William Shatner’s Father Thought He’d Be ‘Nothing More Than a Hanger-On’

It’s easy to boldly go where you’ve never gone before when you have plenty of support — but, for Star Trek star William Shatner, that wasn’t the case. As he revealed in a new interview with The Telegraph, the star’s father didn’t think highly of his choice to pursue an acting career.

Shatner, 94, was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His father ran a small company making men’s clothing, working very hard to keep William’s mother and his two sisters fed. It was hard work that kept him away from home for most of the week.

So, when it came time for William to head out on his own in the arts in the early 1950s, his father had some words about that. “I remember when I went out the door and waved goodbye on my way from our home in Montreal to seek my fortune in Toronto,” Shatner said in a new interview with The Telegraph.

“My father said, ‘You’ll be a hanger-on if you’re an actor, nothing more than a hanger-on,'” said the actor, who in addition to Star Trek also starred in the cop drama TJ Hooker. A ‘hanger-on,’ of course, is just someone who hangs around a person or group for their own benefit. A scrub, a mooch, or one of those leeches always in the entourage and never the actual star.

Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection

These words had a strong impact on young William. “That thought stayed with me and drove me in my desperate need not to be a ‘hanger-on,’ but to make my way, both financially and professionally,” said Shatner. He also said that he “fully realized my father’s trepidation” at the time.

“I now have the same trepidation for my daughters who are grown up, and about my granddaughters,” he said.

Shatner said that as he was coming up in Quebec, he was “part of the coterie of actors in Montreal that did radio on a regular basis in addition to amateur theatrics.” And when he started to get paid, it was never more than “a couple of hundred dollars a month.”

“It was enough to tantalize you,” he said. “You know, ‘Look what you could make if you were any good or if you went to the States!’ But I didn’t get a second job. I was following my path without any real concept of where I was heading. I didn’t have any real responsibilities, so I got by.”

Shatner eventually made his way south to the States, but only after honing his skills on the stage in Ontario. He racked up a handful of now-iconic performances on shows like Thriller, The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone.

And then, in 1966, he portrayed Captain James T. Kirk for the second pilot of a show called Star Trek. And though it didn’t experience colossal success right away, it opened many doors for Shatner, assuring he would never be a “hanger-on” for the rest of his life.