Star Trek's Most Resiliant Redshirt: James Doohan

Paramount Pictures

Any fan of the original Star Trek knows that the minute a crewman wearing a red shirt is tasked with accompanying an away team to the surface of planet, somebody is about to die.  It was so common for "redshirts" to buy the farm it has since becoming a running joke.

There is one incredibly bad ass exception to the rule:

Montgomery Scott.  Paramount Pictures

Of course Scott did manage to outlive every member of the original cast with the execpetion of Spock and Kirk, the latter of which should have died long before any of the other crew members from some sort of space STI.

Though Scott's proclivity for long life is impressive, the actor who originally played him survived much worse.

James Montgomery Doohan was born March 3rd, 1920 in Vancouver, British Columbia.  When World War II broke out, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force.  When D-Day was carried out, Doohan was there commanding an artillery.  Thanks to his immense valor and talent, he managed to survive the operation, after being shot six times.  One of the shots he took was straight in his chest, but thanks to a silver cigarette case Doohan survived, thus marking one of the only times in the history of ever when cigarettes actually saved lives.  

A young James Doohan, in military garb, with his Grandmother. 

Of course you can't be shot six times and come away Scotty-free.  Doohan ended up having the middle finger on his right hand amputated.  This of course made flipping the bird much harder.  It did however make giving the Vulcan greeting incredibly easy.

James Doohan and George Takei

I'll be honest, when I learned about this, it kind made me mad that all Scotty did in the show was operate the transporter and run around the bowels of the Enterprise, informing the bridge that he was indeed "giving her all she's got."  I just feel like he could have done so much on an away team. Here's to you Doohan, the Red Shirt who survived D-Day.

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