Star Trek's James Doohan Changed A Fan's Life With A Tear-Jerking Gesture
Warning: This article contains mentions of suicide.
James Doohan — who played and helped develop Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the original "Star Trek" series — is arguably one of the most badass actors to have ever lived. Perhaps even more importantly, Doohan was famously kind and caring, to the extent that he changed at least one fan's life significantly.
In a clip from a 1997 documentary titled "Trekkies" available on YouTube, Doohan recounted how one day he received a fan letter he determined must have been a suicide note. He decided to call its sender and introduce himself before inviting her to a convention. She showed up, according to Doohan, looking like she was still in a bad place. So he came up with a plan to help her, inviting her personally to each of his subsequent convention appearances. "That went on for two or three years, and maybe 18 times," he explained.
After that stretch, contact between Doohan and the fan suddenly dropped off. Finally, after eight years, she reached out one more time. In a letter, the fan thanked Doohan and revealed that she had successfully attained a master's degree in electronic engineering. "You know," Doohan said, "that's to me the best thing I've ever done in my life."
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James Doohan has a reputation for going above and beyond with fans
Understandably, James Doohan's story about his role in changing a fan's life circulated plenty online. Some commenters discussing the story on social media used the opportunity to then share their own memorable interactions with the "Star Trek" actor.
In an upvoted Reddit thread, for example, user Trespasserz recounted how during a convention signing, Doohan spent around 15 minutes discussing his time living in the poster's hometown. "The convention people were trying to push him along but he told them he was gonna finish the story, after the story was over, he wanted to give us a hug and so we got a hug from him," they wrote. "Such a great soul and ill remember that for the rest of my life."
Meanwhile, a brief version of Doohan's story amassed more than 820,000 likes on a Facebook page dedicated to historical celebrity trivia. Among numerous comments, one Facebook user shared their memory of a hotel breakfast with Doohan before a "Star Trek" convention. "Not only was he nice enough to answer our questions, pose for pictures. He told us stories from doing the tv show and movies. In the end he insisted on paying for everyone's breakfast," they wrote. "Years later I got one of those pictures from breakfast signed and he still remembered us."
It seems that Doohan consistently spent time connecting with his fans, whether that meant helping them make lifelong memories or changing their lives completely.