Early in his career, William Shatner took a workman's approach to acting. Though he was considered a tremendously talented actor during his time at the prestigious Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario (where he impressed his colleague Christopher Plummer), once Shatner moved to New York City and, ultimately, Los Angeles, he made himself incredibly available. While he booked respectable work in major feature films like Richard Brooks' "The Brothers Karamazov" and Stanley Kramer's "Judgment at Nuremberg,"
he worked willingly and steadily in television — which, in the 1950s and '60s, was viewed as a haven for actors who couldn't quite crack the Hollywood nut.
On the one hand, this is admirable. There is no shame in being a working actor, someone who, upon finishing a project, doesn't get picky and turn down roles while looking to ascend the showbiz ladder. Many great actors take this approach, like Samuel L. Jackson, Keith David, and Eric Roberts (who, it's been said, makes a movie on the way home from making a movie); any director would be thrilled to work with these performers, but these guys know from lean times and won't turn their nose up at a paycheck.
So while Shatner could've afforded to be a little more precious about the roles offered him after working with A-listers like Brooks and Kramer (and he had the privilege to do so unlike Jackson and David, who, as Black men making their bones in the 1970s and '80s, could not count on a juicy part every time out in a very white industry), he instead turned in occasionally superlative performances on shows like "The Twilight Zone," "The Outer Limits," and "The Fugitive." Had the film been better received initially, he probably could've used his portrayal of a rabble-rousing racist in Roger Corman's "The Intruder" (arguably a career-best for both artists) to bolster his case for big-screen stardom, but he preferred to keep himself busy doing guest roles in "Route 66," "The Defenders," and "Burke's Law."
When Shatner booked the part of Captain James T. Kirk in Gene Roddenberry's revolutionary science fiction series "Star Trek," he basically stopped acting, with few exceptions, and riffed or goofed on this character for the rest of his career. And once his services were no longer required in the "Star Trek" movies, he generally reverted to self-parody. Sometimes, this was fun (he's by far the best thing in "Airplane II: The Sequel"). And he was certainly a delight in the surprise comedy smash of 2004, "Dodgeball."
Read more: 5 Star Trek Characters Who Disappeared Without Any Reason
Shatner's A Scene-Stealing Delight In Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
When Rawson Marshall Thurber's screenplay for "Dodgeball" (it hadn't yet acquired the clumsy subtitle "A True Underdog Story") started making the script-reading rounds in the early 2000s, everyone pretty much agreed it was worthy of production, and, potentially, a comedy blockbuster in the making. It boasted ludicrous set pieces, hilariously lunkheaded dialogue, and just a little bit of heart. I likened it at the time to "Revenge of the Nerds," so it felt like a good omen that 20th Century Fox, the studio responsible for that (admittedly problematic) comedy classic, put Thurber's film into production.
There weren't many changes from the original screenplay, but some of the stunt casting was unexpected. Now that we know cyclist Lance Armstrong was a performance-enhancing fraud and Chuck Norris is an unrepentant homophobe, their cameos aren't quite as enjoyable as they were initially. Shatner, however, turning up as the chancellor of the Dodgeball league, still kills.
Shatner wields a gaudy purple scepter and extols strict by-the-book procedure when it comes to resolving rules disputes — which almost costs our heroes the championship when Vince Vaughn's discount gym owner Peter LaFleur bails on his team. It's a blast watching Shatner and Ben Stiller interact, given that we know the latter is a huge "Star Trek" fan (who once participated in a roast of the former Enterprise captain). Not everything in "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" has aged well, but Shatner, a legend on his own hard-working terms, still slays. Perhaps he'll return for the "Dodgeball" sequel that's been in the works for the last couple of years.
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