Doohan died at 5.30am local time at his Redmond,
Washington, home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at
his side, Los Angeles agent and long-time friend Steve
Stevens said.
The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's
disease, he said.
The Canadian-born Doohan was enjoying a busy career as a
character actor when he auditioned for a role as an
engineer in a new space adventure on NBC in 1966. A
master of dialects from his early years in radio, he
tried seven different accents.
"The producers asked me which one I
preferred," Doohan recalled 30 years later. "I
believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I
told them, 'If this character is going to be an
engineer, you'd better make him a Scotsman.'"
The series, which starred William Shatner as Captain
James T Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as the enigmatic Mr
Spock, attracted an enthusiastic following of
science-fiction fans, especially among teenagers and
children, but not enough ratings power. NBC cancelled it
after three seasons.
When the series ended in 1969, Doohan found himself
typecast as Montgomery Scott, the canny engineer with a
burr in his voice.
He appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture in
1979, one of six films to feature the original Enterprise
cast, and made guest appearances in later Star Trek
series.
Doohan was also a linguist and wrote the Vulcan and
Klingon dialogue heard in Star Trek: The Motion
Picture.
In August last year, Doohan received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 1973, he complained about being typecast to his
dentist, who advised him: "Jimmy, you're going to
be Scotty long after you're dead. If I were you, I'd go
with the flow."
"I took his advice," said Doohan later,
"and since then everything's been just
lovely."
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