The Star Trek world knows the late James Doohan as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott from the original TV series and a number of films, but what fans may not realize is he once saved a suicidal fan. Doohan would have turned 100 on Tuesday, which William Shatner took the time to note to his millions of Twitter followers.
Doohan’s life-saving interaction with a fan, which he called “the best thing I have ever done in my life,” started when he received a letter from a Star Trek viewer who told him she was in a bad place and suicidal. In a video interview unearthed by The Hollywood Reporter, Doohan said he took the note seriously and responded.
“I called her and I said, ‘Hey, this is Jimmy Doohan. Scotty of Star Trek. I’m doing a convention in Indianapolis, and I want to see you there.'” he explained. “I saw her. Boy, I’m telling you — I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was definitely suicide. Somebody had to help her, somehow. And, obviously, she wasn’t going to the right people.”
Doohan told the woman about each surrounding area convention (and some in nearby states) that he would be at and said he wanted to see her at each.
“That went on for two or three years, maybe 18 times,” he said. “And all I did was talk positive things to her. And then all of a sudden — nothing. I didn’t hear anything, and I had no idea what was really happening to her because I never really saved her address. Eight years later, I get a letter saying, ‘I do want to thank you so much for what you did for me, I just got my master’s degree in electronic engineering.'”
Doohan, who played Scotty for the final time in 1994’s Star Trek Generations, died in 2005.
Watch the segment below.
