It was just a year ago that I read of the nice ceremony when James Doohan received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He wasn’t well then.

From WCVB’s online site:

The publicist for James Doohan says the actor who played Scotty on “Star Trek” has died at his home in Redmond, Wash. He was 85. The cause of his death was pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease.

The Times Online had a very nice obituary, which included:

James Montgomery Doohan was born in 1920 in Vancouver, the youngest of four children of William Doohan, a veterinarian, pharmacist and dentist. He displayed an early interest in acting, playing Robin Hood in a school production, but the outbreak of war took him to the Royal Canadian Artillery, with which he served gallantly on D-Day.

On June 6, 1944, Lieutenant Doohan of the Winnipeg Rifles, 13th Field Regiment, took part in D Company’s landing on Juno beach. The company disembarked from landing craft at 7.30am, and dashed through rifle and machinegun fire to reach the shelter of the sand dunes. Doohan silenced a German machinegun post with a few shots but was wounded later that day. He was hit eight times, four times in his left leg, and one round hit him in the chest — only the cigarette case in his breast pocket saved him from a mortal wound.

Otherwise, his company came off fairly lightly. The middle finger from his right hand had to be amputated, and whenever there were close-up shots of Scotty operating the transporter in Star Trek, a “stunt hand” was employed.

The man lived a long and interesting life.

The New York Times ran this obituary. And WCVB also has this nice slideshow of a few pictures.

Star Trek and the character Doohan played was part of my childhood. This is akin to losing an old friend.