At 95, William Shatner remains one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons. After more than seven decades in the entertainment industry, the actor has built a career defined by unforgettable roles and an energy that has often made him seem timeless to generations of fans.
In the entertainment industry for more than seven decades, from his early days on The Canadian Howdy Doody Show in 1954, as Ranger Bob, to his unforgettable performances on The Twilight Zone, as Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek, the hard-nosed detective on T.J. Hooker, and the eccentric attorney Denny Crane on Boston Legal, Shatner has long seemed almost ageless to his fans, which as become a little bit of a issue.
“The problem is that I regard myself as ageless, which is very dangerous. The danger of agelessness.” Shatner shared as part of an in-depth conversation for TV Guide Magazine’s Star Trek: The Captains Special Issue.
When asked how he views himself, Shatner explained that his battle with cancer brought his outlook on life and his own sense of perspective into focus.
“When I was told I had Stage 4 melanoma, and the doctor, a friend of mine, I said I got this lump, and put his doctor’s gentle fingers on my cheek, and he said to me, ‘Bill, you better get this out.’ With a kind of gravitas but not alarm, like a good doctor, and I went and got it out,” explained Shatner. “It took two years of treatment to become cancer-free.”
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“When I got the news, and my daughter got her news of breast cancer at the same time — Stage 4 breast cancer — she thought she was going to die. And she spent a year suffering torment until she gradually work herself out, which is the element, the issue, of No Time to Die, our podcast. I, on the other hand, said, ‘Really? Stage 4?’ It didn’t occur to me that I was going to die. It didn’t occur to me that bad fortune was going to happen,” explained the icon. “I’m sensing, at 95, I’m sensing, the leaves are getting a little yellow and falling off the tree, but, OK!”
“I didn’t fear dying because it didn’t occur to me that I was going to die. And that’s my attitude,” said Shatner. “Even as we speak. So what does that mean?”
“I’m taking care of myself,” assured the actor. “It’s an attitude. I guess it’s acquired, but it may be inborn.”
—Reporting by Rob Edelstein
TV Guide Magazine’s Star Trek: The Captains Special Issue is available for order online now at StarTrek.TVGM2026.com, and for purchase on newsstands nationwide.
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