William Shatner: I Don't Have Long to Live

William Shatner said he doesn't have "long to live."

The 91-year-old "Star Trek" legend made the remarks while discussing the decision to make his new documentary, "You Can Call Me Bill" with Variety.

"I've turned down a lot of offers to do documentaries before," he said. "But I don't have long to live. Whether I keel over as I'm speaking to you or 10 years from now, my time is limited, so that's very much a factor. I've got grandchildren. This documentary is a way of reaching out after I die."

Elsewhere in the interview Shatner also discussed the reasons why he chose to skip Leonard Nimoy's funeral and instead attend a 2015 fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago. 

"People ask about a legacy. There's no legacy," he recalled telling the crowd at the time. "Statues are torn down. Graveyards are ransacked. Headstones are knocked over. No one remembers anyone. Who remembers Danny Kaye or Cary Grant? They were great stars. But they're gone, and no one cares."

Shatner added that what does live on are good deeds. 

"If you do a good deed, it reverberates to the end of time," he said. "It's the butterfly effect thing."

In 2021, Shatner became the oldest person to go into space when he flew on a Blue Origin rocket, which was developed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Shatner later described his experience to The New Yorker. 

"This comforter of blue that we have around us. We think, Oh, that's blue sky. And then suddenly you shoot through it, all of a sudden, like you whip off a sheet when you've been asleep, and you're looking into blackness. Into black ugliness," he said. 

"There is mother and Earth and comfort, and, there . . . is — is there death? Is that death? Is that the way death is?" he continued, adding that traveling to space was "the most profound experience" he could imagine. 

In an interview with Den of Geek, Shatner described the trip as "rejuvenating" in a way that "compels you to worry about the future."

"Whereas when you get to a certain age — I remember hearing an author say, 'Well, I'm not worried about that. I'm out of here soon.' That phrase has rung in my mind for a long time," Shatner said. "I know I don't want to utter it, 'I'm not worried about rising seas, because I'm out of here.' I'm worried about rising seas, and rejuvenating my worry, because of my family."

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