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Up Till Now: The Autobiography | 
 enlarge | Authors: William Shatner, David Fisher
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 2224
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 6.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0312372655
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.45028092
EAN: 9780312372651
ASIN: 0312372655
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
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Condition: Excellent condition. FAST SHIPPING!
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Product Description
“It is now Bill Shatner’s universe---we just live in it.”---New York Daily News After almost sixty years as an actor, William Shatner has become one of the most beloved entertainers in the world. And it seems as if Shatner is everywhere. Winning an Emmy for his role on Boston Legal. Doing commercials for Priceline.com. In the movie theaters. Singing with Ben Folds. He’s sitting next to Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s practically a regular on Howard Stern’s show. He was recently honored with election to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. He was a target on a Comedy Central’s Celebrity Roast entitled “The Shat Hits the Fan.” In Up Till Now, Shatner sits down with readers and offers the remarkable, full story of his life and explains how he got to be, well, everywhere. It was the original Star Trek series, and later its films, that made Shatner instantly recognizable, called by name---or at least by Captain Kirk’s name---across the globe. But Shatner neither began nor has ended his career with that role. From the very start, he took his skills as an actor and put them to use wherever he could. He straddled the classic world of the theater and the new world of television, whether stepping in for Christopher Plummer in Shakespeare’s Henry V or staring at “something on the wing” in a classic episode of The Twilight Zone. And since then, he’s gone on to star in numerous successful shows, such as T.J. Hooker, Rescue 911, and most recently Boston Legal. William Shatner has always been willing to take risks for his art. What other actor would star in history’s first---and probably only---all-Esperanto-language film? Who else would share the screen with thousands of tarantulas, release an album called Has Been, or film a racially incendiary film in the Deep South during the height of the civil rights era? And who else would willingly paramotor into a field of waiting fans armed with paintball guns, all waiting for a chance to stun Captain…er, Shatner? In this touching and very funny autobiography, William Shatner reveals the man behind these unforgettable moments, and how he’s become the worldwide star and experienced actor he is today.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Shatner's Log: Stardate 9529.1 May 14, 2008
Barry Pearl (E Northport, NY USA)
92 out of 98 found this review helpful
This is a very enjoyable book, easy and fun to read and at times, I laughed out loud. There are also moments of great sadness. It is flawed only by Mr. Shatner's own interruptions that often destroy the flow of a good story.
The book traces Mr. Shatner's career in show business and the path to "make him a star." It is not an easy path. Even after getting several breaks, Mr. Shatner turns down a $500 a week, five-year contract with MGM and the role that Robert Reed got on the Defenders. He had hoped for something bigger and was always waiting for it.
Of course, it came with Star Trek, although it was a bit hard to realize at the time. One of the most interesting parts of the book is his insight and behind the scenes information on Leonard Nimoy. More than learning about their differences in the beginning, and later friendship, we discover the event that strained the relationship between Mr. Nimoy and Gene Roddenberry. We learn about Leonard Nimoy's alcoholism and how he struggled with it. This becomes even more important when we learn about Mr. Shatner third wife and her struggle with the same disease.
The book does not shy away for the animosity that many of the Star Trek regulars had towards him, why they did and how he addressed it. It also doesn't hide the fact of his long struggle to make money and keep it for him and his family. Star Trek does not at all monopolize the book but it is certainly always in the background as it will as be in his. It was refreshing to read his take on why the first ST movie was not a great one and how the company really messed up his attempt to direct ST 5. It was not what I had thought.
There are some very funny, and insightful, stage moments, some with Yul Brenner, Frances Nuyen, and my favorite, laugh out loud moment, when he was on stage with Walter Mathieu. As with any good biography, it gives you an insight not just of the man, but also of the profession.
We also learn about the struggles and the bad times. His first two marriages end in divorce and he blames himself, but he does not go into detail, he does not say anything really damaging about those wives. The story of his third wife, an alcoholic is just overwhelming sad, especially, of course at the end. It was very interesting to see a "celebrity's" view of an intruding press at this kind of sad event. . We also learn about the loss of his father. His love for his daughters is always there and we learn how he became enthralled with horses. His meeting with Chris Reeve, after the accidents, was compelling.
Shatner finds humor everywhere, even in the most tragic places and that helps us get through the book. I had difficulty with two items. He interrupts the book, in the beginning, in mid sentence and gives, what I thought was a comic take on commercials, using his own website. However, he doesn't know when to stop. He does it throughout the book and just when you are getting interested in a topic, he "goes to commercial." Boy, did it stop being funny fast. In addition, in listing the licensing items for Star Trek, he not only goes on FOR PAGES, just listing items, but as if it was a commercial interrupts with that too. He also had trouble starting the book, for the first few pages, he tells you how he will not start the book. Well, then,he is actually starting it then, the way he doesn't want to.
Finally, it is only about 350 pages so you cannot go into great depth on everything. However, there are very interesting stories on TJ Hooker and the cast and Boston legal and its cast. We even get background on 911, Third Planet and Tek war. We learn about the man and why he needs to work so much and so often.
Let me leave on a humorous note. Shatner is driving to an outdoor site, to film part of a Start Trek movie at 4:30 in the morning, wearing his Captain's uniform . Speeding, he is stopped by a cop who asks, "Where are you going?"
"To my spaceship" said Shatner.
"OK, Go ahead. Oh, and live long and prosper."
He has.
Worthwhile and Substantive, but Somewhat Uneven May 21, 2008
The Weary Professor (NJ, USA)
46 out of 53 found this review helpful
I just finished reading Up Till Now and feel inclined to comment. I enjoyed the book enormously, but have some minor complaints. For the last dozen years I've taught literature and composition at the college level, so I'm used to carefully examining what I read in terms of style and usage.
The tone of this book is quite different than Bill's previous autobiographical works. This is presumably due to co-writer David Fisher's approach and prose style differing from Chris Kreski's. The earlier books presented a consistent, if somewhat workmanlike, organization and textual style while Up Till Now is more inconsistent and less linear. Like most celebrity memoirs, it appears the book was compiled from Bill's recorded anecdotal ruminations and numerous sections are presented verbatim in a voice that sounds much like Bill's. Fisher's approach was likely to organize the material and provide bridging prose to logically link the anecdotes. Kreski seemed to collate the memories and render the material in his own version of Bill's voice. Along with editorial tinkering, the different approach would account for the fluctuations of tone in the new book. The informational arrangement is somewhat chronological, mitigated by attempts to also arrange the material thematically. This is always an awkward strategy and I've never seen it done with complete success. Someone also had the lamentable idea of frequently interrupting Bill's many interesting stories with trivial asides and jovial sales pitches for [...]. While we all know Bill as a marvelous pitchman, this technique quickly becomes irksome when frequently repeated on the printed page. Perhaps it will be more effective in the audiobook version. These elements necessarily make for inconsistent reading, and while this is a book of quality, this is also a book to be read in short spurts. Please don't misunderstand me. It's certainly readable and without glaring typographical or grammatical problems, but Bill's earlier memoirs made for more consistent reading from a stylistic perspective. Also, as I'm sure someone must have pointed out by now, the photo from Cannes is missing from the insert section. Although Bill didn't appear in the animated film, I doubt the empty white box was meant as a joke.
As for the actual content: There's a nice mix between the oft-repeated familiar stories and new material. As a longtime Shatner fan I'm grateful to have the book and relish the insights it provides. Much of the writing is extraordinary. The section describing Nerine's alcoholism and death is one of the most beautiful and poignant things I've read in a long time. It moved this jaded and critical reader to tears. The insights into Bill's acting philosophy, his quest for metaphysical meaning and his evolving friendhips with Leonard Nimoy and James Spader are welcome and satisfying.
If anything, the book's main flaw in terms of content is that it tries to cover too much ground. A career and life as substantial and varied as Bill's simply cannot be covered in a single 342 page memoir. I would rather this were one of two volumes--the first covering his early life and career up to perhaps the cancellation of the original Star Trek, and the second to cover the years since. It's too late now, but perhaps Bill might consider another book comprised of anecdotes about his acting jobs through the years (along the lines of the Basil Rathbone story in the book), because a career of his longevity necessarily means they were given short shrift in the present work. The ones here are terrific. So much is covered in this one book that it becomes dizzying at times, but then I imagine Bill's life is pretty dizzying at times.
In conclusion, even with my minor complaints, I heartily recommend this book to anyone ever touched or amused by a Shatner performance through the years. It's a unique opportunity to glimpse the soul behind the constantly metamorphizing showman and man that is William Shatner. It's a fitting epitaph, up till now, for a life that hopefully has many more chapters.
 One heck of a life June 1, 2008
Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA)
26 out of 28 found this review helpful
I really have little interest in celebrity biographies. I had little interest in William Shatner, save for his hilarious sendup in a Brad Paisley music video. But I saw this voume and figured it was worth skimming at least.
Actually it is extremely interesting. I am presuming Shatner's co-author had a lot to do with the style, but it is Shatner as a person that shines through.
It's a surprisingly good book about an actor's life, how so very much of that kind of life is dependent entirely upon random fortune, luck - good and bad. Shatner had been a working actor for years, essentially steadily employed, but not famous. Captain Kirk was his breakout role - and in that he freely admits to being a second fiddle, especially in the beginning, to Leonard Nimoy's Mr. Spock character.
Kirk gave Shatner more freedom than ever to be Shatner, a man open to experiment, taking serious roles as well as spoofing himself and everything in between. Since I am not actually a Shatner fan, I was really surprised at just how much work Shatner has done.
There are many memorable scenes and highlights in this book. One that really sticks in my memory is Shatner's explanations for why he works so much, aside from the need to satisfy his creative urges. The first stemmed from a tour of the late Edward G. Robinson's renowned gallery of French Impressionists. This was at a time when "real" actors did not lower themselves to doing television commercials. In a discussion about actors and commercials, Robinson waves his hand at his very valuable and very expensive collection of paintings and asks Shatner how he thought Robinson could afford them. Point well made.
The other anecdote is an explanation of why Shatner rarely turns down work: every job opens a door to new opportunities, explains Shatner. What a great philosophy.
There are many, many asides, seques and detours in this book, which frankly adds to its character. It is a collection of tips to aspiring actors. It is a journal of the remembrances of a man who has seen good times and bad. The story of his third wife's alcoholism and her accidental death is dad. Likewise, the recounting of Leonard Nimoy's alcoholism came as a surprise to me. There are snippets of the proud father talking about and to his four daughters. Bits and pieces of his four marriages make their way into the narrative.
By the last page, you have a pretty good feel for the man who is William Shatner. He's a guy who has had some lucky breaks and, more importantly, never stopped trying to expand his horizons, never stopped giving vent to urge to create. All in all, he comes across as an interesting, talented guy who is at ease with himself.
Good reading, even if you are not a Shatner fan.
Jerry
"Do You Remember the show where you love her so much but she has to die or the entire universe is altered and the Nazi's win??? June 7, 2008
Sarah M. Puglisi (United States)
25 out of 64 found this review helpful
I edit this and saw it posted, with this same comment. So here it goes again.. I have a no voting campaign reflected in this review. I have asked this company to assist to no answer in over 20 emails in a month. I find that ridiculous and this personal, if not a bit frightening.
I would be the person that actually did embarrass everyone in the family at Zuma beach at our fav eating spot Sruzzo's and throw myself down prostrate at his table, if he was there, to go down my memory lane confirming most of what Shatner shares here in his autobiography, there really are some repetitive "I know you I'm your best fan" moments in his life. Well, I guess so, but I know I am. It's Kirk, for goodness sake. I'd like my book signed, pleeeese, even if I did manage to drown it first. We could try some mouth to mouth... So excuse me while I slip over to his table. It may bring new meaning to "I'm your biggest fan."
But let's go back to how I wanted to start this, first his story of meeting Koko the gorilla. Book starter. ( he debates possible starts to his book to start his story) That one made me laugh, spit food, slip in my tub, carry the book into the water when I saw it, twist my back and still continue to laugh some more. You have to read that, you really, really do.
I could tell that story but then that seems like a spoiler, you probably know this book will carry his humor and he would like you to "buy" it.
he was somehow involved with the Gorilla Foundation and was going in to meet Koko alone. She was so big, so intimidating- as gorillas are so strong- so he started saying spontaneously "I love you" over and over again. She grabbed him by the balls, his words, while her mate next door ( altho actually she rejected that mate) who must have been able to see in the room went absolutely crazy. Shatner says of this he was caught in the "eternal love triangle." I just am still laughing. He's good.
So I guess I'll tell you instead how Gene Roddenberry came to my town, a university one in West By God Virginia just a lot of times and I went to listen first in junior high finding him rather odd and my friends enthusiasm odder still-confirmed here by Shatner. Odd and maybe a bit of a ...well...he doesn't get too mean he just talks of a Mr. Huckster. He was a gold digging guy...but don't get me wrong went to see that writer because I watched this Star Trek show "in the beginning" and it was a show that changed me... just like it obviously hugely affected my suiting up friends. Beam them up. Universal translator, brains in a jar. We "got it." It was a bit like I see on net stuff now in gaming. You'd be watching the audiences seeing two people speaking in this "language" or asking these elaborate technical Trek show questions and wondering if they lived near you....I could say that reading this book was just a fun afternoon. Because it was. So I recommend it.
Shatner slips in and out of now and then, I liked that myself, and found when he did it and why very funny. He is telling of this lush, ( sorry it's him) provoking nude scene with Angie Dickinson ( just in case you wonder it seems clear the good Captain can get it all the way into gear with good thoughts alone) she's sensuous and disrobed, glistening...it's getting very interesting and bam, off to now...change your gears buster... but what he really does is take then when he has you by your metaphorical balls (again not my construct) to promote a charity that works with kids and horses. Says very quickly and efficiently just how that bonding horse to child does amazing things, I saw the genius of the man here. He's kind of saying...okay I'll sex this up for you, but why not get your head out of my boxers and around doing something for a kid. After all he has to keep to that code of not kissing and telling, so he just tells a little bit. Just some skin.
But he takes you back in his amazing career and eases you out of that story in that chapter wonderfully slick. Very smart. Excellent to place his plug.
You read of his life, his many acting experiences as he learns to think and play on his feet. He's the tank of hard work for sure. And the struggle to build that career, noting so many directors and actors he worked around. I was fascinated and because he is humorous, seductive, it is easy to read as seduction is easy. Recall you get called "easy." It is not technical manual time. I bet this is a great gift for someone in the family plus then they can pass it back to you. I have this set of books I place in visitors bedrooms. This is a great one to add. I recently removed Watership Down, as no one went for it, I loved it though. Opps rambling, sorry. He tells of scrabbles on sets, real jerks he had to deal with, mistakes made with ego.
I really appreciated his brief talk of marriages because he kind of owns that he wasn't the greatest at marriage and he reflects backward a bit on the empathy he lacked and just...how it was something he wasn't so perfectly skilled at doing. This is leading to the awful story of the death of an alcoholic third wife. So sad. It's a rapid tour of a life well edited and co-written. It's "I was on a glacier, I fought a bear." You go...what? Really amazing life. It's a wonder an acting experience didn't kill him, very physical. You skim through things that he must have felt with so much more, and he veils private things like his children's real days with or without him and his relating really to wives or the things that just don't hit often into a book like this.
No dark night of the soul here...no way, we have to get to the surface man.
You are sort of sitting down to a few hour chat in the diner on a pretty cheering day. I always figure Shatner is a very optimistic person in general, but who knows? He's telling his story.Seems so. Not opening a vein and bleeding, this book is warm.
I told my close friend I was reading this today. She knows I have this fondness for reading books by actors, directors, artists. "Uh, I hate him," she said. Surprising me, following this with the skeptics eye about the level I'm now on. But after I shared a few of his jokes I think she was revealing to me she knew Star Trek as well as I did, knew him through his own self-spoofing and enjoyed his really wonderful humor. He's just so him and in comfort with it here.
Shatner doesn't fail to note his "abilities", sometimes as he is sensuously speaking of the "beautiful ladies" I am sitting transformed into my early days of working for the liberation of women with a guy so dense as to talk of women quite this way...but then...let's face it. It's Kirk. He gets the girl, he gets another girl, he gets another one and he manages to do this with this intensity of seeming to project them into the "forever after" bubble. (Be careful lady you are going to die if you are on the show. That's my advise. )At least in the show it sort of went like that, or possibly be left in another century or planet. We all knew it was episodic.
I sense Shatner knows all about it, but he intersperses this love-line into the telling of his friendship with Nimoy and the ins and outs of his working life. I enjoyed his brevity actually as I lack the talent to write like that.
Umm...favorite thought....well I enjoyed a great deal how he owns some things like his offending the crew of the Starship, they needed him understanding their anger with him apparently as actors, and they fought tooth and nail for scenes. He kind of tells you that the entire experience isn't so warm and bonded in acting. Acting appears to have the same kinds of interesting issues I find in my work, you think on your feet, it happens in the moment( after prep) you show up and may not connect in a bigger sense with "peers" some of whom are just real a**es and you sometimes just get paid. All interesting in the contexts he takes you into. An example. He is rumored to have had an actual alien encounter, so he tells you what "really" happened within a thought about playing, inventing in "talking." But as I once sat in a room about Zaccaria Stitchen books listening to person after person tell of their alien abductions and seeing and knowing aliens, as I moved a bit closer to the door, I thought of his way of talking to several funny things like his adventure in the desert with his alien and I laughed. Oh boy.
So I'll leave my choppy recommendation here with a personal story. I never actually went to a Star Trek convention. I'm sort of unembarrassed by saying I'd enjoy one a lot. However. I once got to be friends with someone ill on a chat group, ill with the same disability, and she was a Trek fan who did go to conventions and she was loads of fun. So is his book. It's not Brothers Karamazov but he talks of it!
It's just a guy that can tell you he doesn't take a review seriously and then turn and talk of a negative one on his mind 40 years later and give you a laugh about that dichotomy. Good for a read when your are totally tired of the yuck going on in a day or looking to learn a bit more of this actor I still associate with those big Styrofoam boulders flying up through the air. Save us!
And if you are no voting please categorize your list of "issues" in the comments so I can figure out when to say, "Get A Life."
Explore Bill Shatner's world July 13, 2008
Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
William Shatner's UP TILL NOW is an appropriate summation of his 60 year career in entertainment. Shatner takes the high road throughout; often blaming himself for things gone wrong (marriages and personal relationships), and never responding harshly to the criticisms of others. His self-deprecating and tongue-in-cheek humor extends to several digressions for product placement and blatant commercialism: an acknowledgement that the late-career Bill Shatner is more than a highly successful actor-- he's a money-making institution.
This latest autobiography touches on all the familiar acting resume highlights: a famous Twilight Zone episode, 30 years as the most renowned character in sci-fi history, and lead roles in three other very successful TV series. There's no glossing over the missteps, either. Thus, such box office failures as "White Commanche," "The Horror at 37,000 Feet" and Roger Corman's controversial production, "The Intruder" are also covered. Shatner glories in a nude scene he played opposite an equally undressed Angie Dickenson in a typical Corman turkey, "Big Bad Mama" and unashamedly recalls that his recording of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" is considered by some to be one of the worst cover songs ever made.
Shatner's personal life and family history are examined; he discusses current interests and projects with obvious relish. Often within the pages of UP TILL NOW, Bill Shatner *THE STAR* struts like a proud bantam rooster but does so gracefully and with justification. Fans of his many TV shows and movies will not be disappointed in this book.
William Shatner's other autobiographical works, STAR TREK MEMORIES and GET A LIFE! are equally as entertaining and informative.
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