William Shatner's Wig

[Cheapjack]

I don't know who it was that posted, but are you ABSOLUTELY sure Shat was wearing a wig in TOS?

Howcome the one he wears in the movies is more obvious, with a lower,covered, hairline? Howcome it was all hushed up and Shatner refuses to talk about it in the 80's? You would have thought he would be able to afford a better one.

I'm still not sure about this. I haven't read Justman's book, so I can't say. I thought his hair was just a little bit thinning at the front. It's brushed right back in TOS. Normally, you can see gauze at the base.

Perhaps it will show up better in HD!

 

[cultcross]

As far as I know there is no proof that the Shat wore a wig in TOS, his sudden spurt of suspiciously thicker hair in the movies is the main evidence for the movie wig.
Basically Shatner's natural hair is/was quite thin and under studio lights would make him look quite bald. It isn't uncommon in Hollywood and there are plenty of tricks to give people's hair more resolution under the lights.

 

[Dar70]

I dont think he wore one in the front. It looks to natural. If he did it would have been combed in a more plastered look. He may have had a small piece to thickene the back out. I have always beleived that shatner was never bald but just had thin hair. If you look at pictures when he was younger (in his 20's) his hairline was visibly lower. In tos it was higher and a more mature hairline not uncimmon for most men.(most men do not have the same youthful hairline they had when they were a kid, which is not evidence you are going Bald) His hair in the Staurday Night Live episode looked kinda thin for a piece. I often wonder if that was his real hair.

 

[Therin of Andor]

cultcross said:
As far as I know there is no proof that the Shat wore a wig in TOS

Read the piece about Fred Phillips doing the final stage aged makeup on Shatner for "The Deadly Years" in "The Making of Star Trek" by Roddenberry & Whitfield. Fred Phillips had prepared a baldcap to put over Shatner's hair, but Shatner said, "Let me make it easier for you..." and whipped off his hairpiece.

 

[Dar70]

^^^^He just didnt take off a toupee and was egg shelled bald. The hair we see in the deadly years (when its combed back) is supposed to be his real hair. They probably wanted to put a cap on him so they could put a different aging toupee on him. He still had quite a bit yet. He just has that dry, frizzy, thin type hair. I think he only wore a small one on the top of his head to thicken it a bit, to prevent harsh studio lighting from making it look worse. Deforest Kelley wore a piece as well. He wasnt bald either. Just had that frizzy unmanageable hair and it was probably easier to put a piece on rather than try to make their own look good. Stood up to the elements better as well.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Dar70 said:
^^^^He just didnt take off a toupee and was egg shelled bald.

I never said he was. The previous posts had already explained clearly that the hairpiece covered his own thin hair, that appeared even thinner under harsh studio lighting.

 

[Matango]

I have in my collection some rather unusual film clips which could best be described as hairpiece test shots. They are overhead and sideways closeups of Shatner's head while sitting in the command chair. Perhaps they were cut from footage intended for an episode, perhaps they were actually filmed for hair tests...who knows.
I think there's a pretty tell-tale scene in The Empath where Shatner is running against the wind in slow motion, and the entire flap of hair raises up as one strand... too much hair spray ?

 

[TiberiusK]

Bob Justman, Herbert Solow, James Doohan and George Takei have all said so publicly in books. Shatner wore a hairpiece during the original series.

In fact, he was notorious for stealing them and wearing them around town. They were expensive to replace.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

Yvonne Craig, in a Starlog interview, says that it took her a second to recognize him when he stopped by her dressing room after a day's shooting, bald, holding his toupee in his hand.

I don't understand this fanatically desperate wish to say that he didn't wear one. Just don't get it at all, guys.

Sir Rhosis

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I believe it's William Campbell who tells the story about Shatner planning to stop over at his house on some errand, and a bunch of kids in the neighborhood being excited that Captain Kirk was going to come by...and the kids shocked and kind of not buying that the balding guy who arrived was Kirk. Happened during TOS.

 

[UnknownSample]

There was some story about Shatner driving up to someone's place on a motorcycle, without the hairpiece. Maybe that's the Wm Campbell story. I've heard about the hairpiece since ST was actually on the air.

 

[Adm_Drake]

Yes, he wore a wig during the original series, and long before. So what?

As I stated elsewhere: The type used during the show was an old style theatrical piece in which the hair is implanted into a flesh colored rubber/latex type mat, then the mat itself is covered by base makeup to prevent detection. During the original run of the series, it would have been very hard to spot because of the relatively poor quality of broadcast television and the TV's of the time. When I began viewing the DVDs that were issued in 1999, there were times when the mat was glaringly detectible. Watch "This Side of Paradise". During the scene where McCoy explains that the colonists' health is perfect and suggests he could throw away his shingle, in the close ups of Shatner, you can actually see tiny bubbles in the matting (It extends about a centimeter below his "hairline"). I never saw Shatner using this kind of hairpiece after the series, and it looks like he switched from toupees to a transplant in the late 1990's.

BTW, if you watch Incubus, which was filmed in 1965, the piece he's wearing is set back considerably further on his head.

More actors use hairpieces, transplants (hello, Nicholas Cage) and other means (like hair colored spray) to disguise baldness than is commonly known.

 

[Dar70]

Sir Rhosis said:
Yvonne Craig, in a Starlog interview, says that it took her a second to recognize him when he stopped by her dressing room after a day's shooting, bald, holding his toupee in his hand.

I don't understand this fanatically desperate wish to say that he didn't wear one. Just don't get it at all, guys.

Sir Rhosis

I dont think anyone is refuting that. Im sure everyone knows he wore a piece. Its the level of baldness he was at that seems to change. i think he wore pieces to thicken out a thinng top but Im sure he could have gotten by with what he had.

It of course isnt really a big deal that he was balding during TOS. Deforest, Doohan and Koening wore pieces as well.(after Koenings real hair grew out he had one major commb over in the back)

 

[Therin of Andor]

Dar70 said:
Im sure everyone knows he wore a piece.

I've met many, many starry-eyed Shatner fans who refuse to believe that any toupee was involved before TMP.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Adm_Drake said:
... Watch "This Side of Paradise". During the scene where McCoy explains that the colonists' health is perfect and suggests he could throw away his shingle, in the close ups of Shatner, you can actually see tiny bubbles in the matting (It extends about a centimeter below his "hairline").

I just took a look, and not to make an issue of this, but there are no closeups of Kirk in that scene. They're all middle shots of him and McCoy, and I sure couldn't see the bubbles.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Therin of Andor said:

Dar70 said:
Im sure everyone knows he wore a piece.

I've met many, many starry-eyed Shatner fans who refuse to believe that any toupee was involved before TMP.

I'm sure that's because it looked so convincing.

For the curious, Shatner forewent the piece in his old-age makeup in The Deadly Years.

 

[Phantassm]

OK...he wore a toupee. Many actors do-so what?

 

[Dar70]

Phantassm said:
OK...he wore a toupee. Many actors do-so what?

Thats what I always say but for some reason this topic always comes up. And I always have to put my two cents in. Shatner still looks good for his age but for some reason his hair and weight are two things fans love to discuss about him. Maybe many feel he should always look as fit as he did in TOS. I for one think he deserves to relax and eat as much as he likes and enjoy life. Most people Im sure wish or are gonna wish they look as good as him at the age of 76.

 

[TiberiusK]

Didn't Shatner start screaming at people and throwing a temper tantrum during the Deadly Years. Considering what happened when a photographer was in the makeup room when his hair was being applied, I'd suspect that he insecure about shooting the Deadly Years.

 

[Therin of Andor]

A beaker full of death said:
For the curious, Shatner forewent the piece in his old-age makeup in The Deadly Years.

As I said myself in this thread, just twelve posts earlier...