Book description
In the forty-year history of
Star Trek
®, none of the television show's actors are more beloved than DeForest
Kelley. His portrayal of Leonard "Bones" McCoy, the southern
physician aboard the Starship Enterprise
, brought an unaffected humanity to the groundbreaking space frontier
series.
Jackson DeForest Kelley came of age in Depression-era
Georgia. He was raised on the sawdust trail, a preacher's kid steeped
in his father's literal faith and judgment. But De's natural artistic
gifts called him to a different way, and a visit to California at
seventeen showed a bright new world.
Theater and radio defined his early career -- but it was a World War
II training film he made while serving in the Army Air Corps that led
to his first Paramount Studios contract.
After years of struggle, his lean, weathered look became well known
in notable westerns and television programs such as You Are
There and Bonanza. But his work on several pilots for
writer-producer Gene Roddenberry changed his destiny and the course of
cultural history.
This thoroughly researched actor's life is about hard work and luck,
loyalty and love. It is a journey that takes us all...from sawdust to
stardust.
"A baseball coach of some note once opined,
'Nice guys finish last.' Terry Lee Rioux's well-researched and
readable From Sawdust to Stardust is warm, charming and
inspirational -- especially for those who work just out of the
limelight, and never curse their luck. For Star Trek fans, it's
a chance to re-enter the final frontier with a really nice guy."
-- Ronald J. Drez, author of Voices of Valor and Remember
D-Day
