that the firearms found in his hotel room, along with more guns found in his homes, had been legally purchased in Nevada, California, Texas, and Utah. In the month preceding the shooting, he had attempted to purchase tracer ammunition, but the gun dealer he approached did not have the item in stock. He bought tracer ammunition from a private seller at a Phoenix, Arizona gun show. In addition, ammonium nitrate (often used in improvised explosive devices) was found in the trunk of his Hyundai Tucson SUV, along with 1,600 rounds of ammunition and of Tannerite, a binary explosive used to make explosive targets for gun ranges. Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said that while Paddock had "nefarious intent" with the material, he did not appear to have assembled an explosive device.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Stephen Paddock was a 64-year-old former auditor and real estate businessman who had been living northeast of Las Vegas in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada. He was twice divorced, had a long-term girlfriend, and had no known children. He was a son of Benjamin Paddock, a bank robber who was on the FBI's most-wanted list between 1969 and 1977. Paddock's only recorded interactions with law enforcement were traffic citations.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Paddock was a high-stakes gambler who placed bets at a high enough level to earn valuable comps—free benefits such as rooms and meals. He was a familiar figure to casino hosts in Las Vegas, but was not well known among other high-stakes gamblers because he mostly played single-player video poker. He reportedly kept to himself and was a heavy drinker. Paddock had lost a significant amount of his wealth over the previous two years, but had paid off all gambling debts before the shooting.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: In November 2017, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of 450 of the victims of the shooting, which claimed that the Mandalay Bay Hotel had shown negligence by allowing Paddock to bring a large amount of weaponry into the building. In July 2018, MGM Resorts International countersued hundreds of victims, claiming that it had "no liability of any kind" for the attack. On October 3, 2019, MGM Resorts reached a settlement of $800 million with the victims of the shooting, which was approved by a judge on September 30, 2020.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: On the morning after the shooting, lines to donate blood in Las Vegas stretched for blocks, and wait times were as much as six hours or more. In Las Vegas alone, 800 units of blood were donated to the local blood bank in the days following the shooting, and the American Red Cross reported a 53% increase in blood donation in the two days following the shooting. It was later reported that over 15% of the blood donated in Las Vegas after the shooting went unused, prompting questions about the benefit of widespread calls for blood donation following mass shootings. Millions of dollars have also been raised to help victims and their families.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: A unity prayer walk and ceremony was held in Las Vegas on October 7 in honor of the dead. Speakers at the ceremony included Vice President Mike Pence and Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman. On the evening of October 15, thousands participated in a commemorative 3-mile walk between Circus Circus and Mandalay Bay.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: The annual Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon took place on November 12 and was the largest event to be held in the city since the shooting. The event received a massive amount of security, which included 350 officers, counter-sniper surveillance posts, and a number of barriers composed of dump trucks, buses, and other large vehicles.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: The expansion Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL held a tribute to the victims and honored response personnel before their inaugural home game on October 10. Later during the season, the number 58 became the first number in team history to be retired, chosen for the 58 people who died immediately or within days of the shooting.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: The Mandalay Bay Resort renumbered its floors, skipping floor 32. Rooms 32–135 and 32–134, the rooms rented out by Paddock, were sealed off and made inaccessible to guests.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: The future of the Las Vegas Village remained undetermined until September 2019. MGM Resorts International intends to create a community center, which will host sporting events.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: In March 2019, Las Vegas police officer Cordell Hendrex, who did not immediately respond to the gunfire but had remained in the floor below Paddock, was fired for his inaction. He was reinstated a year later following an arbitrator's ruling.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: A British soldier, Trooper Ross Woodward, from the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards, who was visiting a nearby hotel while off-duty when the shooting began, was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Bravery for his actions during the event. His citation stated that "he consciously, deliberately and repeatedly advanced towards danger, moving people to safety and treating casualties".


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Navy Petty Officer First Class Brian Mazi, who was attending the event with his wife, was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his actions.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: A detective with the Rhode Island State Police, Conor O'Donnell, who was attending the event with his girlfriend, was awarded a service ribbon for his actions.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Assistant Scoutmaster Martin Heffernan was honored by Boy Scouts of America for demonstrating unusual heroism and extraordinary skill in saving or attempting to save a life at extreme risk to self with the Honor Award with Crossed Palms.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Sgt. Chasen Brown with the Utah Army National Guard was awarded the Medal of Valor for saving at least half a dozen other concert-goers. For 60–90 minutes after the shooting stopped, he continued to help render aid and assessed casualties.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Several people who were at the scene of the shooting when it occurred were also present during a November 2018 mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, California, which left thirteen dead, including the gunman. One person said the number of Las Vegas survivors at the bar may have been as high as 60. It was confirmed that a survivor of the Las Vegas shooting had died in the Thousand Oaks shooting.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval called the shooting "a tragic and heinous act of violence that has shaken the Nevada family". Jason Aldean, who was singing when the shooting started, posted his condolences on Instagram and noted all of those working with him at the show had survived the attack.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: At a press conference, U.S. President Donald Trump described Paddock as "a very very sick individual", and "a demented man, [with] a lot of problems" and described the event as an "act of pure evil". He added, "the police department has done such an incredible job, and we'll be talking about gun laws as time goes by". A White House official talking points memo, distributed to Trump allies, opposed tightening gun control since "new laws won't stop a mad man", but "will curtail the freedoms of law abiding citizens". On October 2, Trump issued a proclamation to honor the victims and their families. On October 4, Trump visited the shooting victims and first responders.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: The shooting prompted support in Congress for assault weapons legislation that would ban bump stocks. Many Congressional Democrats and some Republicans expressed support. House leaders said the issue of bump stock regulation should be decided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, which originally approved bump stocks. The National Rifle Association (NRA) came out in favor of administrative bump stock regulations. Firearms retailers reported increased consumer interest in bump stocks.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: On November 6, 2017, Massachusetts became the first state to ban the sale, possession, or use of the devices. In December 2018, Acting United States Attorney General Matthew Whitaker signed a regulation banning bump stocks in the U.S., effective March 2019. The regulation bans new sales and requires current owners to surrender or destroy existing bump stocks.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Eighteen Democratic U.S. Senators introduced a bill, the Keep Americans Safe Act, which would ban gun magazines that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition. Stock prices of firearms manufacturers rose the day after the shooting, as has happened after similar incidents. Investors expected gun sales to increase over concerns that such an event could lead to more stringent gun-control legislation, and possibly due to a rush of customers wishing to defend themselves against future attacks, but firearm sales did not increase after the shooting.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Following the shooting, misinformation and fake news about the shooter's identity and motive went viral on social media:


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Google and Facebook were criticized for displaying such false news stories in some of their search results. Alexis Madrigal of "The Atlantic" accused the two technology companies of failing in their responsibility to keep these from reaching the public. Facebook later said its algorithms were designed to detect and remove false stories, but failed to work adequately in this instance.


title: 2017 Las Vegas shooting

text: Survivors of the shooting have been accused of being crisis actors, and some have received death threats on social media. Conspiracy theorists have claimed that there were multiple shooters and that details of the massacre are being covered up for the sake of promoting gun control laws. After some media outlets reported that YouTube search results for information about the shooting returned links to conspiracy videos, YouTube said it had tweaked its search algorithm to promote news sources which it considered more authoritative. Some experts have said the removal of this content ironically fuels conspiracy theories by making a cover-up seem evident.


title: William Shatner

text: William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the "Star Trek" franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship "Enterprise" in the second pilot of the to his final appearance as Captain Kirk in the seventh "Star Trek" feature film, "Star Trek Generations" (1994).


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner began his screen acting career in Canadian films and television productions before moving into guest-starring roles in various US television shows. He appeared as James Kirk in all the episodes of "", 21 of the 22 episodes of "", and the first seven "Star Trek" movies. He has written a series of books chronicling his experiences before, during and after his time in a Starfleet uniform. He has also co-written several novels set in the "Star Trek" universe and a series of science fiction novels, the "TekWar" sequence, that were adapted for television. Outside "Star Trek," Shatner played the eponymous veteran police sergeant in "T. J. Hooker" (1982–1986) and hosted the reality-based television series "Rescue 911" (1989–1996), which won a People's Choice Award for Favorite New TV Dramatic Series. His appearances as a guest star in two episodes of the television detective series "Columbo", almost two decades apart, were among his many such contributions to television shows from the 1970s to the 2010s.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner's television career after his last appearance as Captain Kirk has embraced comedy, drama and reality shows. In seasons 4 and 5 of the NBC series "3rd Rock from the Sun", he played the alien "Big Giant Head" to which the main characters reported. From 2004 until 2008, he starred as attorney Denny Crane in the final season of the legal show "The Practice" and in its spinoff "Boston Legal", a role that earned him two Emmy Awards, one for his contribution to each series. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, he starred in both seasons of NBC's "Better Late Than Never", a comical travel series in which a band of elderly celebrities toured east Asia and Europe.


title: William Shatner

text: Aside from acting, Shatner has had a career as a recording artist, beginning in 1968 with his album "The Transformed Man". His cover versions of songs are dramatic recitations of their lyrics rather than musical performances: the most notable are his versions of The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", Bob Dylan's "Mr Tambourine Man", and Elton John's "Rocket Man". His most successful album was his third, "Seeking Major Tom" (2011), which includes covers of Pink Floyd's "Learning to Fly", David Bowie's "Space Oddity" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".


title: William Shatner

text: In 2021, Shatner flew into space aboard a Blue Origin sub-orbital capsule. At age 90, he became the oldest person to fly in space and one of the first 600 to do so. Minutes after the flight, he described experiencing the overview effect.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner was born on March 22, 1931, in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to a Conservative Jewish household. His parents were Ann ("née" Garmaise) and Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacturer. He is the middle child of three siblings: he has an older sister, Joy Rutenberg (1928–) and a younger sister, Farla Cohen (1940–). His patrilineal family name was Schattner—it was his grandfather, Wolf Schattner, who anglicized it. All four of Shatner's grandparents were Jewish immigrants: they came from settlements that are currently in Ukraine and Lithuania, but which were then under the rule of Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner attended two schools in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Willingdon Elementary School and West Hill High School, and is an alumnus of the Montreal Children's Theatre. He studied Economics at the McGill University Faculty of Management in Montreal, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1952. In 2011, McGill University awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Letters. He was granted the same accolade by the New England Institute of Technology in May 2018.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner's movie career began while he was still at college. In 1951, he had a small role in a Canadian comedy drama, "The Butler's Night Off": its credits list him as Bill Shatner, and describe his role simply as "a crook". After graduating, he worked as an assistant manager and actor at both the Mountain Playhouse in Montreal and the Canadian National Repertory Theatre in Ottawa before joining the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. His roles at the Festival included a part in Marlowe's "Tamburlaine", in which he made his Broadway debut in 1956. His brief appearance in the opening scene of a high profile production of Sophocles's "Oedipus Rex" by Tyrone Guthrie introduced him to television viewers across the whole of Canada. In "Henry V", he combined playing the minor role of the Duke of Gloucester with understudying Christopher Plummer as the king: when a kidney stone obliged Plummer to withdraw from a performance, Shatner's decision to present a distinctive interpretation of his role rather than imitating his senior's impressed Plummer as a striking manifestation of initiative and potential. (Plummer later appeared as a Klingon adversary of Captain Kirk's in "".) Guthrie too rated the young Shatner very highly, later recalling him as the most promising actor that his Festival employed, and for a time, he was seen as a potential peer of Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Robert Redford. In the view of Pat Jordan, author of an in-depth profile of Shatner for "The New York Times", his subsequent failure to achieve the acclaim accorded to his starrier contemporaries was attributable to his professional philosophy of "work equals work", and his consequent participation in many "forgettable" projects that probably did his career more harm than good. On the eve of his momentous casting as James Kirk, he was in Jordan's opinion seen merely as an actor who "showed up on time, knew his lines, worked cheap and always answered his phone".


title: William Shatner

text: In 1954, Shatner decided to leave Stratford and move to New York City in the hope of building a career on the Broadway stage. He was soon offered the chance to make his first appearance on American television: in a children's program called "The Howdy Doody Show", he created the role of Ranger Bob, co-starring with a cast of puppets and Clarabell the Clown, whose dialogue with Shatner consisted entirely of honks on a bicycle horn. It was four years before he won his first role in a major Hollywood movie, appearing in the MGM film "The Brothers Karamazov" as Alexei, the youngest of the brothers, in a cast that included Yul Brynner. In December 1958, directed by Kirk Browning, he appeared opposite Ralph Bellamy as a Roman tax collector in Bethlehem on the day of Jesus's birth in a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" live television production entitled "The Christmas Tree", the cast list of which included Jessica Tandy, Margaret Hamilton, Bernadette Peters, Richard Thomas, Cyril Ritchard, and Carol Channing. His US television profile was heightened further when he had a leading role in an episode in the third (1957–58) season of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "The Glass Eye".


title: William Shatner

text: In 1959, Shatner received good reviews in the role of Lomax in "The World of Suzie Wong" on Broadway. In the March of that year, while still performing in that production, he also played detective Archie Goodwin in what would have been television's first "Nero Wolfe" series, had it not been aborted by CBS after shooting a pilot and a few episodes.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner appeared in two episodes of "The Twilight Zone", "Nick of Time" (1960) and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (1963); when a "Twilight Zone" portmanteau was produced twenty years later, it was with a remake of the latter episode that the movie climaxed. He appeared twice as Wayne Gorham in NBC's "Outlaws" (1960) Western series with Barton MacLane, and then returned to "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" for a 5th-season episode, "Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?". In 1961, co-starring with Julie Harris, he appeared on Broadway in "A Shot in the Dark", directed by Harold Clurman; Gene Saks and Walter Matthau took part in the play too, Matthau winning a Tony Award for his performance. Shatner was featured in two episodes of the NBC television series "Thriller" ("The Grim Reaper" and "The Hungry Glass") and the film "The Explosive Generation" (1961). He took the lead role in Roger Corman's movie "The Intruder" (1962) and received very good reviews for his significant role in the Stanley Kramer film "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961). In the 1963–64 season, he appeared in an episode of the ABC series "Channing". In 1963, he starred in the "Family Theater" production called "The Soldier" and received credits in other programs of "The Psalms" series. That same year, he guest-starred in "Route 66", in the episode "Build Your Houses with Their Backs to the Sea".


title: William Shatner

text: In 1964, Shatner guest-starred in the second episode of the second season of the ABC science fiction anthology series "The Outer Limits", "Cold Hands, Warm Heart". Also that year, he appeared in an episode of the CBS drama "The Reporter", "He Stuck in His Thumb", and co-starred with Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Newman, and Edward G. Robinson in the Western feature film "The Outrage". 1964 also saw Shatner cast in an episode of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." that featured Leonard Nimoy, later to be his co-star in "Star Trek". 1964 saw him too as the titular Alexander in the pilot for a proposed series called "Alexander the Great" alongside Adam West as Cleander. The series was not picked up, and the pilot remained unaired until 1968, when it was repackaged as a TV movie to capitalize on the fame that West and Shatner had won in the interim. Shatner hoped that the series would be a major success, but West was apparently unsurprised by its failure to proceed, later castigating the pilot for "one of the worst scripts I have ever read" and recalling it as "one of the worst things I've ever done."


title: William Shatner

text: In 1965, Shatner guest-starred in "12 O'Clock High" as Major Curt Brown in the episode "I Am the Enemy". In the same year, he had the lead role in a legal drama, "For the People", starring as an assistant district attorney married to a woman played by Jessica Walter; ironically, it was only the show's cancellation after its 13-episode first season that allowed him to walk onto the bridge of the "Enterprise" the following year. Shatner starred in the 1966 gothic horror film "Incubus" (Esperanto: Inkubo,) the second feature-length movie ever made with all dialogue spoken in Esperanto. He also starred in an episode of "Gunsmoke" in 1966 as the character Fred Bateman. He appeared as attorney-turned-counterfeiter Brett Skyler in a 1966 episode of "The Big Valley", "Time to Kill". In 1967, he starred in the little known spaghetti western "White Comanche", playing both a white-hat character and his black-hat evil twin: Johnny Moon, a virtuous half-Comanche gunslinger, and Notah, a bloodthirsty warlord.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner was cast as Captain James T. Kirk for the second pilot of "Star Trek", titled "Where No Man Has Gone Before". He was then contracted to play Kirk for the remainder of the show, and he sat in the captain's chair of the USS "Enterprise" from 1966 to 1969. During its original run on NBC, the series achieved only modest ratings, and it was cancelled after three seasons and seventy-nine episodes. "Plato's Stepchildren", aired on November 22, 1968, earned Shatner a footnote in the history of American race relations: a kiss that Captain Kirk planted on the lips of Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) is often cited as the first example of a white man kissing a black woman on scripted television in the United States. In 1973, Shatner returned to the role of Kirk, albeit only in voice, in the , which ran for two seasons and twenty-two episodes.


title: William Shatner

text: In the early 1970s, in the immediate aftermath of the cancellation of "Star Trek" in 1969, Shatner experienced difficulty in finding employment, having become somewhat typecast as James Tiberius Kirk. With very little money and few acting prospects, he lost his home and was for a time so poor that he was reduced to living in a truck-bed camper in the San Fernando Valley. He refers to this part of his life as "that period", a humbling time during which he would take any odd job, including small party appearances, in order to support his family.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner's film work in this phase of his career was limited to such B-movies as Roger Corman's "Big Bad Mama" (1974), the horror film "The Devil's Rain" (1975) and "Kingdom of the Spiders" (1977). On television, he made a critically praised appearance as a prosecutor in a 1971 PBS adaptation of Saul Levitt's play "The Andersonville Trial", and was also seen in major parts in the movies "The People" (1972) and "The Horror at 37,000 Feet" (1973). He had a starring role too in the western-themed secret agent series "Barbary Coast" during 1975 and 1976, and appeared as a guest of the week in many popular shows of that decade, including "Columbo", "Ironside", "Kung Fu", "", "The Rookies" and "The Six Million Dollar Man". One of the special skills that Shatner was able to offer to casting directors was an expertise in a martial art: he was taught American Kenpo karate by the black belt Tom Bleecker, who had in turn been trained by the founder of American Kenpo, Ed Parker.


title: William Shatner

text: To supplement his income from acting, Shatner performed as a celebrity guest in a multitude of television game shows, among them "Beat the Clock", "Celebrity Bowling", "The Hollywood Squares", "Match Game", "Tattletales" and Mike Stokey's "Stump the Stars". His "curriculum vitae" in this genre included several visits to "The $10,000 Pyramid" and its more generous sequels, shows in which contestants attempted to guess a word or phrase with the help of hints from a famous partner. Shatner's contributions to the Pyramid series included a week-long match-up that pitted him against Leonard Nimoy in an event billed as "Kirk versus Spock". In a 1977 episode, he perpetrated a blunder that has been preserved on YouTube: at the climax of the show, attempting to guide his partner to the phrase "things that are blessed", he blurted out the word "blessed" instead of, as he had intended, citing the Virgin Mary. His mistake meant that the contestant paired with him was automatically disqualified from receiving what would have been a prize of $20,000. Shatner was so furious at himself over his error that he leapt out of his chair, picked it up and threw it out of the show's iconic Winner's Circle. During an Archive of American Television interview, Richard Dawson disclosed that when Mark Goodson was considering whom to employ as the host of the pilot of "Family Feud" (1976), he would have chosen Shatner if had not been intimidated into awarding the position to Dawson by a threat from Dawson's agent.


title: William Shatner

text: Advertising agencies also played a part in helping Shatner through his post-Kirk doldrums. Among the television commercials for which he was hired were spots promoting General Motors' Oldsmobile brand, Promise margerine, the British Columbia-based supermarket chain SuperValu and its Ontarian equivalent, Loblaws; Canadian viewers became familiar with the former hero of Starfleet reassuring them that "At Loblaws, more than the price is right. But, by gosh, the price is right."


title: William Shatner

text: After "Star Trek" was cancelled, it acquired a cult following among people watching syndicated reruns of the series, and Captain Kirk became a cultural icon. Fans of the show—so-called Trekkies—began organizing conventions where they could meet like-minded enthusiasts, buy "Star Trek" merchandise and enjoy question and answer sessions with members of the show's regular cast. Many of the actors who had crewed the "Enterprise" became frequent guests at these events, Shatner included.


title: William Shatner

text: In the mid-1970s, noting the growing appetite for "Star Trek", Paramount began pre-producing a sequel show, "", in which they planned to present new, younger actors alongside the stars of the original series. However, astounded by the enormous success that George Lucas's film "Star Wars" achieved in 1977, the studio decided that "Star Trek" would earn them more money if the next adventure of the "Enterprise" took place not on television but in theatres. Shatner and all the other original "Star Trek" cast members returned to their roles when Paramount produced "", released in 1979. He went on to play Kirk in six further "Star Trek" films: "" (1982), "" (1984), "" (1986), "" (1989), "" (1991) and—in a story that culminated in the captain's self-sacrificial death—"Star Trek Generations" (1994). His final appearances as James Tiberius were in the movie sequences of the video game "" (1997), in a 2006 DirecTV advertisement that used footage from "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" and at the 2013 Academy Awards, in which he reprised the role for a comedic interlude with the show's host, Seth MacFarlane.


title: William Shatner

text: Although the resurrection of "Star Trek" from oblivion only came about because of the enthusiasm of Trekkies, Shatner's attitude towards them is not uncritical. In a much-discussed 1986 "Saturday Night Live" sketch about a "Star Trek" convention, he advised a room full of Trekkies to "get a life". The comment was an apt summary of the view of his fans that he had expressed in several interviews. Their adoration of him took unwelcome forms almost from the beginning of his time as Captain Kirk; as early as April 1968, a group of them attempted to tear his clothes from him as he left 30 Rockefeller Plaza. His amusement at the behaviour of the lunatic fringe of his admirers was reflected in the romantic comedy movie "Free Enterprise" (1998), in which he contributed a caricature of himself to a film that satirized some Trekkies' Kirk idolatry. He also mocked the cavalier, almost superhuman, persona of Captain Kirk in the films "" (1982) and "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1" (1993).


title: William Shatner

text: In 1982, Shatner was once again the leading character of a high-profile television show when he was cast as a veteran Los Angeles police sergeant in "T. J. Hooker". Running for five seasons and ninety-one episodes until 1986, the series partnered Shatner with Heather Locklear and James Darren, later to be a recurring cast member of the third live-action "Star Trek" show, "Deep Space Nine". The success of "T. J. Hooker" led to Shatner's hosting the popular dramatic re-enactment series "Rescue 911" from 1989 to 1996. His career diversified further in the 1980s when he began working as a director, taking charge of many episodes of "T. J. Hooker". A clause in his "Star Trek" contract giving him parity with Leonard Nimoy meant that after Nimoy's directing of "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", Shatner was entitled to direct a "Star Trek" movie too: he exercised his right in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", although many Trekkies were disappointed by the film that he delivered, something that he attributed principally to the weakness of the movie's visual effects. His growing success on television and in movie theatres in the 1980s did not lead him to stop working for advertisers. The VIC-20 home computer, for example, was endorsed by him both on television and in print.


title: William Shatner

text: On May 19, 1983, the iconic status of Captain Kirk was acknowledged with a ceremony celebrating Shatner's being awarded the 1,762nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Shatner also has a star on Canada's Walk of Fame, granted to him in recognition of his being the first Canadian actor to star in major series on three US networks—NBC, CBS and ABC.


title: William Shatner

text: Working on "T. J. Hooker" inspired Shatner with the idea of developing a television show in which he would play a character that would be a hybrid of Hooker and Kirk—a hard-boiled former police officer working as a private investigator in a dystopian future. When the production of "Star Trek V" was delayed by a Writer's Guild strike, Shatner began transforming his initial concept into a novel, assisted by an established author of pulp science fiction, Ron Goulart. Goulart described his contribution to Shatner's endeavour as merely that of an adviser, but Shatner credits him with rewriting. The first fruit of their collaboration, "TekWar", was published in 1989, and launched a sequence of books that sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The novels led to four "TekWar" television movies, in which Shatner played not the lead character but his boss, Walter Bascom. Shatner reprised the role in a television series that followed, as well as directing several episodes of it himself, but its run on the USA Network, Syfy and Canada's CTV was brief.


title: William Shatner

text: In December 1989, Shatner took part in the British television series "This Is Your Life", a show in which a celebrity is ambushed by the host and then taken to a studio for the story of his life to be told in a stream of anecdotes related by his acquaintances: Shatner's episode began with Michael Aspel taking him by surprise on the set of the "Starship Enterprise" at Universal Studios in Hollywood. In 1994, Shatner revisited "Columbo" to play the murderer-of-the-week in the episode "Butterfly in shades of grey". In 1995, he narrated Peter Kuran's documentary film "Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie", and his TekWar franchise expanded into the world of computer games with a first-person shooter release, "William Shatner's TekWar". In 1996, an episode entitled "Eye, Tooth" saw him guest-starring in Will Smith's television show, "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". He narrated a television miniseries shot in New Zealand "A Twist in the Tale" (1998). In the television series "3rd Rock from the Sun", Shatner appeared in several 1999–2000 episodes as the "Big Giant Head", a high-ranking officer from the same alien planet as the Solomon family who becomes a womanizing party-animal on Earth. The role earned Shatner an Emmy Award nomination.


title: William Shatner

text: In the late 1990s, Shatner became closely accociated with the travel website priceline.com, appearing in many television commercials for the company as a pompous caricature of himself. He has said that while it is true that his work for priceline earned him stock options, reports that they are now worth hundreds of millions of dollars are exaggerated. He was also the Chief Executive Officer of the Toronto, Ontario-based C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, a special effects studio that operated from 1994 to 2010.


title: William Shatner

text: In May 1999, Simon & Schuster published Shatner's book "Get a Life!", a memoir of his experiences with Trekkies. As well as anecdotes about "Star Trek" conventions, the book features interviews with some of the most devoted fans of the "Star Trek" franchise, including conversations with several Trekkies who regard the show not just as entertainment but as philosophically significant.


title: William Shatner

text: In the Sandra Bullock comedy movie "Miss Congeniality" (2000), Shatner played the supporting role of Stan Fields, the co-host of the Miss United States Pageant; his future "Boston Legal" co-star Candice Bergen took part in the film too. Shatner also appeared in "" (2004), in which Stan Fields is kidnapped in Las Vegas together with the winner of the pageant of the previous year. (Life imitated art in Gary, Indiana in 2001, when Shatner visited the town to host the Miss USA Pageant for real). In "Osmosis Jones" (2001), a high-concept satirical movie that blended live action with animation, Shatner voiced Mayor Phlegmming; the film depicted the cells and microbiota of a human body as the citizens of a community, the city of Frank, governed by an egoistic politician who prioritizes his convenience and political self-interest over the welfare of his public. In "Groom Lake", released the following year, Shatner repeated his "Star Trek V" feat of directing and starring in a movie based on a story of his own invention—a film exploiting the interest in Area 51 kindled by "The X-Files", and co-starring a young Amy Acker, later best known as a regular colleague of Joss Whedon. In 2003, Shatner appeared in Brad Paisley's "Celebrity" and "Online" music videos along with Little Jimmy Dickens, Jason Alexander and Trista Rehn. He also had a supporting role in the comedy "" (2004), which starred Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn. In the October 2004 issue of "Star Trek Communicator", Manny Coto, one of the producers of "", revealed that he was planning a three-episode story arc guest-starring Shatner, but the cancellation of the series shortly afterwards meant that Shatner was denied the opportunity to take part in it.


title: William Shatner

text: After David E. Kelley saw Shatner's commercials, he brought Shatner on to the final season of the legal drama "The Practice". According to Pat Jordan, Shatner's Emmy Award-winning role, the eccentric but highly capable attorney Denny Crane, was essentially "William Shatner the man ... playing William Shatner the character playing the character Denny Crane, who was playing the character William Shatner." Shatner took the Crane role to "Boston Legal" and won a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 2005, and was Emmy nominated again in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. With his 2005 Emmy accolade, he became one of the few actors (along with co-star James Spader as Alan Shore) to win an Emmy Award while playing the same character in two different shows. Shatner remained with "Boston Legal" until, after five seasons and one hundred and one episodes, it ended in 2008.


title: William Shatner

text: Two high-profile animated pictures released in 2006 featured Shatner in their cast. In DreamWorks' "Over the Hedge", he voiced Ozzie, an opossum; in Walt Disney's "The Wild", he had the role of the movie's villain, Kazar, a megalomaniacal wildebeest. In January 2007, he began posting daily autobiographical vlogs on the LiveVideo platform in a project that he named "ShatnerVision"; rebranded as "The Shatner Project", his vlogging migrated to YouTube the following year. In December 2008, he experimented with the chat show genre in the humorous "Shatner's Raw Nerve", which aired until March 2011. He expanded his work on YouTube in 2009, supplying the voice of Don Salmonella to the animated series "The Gavones".


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner made several guest appearances on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien", including in cameos in which he made fun of the Republican politician Sarah Palin. He opened mock-hostilities on July 27, 2009, with a poetry slam inspired recitation of the speech in which she had resigned the governorship of Alaska. Two days later, he ridiculed some of the tweets that she and Levi Johnston, the father of her grandchild, had published on Twitter. On December 11, 2009, he returned to Palin once more to read excerpts from her autobiography, "", and she, taking his teasing in good part, responded by reciting extracts from his own memoir, "Up Till Now". (Co-written with David Fisher, later to collaborate with Shatner on a book about Leonard Nimoy and Shatner's relationship with him, "Up Till Now" had been published in 2008.) Shatner also contributed to O'Brien's recurring "In the Year 3000" feature, which began with Shatner's disembodied head floating in space and delivering the segment's portentous tag line: "And so we take a cosmic ride into that new millennium; that far off reality that is the year 3000. It's the future, man".


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner was not "offered or suggested" a role in the 2009 film "Star Trek". Director J. J. Abrams said in July 2007 that the production was "desperately trying to figure out a way to put him in" but that to "shove him in ... would be a disaster", an opinion echoed by Shatner in several interviews. At a convention held in 2010, Shatner described the film as "wonderful". Two years before its release, his own tale of how the characters of the original series of "Star Trek" might have come together was published in his novel "Star Trek: Academy – Collision Course."


title: William Shatner

text: In April 2010, Shatner began hosting the Discovery Channel show "Weird or What", which aired until August 2012. Each episode of the series supplied lovers of arcana with several segments exploring news reports relating to left-field topics such as UFOs and cryptozoology.


title: William Shatner

text: Later that year, his career as a comic television actor reached its zenith in a CBS sitcom based on Justin Halpern's Twitter feed Shit My Dad Says, "$#*! My Dad Says", which was cancelled in May 2011 three months after the first broadcast of its final episode. 2011 also saw him guest-starring in one episode of the USA Network's "Psych", "In for a Penny", playing the estranged father of Junior Detective Juliet O'Hara (Maggie Lawson) (a role that he reprised in the show's 2012 season). For Trekkies, his most notable project of the year was the first "Star Trek" film that he had directed since "Star Trek V". "The Captains", which he also wrote and presented, was a feature-length documentary in which he interviewed all five of the actors who had played the principal role in the "Star Trek" sequels that had been created up to that point—Patrick Stewart of "", Avery Brooks of "", Kate Mulgrew of "", Scott Bakula of "" and Chris Pine of J. J. Abrams's 2009 movie. The film also included a conversation between Shatner and his "Star Trek VI" co-star Christopher Plummer, a sequence celebrating a friendship that began when the two actors both took part in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and reflecting Shatner's profound admiration for his colleague.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner's 2012 began with his return to his roots in theatre. In February, he appeared on Broadway in a one-man show called "Shatner's World: We Just Live in It". After a three-week run at the Music Box, the show toured throughout the United States. In May, he was the guest presenter on the British satirical television quiz show "Have I Got News for You", earning a footnote in the history of neologisms by melding "pioneer" and "pensioner" into the portmanteau coinage "pensioneer". On July 28, he appeared on the premium cable TV channel Epix as the star of "Get a Life!", a documentary film about "Star Trek" fandom developed from the 1999 book about Trekkies that he had written in the aftermath of his "Saturday Night Live" rebuke to them. On September 25, he revisited the music video genre, appearing as a home plate umpire in the crooner Brian Evans's baseball-themed "At Fenway".


title: William Shatner

text: On April 24, 2014, Shatner performed an autobiographical one-man show on Broadway, which was filmed for subsequent screening in more than 700 theatres across Australia, Canada and the United States. A large portion of the revenue of the project went to charity. In 2015, he played Mark Twain in an episode of the Canadian historical crime drama series "Murdoch Mysteries", and Croatoan – the dangerous, interdimensional father of Audrey Parker – in the last episodes of the fifth and final season of SyFy channel's fantasy series "Haven". In the August of that year, Trekkies were treated to a sequel to "The Captains" which he produced, scripted and directed and in which he starred: "William Shatner Presents: Chaos on the Bridge," a behind-the-scenes documentary film about "Star Trek: The Next Generation".


title: William Shatner

text: Premiering on August 23, 2016, the NBC reality miniseries "Better Late Than Never" followed Shatner and a quartet of other aging celebrities—Terry Bradshaw, Jeff Dye, George Foreman and Henry Winkler—as they took a grand tour around Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. Shatner joked that Bradshaw, famous as a quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers, was "putty in my hands". Another new enterprise that he launched that year was Shatner Singularity, a publisher of comic-books, which has a list including the graphic novel "Stan Lee's 'God Woke" by Lee and Mariano and Fabian Nicieza. The book won the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards' Outstanding Books of the Year Independent Voice Award.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner's most notable television work in 2017 was in the second season of "Better Late Than Never": a preview episode of December 11, 2017, was followed by an official season premiere on the New Year's Day of 2018. His equestrian enthusiasm found an outlet in the animated children's show "", where in the seventh season episode "The Perfect Pear", he supplied the voice of Grand Pear, the estranged maternal grandfather of Applejack and her siblings. He announced his participation in the series in a Twitter post quoting one of its catchphrases, and disclosed that he was himself a so-called , one of the show's devotees. 2017 also saw him appearing in a second music video with Brian Evans, this time promoting Evans's cover of the Dolly Parton song "Here You Come Again".


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner became the focus of political controversy in 2021, when it was revealed that a popular science documentary show that he would host, "I Don't Understand with William Shatner", was scheduled to be aired on RT, formerly known as Russia Today, from July 12. RT's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, said that "Captain Kirk has come over to the good side." Criticized by a Russian journalist for his involvement with the government-controlled outlet, Shatner branded his accuser a hypocrite and compared his contract with RT to the arrangement through which the channel had acquired the right to broadcast American football games. Four days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Shatner issued a statement via Twitter expressing unqualified support for the Ukrainians in the resistance that they were mounting against their assailants. On March 2, he withdrew from his show, citing the invasion as his reason for doing so. RT America ceased transmitting altogether on March 3.


title: William Shatner

text: Also in 2021, Shatner starred in the film "Senior Moment", which co-starred Jean Smart and Christopher Lloyd. The movie was released in March 2021 on the same week Shatner turned 90.


title: William Shatner

text: In 2022, Shatner competed in season eight of "The Masked Singer" as "Knight" (depicted as a knight riding a golden goose). A running gag is that the golden goose that "Knight" rides keeps trying to attack Nick Cannon. He was eliminated in the first episode alongside Eric Idle as "Hedgehog" and Chris Kirkpatrick as "Hummingbird". At 91, Shatner is the oldest person to compete on the show.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner made his debut on the shelves of record shops in 1968, with the release of an album titled "The Transformed Man". It offered readings from classic plays followed by dramatically inflected recitations of the texts of thematically related popular songs, both set against a background of instrumental accompaniment. Among the hits that the LP subjected to Shatnerfication were Bob Dylan's "Mr Tambourine Man" and the Lennon–McCartney song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". The idiosyncratic way with songs that Shatner chose for this LP, an approach so amusical that it scarcely even qualified as Sprechstimme, was a style to which he remained loyal throughout his recording career.


title: William Shatner

text: In 1977, a performance that Shatner had given during a tour in 1971 was released on a Lemli Records double album, "William Shatner Live". The LPs' bill of fare included him reminiscing about his work on "Star Trek" and reading excerpts from Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac", H. G. Wells's "The War of the Worlds" and Bertolt Brecht's "Galileo". A year later, the recording was reissued by another company, again as a double LP, now titled "William Shatner Live: Captain of the Starship". Devoid of "Star Trek" branding because of licensing restrictions, the album's sleeve was decorated with a photograph of Shatner brandishing an upturned camera tripod in the style of Jim Kirk going into battle with a phaser rifle.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner's second studio album did not materialize until a third of a century after his first: "Has Been" was released in October 2004. Produced by Ben Folds, it included a number of songs co-written with Folds and arranged by him, as well as a cover of the Pulp hit "Common People" performed with Joe Jackson. "Seeking Major Tom" followed in October 2011. Initially announced by Shatner under that title on February 4, it was later promoted by him as "Searching for Major Tom" before reverting to the name that he had given it originally. Shatner's colleagues on the project included popular musicians of considerable notability: the country star Brad Paisley, Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society, Peter Frampton, Brian May of Queen, Steve Howe from Yes, John Wetton from King Crimson and Asia, Ritchie Blackmore from Deep Purple, Alan Parsons and Bootsy Collins of Parliament-Funkadelic. Astronautically themed and with a general flavour of heavy metal, the album featured covers of Pink Floyd's "Learning to Fly", David Bowie's "Space Oddity" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner's fifteen-track album "Ponder the Mystery", produced by Billy Sherwood, was issued in October 2013. Among the musicians who contributed to it were Mick Jones, Simon House, Steve Vai, Al Di Meola, Steve Howe's Yes colleague Rick Wakeman, Joel Vandroogenbroeck, Edgar Winter, Nik Turner, Vince Gill, Edgar Froese, Robby Krieger, Dav Koz, George Duke and Zoot Horn Rollo. The record's credits attributed all its music to Sherwood and all its song texts to Shatner. Shatner's first venture into the country music genre, "Why Not Me", appeared in August 2018, with a new partner in the form of Jeff Cook, best known as a founding member of the American band Alabama. Released on the Heartland Records Nashville label, this album also included guest vocals by Neal McCoy, Home Free and Cash Creek. A holiday collection, "Shatner Claus", appeared in October 2018, with Shatner now aided and abetted by Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Todd Rundgren, Billy Gibbons and others. Shatner's ninth album, "The Blues", was released on October 2, 2020, and reached the number one slot of the "Billboard" Blues Chart fifteen days later. A tenth album, "Bill", was announced by Shatner on August 26, 2021, and released on September 24.


title: William Shatner

text: As well as recording his own series of discs, Shatner has taken part in other artists' releases too. Ben Folds's 1998 album "" features Shatner on two tracks, "In Love" and "Still in Love". (Jamie Halliday, the founder of Audio Antihero, named the former as his "favourite song of all time".) On June 28, 2002, Shatner appeared with Brian Evans at the San Carlos Institute Theatre in Key West, Florida and duetted with him in the songs "What Kind of Fool Am I" and "The Lady Is a Tramp": the concert was later released as the album "Brian Evans Live with Special Guest: William Shatner". In 2005, he was heard in the track "'64 - Go" on the Lemon Jelly album "'64 - '95". And he provided the lead vocals on the progressive rock artist Ben Craven's track "Spy In The Sky Part 3" in Craven's album "Last Chance To Hear", released in March 2016. Among the music videos for other artists that featured him were one for Ben Folds's "Landed", in which he played the part of a producer, and two for Brad Paisley, one promoting "Celebrity" and the other "Online", with the latter containing a meta-reference in which Shatner appeared to be heartbroken when told that he could not sing.


title: William Shatner

text: Television audiences were introduced to Shatner's unorthodox musicianship not long after "Star Trek" had made him famous. In 1978, while hosting the fifth presentation of Saturn Awards bestowed by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, he performed a version of Elton John's "Rocket Man" that went on to become a staple of comedic parody. In an episode of Dinah Shore's talk show, "Dinah!", he used his appearance on it to perform Harry Chapin's "Taxi". On June 9, 2005, he contributed his version of "My Way" to the presentation of George Lucas's AFI Life Achievement Award, backed by a chorus line of dancers in Imperial Stormtrooper costumes who ended Shatner's segment by picking him up and carrying him offstage. On December 11, 2005, he launched Comedy Central's "Last Laugh 2005" with a skit in which he appeared as a Lucifer celebrating how well the year had gone from the point of view of Hell. On March 29, 2006, TV Land aired a Shatner-centred episode of their "Living in TV Land" series subtitled "William Shatner in Concert". The program featured footage of him working with Ben Folds on "Has Been", and included a sequence in which he performed with Folds's band and Joe Jackson; it climaxed with a defiant rendition of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" that was punctuated by him giving the finger. To promote his Biography Channel talk show "Shatner's Raw Nerve", he guest-hosted World Wrestling Entertainment's flagship show "WWE Raw" on February 1, 2010, and performed several wrestlers' entrance theme songs. In the fourth episode of his sitcom "$♯*! My Dad Says", his character, Ed Goodson, delivered a Shatner-style Karaoke treatment of Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy". In the same scene, a waitress asked Ed if he wanted to tackle "Rocket Man" and he answered "Not tonight!". On November 4, during a television appearance on the "Lopez Tonight" show, he performed a cover of Cee Lo Green's song "F**k You".


title: William Shatner

text: Several of the movies in which Shatner participated featured him in a musical context. In the closing scene of "Free Enterprise", he recited an oration of Mark Antony's from "Julius Caesar" over a rap delivered by The Rated R, a duet listed in the movie's credits as "No Tears for Caesar". In "Miss Congeniality", he performed the song "Miss United States", which was included in the movie's soundtrack album. He contributed the voice of Buzz Lightyear to the Star Command anthem "To Infinity And Beyond" in the 2000 film "".


title: William Shatner

text: In 2007, one of Shatner's albums, "Has Been", was taken up by the writer and choreographer Margo Sappington (notable for her work on "Oh! Calcutta!") as the basis for a dance project, "Common People", created for the Milwaukee Ballet. Shatner attended the premiere of the work and arranged for it to be filmed. The resulting feature documentary, "William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet", was favourably received when it was unveiled at the Nashville Film Festival on April 17, 2009.


title: William Shatner

text: In addition to treating songs with apparently serious intent, Shatner has sometimes offered performances which, like many passages from his memoirs, are exercises in self-mockery. Instances include his versions of the five nominees in the Best Song from a Movie category at the 1992 "MTV Movie Awards". He also mined this vein of self-deprecating comedy as the lynchpin of Priceline's television advertising campaign. In one commercial for the company, he joined with his frequent collaborator Ben Folds in an ironic version of the Diana Ross hit "Do You Know Where You're Going To?".


title: William Shatner

text: Ever since its Apollo 15 lunar mission, NASA has woken up its astronauts with specially tailored recordings. On March 7, 2011, the crew of STS-133 on the Space Shuttle "Discovery" began their last day docked to the International Space Station with Alexander Courage's title theme for "Star Trek" and Shatner reciting an adapted version of the show's famous introduction: "Space, the final frontier. These have been the voyages of the Space Shuttle "Discovery". Her 30-year mission: To seek out new science. To build new outposts. To bring nations together on the final frontier. To boldly go, and do, what no spacecraft has done before."


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner took part in Blue Origin's second sub-orbital human spaceflight, Blue Origin NS-18, on October 13, 2021. Invited to join Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries and Audrey Powers on the trip by Blue Origin's creator, the entrepreneur and Trekkie Jeff Bezos, he began his real-world visit to space at Blue Origin's Launch Site One in West Texas, travelling on the RSS "First Step", a New Shepard suborbital rocket capsule. Aged 90 years, 6 months and 22 days, he became the oldest person to fly into space, surpassing Wally Funk, who had flown on Blue Origin's first crewed spaceflight at the age of 82 in July 2021. In a televised post-flight conversation with Bezos, Shatner articulated experiencing the overview effect, a deepened understanding of the fact that the ecosphere of the Earth is but a thin, fragile skin enveloping its planet.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner dislikes watching himself perform. He says that there are episodes of the original "Star Trek" television show that he has never seen, and he is just as averse to watching his performance in "Boston Legal". He has claimed that the only "Star Trek" movie that he has screened is the one that he directed and so necessarily viewed when it was being edited, "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", although in his 1993 book "Star Trek Memories", he recalls how disappointed he felt when he attended the premiere of the first "Star Trek" movie, Robert Wise's "".


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner has been married four times. His first wife was a Canadian actress, Gloria Rand (née Rabinowitz), whom he married on August 12, 1956. The couple had three daughters: Leslie (born in 1958), Lisabeth (born in 1961) and Melanie (born in 1964). Shatner left Rand while acting in "Star Trek: The Original Series", after which he divorced her in March 1969.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner's second wife was Marcy Lafferty, the daughter of the television producer Perry Lafferty. Lasting from 1973 to 1996, their marriage was Shatner's longest, but did not produce any children.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner's third wife was Nerine Kidd, whom he married in 1997. Returning home at around 10 p.m. on August 9, 1999, he found her lying lifeless at the bottom of their backyard swimming pool. She was forty years old. Once an autopsy had revealed that her blood contained both alcohol and diazepam, the coroner decided that the cause of her death was accidental drowning and the Los Angeles Police Department, agreeing that there was no evidence of foul play, closed its file on the case. Speaking to the press shortly after his wife's death while visibly still in a state of shock, Shatner said that she had "meant everything" to him and described her as his "beautiful soulmate". He urged the public to support Friendly House, a non-profit organization that helps women to rebuild their lives after trying to free themselves from alcoholism or other forms of drug addiction. He later told Larry King in an interview that "my wife, whom I loved dearly, and who loved me, was suffering with a disease that we don't like to talk about: alcoholism. And she met a tragic ending because of it."


title: William Shatner

text: In his 2008 book "Up Till Now: The Autobiography", Shatner disclosed how Leonard Nimoy, himself no stranger to alcoholism, had done his best to try to avert the tragedy that Kidd's affliction threatened:


title: William Shatner

text: In 2000, a Reuters story reported that Shatner was planning to write and direct "The Shiva Club", a dark comedy about the grieving process inspired by his wife's death. Shatner's 2004 album "Has Been" included a spoken word piece, "What Have You Done", that describes his anguish upon discovering Nerine's body.


title: William Shatner

text: In 2001, Shatner married Elizabeth Anderson Martin. In 2004, she co-wrote the song "Together" on Shatner's album "Has Been". Shatner filed for divorce from Elizabeth in 2019. The divorce was finalized in January 2020.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner first appeared on screen with Leonard Nimoy in 1964 when both actors guest-starred in an episode of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", "The Project Strigas Affair". Much like their characters on "Star Trek", Shatner and Nimoy had a professional rivalry that developed into a close friendship. After the show's cancellation in 1969, Shatner and Nimoy reunited in the production of "", as well as "The $20,000 Pyramid", where "Kirk vs. Spock" appeared on two different tables. Nimoy also guest-starred on "T. J. Hooker", in which Shatner played the title role. Despite their decades-long friendship, in 2016 Shatner revealed that he and Nimoy had not spoken in the five years before his death the year before.


title: William Shatner

text: On an episode of the A&E series "Biography", where it was also divulged that Nimoy was Shatner's best man at his wedding with his fourth wife Elizabeth, Nimoy said, "Bill Shatner hogging the stage? No. Not the Bill Shatner I know." When Nimoy died in 2015, Shatner said, "I loved him like a brother. We will all miss his humor, his talent, and his capacity to love." Although Shatner was unable to attend Nimoy's funeral due to other commitments, his daughters attended in his place, and Shatner created his own online memorial for Nimoy.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner has been friends with actress Heather Locklear since 1982 when she began co-starring with him on "T. J. Hooker". As she was also appearing in a semi-regular role in another Aaron Spelling production, "Dynasty", Locklear was asked by "Entertainment Tonight" whether her schedule was difficult. She replied, "I'd get really nervous and want to be prepared" for Shatner and for the experienced cast of "Dynasty". After "T.J. Hooker" ended, Shatner helped Locklear get other roles. She supported Shatner in 1999 when he was mourning Nerine's death. In 2005, Locklear appeared in two episodes of Shatner's "Boston Legal" as Kelly Nolan, a woman being tried for killing her much older, wealthy husband. Shatner's character is attracted to Nolan and tries to insert himself into her defence. Asked how she came to appear on "Boston Legal", Locklear said, "I love the show. It's my favorite show, and I sorta kind of said, 'Shouldn't I be William Shatner's illegitimate daughter, or his love interest?'"


title: William Shatner

text: For years, some of Shatner's "Star Trek" co-stars accused him of being difficult to work with, particularly George Takei, Walter Koenig, and James Doohan, the latter two of whom Shatner acknowledges in his autobiography "Star Trek Movie Memories". In 2011, Koenig appeared on Shatner's interview series "Shatner's Raw Nerve", and made clear that the animosity he once held was long over. His feud with Takei was mentioned in Takei's 2004 memoir, "".


title: William Shatner

text: In the 1990s, Shatner made numerous attempts to reconcile with Doohan, but was unsuccessful for some time, Doohan being the only former "Star Trek" co-star refusing to be interviewed by Shatner for his 1993 memoir "Star Trek Memories". Doohan did participate in the 1994 follow-up, "Star Trek Movie Memories", and an Associated Press article published at the time of Doohan's final convention appearance in August 2004 stated that Doohan, already suffering from severe health problems, forgave Shatner and they mended their relationship. At a convention directly preceding Doohan's last one, Sky Conway, the convention's head, stated, "At our show: 'The Great Bird of the Galaxy' in El Paso, Texas in November 2003, a celebration of Gene Roddenberry and "Star Trek", Bill and Jimmy went on stage together. Behind the scenes and before they went on stage, they hugged each other, apologized and expressed their love and admiration for each other. Bill specifically asked me to get them together so he could make amends and clear the air between the two of them before it was too late."


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner suffers from tinnitus, which he believes might be the result of a pyrotechnical accident on set while shooting the 1967 "Star Trek" episode "", though he did not begin to suffer symptoms until the early 1990s. Shatner is involved in the American Tinnitus Association. His treatment for this condition involved wearing a small electronic device that generated low-level, broadband white noise that "helped his brain put the tinnitus in the background", a process known as habituation.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner revealed in 2020 that he suffers from swollen joints and various age-related "aches and pains". He uses CBD oil to treat his pain.


title: William Shatner

text: In 2006, Shatner sold his kidney stone for $25,000 to GoldenPalace.com. In an appearance on "The View" on May 16, 2006, Shatner said the $25,000 and an additional $20,000 raised from the cast and crew of "Boston Legal" paid for the building of a house by Habitat for Humanity.


title: William Shatner

text: In his spare time, Shatner enjoys breeding and showing American Saddlebreds and Quarter Horses. He rode one of his own mares, Great Belles of Fire, in "Star Trek Generations". Shatner has a farm near Versailles, Kentucky, named Belle Reve Farm (from the French "beau rêve", "Beautiful Dream"Belle Reve was the name of Blanche Dubois' and her sister Stella's family home in "A Streetcar Named Desire"), where he raises American Saddlebreds. Three of his notable horses are Call Me Ringo, Revival, and Sultan's Great Day. The farm's activities help benefit the Central Kentucky Riding for Hope "Horses For Heroes" program. Shatner also plays on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home Games, where celebrities play for their favourite charities. Since 1990, he has been a leading force behind the Hollywood Charity Horse Show, which raises money for children's charities.


title: William Shatner

text: In 2018, Shatner was awarded the National Reining Horse Association Lifetime Achievement Award in the National Reining Horse Association Hall of Fame. In 2019, he won a world championship with his Standardbred road horse Track Star while showing at the Kentucky State Fair World's Championship Horse Show in Louisville.


title: William Shatner

text: On New Year's Day 1994, Shatner was the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. Instead of riding in a classic car, he rode his horse down the parade route. For the 80th Rose Bowl game afterward, he participated in the pregame ceremonies including the coin toss between the University of Wisconsin Badgers and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Bruins. Wisconsin would go on to win the game 21–16.


title: William Shatner

text: In 2014, Shatner was one of the Grand Marshals for the 102nd Calgary Stampede as he is an avid equestrian.


title: William Shatner

text: In 2017, Shatner hosted as "captain" of the maiden voyage of a "Star Trek"-themed cruise entitled ""Star Trek": The Cruise". The cruise was the first licensed by CBS Productions to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show. Through PETA, Shatner asked that the 2018 cruise not offer any "swim with dolphins" experiences, explaining in a letter to the Norwegian Cruise Line's CEO that "The exploitation of any species for profit and entertainment would have violated the Prime Directive."


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner made appearances for the "Star Trek: the Original Series" set re-creation in Ticonderoga, New York built by James Cawley, including personally guiding tours of small groups.


title: William Shatner

text: Shatner has starred in movies and television shows for seven decades. He has also appeared in video games, primarily as James T. Kirk, as well as a number of commercials.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Zack Snyder's Justice League (colloquially referred to as the Snyder Cut) is the 2021 original version of the 2017 American superhero film "Justice League", the tenth film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) based on the team of the same name. It is intended to match director Zack Snyder's original vision for "Justice League", prior to his departure of the original production and subsequent studio interference. The film follows the DC heroes Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), The Flash (Ezra Miller), and a revived Superman (Henry Cavill) as they form an alliance to stop the extradimensional conqueror Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) and his army of Parademons from conquering Earth for his overlord Darkseid (Ray Porter).


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Released by Warner Bros. Pictures in 2017, "Justice League" had a difficult production. Its script underwent major changes before and during production between 2016 and 2017. In May 2017, Snyder stepped down during post-production following the death of his daughter, Autumn Snyder, and Joss Whedon was hired to finish the film, completing it as an uncredited director. Whedon oversaw reshoots and other changes that incorporated a brighter tone and more humor while reducing the runtime significantly in accordance with a mandate from Warner Bros. The theatrical version polarized critics and underperformed at the box office; this resulted in Warner Bros. opting to prioritize developing future films around individual characters, with less regard for consistency and continuity within the wider shared universe.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Many people expressed interest in Snyder's version of the film, which they often referred to as the "Snyder Cut". Although most industry insiders reported its release unlikely, Warner Bros. moved ahead with it in February 2020; in May, Snyder announced it would be released as "Zack Snyder's Justice League" as a HBO Max Original Film. $70 million was spent to complete the visual effects, score and editing, with new material being shot in October 2020. The release was originally planned as both a six-episode miniseries and a long feature-length film, with the former concept being cancelled in January 2021 in favor of releasing it as the latter. The film is dedicated to the memory of Autumn Snyder.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: "Zack Snyder's Justice League" was released on HBO Max in the United States on March 18, 2021. It became the fourth-most-streamed film on the platform that year. The film was widely considered superior to the 2017 theatrical release, and critics praised Snyder's direction, visual style, action sequences, performances, improved characterizations, musical score, and balance of emotional weight and humor, although the runtime received some criticism.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Thousands of years ago Apokoliptian warlord Darkseid and his Parademon attempt to conquer the Earth using three devices called Mother Boxes, but he is foiled by an alliance of the "Old Gods", Amazons, Atlanteans, humans, and a Green Lantern. Darkseid flees, leaving behind the Boxes, which the Amazons, Atlanteans, and humans each guard. In the present, the death of Superman at the hands of Doomsday triggers the Boxes' reactivation, attracting Steppenwolf, Darkseid's disgraced lieutenant. Steppenwolf aims to regain Darkseid's favor by gathering the boxes to form "The Unity", which would terraform Earth into a copy of their homeworld.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Steppenwolf reaches Themyscira through a portal and fights the Amazons to obtain their Mother Box. Diana Prince receives a warning from the Amazons, then learns about Darkseid's assault on Earth and Steppenwolf. She informs Bruce Wayne, as the two are seeking to form a team of metahumans in order to protect the planet. After failing to recruit Arthur Curry, Bruce locates Barry Allen, while Diana locates the cyborg Victor Stone. Barry joins while Victor refuses until his father, Silas, and other S.T.A.R. Labs employees are kidnapped by Parademons who seek the humans' Mother Box. Steppenwolf kidnaps and kills Atlantean guards watching over their Mother Box and takes it, with only Mera and a reluctant Arthur surviving the encounter.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: The team receives intelligence from Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon, leading them to Steppenwolf's forces in an abandoned underwater facility. Although the team rescues several kidnapped employees, the facility is flooded, trapping them until Arthur helps them escape. Victor retrieves the last Mother Box, which he had hidden. He reveals that it was used to rebuild his body after a car accident, explaining that the Boxes can rearrange matter at the will of their users. The group realizes they could resurrect Superman using the box, though Steppenwolf will detect its use. Meanwhile, Steppenwolf receives a vision of the Anti-Life Equation on Earth, a secret power sought by Darkseid to control all of existence, and informs him. The team exhumes Clark Kent's body and places it in the amniotic fluid of the genesis chamber in a Kryptonian ship. After Barry activates the Mother Box, an amnesiac Clark is resurrected, attacking the group after Victor's cybernetics targets him in self-defense. Right as he is about to kill Batman, Lois Lane arrives to calm him down. They travel to his family home in Smallville, where he regains his memories. Steppenwolf retrieves the last Mother Box, but Silas sacrifices himself to supercharge it with laser heat, allowing Victor to track it.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Without Superman, the five heroes travel to an abandoned Russian city, where Steppenwolf aims to form the Unity. They fight their way through the Parademons, with Superman arriving in time to subdue Steppenwolf. Victor fails to prevent the Unity, however, and the planet begins to break apart. Barry enters the Speed Force before the shockwave reaches him, reversing time and giving Victor the necessary charge that allows him and Superman to prevent the Unity. Wonder Woman decapitates Steppenwolf, sending his head to Darkseid on Apokolips through an opened portal. Darkseid vows to return to Earth to find the Anti-Life Equation.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: In the epilogue, Bruce, Diana, and Alfred make plans to set up a headquarters for the team at the desolated Wayne Manor. Bruce helps Clark settle back in at home, before resuming his double life in Metropolis. Arthur briefly meets Vulko and Mera before riding off to see his father, and Barry informs his erroneously convicted father in prison that he has acquired a job in Central City's police department. Victor is inspired by an audio message left by his father to realize his purpose in life, while Diana contemplates returning home to Themyscira.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Meanwhile, Lex Luthor has escaped from Arkham Asylum and is visited on his yacht by Slade Wilson, to whom he reveals Batman's secret identity. In an additional scene before the credits, Bruce awakes from an apocalyptic dream of the future and receives a visit from the Martian Manhunter, who thanks him for assembling the team before promising to be in contact to prepare for Darkseid's return.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Ray Porter portrays Darkseid, a tyrannical New God from Apokolips and Steppenwolf's nephew and master. Darkseid did not appear in the theatrical release, meaning "Zack Snyder's Justice League" marks the character's first appearance in a live-action film. Porter played Darkseid through the use of motion capture and "went through a few different vocal gymnastics trying to figure out the voice". Porter was unfamiliar with the Darkseid character upon being cast, but Snyder and screenwriter Chris Terrio helped guide him with their knowledge of the comic book lore. Peter Guinness portrays DeSaad, Darkseid's master enforcer, who acts as a liaison between Steppenwolf and Darkseid.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Harry Lennix reprises his DCEU role as Calvin Swanwick, the United States Secretary of Defense whose real identity is revealed as J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter, an alien from the planet of Mars capable of shape-shifting and telepathy. Snyder said Swanwick has always been the Martian Manhunter since "Man of Steel" and has been guiding Clark, Lois, and mankind to do good as he wanted humanity to try and protect Earth themselves before getting directly involved. Jared Leto reprises his role from "Suicide Squad" (2016) as the Joker, a psychotic criminal and Batman's archenemy, who becomes one of the surviving resistance members in the Knightmare future. The Joker was not planned to appear in the original film, but Snyder decided to use him sometime after his new version was greenlit, as it was always Snyder's intention to bring the Joker into his "Justice League" films. The character was redesigned for the new release.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Karen Bryson portrays Elinor Stone, Victor Stone's late mother, while Kiersey Clemons portrays Iris West, Barry Allen's future love interest; both actresses' scenes were cut from the theatrical release and restored for Snyder's version of the film. Other actors reprising their roles from previous DC Extended Universe films include: Eleanor Matsuura as Epione, Samantha Jo (who also played the Kryptonian Car-Vex in "Man of Steel") as Euboea, Ann Ogbomo as Philippus, Doutzen Kroes as Venelia, Carla Gugino as the Kryptonian ship's voice. Uncredited appearances include Robin Wright as Antiope, Billy Crudup as Henry Allen, Kevin Costner (via archival voice recording and still photograph) as Jonathan Kent, Joe Manganiello as Slade Wilson / Deathstroke and Russell Crowe as Jor-El. In addition to Thewlis and McKinless portraying Ares, Sergi Constance and Aurore Lauzeral portray the roles of other Old Gods, Zeus and Artemis, respectively. Julian Lewis Jones and Francis Magee portray two ancient kings of Earth, credited as the Ancient Atlantean king and the Ancient king of men, respectively. Michael McElhatton appears as Black Clad Alpha, the leader of a group of terrorists who clash with Wonder Woman early in the film. Marc McClure (who portrayed Jimmy Olsen in the original "Superman" film series) has a brief cameo as Jerry, a police officer who is friends with Lois Lane.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Additionally, Green Lanterns Yalan Gur and Kilowog as well as the member of the Apokoliptian elite Granny Goodness appear via use of computer generated special effects. The latter was modeled after the aunt of a Weta artist named Jojo Aguilar. The final scene was originally filmed with John Stewart / Green Lantern portrayed by Wayne T. Carr, but Warner Bros. Pictures rejected the idea as they had other plans for the character. Previous variations of the scene that were filmed included characters such as Kilowog with John Stewart, Kilowog with Tomar-Re, and Stewart with Martian Manhunter. The first was not filmed as Snyder changed Kilowog to Martian Manhunter, the second being scrapped early in post-production back in 2017, and the third being filmed in August 2020. As the studio did not want Stewart to be in the scene, Snyder compromised with the studio and reshot the scene to only include Martian Manhunter in October 2020. He also reshot Affleck's side of the scene as the previously shot footage was unusable due to green lights flashing on Affleck. Snyder originally wanted to include Ryan Reynolds, who previously portrayed Hal Jordan in "Green Lantern" (2011), as an "additional lantern... to fill out the corps a bit", but did not contact him.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Following the release of "Man of Steel" (2013), director Zack Snyder outlined the basis of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), which centered around a five-film arc including "Man of Steel", "" (2016), and a Justice League trilogy. Snyder's original vision was to have "Batman v Superman" be the darkest in the franchise, and have subsequent films become lighter in tone. However, "Batman v Superman" was poorly received, with criticism for its dark tone, lack of humor, and slow pace. Distributor Warner Bros. Pictures and Snyder re-evaluated upcoming DCEU films, particularly "Suicide Squad" (2016), which had already wrapped principal photography, and "Justice League", which was a month away from filming. Snyder and screenwriter Chris Terrio rewrote "Justice League" to be lighter in tone. Cinematographer Fabian Wagner said Snyder wanted to "get away from the stylized, desaturated, super-high contrast looks of other films in the franchise."


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Principal photography for "Justice League" began in April 2016 and wrapped the following December. Months later, multiple cuts of Snyder's "Justice League" were shown to Warner Bros. executives, in addition to friends and family of Snyder. A final run-time and picture lock were achieved, though the cuts had incomplete visual effects shots and partial audio mixing. Snyder said that he had multiple cuts that were essentially "done", only needing "a few CG tweaks" to complete. "Forbes" contributor and film screenwriter Mark Hughes reported that Snyder's cut was more than 90% complete, while "The Daily Telegraph" cited a visual effects expert as estimating that Warner Bros. would need another $30–40 million to finish the film. Warner Bros. executives who saw Snyder's cut felt that Snyder had made significant efforts to lighten the tone following the criticism of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice". Despite this, Warner Bros. was unhappy with the results and insider reports indicated that it considered the cut "unwatchable".


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: After disapproving of Snyder's direction, Warner Bros. hired Joss Whedon, who directed the Marvel Cinematic Universe films "The Avengers" (2012) and "" (2015), to rewrite the script and help with extensive reshoots. Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara mandated that "Justice League" length was not to exceed two hours. Warner Bros. also decided not to push back the release date so that executives could keep their annual bonuses and partly due to concerns that parent company AT&T might dissolve the studio after an upcoming merger. Snyder was expected to film the scenes that Whedon re-wrote, and they were working together to meet Warner Bros.'s requests when Snyder's daughter, Autumn Snyder, died in March 2017. Though Snyder was initially open to Whedon rewriting the script, he eventually became more resistant as the studio gave Whedon more directing privileges; but as he and his family were dealing with Autumn's death, Snyder did not challenge it.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Snyder continued to work on "Justice League" for two months to distract himself, before stepping down in May. His wife Deborah Snyder, who was producing "Justice League", also left the project. Following his departure, Snyder saved the rough version of the cut, which has not gone through post-production yet, on a hard drive. He kept it as a "memento", so he could show it to friends or "snippets" of footage could be included in a documentary, as he thought that his version would not be released. "Rolling Stone" reported that Snyder had sent an editor in 2017 to retrieve materials related to the film on a hard drive. He was asked to return them as they were considered to be studio property, but refused to do so as he said the materials were for his “personal use”, as he was contractually obligated to have them. He later claimed he was not asked to return them. Sources said that security was notified, but no action was taken, as the studio did not expect Snyder would “begin tinkering with an alternate cut of the film”.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Whedon assumed full control over the production, although Snyder retained directorial credit. Whedon added nearly 80 pages to the script, and Wagner estimates that Whedon's cut uses only about 10% of the footage that Snyder shot. Composer Tom Holkenborg completed his film score before being replaced by Danny Elfman halfway through post-production. The scenes that Whedon wrote or re-shot for the theatrical release featured a brighter tone and more humor, and reduced the level of violence seen in Snyder's darker direction. To meet the mandated runtime, more than 90 minutes of Snyder's footage was removed, but the result still adhered to the basic outline of the story. While the initial cut was poorly received by test audiences, the early screening of Whedon's cut scored as high as "Wonder Woman" (2017), so Warner Bros. decided to move forward with it.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: "Justice League" was released theatrically on November 17, 2017. Critics described it as a "Frankenstein" film, obviously the work of two different directors with competing visions. After seeing Whedon's version in late 2017, Deborah Snyder and executive producer Christopher Nolan advised Snyder to "never see that movie", knowing it would "break his heart". "Justice League" grossed $657.9 million against an estimated $300 million budget. Against an estimated break-even point of as much as $750 million, "Deadline Hollywood" reported that the film lost Warner Bros. around $60 million. An anonymous Warner Bros. executive stated in February 2021 that even the studio did not like the "stupefying" changes brought to the finished film, criticizing the Black Clad and the Russian family as goofy and pointless additions to the film. The executive affirmed that the finished film felt "awkward" because the studio did not want to admit what a "piece of shit" it had become. Due to the film's poor performance, Warner Bros. decided to move away from Snyder's vision for a shared universe of interconnected films and focus on standalone films and solo franchises instead.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Immediately after the theatrical release of "Justice League", which later gained the derisive nickname "Josstice League", fans created an online petition to release the "Snyder Cut" that gained more than 180,000 signatures. The movement, which used the hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut on social media, began before fans had any knowledge that a Snyder cut of "Justice League" actually existed. The movement was ignited by the theatrical version's mixed reviews. Fans knew Snyder had left directorial and editorial duties in Whedon's hands; thus, they assumed Whedon created an inferior film. The circumstances were compared to those of "Superman II" (1980), whose initial director was also replaced by one who made substantial changes. Some assumed an alternate cut of "Justice League" was inevitable because some of Snyder's films had been re-released in extended cuts for home media (such as "Watchmen" (2009) and "Batman v Superman"), which some critics considered superior to their theatrical version.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Members of the "Justice League" cast and crew showing support for the Snyder Cut's release included actors Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ciarán Hinds, and Ray Fisher, photographer Clay Enos, storyboard artist Jay Oliva, cinematographer Wagner, and Affleck's stunt double Richard Cetrone. Deborah Snyder said executive producers Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas encouraged the Snyders to make the Snyder Cut: "I think through this process it's been nice, because outside of Chris, Zack hadn't talked to a lot of people." On the two-year anniversary of the theatrical release, cast and crew voiced support through social media. Other film- and comic book-industry figures not related to "Justice League" also supported the release of a "Snyder Cut", including filmmakers Kevin Smith and Alan Taylor, television producer Steven S. DeKnight, and comic book writers Rob Liefeld, Robert Kirkman and Jerry Ordway. Members of the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement engaged in acts of fan activism to promote it. In June 2018, fans reached out to executives at AT&T following a merger between the company and Warner; in June 2019, they reached out to new Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff, who replaced Tsujihara after his resignation, following that up a month later with a mass letter-writing campaign; and in July 2019 they reached out to the parent company of Warner Bros., WarnerMedia, after the announcement of its new streaming service HBO Max.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Ahead of the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, a fan launched a crowdfunding campaign with half of the funds to be spent on an advertising campaign (including billboards and a flying banner ad promoting the Snyder Cut), and the other half to be donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). For a similar campaign at the 2019 New York Comic Con, the movement purchased ad space on two billboards over Times Square featuring quotes from members of the cast and crew. In December 2019, the movement rented another flying banner ad, this time passing over Warner Bros. Studios and directly asking Sarnoff to release the Snyder Cut. In January 2020, the movement bought four minutes of ad space advocating for the film's release on a digital banner wrapped around the interior of Riverside Stadium during the FA Cup. Their efforts garnered praise from Snyder and the AFSP. Following the death of Snyder's daughter and his departure from "Justice League", fans from the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement began campaigns to raise money for suicide prevention. They went on to raise over $500,000 for the AFSP in donations by February 2021. Robert Gebbia, CEO of the AFSP, praised the fan's donations and subsequently released a statement commenting that: "The #ReleasetheSnyderCut Movement has created a true community of support and their encouraging messages of hope will go a long way toward helping others know they are not alone."


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: In March 2019, after months of speculation, Snyder confirmed that his original cut did exist and stated that it was up to Warner Bros. to release it. In November, an insider claimed that Warner Bros. was unlikely to release Snyder's version in any form, calling such hopes a "pipe dream". However, the following month, Snyder posted a photo in his Vero account, showing boxes with tapes labeled "Z.S. J.L. Director's cut", with the caption "Is it real? Does it exist? Of course it does." Robert Greenblatt, then-WarnerMedia chairman and head of HBO Max, stated that discussions surrounding the release of Snyder's "Justice League" began in late 2019, and that they lasted a few months. The studio first approached Snyder to release his cut unfinished as he had left it, but Snyder objected to doing so and insisted on either finishing it or not releasing it, leading Warner to take some months to decide whether to proceed. According to Snyder, WarnerMedia decided to move forward with the Snyder Cut in February 2020, after chairman Toby Emmerich acknowledged the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement and reached out to Snyder.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: The Snyders invited executives from Warner Bros., HBO Max, and DC to their home to view the Snyder Cut. Snyder also presented ideas, which included potentially releasing the cut in episodes. Impressed, the executives decided to let the project proceed. Snyder began to reassemble the film's original post-production team to finish the cut. The effort was almost thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which was escalating around the time, but the Snyders pushed to continue with it. Snyder notified the original cast of the undertaking between April and May 2020; according to Snyder, Fisher was the first person he contacted, but initially thought Snyder was joking. On May 20, 2020, Snyder announced during a Q&A after an online watch party of "Man of Steel" that his cut of "Justice League" would be released as "Zack Snyder's Justice League" on HBO Max in 2021. Greenblatt said WarnerMedia tried to get the news out "as quickly as possible" before HBO Max launched on May 27.


title: Zack Snyder's Justice League

text: Snyder, who had not yet seen the theatrical cut, described his cut as "an entirely new thing, and, especially talking to those who have seen the released movie, a new experience apart from that movie". The Snyders felt that being able to finally finish "Justice League" would bring them closure, and were excited by the prospect of expanding the film's character development. At that point, it was unclear what format "Zack Snyder's Justice League" would take for the release, whether as a four-hour-long film or a six-part miniseries. "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that it was expected to cost $20–30 million to complete the visual effects, score, and editing. However, Greenblatt indicated the release would be "wildly expensive" and cost more than the reported $30 million to complete. On June 2020, Sandra Dewey, president of productions and business operations for WarnerMedia, stated in an interview that they are aiming for an "early to mid-2021" release. In January 2021, Snyder confirmed that work on the cut had been completed.