The Actor
DeForest Kelley had played villains most of his adult career, usually in Westerns, until Gene Roddenberry plucked him up to play a lab doctor in his short-lived series The Lieutenant. A generation later the world knows him simply as that ol' country doctor, Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy.

The Character
McCoy was not a character in either of the first two pilots and, like Nichelle Nichols' Uhura, was not a member of Kirk's crew until the beginning of regular production. Thus, "De" Kelley first appeared in Starfleet logs for "The Corbomite Maneuver," but viewers first saw him in the first one-hour aired, "The Man Trap" -- which by coincidence featured about as much of McCoy's "backstory" -- an old girlfriend -- as we would learn in almost the entire original series.

The Episodes
Despite that, McCoy was featured prominently in several episodes, en route to getting co-starring billing in the opening credits with the coming of Season 2. One might never have guessed it based on his film career, based mostly on a horse or behind the wrong end of the law, but De Kelley made the role his own and made the doctor an equal foil for both his captain and his arch-debate partner, Spock.

Kelley's heaviest episode as McCoy undoubtedly included that with the longest title -- "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" -- as he fell in love with the Yonadan priestess, Natira, after realizing he had less than a year to live. Neither event eventually came to pass, but they clearly played a big part of his life.

Perhaps Kelley's most notable performance came in the classic "The City on the Edge of Forever." As the pivotal focus of an accidental change in time, Kelley's bewildered revival from an accidental overdose -- a scene shared with Joan Collins, 1930s social worker Edith Keeler -- is a classic of the role.

But Kelley had his moments throughout the series, because rather than Kirk's heroics or Spock's logic it was often McCoy's skills that saved the day. From saving Spock and Kirk in both "Amok Time" and "Journey to Babel" to his blow for medical diplomacy in "Friday's Child" and medical intelligence in "The Trouble With Tribbles," McCoy was in the thick of what made the U.S.S. Enterprise's voyages legend.

The Movies
De Kelley had several shining moments as McCoy throughout the film series -- and many of the best lines. From his opening grouchfest as a bearded "draftee" with old friend Kirk amid the crew reunion of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," to the housing of Spock's katra and a bare bones admission of friendship in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," McCoy has been a character that grew throughout. Kelley's portrayal of McCoy's confrontation with past choices over his dad's final days was a gripping moment in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier."

And More...
Kelley has been a favorite of fans ever since the earliest days of conventions, and his poem "The Big Bird's Dream" has been reprinted and recited often. One of his latest appearances was at Huntsville, Ala., for the 30th Anniversary festival, where he shared the stage with his original stars, held his own against the "Big Two" William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. At another hilarious event, he even out-ad-libbed Star Trek: Voyager's Bob "EMH Doctor" Picardo, no slouch on the witticisms himself.

For more information about DeForest Kelley, click the links above or browse through the Library and its subsection on the original Star Trek series.