DeForest Kelley
Jackson DeForest Kelley was an actor best known for his starring role as Dr.
Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the USS
Enterprise in the television series
and six of its subsequent movies.
Encyclopedia
Jackson DeForest Kelley was an actor best known for his starring role as Dr.
Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the USS
Enterprise in the television series
and six of its subsequent movies.
Early life, World War II service
Kelley was born in
Atlanta,
Georgia, the son of Ernest David Kelley and Clara Casey, delivered in their home by his uncle, a prominent local physician. As a child, DeForest Kelley sang in the church choir, where he discovered that he enjoyed singing and was good at it. Eventually this led to solos and an appearance on radio station WSB in Atlanta. As a result of his radio work, he won an engagement with Lew Forbes and his orchestra at the Paramount Theater. It was DeForest's first taste of being an entertainer, and he liked it.
Kelley served in the
Second World War as an enlisted member of the
Army Air Forces between March 10, 1943 and January 28, 1946. After an extended stay at
Long Beach,
California, he decided to relocate to the state permanently to pursue an acting career. DeForest decided to move to Long Beach to live with his Uncle Casey. He saved money working as an usher in a local theater until he had enough for the move. While his mother encouraged him, his father disliked the idea. In California, Kelley was spotted by a
Paramount scout while doing a
Navy training film.
Film career
Kelley's first movie was the low-budget
feature film Fear in the Night. The movie was a blockbuster hit and Kelley was in the eyes of the public for the first time as a national figure. After this he made a part in the movie
Variety Girl and was established as a leading actor. A few years later, Kelley and his wife Carolyn decided to move to
New York City. Carolyn got a job in the main office of
Warner Bros., and DeForest found work on stage and on live television, but after three years in New York, the Kelleys returned to
Hollywood where Kelley got a role in an episode of
You are There. This led to his role as
Morgan Earp in
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, his first major role in a big film and a source of three movie offers.
For nine years Kelley primarily played heavies and found them interesting and challenging. He built up an impressive list of credits, alternating between television and motion pictures. Afraid of being typecast, Kelley broke out of that mold by doing
Where Love Has Gone and a television pilot called "333 Montgomery." The latter was written by an ex-policeman named
Gene Roddenberry. A few years later, Kelley would appear in another Roddenberry pilot, "Police Story." It did not sell either, but it led to
Star Trek and the unforgettable role of Dr.
Leonard "Bones" McCoy . Kelley played Dr. McCoy from 1966 to 1969 in
and the first six
Star Trek motion pictures . He also had a humorous
cameo role in the first episode of
, "
Encounter at Farpoint".
After his role in
Star Trek, Kelley found himself hopelessly typecast and other parts practically impossible to come by. He did a few television appearances and a couple of movies, but essentially he retired. In a TLC interview done in the late 1990's, he said one of his biggest fears was that the words etched on his
gravestone would be "He's dead, Jim," a catch phrase that Dr. McCoy spoke in many
Star Trek episodes. Kelley became a poet as a hobby, publishing “The Big Bird’s Dream,” and “The Dream Goes On.” Kelley would never finish this series, as he died at age 79 from
stomach cancer in Woodland Hills, California. He was survived by his wife, Carolyn, who died in October 2004. He was the first member of the original
Star Trek cast to die.
Trivia
- Years before being cast as Dr. McCoy, Kelley appeared in the 1962 Bonanza was an American [i] western [i]/cowboy [i] television [i] series which ...
episode entitled "The Decision," as a doctor sentenced to hang for the murder of a judge's wife. The judge in this episode was portrayed by John Hoyt, who played Dr. Boyce on the Star Trek pilot "The Cage." - Kelley appeared as an Army medic in the 1956 film The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, by Sloan Wilson [i], is a novel about the American [i]...
. It was a bit part with only one line: "This man's dead, captain."
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