Scotty's last wish

James Doohan, the actor best known as Star Trek's Scotty, has died at 85.

His last wish, his agent announced last night, was for his ashes to be fired into space.

The Canadian-born actor played Montgomery Scott, the chief engineer on the Starship Enterprise, in the TV series for just over three years from 1966.

But the role - which he reprised in the Star Trek movies more than two decades later - defined his career.

Doohan will forever be associated with the phrase 'Beam Me Up, Scotty'. The command - from those wanting to be transported from alien worlds back to the ship - was never actually used on the TV show. However it became entrenched in Star Trek folklore and Doohan used it as the title of his autobiography.

His wife of 28 years, Wende, 48, was at his side when he died at the family home in Redmond, Washington yesterday.

He leaves nine children from three marriages. His youngest, Sarah, is five.

Last night his Star Trek co-stars paid tribute to Doohan.

Leonard Nimoy, 74, who played the half-human, half-Vulcan Mr Spock, said: 'He was our miracle man. One of a kind. The real deal.'

William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk, said: 'I knew Jim when he started out in Canada and I knew him in his last years in America so we go way back. My condolences go out to his family.'

His agent Steven Stevens confirmed Doohan's ashes would be sent into orbit by a Texas-based company, Space Services Inc. The ashes of Gene Roddenberry, the man who created Star Trek, were fired into space in 1997.

Doohan was an established character actor when he auditioned for a role in Star Trek, a new space adventure on U.S. television channel NBC in 1966.

A master of dialects from his early years in radio, he tried seven different accents.

'The producers asked me which one I preferred,' he recalled. 'I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them, "If this character is going to be an engineer, you'd better make him a Scotsman".'

When the series ended in 1969, Doohan found himself typecast. In 1973, he complained to his dentist, who advised him: 'Jimmy, you're going to be Scotty long after you're dead. If I were you, I'd go with the flow.'