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Do you like DeForest Kelley and McCoy? Then this site is for you, with pictures, details, backstory and links. |
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FAQ:
DeForest Kelley Pictures - The Early Years and Carolyn
De with another actress, Ann Doran:
McCoy Worship Party, originating at a FanFiction Fest with
this posting:
"Just to get everyone in the mood I thought it would be fun
to list a bunch of really awesome things about Dr. McCoy.
What are all the reasons you find him appealing, at least to
write about?"
Read the answers of his fans here! :)
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(*) From the true Southerner Kelthammer - two explanations why Nancy might call McCoy "Plum": There are two meanings for "plum" in the American South, both now obscure: The first means, "flush," or "jackpot," roughly like the rhyme, He stuck in his plum and pulled out a plum" (which incidentally, was a deed to a choice land contract. Little Jack Horner was a thief who knew something good was hidden in that pie he was delivering!). The second meaning to plum affers to brandy! To describe a drink as plum is to say it is smooth, mellow...implies refinement... In either case, Leonard had damn good cause to be flusterated. |
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A Zine Shooting with DeForest and Carolyn Kelley (see here for all zine articles)
Some things about McCoy - Kelthammer
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OK, here goes with what I remember of Canon-McCoy, and the MU...mind you, my sources were OLD zines that I sold years ago when I was hard up for money, but one zine was SPOCKANALIA, which had the blessings of the show--De and Nimoy even wrote Spock-McCoy-fued letters once via the zine! The MU was originally not intended to be "evil"--just backwards. Interesting revisions--McCoy was supposed to have the beard, not Spock, and Marlena was married to the MU Kirk. Spock was very Pre-Reform, and they kept that element in the final draft. SPOCKANLIA mentioned in a one-sentence blurb that is very easy to lose, that McCoy was the same in both Universes. This isn't to mean THE SAME/THE SAME; Roddenberry originally conceived of De playing the role of SPOCK (which De flatout refused to do, but for some reason, De's roles kept getting haunted by this: in "Balance of Terror", De nearly got pointed ears along with Kirk during the theft of the cloaking device, and Roddenberry did actually get De in a role as a hard-edged lawyer who spoke of reason and logic in "333 Montgomery". |
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After De refused the notion of playing Spock, Gene
offered him the role of the ship's doctor. De had
wanted to be a doctor, but the Depression had made
that financially impossible. McCoy was supposed to be
a man who was lacking in faith in his fellow man,
bitterly unhappy about his divorce (his wife was
supposed to have ran him through the wringer, taken
his daughter, and forbidden him to see much of her.
Joanna grew up to be a Nurse and all he had the nerve to do was send her an occasional letter that told her he was still alive and thinking of her. He's writing a letter to her in the Animated series when the Alien of the Week knocks him under. Joanna was even going to be a brief hippie type, but she was turned into Irinia, a former interest in Chekov's life. It was because Joanna would attract Jim's ever roving eye, and McCoy would not take it well at all--there were powerful, strong scenes between the two characters scored by DC Fontana, but the idea of the Great Jim Kirk being cut down to size by an enraged father didn't suit Desilu and so they scrapped the notion. I used to have the book that discussed that--its a classic, "The Making of Star Trek", with Gene's words always written in capitol letters. |
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Gene's original plan to have an utterly depressing CMO didn't work in the long run. He showed De THE MENAGERIE, and De was struck head over heels with how Dr. Phillip Boyce interacted with Captain Pike. When De saw that, he knew that was what he wanted his character to be for Kirk. You especially see the strengths in here, in episodes like BALANCE OF TERROR, and THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER--part bartender, part confessor, reminding Jim of his role as responsible for the captain's health only when he had to--later on that role became more subtle, and Spock got involved--I mean, come on, when you watch SHORE LEAVE, do we actually believe Spock's picking up McCoy's report on the captain's health was an accident? And the way Spock set him up for it was beautiful. Another great example of Spock and McCoy uniting with worry over Jim was OBSESSION. |
| Not-so-great examples such as THE ENTERPRISE INCIDENT shows what happens when one of the three is left out--Spock and Kirk working without McCoy's knowledge because they had to use him--that turns into one of the more infamous episodes although it was worth it to see another DC Fontana-created, strong female presence with the Commander. There's been a good bit of fanfic out there over what happened directly after that episode--and I've never seen Jim and Spock come out of it looking all that great. I guess that's what you get when you leave your conscience behind! |
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DeForest Kelley - Hollywood Star Pictures
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DeForest Kelley - In Role Pictures
Wardrobe Tests:
Some things about DeForest Kelley - Kelthammer
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If any one ST actor embodied Gene's optimism, it was Kelley. He refused to define human beings by outward labels. While Gene had done time patrolling bad streets in his police days, De had experienced the poverty and desperation of the Depression in the Deep South. Cash had not been plentiful in his childhood home, and De spoke of how they had trapped small animals to eat, saying only that a minister's life was not lucrative. When he did get money as an established actor, he shared it, even though he called himself "stingy." And while he practice moderation with smoking and drinking, candy was another matter. His addiction to chocolate bars was well known on the set, to where Jimmy Doohan once sent him a crate of Hershey bars to "fatten him up." |
| He ignored racial barriers all his life and acknowledged his Native (Cherokee) ancestry--something a lot of Americans refuse to do to this day. He was certainly not whitebread--there are many shots under the "colored alien suns" where his skin turns dusky and ruddy, while Shatner right next to him under the same light would be all gold tones! (Nimoy, thanks to all that makeup, could be anything from olive to a green-yellow). Like many of the actors on the set, Kelley loathed the way the boots were designed--they were tight and cramped a lot of toes, a far cry from the cowboy boots he was used to wearing. On the few occasions you see him running on the set, like METAMORPHOSIS, his natural grace is apparant. Being married to a man of Tsalgi extraction, I see a lot of similarities between the two; an unconscious sense of balance and a lightness on the feet, and other physical likenesses. Despite the boots, Kelley's natural body language could come out, such as that famous bob on his feet! Talk about a mannerism that's almost died out! I used to see that a lot when I was younger, but no more--I guess men are afraid it says they're gay now... |
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Kelley was one of the first actors who moved from the movies to
television; he was from the rough and tumble creche of cowboys such
as Henry Fonda, Rory Calhoun, and Robert Mitchum played, where you
had to be physically active and able to take a good bit of
punishment. When Steve McQueen said he didn't look tough enough to
be the heavy on his show, De kindly kicked him around the set to
prove otherwise. He remained very strong and agile up until the last years of his life when the cancer forced him down; once while visiting Shatner at his new home, he noticed there was a St. Francis statue in the yard. Knowing Shatner was Jewish and didn't need a Catholic emblem, he got Shatner's permission to take it home, and promptly carried the whole thing to his car. Friends remembered that visits with him could mean this fragile looking man could calmly hand over sixty pounds of fruit or homegrown vegetables as a farewell present! But if Kelley's actions tended to the mischief rather than the muscle when the situation called for it. People who played jokes on him could expect to get it back, trebled! (Western movies screencaptures courtesy of Liz!) |
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For hearing pleasure: He's dead, Jim! (wav file, 165 kB) Great compilation and interview with De Kelley! Doctor Poppycock (mp3, 3,3 MB!) mixture of music and McCoy sayings, weird :) DeForest Kelley in 1957 Radio (mp3, 25 MB at megaupload) "Fleshpeddler" of the radio series Suspense, 25 min runtime
Things to watch: Things to read:
Books to buy: |
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DeForest Kelley Tributes and more
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Another DeForest Kelley Tribute Page with citations, sound, movies and episodes list
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Behind the Scenes and Publicity Shots (Click on the images to get bigger versions!)
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"In the series, what storyline would I like to see written for the character McCoy that we never really made? There was a story that we never had a chance to get to. We had anticipated if we had gone another year, McCoy's daughter Joanna coming aboard and having a romance with Bill Shatner. (applause) You don't think that would have ticked the good doctor off? (laughter) Nobody knows more what a ladies man Bubble Butt was! (applause)" "I would have liked to have seen a woman come aboard, creating some
sort of mystery regarding McCoy's involvement with her in some manner
that could have been an interesting show, that could have done
something with his personal side." |
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More Publicity and Group Shots (Click on the images to get bigger versions!)
(Click on the images to get bigger versions!)
McCoy Worship Reasons - Adding it up!
| "Oh, yeah...and the way that grin lights up the entire Universe, with warmth and a level of happiness that completely devalues his hard-worked reputation as a grump...he's damn cute, not a wimp, and while I'm totally against cloning sheep, there needs to be a lot more of him in the world!!" |
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Feedback? Links? Pictures? Remarks? - mail me! Thanks!
