William Shatner's Wig

[Cheapjack]

I still don't believe it.

You can tell he wears a wig now. You can see the line around the top of his head. He never shows his hairline, which is a dead giveaway. Wigs will have got better in the forty years since the series, not worse. Nobody now has seen him without it. Why would he be more open forty years ago?

 

[Good Will Riker]

TOS:
straight blond (1st Season)
straight blond on top/straight medium brown on bottom (2nd Season)
thick, medium brown, which was technically still straight (3rd Season)

TAS:
straight red

TMP-TFF:
curly dark brown

TUC-GEN:
curly grey

Boston Legal (Denny Crane) :
straight grey

 

[Therin of Andor]

Cheapjack said:
Nobody now has seen him without it. Why would he be more open forty years ago?

It's my understanding that Shatner had some hair plug transplants after TOS, so he can't remove those bits. Also, the hairpiece he got just before ST IV was a new kind of "hair weaving" that was, as they used to say in the TV ads, "Undetectable, even underwater..." which Shatner went on to prove - by insisting upon doing his own underwater stunts in ST IV.

The current toupee can't be removed like an old-style one because it's woven into his own hair and rewoven every few months as the natural hair grows out.

 

[Csalem]

Never realised he wore a piece in TOS. I was always suspicious as to how Kirks hair went black and curly in TMP.

 

[AC84]

Adm_Drake said:
Watch "This Side of Paradise". During the scene where McCoy explains that the colonists' health is perfect and suggests he could throw away his shingle...

This is very much off topic, but I never understood what McCoy meant by throwing away his shingle.

 

[A beaker full of death]

AC84 said:

This is very much off topic, but I never understood what McCoy meant by throwing away his shingle.

They're in perfect health. They don't need a doctor.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

To expand slightly on beaker's definition, of course we are all familiar with a shingle as a small oblong sheet of wood (or perhaps slate as well) which is overlapped to provide roofing for homes.

It can also refer to a sign posted outside an establishment. By "throwing away his shingle," McCoy metaphorically refers to the fact that if he were a practicing physician on this planet, one with an office, he would have to take down the "Doctor McCoy" sign in front of said office and throw it away since the colonists are so healthy he would be out of a job.

Sir Rhosis

 

[A beaker full of death]

^ Right - I didn't realize the poster meant he didn't know what a shingle was.

It especially works well with McCoy - old country doctors tend to have the shingles.

Hmm. That didn't come out well at all.

We lawyers have them too - that is, those in small or solo practice.
Anyway, this is what I mean:

 

[AC84]

I knew what a shingle was, but when McCoy said that line, I immediately thought of roofing.....so I guess I really didn't know what a shingle was...

 

[TiberiusK]

According to Nichelle Nichols (in Beyond Uhura) the Shat got so mad during tough directing scenes in Star Trek V that he made some kind of forceful gesture and knocked his own hairpiece into the sand.

Dozens of extras, just standing around for hours couldn't help but laugh out loud.

He fired every extra on the spot.

At least, that is Nichols' version of events.

 

[Good Will Riker]

^^^ I read it in "Captain Quirk" (Shatner's unauthorized biography).

To think that the attack on Paradise City could have been more impressive with, oh I don't know...about 40 more extras on camera. I wonder where all those extra "extras" went even with that budget increase from Star Trek IV?

 

[TiberiusK]

I really need to read Captain Quirk. Hopefully, it's dirt cheap on Amazon.

 

[Basil]

Young Shatner and I seem to have very similar hair texture and thickness -- and I have a full head of hair. But under extremely bright lights, it can look like my hair is thinning when it's simply fine and straight. Actually, my barber tells me it's a lot more dense than most of his customers, but because the hair itself is fine, doesn't look as dense as someone with curly or thicker hair follicles. So, it's possible that Shatner only wore a toupee at that age because of the super-intense lights that were used to film with that "technicolor" film stock of old. Given how much makeup was used, too, I wouldn't be surprised if what appears to be covering up a wig seam isn't in fact just makeup to keep his forehead from looking too shiny under the lights.

It's interesting that because we get so many similar images on TV, we forget about the diversity of people on this planet. A telltale sign of a toupee seems to be when the hairline on the sides is receding but not on top. But, then, I've known people whose hair grows in that pattern.

 

[Adm_Drake]

TiberiusK said:
According to Nichelle Nichols (in Beyond Uhura) the Shat got so mad during tough directing scenes in Star Trek V that he made some kind of forceful gesture and knocked his own hairpiece into the sand.

Dozens of extras, just standing around for hours couldn't help but laugh out loud.

He fired every extra on the spot.

At least, that is Nichols' version of events.

I remember reading that in Captain Quirk. I didn't read Beyond Uhura, so I can't comment on what Nichelle Nichols wrote. But I have trouble believing that (with union regulations) numerous extras and crew could be fired for pissing off Shatner.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Adm_Drake said:
I have trouble believing that (with union regulations) numerous extras and crew could be fired for pissing off Shatner.

The trouble may not have begun or ended there - perhaps there was an ongoing grumbling - and a director could certainly dismiss a batch extras who refused to stop giggling and spoiling takes on a film set.

I could fully understand an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with a director (on any film set). The book "Captain's Log: The Making of Star Trek V", by Lisabeth Shatner (and Bill), has some hilarious and telling insights about mistakes Shatner was making all through the filming process, even though Lisabeth wasn't deliberately spelling them out to criticize the director (whom she keeps referring to in the book as "my father").

One of the funniest was when Leonard Nimoy, dressed in ragged robes for the assault on Paradise scenes, got left behind with all the motley extras, and had to ride back to base on the back of a truck, instead of the comfy cars supplied for the main cast. Nimoy got a great insight into how director Shatner treated his extras that day.

 

[DontFeedPhil]

I dont know. I was looking at shatners hair last night in "Shore Leave" and tho it does look pretty thin in spots up front(and it looks like he grew the front long to do a small amount of combover)...It looks exactly like my hair. I am 29 gonna be 30 in Oct. I have studied my slightly thinning hair up close and personal in the mirror...And I DO NOT have a hair piece. As far as I can see He is not wearing a Hair piece in TOS...
Oh by the way what are "The Deadly Years"?

 

[TiberiusK]

DontFeedPhil said:
I dont know. I was looking at shatners hair last night in "Shore Leave" and tho it does look pretty thin in spots up front(and it looks like he grew the front long to do a small amount of combover)...It looks exactly like my hair. I am 29 gonna be 30 in Oct. I have studied my slightly thinning hair up close and personal in the mirror...And I DO NOT have a hair piece. As far as I can see He is not wearing a Hair piece in TOS...
Oh by the way what are "The Deadly Years"?

The Deadly Years was an episode of TOS were the crew aged rapidly. I can't remember the source, but it's been claimed that what you see as old shatner is the real shatner hairwise.

 

[Green Shirt]

Check out WNMHGB when Spock orders "Deflectors, full intensity", as Shatner turns left you can see a good view of the right side of his head. There appears to be some serious comb-over action. Little bits of hair trying hard to cover his scalp - which is partially covered over by some longer hair pulled straight back. Its especially noticable in the enhanced version.

As I'm writing this, the words "get a life, you people!" are ringing in my ears.

Enough of this for now. Next stop, the Alias Smith and Jones forum, or maybe Hawaii Five-0, or maybe Emergency!.