In his new memoir, William Shatner opens up about painful moments from his past, including a false cancer diagnosis and his sadness over the end of his friendship withStar Trekcostar Leonard Nimoy.
The 87-year-old actor, writer, director and producer writes inLive Long And… What I Learned Along the Way, out Tuesday, that his life changed in 2016 when he wasdiagnosed with prostate cancer— only to later learn that it was a false-positive, according toParade. The scare made Shatner even more determined to embrace every day as a gift.
“I want readers to know how quickly life is over and how important it is to live every moment,” he toldParade.
Shatner also reflects on his immigrant family’s struggle with poverty, his difficulty to connect with the women in his life, and the passion that continues to drive his Hollywood career.
“I have always felt,” writes Shatner in his latest memoir,according to the book’s description, “[that] like the great comedian George Burns, who lived to 100, I couldn’t die as long as I was booked.”
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Despite the series’ success, Shatner struggled to maintain positive relationships with the rest of the cast.
Shatner writes that he’s still surprised thata number of hisStar Trekcostars disliked him, and continue to avoid him, according toThe Daily News. Thankfully, he had Leonard Nimoy, who played the beloved character Spock. According to the book, Shatner considered Nimoy his best friend.
But even that didn’t last.
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The actor writes that Nimoy eventually stopped talking to him, and he still doesn’t know why. In a2016 interview withThe Hollywood Reporter, Shatner explained that his only clue as to why the friendship ended may have been related to Nimoy’s refusal to participate in a film he was making.
“I thought [Leonard] was joking at first and treated it as a joke because he sometimes would pretend and say, ‘No, I’m not going to do that’ and then say, ‘yes,’ so that’s what I thought he did,” Shatner said. “But that time he really meant, no. … I just don’t know, and it is sad and it is permanent. I don’t know why he stopped talking to me.”
In his memoir, Shatner explains that hedidn’t attend Nimoy’s funeral in 2015because he felt unwelcome, according toThe Daily News.
Shatner still hasn’t been able to shake his confusion and sadness over the end of the friendship.
“Until the day I die, I will still wonder what caused that rift,” Shatner writes, perThe Daily News. “After all the years we had spent together, after the bond we had forged, what could I have done that was so irreparable that he couldn’t even talk to me about it?”
Live Long And… What I Learned Along the Wayhits bookstores on Tuesday.
source: people.com
