"You know who I am?! I'm William Tiberius Shatner!"
— from Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner

Where would Star Trek be without William Shatner? Seriously, think about it. Yes, Gene Roddenberry's optimistic vision fills us with hope for the future of mankind, blah blah. Yes, Leonard Nimoy's portrayal of a half-human alien filled with inner conflict sheds a light on the human condition, blah blah blah, and the stories are all thought-provoking moral tales, yada yada. But where would all of it be without the irresistibly hammy mannerisms and shameless overconfidence of one James T. Kirk?

He may not have the acting chops of an Olivier, or the the sophisticated suaveness of a Connery. He may not be a generic pretty-boy like any given fill-in-the-blank movie star. But you cannot keep your eyes off of him. There's an unspoken bond between artist and audience, like he's constantly winking at you. And he knows you're in on the joke. (And what would that joke be? Maybe something like, "I'm going to act like I take myself seriously, but you and I know better, right? Ha-ha on everyone else.")

As Fametracker.com so eloquently put it once, "He made himself a punchline with such debonair cunning that — guess what? — the man is not a punchline anymore ... Some celebrities get it, but Shatner so thoroughly gets it that 'it' no longer exists. He's consumed 'it.' He's crawled up inside celebrity and made it explode..."

Today Bill Shatner turns 76, and he's still a whirlwind, with no signs of slowing down. He accomplishes more before breakfast than most of us younger whipper-snappers do in a year. Let's see, what has he done lately, what has he done ... oh, yes: He was roasted on Comedy Central (duh—have you seen the ads splashed all over this site?); he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame; he got his fourth Emmy nomination (would've been his third Emmy win in a row, but no such luck this time); he hosted a new game show (which only lasted a few weeks); he lent his voice to two Star Trek video games, "Legacy" and "Tactical Assault" from Bethesda; and he's produced a new slate of commercials for Priceline.com ("Priceline Negotiator"), not to mention the "Star Trek VI" parody ad for DirecTV. He even conducted the Boston Pops at a concert last summer and raced in the Toyota Grand Prix. All while holding down a regular schedule with Boston Legal — which, by the way, just got renewed by ABC for a fourth season.

Speaking of Boston Legal, it was recently revealed that the episode airing in two weeks — on Tuesday, April 3 — will bring the Shatner of 50 years ago together with the Shatner of today. The show will incorporate footage from a 1957 Studio One drama, "The Defenders," with the 26-year-old Shatner as a lawyer, into a plotline in which "Denny Crane" comes face-to-face with a hostage taker who has nursed a grudge against him for 50 years over a contested court case. Cannot miss that!

Even when his age catches up with him momentarily, he still manages to turn it into a tour de force. In October 2005, Shatner was rushed off the set of Boston Legal to a hospital because of an excruciatingly painful kidney stone. Then what does he do? He put it on the auction block. GoldenPalace.com paid $25,000 (or $75,000, depending on which account you read) for that intimate piece of Captain Kirk, and the entire amount went to benefit Habitat for Humanity.

Shatner's charitable endeavors are legion. He continues to support the Nerine Shatner Friendly House, named after his late wife, to help women recover from alcohol and substance abuse. In addition, he spent time last year in Israel to help develop a program of therapeutic riding centers for disabled children in that country, similar to his work domestically for AHEAD With Horses, and became a spokesman for the Jewish National Fund to raise money for that cause.

Along those same lines, he's still holding his annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show at the Equestrian Center in Burbank every year, and he's doing it for the 17th time on Saturday, April 28. It's a star-studded event (in the past it's been graced by such names as Sylvester Stallone, Ben Stiller, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Robert Wagner, and many others) that benefits disabled and underprivileged children through various charities. Visit horseshow.org and horseticket.com for more info.

And through it all, he still manages to find time to visit with the fans frequently at Star Trek conventions around the country. He will be in at least three cities this year, along with Leonard Nimoy, via Creation Entertainment: Minneapolis in early May; Cherry Hill, New Jersey (Philadelphia area) in late July; and the big one, Las Vegas, in early August.

Now here's the big question: Will Mr. Shatner have some involvement with the J.J. Abrams-produced "Star Trek XI" project? Well, the writers — Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci — told MTV recently that they and Abrams did meet with Shatner and Nimoy ... without stating why. That's all we know. So we'll see how that situation shakes out.

Bill, you take our breath away. We love all that you do, and we bow down before you in awe and admiration. Happy Birthday, and keep it up.

You can wish the Shatman a Happy Birthday yourself on the Star Trek Message Boards!