I haven't seen this talked about on TBBS, although I've spotted a few mentions of it elsewhere with inconclusive results. Does anybody know exactly what that ring was he wore? I'd heard it mentioned it belonged to his mother who had recently passed away, a kind of tribute. Others have said it was his wedding ring, just moved over. Anybody know for certain? What's interesting is that in nuTrek, Karl Urban wore his Starfleet Academy ring on the pinky finger of his left hand, in tribute to Deforest Kelly. A nice touch.
Most folks probably know that Dr. Leonard McCoy wore a gold ring on his left pinky finger. Although we don’t know why Leonard McCoy wears a ring, we do know a bit about DeForest Kelley’s ring. >>Reposted from the Star Trek Phase II forum: http://forums.startreknewvoyages.com/index.php?topic=11619.0 The ring that De Kelley wore was actually a woman’s gold ring with a blue diamond in it. It was actually won in a card game in France shortly after World War I by De’s uncle Herman. Herman gave the ring to his sister, Clora (De’s mom). When De’s mom died decades later, it was the only possession of hers that De wanted. (Similarly, when De’s dad died, the only possession De wanted of his dad’s was his Bible.) Anyway, De would always wear his mom’s ring throughout his acting career. It kept him centered and focused and reminded him of the things that were important—especially as De seemed to by typecast playing outlaws and cattle rustlers and other unsavory characters. The ring gave him an anchor and helped him to keep from losing himself. When Gene Roddenberry hired De to play, Dr. McCoy, the ring was almost a show stopper (literally). Gene had wanted De as the ship’s gruff surgeon but was thwarted for one reason or another in the first pilot and again in the second pilot. When Star Trek finally went into production, the stars aligned and De was available for the part of Dr. McCoy. Roddenberry didn’t want any contemporary 20th century jewelry, but De insisted that “you can’t have me if I can’t have my ring,” and Roddenberry relented. You can see De’s ring in pretty much every episode; often, the blue stone was turned inside on the palm side of the hand to not be too distracting to the shot. But once in a while, you can glimpse the stone. You can even see the ring all the way up to publicity shots taken for Star Trek VI, the Undiscovered Country. The ring is small and De’s hands are often moving, so there just aren’t any really great close-up shots of the ring. (And now, let’s play “name the episode.”) You can find rings in the proper style on ebay (thanks, Patty!), but you generally have to know to look for a woman’s ring, in a French style, from the Edwardian period. We found one, but we had to swap out the red stone (I think it was a garnet, but it might actually be a ruby--I'm not much of a gemologist) for a blue one. And, in our case, we needed a Size 7 ring to fit our McCoy's (Doc John Kelley’s) left pinky finger. So here’s what we picked up for Phase II: You can find an interesting story about this ring from a transcript of a convention appearance by De: http://klhalliday.com/dekelley/VirtualCon/Boyhood.htm#Ring Although this gets into the realm of costuming more than props (and I’m more of a prop guy), the line is kind of thin here. But as always, please let me know if you have any questions or thoughts.
I just assumed it was kind of like a class ring given to doctors (I'm talking about the character, of course) since on my TV, it has that look to it. It's really sweet that that was Kelley's mother's ring. I love finding out what personal things and traits an actor brings to the character.
So . . . does anyone know what became of the ring? DeForest Kelley died in 1999 and his wife Carolyn died in 2004. They had no children.
Greg, you are detailed to the last as always. Thanks so much for sharing with us these fascinating details about Kelly's ring. Heh, how funny that you made that posting about the ring on the StarTrekNewVoyages forums only a month ago.
Yeah I noticed the little ring I always thought it was a prop for his character great to know the real story. I notice Karl urban had got one on as well great stuff.
Thank you to everyone who has posted in this. I had noticed the ring but never really given it much thought. It's really interesting to read all this though.
Wow I never knew the story behind the ring...thanks for that. It should be noticed that Karl Urban's Bones also wears a ring on the same finger in the 2009 movie...but that seems like an officer's ring.
Wow, allow me to join the crowd of people fascinated by this story. I had no idea. I think it's wonderful he was allowed to wear it on camera.
I never noticed the ring until a couple of years ago when I started watching the remastered episodes of TOS on DVD. It's nice to finally get the story behind it.
I have to echo everyone's sentiment here and say thank you for the post. I always thought that was his wedding ring, but for De to wear a ring as a remembrance of his mom...well, it just makes me love him more. Whatta sweetie.
I always assumed it was a class ring or something when I did catch a glimpse of it, which I suppose is like what Urban's "nuBones" wears. I mean if you watch Iron Man carefully, Tony Stark wears his "brass rat" MIT class ring, as does Rhodey, so I just figured it was his class ring or fraternity ring or something which he wore on his pinky because well, when you're shoving your hands into the human body the pinky doesn't really get involved too much, you pull with your index, middle and ring fingers more y'know, pinky always sorta stays tucked to the side. But hey cool story behind it, never knew it was actually De Forrest's mom's ring.
Great story!!! I too noticed the ring over the years and wondered exactly what it represented, but had a feeling it was something like this.
If they ever give the animated series the same refurbishing as the original series, they should draw the ring on McCoy's finger on every episode... They could have Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott's names circling the stone.