Tag: Canada

1956 – Shatner Year in Review

Welcome to the 1956 edition of the “Shatner Year In Review.” At the end of each year covered in the review posts I will provide a summary as it relates to Shatner and his career, as well as display some key entertainment statistics.

1956 was a huge year for William Shatner, both personally and professionally. He appeared in his first Broadway production, spent his third and final summer as part of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s acting company, possibly had an affair that may have led to an illegitimate son (and certainly got me blocked on Twitter by Shatner), got married, moved to New York and got his first starring role on American television. Wow. Let’s review…

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The Merry Wives of Windsor (06/19/1956)

Shatner’s last Stratford production.

Stratford’s 1956 season kicked off with the already discussed Henry V. On the following night, another Shakespeare play debuted: The Merry Wives of Windsor. In this production, Shatner played yet another of his “romantic young man” roles, a character type that he had basically been playing for the last 3+ years on the regional Canadian theater circuit and at Stratford.

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Henry V (06/18/1956)

Shatner’s Big Night

For the third consecutive summer, Shatner headed back to Stratford, Ontario for what would turn out to his last season performing in the Shakespeare Festival. For this fourth season of the festival (Shatner’s third) there would be one major change, though.

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On Camera – “Dreams” (04/28/1956)

A seismic life change for Shatner begins here.

I imagine that just about every human being can look back and think of events or decisions made that profoundly changed the course of their life, inflection points that in retrospect mark a clear delineation between “Before” and “After.” What if I had gone to this school rather than that one?  What if I had/had not taken this job or followed this career path? What if I had/had not moved to this city?

What if I had never met him/her? What if I had/had not married this person? What if I had not had three children?

For William Shatner, I would argue that the most impactful inflection point of his personal life, and quite possibly of his career as well, came as a direct result of his involvement with this episode of On Camera, “Dreams.”

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1955 – Shatner Year in Review

Another big year for Le Shat!

Welcome to the 1955 edition of the “Shatner Year In Review.” At the end of each year covered in the review posts I will provide a summary as it relates to Shatner and his career, as well as display some key entertainment statistics.

1955 was another busy year for The Shat, including at least a dozen TV appearances as well as another full season as part of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Along the way he worked on a Rod Serling production, appeared in a television show that can still be viewed today (the first one since 1950 that is extant!), lost his life savings, got invited to Broadway and possibly met one of his future baby mamas. Big doings!

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General Motors Theatre – “Forever Galatea” (12/06/1955)

Does Shatner have an illegitimate son? Let’s take a closer look…

*Update – Peter Sloan found out in 2020 or so that his real father was NOT William Shatner. Still this post and his journey are interesting and I’ll leave it all here as originally written!

In March of 2016, a man named Peter Sloan filed a $170 million lawsuit in Florida federal court against one Mr. William Shatner. Sloan, given up for adoption in New York City just five days after his birth in December of 1956, began searching for his birth parents in the early 1980’s at the urging of his first adoptive father. He eventually tracked his birth mother down in Toronto and discovered that she had been (in the mid-1950’s) a minor Canadian actress named Kathy McNeil (at the time Kathy Burt, her maiden name.) McNeil later told Sloan in a letter that his birth father was either a law student from Montreal whose name she could not recall, or William F. Shatner.

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On Camera – “On a Streetcar” (12/03/1955)

Shatner is back to TV after three months away. Why the delay?

According to my records which may be (admittedly) incomplete, William Shatner did not appear in any TV productions for three months near the end of 1955. This is a bit odd for a guy that had just lost his life savings and who had, just one year earlier, already been in at least four television shows by the time December started. However, I think the reason for this absence is actually quite explainable and provides a somewhat happy addendum to the story of Shatner losing his Broadway seed money.

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The Big Dig (09/02/1955)

Oh shit! Shatner’s dreams hit a big snag…

As I stated in my last post, after the Stratford Shakespeare Festival wrapped up its 1955 season, Shatner headed back to Toronto to work another TV season at the CBC. But that wasn’t Shatner’s original idea at all. In fact, his plan was to finish out the Stratford season and then leave Canada altogether for the bright lights of Broadway. So what happened? Well, fucking Lorne Greene happened.

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The Merchant of Venice (06/29/1955)

The third and final major play performed at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada in 1955 was the Bard’s own, The Merchant of Venice. Probably most famous (or infamous to today’s modern audience) for the character of Shylock, a horribly stereotypical Jew, this somewhat dark comedy also has a fair bit of nuance that is often overlooked plus an intelligent, beautiful and resourceful woman as the leading character. Don’t get too excited though, this role would have still gone to a man in Shakespeare’s time.

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King Oedipus (06/29/1955)

Same as it ever was.

In 1954, Stratford’s Artistic Director, Tyrone Guthrie, decided to put on two plays by Shakespeare and then branch out and do a third play not by the Bard. That third play, Oedipus Rex, must have been quite a success because the following year Guthrie decided to again stage a third non-Shakespeare play. This time around, he opted to do King Oedipus.

King Oedipus is simply the English title of Oedipus Rex. They are the same damn play.

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