Star Trek’s William Shatner Surprised the LAPD on Christmas Day

Star Trek‘s William Shatner is famous for playing Captain James T. Kirk. In 2019, he took on the role of local Santa Claus for the Los Angeles Police Department. Sources within the organization tell TMZ that Shatner visited his local precinct’s police station. He didn’t show up empty-handed, reportedly coming with corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, bagels, lox, and cream cheese to help feed the officers on duty on Christmas Day. Shatner reportedly thanked the on-duty officers and left a holiday card behind as well as a few hundred dollars to help feed the officers throughout the remainder of the day.

Shatner has shown his Christmas spirit before. Last year, he released his first Christmas album, Shatner Claus, via Cleopatra Records. The album includes his version of “Jingle Bells,” with help from Henry Rollins.

Shatner filed for divorce from his fourth wife, Elizabeth Martin, at the end of 2019. Since the couple signed a prenuptial agreement before taking their vows and didn’t have children together, the split is expected to be relatively quick and painless. The 88-year-old actor is estimated to be worth $100 million.

Shatner has appeared in shows including Boston Legal and T.J. Hooker, but will always be most remembered for playing Captain James T. Kirk in of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Original Series and the first seven Star Trek movies. ComicBook.com spoke to Shatner in 2019. When asked about resurrecting James T. Kirk for a series like Star Trek: Picard, he didn’t seem eager.

“That word, ‘resurrect.’ That’s a key word,” he said. “You’d have to resurrect me, Shatner, in order to do the daily — I don’t know what Patrick [Stewart] is doing doing that. Doing a series is debilitating for a young guy, for a 25-year-old, which I was doing when I was 25 years old. It’s a physical wrecker, it’s a mental wrecker, and it’s a homewrecker ’cause you’re working 14, 18 hours a day. And in the last series I did, Boston Legal, I had, in rush hour, a two-hour commute. So add that. So no, I would not be interested in doing a series, per se.”

In a separate interview, Shatner did express interest in being a part of Quentin Tarantino’s planned Star Trek film. “Quentin Tarantino said something in the paper that somebody said to me, that he loved me,” Shatner said. “And Quentin, I love you. If you’re going to do Star Trek 50 years later, a few pounds heavier, come on. Not a problem! Well, I’d like to do it. Whether I’d be up for it, I don’t know.”