Jackson DeForest Kelley (January 20, 1920 – June 11, 1999) was an actor best known for his starring role as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the USS Enterprise in the television series Star Trek and six of its subsequent movies.
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Childhood
Kelley was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Ernest David Kelley (a Baptist minister) and Clara Casey, delivered in their home by his uncle - 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. Coincidentally, Kelley had originally wanted to pursue a career as a doctor.
Film career
Kelley's first movie was the low-budget feature film Fear in the Night. He went on to having a career playing minor characters, chiefly in Western movies and TV Westerns. 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 DeForest 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, DeForest 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, DeForest 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 Star Trek (TOS) and the first six Star Trek motion pictures (1979 to 1991). He also had a humorous cameo role in the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "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 succeeded 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 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 (McCoy's predecessor) on the Star Trek pilot "The Cage."