A Farewell - DeForest Kelley - A Tribute

like a McCoy bombs now I fell in love with the DeForest Kelley who was such an extraordinary wonderful actor what a wonderful crinkly personality he had an D but a generous guy in life D Kelly somehow always managed to find the exact core of what his characters function wasn't a scene and do it do it so seamlessly and so without struggle that he made it like so many great actors seem very very easy just stepping off the back porch putting on the clothes and saying the lines the first picture he did was a smaller picture he had to leave in it called fear in the night has it happened it really caught on but it just sprang up and people loved it and they found before as Kelly well yeah the biggest acting chops than the biggest you know rap sheet of of any of the cast he had been around the longest and he had a sort of Henry Fonda esque quality 2/4 Kelley you know was happy to share a story of when he worked in a Western on the Paramount a lot and he just had a nice warmth and comfortable nature about him rarely got upset just an easygoing sort of country boy on the set when we were filming here we had a big western street if d would not buy picture could calm down and just sit around and stand around and watch everybody yeah I think he knew everybody's lines he knew what was happening he knew the scripts I think he just loved westerns I said to him you know you're terrific in this part or words to that effect that he said yes he said but secretly he says I I come from the school when we played on cowboys and Indians and I always felt more comfortable in a Spence and cowboy boots he could be a bad guy one day and a good guy the next and of course we knew him as as bones and Star Trek the good guy and I was always amazed when I would see him in a Western foam and being some evil character it just didn't seem to fit him whatsoever knowing him personally and what a kind-hearted man he really was an extensive career and a lot of movies that he had done it was oh it was amazing to see the range of what he had done over the years and we just don't appreciate that cause you only saw him sort of the latter part of his career during the Star Trek movies one of his big break came when Gene Roddenberry this is way before Star Trek put D and a pilot that he was making a television pilot the pilot didn't sell but Gene Roddenberry always remembered DeForest when Gene created Star Trek by 39 years ago he of course remembered DeForest Kelley but the forest in died as I remember D was the first one he talked to first actor he said these are gonna be the three leads and he described all of the characters and as my recollection is correct he said D which one do you want and D picked out the part that they'd been famous to help make Star Trek famous dr. McCoy and I asked him later why did you have to pick that and he said because I feeling that it had humor in it I'm a doctor not a bricklayer you're a healer there's a patient that's an order he never cease to be amazed that his character was so famous worldwide whenever you saw him on a camera you believed he was a doctor you believed that he was he was a it was a world-class scientist and that he was he was compassionate all deal with his patients he's a guy you weren't treating you well so help me I'm actually pleased to see you we fell into this wonderful Spock McCoy rivalry that the writers enjoyed writing for and we enjoyed playing it was just it was always it always works your pulse is 242 your blood pressure is practically non-existent assuming you call that green stuff in your veins blood the readings are perfectly normal for me doctor thank you and as for my Anatomy being different from yours I am delighted he lived in a very simple house he didn't he didn't he wasn't caught up in Hollywood he wasn't caught up in all of those all of the pressures and demands and all of that easy he held it very very lightly that's maybe what attracted people to him is he was fun to be around and easy to talk to when I was on the set he would take time to just sometimes sit with me and we would just talk and at one point I told him that I was a fan of old radio shows old radio dramas from the 1940s and dee told me that he had been on an episode of suspense back in the late 40s the next day when I came to the set he handed me a tape and he had gone home the night before made a copy of this program himself and gave me the tape because he knew that I would be interested in it so he was just full of little touches like that I'm here I'm with your dad when he did that scene over the death of his father was deeply personally involved with his own his own dad and when he finished that scene he went into seclusion for a long time I mean a long time the rest of the day which was very not typical of DeForest very gregarious man and once having gone through that he returned to being himself it was quite a trauma for him I did I had a nice relationship he he was always slapping me on the back at a convention and saying you don't look a day older damn it and of course we both were looking a day older more than a day older when DeForest Kelley got his star on Hollywood Boulevard they staged it they put the star at a certain place on the boulevard right in front of what I think is the Vogue Theater the Vogue Theater has a an escalator that goes three stories up to a high place the third tier of the movie house and ladies and gentlemen DeForest Kelley and suddenly DeForest appeared at the top of the escalator he was like a god figure coming down I noticed right perform but right behind him actually but the name of the theater was the galaxy so here is DeForest Kelley descending from the galaxy on an escalator to get his star on Hollywood Boulevard they put all of their handprints and footprints in the Chinese Theater and the each one selected a corner and they saved the middle for different departments to put his name down and all the camera people were around and he had so many camera people Ron said do this let's go do this and everything that he stopped in the middle of it that and he went back he misspelled his name said had to go in and smooth it out and have him have it right it right or wrong and I said GTT that's it that that was pretty stupid dude and I said on the other hand I said would you did that purposely coming down the escalator was one thing but in front of Chinese Theatre with all of these people you did that purposely to get more footage you know misspelled your name you knew he was gonna he said I really didn't he was God so no I didn't do I really I didn't he was trying to say and of course he did you just did because of the other confusion that's how we used to look when you're young and you don't know death it's hard to imagine that somebody dies and as you get older and people around you fall away that you've known the mystery of where where do they go what happens to all the love what happens to that personality what happens to that personality what happens to that individuality that you've loved so much where did how does it all that suddenly end and you could tell he was starting to wane in health a little bit and he was starting to wear down and he was gosh even in Star Trek for the costumes he wore were so tiny I went the opportunity to see D before he died shortly before that I said hello goodbye to him we didn't know was goodbye but looking back I think we did know I would call him on occasion and then I was working at the motion picture country house in hospital and I created a huge moneymaker called the Golden Buddha reward which was a cowboy Hall of Fame kind of thing I said would you mind taking beepers presented the Golden Boot Award he says I dreamed about it he says could I guess get it I said you get it you're going to have it and I don't know of anything that the forest Kelley ever did any achievement he ever made that touched him more than women winning the Golden Boot Award because that was given to him for the West once and he cried he was so delighted with it and I had thought to myself boy if I had anything fell into place this did and of course shortly after that he died I think he left a very indelible mark because he left he brought a lot of the heart to Star Trek it wouldn't have been Star Trek without him I don't think he ever thought of himself and as being that's the Liberty I think he thought of and he's mentioned this of Star Trek being the big celebrity and he being a part of Star Trek he was a part of Star Trek Star Trek was my part before I was Kelly he was just always you know just kicking back and having a good time happy to be there happy to be at the party what's the difference between an actor and a movie star an actor is somebody who pretends to be somebody else a movie star is somebody who pretends that somebody else is them DeForest Kelley was a real movie star in that sense he had a persona he didn't have to work on it enough to project that he didn't have to strike and it was just what you got [Music] our listenership but she's got the right name now you remember that here I will sir you treat her like a lady she'll always bring it home [Music] you you

Channel: Maikel Akkermans

Views: 1,524,756

Keywords: Farewell, DeForest, Kelly, Tribute, DeForest Kelly, DeForest Kelley, Kelley

Id: FCSPimDxXDw

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 24 2010