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DeForest Kelley
| Name: | DeForest Kelley |
| Also Known As: | De |
| Pronouns: | |
| Occupation: | actor, poet |
| Medium: | television, film |
| Works: | Star Trek |
| Official Website(s): | IMDB |
| Fan Website(s): | |
| On Fanlore: | Related pages |
DeForest Kelley was an American actor best known for his role as Dr. McCoy on Star Trek: The Original Series. Before Star Trek, he was frequently cast in Westerns and appeared in an episode of the legal drama series Perry Mason.[1] He died in 1999 and a memorial fund was set up at one of his charities, the North Shore Animal League.[2] In Feb 2014, some fans resurrected the memorial fund.[3] More info is here.
DeForest Kelley also wrote poetry and was known to read it at conventions.[4] His poems were published in at least two zines: The Big Bird's Dream and The Dream Goes On.
A Frequent and Welcome Convention Guest
Kelley was a very frequent guest of honor at conventions, both fan-run and professional conventions such as Creation Con. Some of these cons included his wife, Caroline Kelly.
There are MANY descriptions of Kelley's appearances and interactions with fans at these cons, as well as at club parties, such as the ones thrown by the DeForest Kelley Fan Communique. Many reports in The DeForest Dispatch wrote about him, the stage appearances as well as one-on-one communication. Kelley's pet tortoise, Myrtle, was a popular topic of discussion and appeared not only in con reports, but in many cartoons.
More about fans and Myrtle:
Fan Clubs
Kelley-Centric Zines
- DeForest Kelley Yeomanry - clubzine
- Hue and Cry - newsletter
- DeForest Kelley Compendium
Similar Creations
Fans were very interested in Star Trek's stars, and this interest generated a lot of "side projects."
Shatner and Nimoy, of course, had the for-profit option of big-name publishers, hence the large selection of offerings such as I Am Not Spock, Nimoy's poetry paperbooks, Shatner and Nimoy's spoken and singing LP albums and much more.
The actors with less attention, and therefore less money-making ability, were more available to fans and their fanworks. Nichols, Koenig, and Kelley were much more willing to write poetry and introductions to zines, as well as creating small zines of their own.
Some examples:
- It Ain't the Lollipop! (Walter Koenig)
- The Big Bird's Dream (DeForest Kelley)
- The Dream Goes On (DeForest Kelley)
- The Dream Goes On and on... and on... (DeForest Kelley)
- The Lady's Alone Again Tonight by Nichelle Nichols, printed in Furaha #3
- The Machiavellian Principle is a 1982 Star Trek: TOS play by Walter Koenig. It was written to be sold at Ultimate Fantasy a disastrous convention which took place in the months following the second Star Trek movie.
Fan Art
from Odyssey #5, Suzan Lovett (DeForest Kelley at Star TreKon '80)
Tom Howard is the artist, from Lifestar #3 (1997), portrays Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley reading a fan's story ("You Left WHAT on Board" by Cheryl Hendry) in script form on stage at Space Trek IV, St. Louis, 1986
from The DeForest Kelley Compendium, artist is Sherry Veltkamp (1992)
Tribute to DeForest Kelley (1999) by Gamin Davis
memorial Door Decoration art at MediaWest 2000
In this memorial drawing by Gamin Davis, Spock and Kirk are saying goodbye to DeForest Kelley: "Goodbye Bones, say hi to Gene for us." (2000)
References
- ^ See Show137, Archived version and Peter Thorpe, Archived version (Perry Mason TV Series Wiki)
- ^ DeForest Kelley Tribute page (accessed Feb 14, 2014).
- ^ Diane Haddick email dated Feb 14, 2014 to the Gardener's mailing list.
- ^ DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner 1995. YouTube video posted by Amalie1701B, January 26, 2009.