James Doohan

Died: 20 July, 2005, in Washington, aged 85

ARGUABLY he had the worst Scottish accent on television. That didn't stop James Doohan gaining worldwide fame as Scotty in Star Trek, the cult inter-galactic, derring-do adventure series. All those ghastly faked Scottish phrases that tried to bring Scottish authenticity to the character fell rather flat in Scotland: then there were those pseudo Scottish phrases that jarred. The worst was probably "the engines cannae take it", but there were other horrors like "that'll put the haggis in the fire" and "hae a bonny trip".

Doohan was not worried about such pronunciation niceties. He gave the character flair and lived every episode with schoolboy enthusiasm. They flew the USS Enterprise - thanks to Scotty's mechanical skills - for 79 episodes on television and then made seven feature films. Although Doohan was to be seen in other shows he was recognised as Scotty: even Elvis Presley once shouted from his car "Beam me up, Scotty."

In fact "Beam me up, Scotty" was never actually said in Star Trek. It was often assumed that it was said when a member of USS Enterprise had to be rematerialised in the spaceship. Captain Kirk actually said: "Beam us up, Mr Scott." As is often the case, fiction is better than reality.

Doohan auditioned for the role and read it in several accents: he did a Scot ("all the best engineers are Scottish") and the author liked it so he got the part - he even allowed Doohan to choose his own name. "I named him Montgomery Scott in honour of my grandfather."

The show first appeared in 1966 and Doohan made a remarkable impression from the outset. His handsome looks, charismatic accent and exciting confrontations with exotic and weird creatures made Scotty popular worldwide.

Children rushed home to watch if Mr Spock and Captain Kirk had saved some far off galaxy: they always did, of course. All the time dear old Scotty would be having a mechanical drama in the bowels of the engine room and relaying up to control anguished cries such as "A'm tellin' ya cap'n! A've got nay more power!"

There was always much "r" rolling and the accent was a fine mixture of best Vancouver with a slight touch of elegant Morningside.

James Montgomery Scott served in the Royal Canadian Artillery during the war and showed conspicuous gallantry at the D-Day landings. He was disembarked on Juno Beach and ran through enemy fire to capture a gunpost. Doohan was badly wounded and shot in his left leg. He was only saved from death by a cigarette case in his breast pocket, but remained in the army for the rest of the war as a pilot observer.

After the war Doohan acted in plays in New York but gained a reputation as a fine radio actor - specialising in accents. He was seen in some early TV series (Bonanza, The Twilight Zone), but it was the audition for Star Trek that changed his life.

In fact Doohan was never bitter about his success in Star Trek and was always quietly modest about his creation of the Klingon and Vulcan languages that he devised for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He is credited with formulising what has become the world's most artificial language.

However, being so closely identified with Scotty meant other work was hard to find after the series ended. Nevertheless Doohan attended numerous conventions and reminisced willingly with Trekkies all over the world.

In 2004 Trekkies held a special convention in Hollywood and gave Scotty a memorable farewell. The astronaut Neil Armstrong spoke admiringly of Doohan ("as one engineer to another") and he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Doohan certainly seemed to have some extra-terrestrial magic in his private life. At the age of 80 he fathered his last of seven children and, suitably, has asked for his ashes to be fired into space.

Doohan married Janet Young in 1949. They were divorced in 1964. In 1975 he married Wende and she and four children by his first marriage and three by his second survive him.