William Shatner turned 95 in March 2026 – and yet his ambitions are only accelerating.
William recently released his latest spoken-word album, Love & Other Mysteries, described by one of its producers, country music superstar Brad Paisley, as William's "musical memoir," and William is also preparing for high-profile festival appearances, including Riot Fest in Chicago and the 2027 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, where he will debut his take on heavy metal.
Five years after he became the then-oldest man to ever go into space, he also has a heavy-metal album on the horizon, featuring 35 artists from across the genre, which will be released in the near future, as well as a book edition of his spoken-word albums to be published as poetry in October 2026.
So what is the secret to his never-ending energy? "If you are capable, you just do it," William tells HELLO!.
© AFP via Getty ImagesContemplating turning 100, he adds: "There's not a great deal of time left to do it."
The songs on the new album capture the past five years of his life, from the Covid pandemic to his journey to space in 2021, at the age of 90, as part of a highly controversial 10-minute orbit with Jeff Bezos.
Going into space was a "life-changing experience" that filled him with "the strongest feelings of guilt I have ever encountered" after witnessing the fragility of the planet," he tells HELLO!
© Getty ImagesWilliam, who was born in Montréal and found fame in the original Star Trek series during the Sixties, says that "the magic of Star Trek has never left me."
"At its best, Star Trek is a magical way of telling a story, and some of the best Star Treks are really terrific. I look back proudly on that."
He and his fourth wife, the photographer Elizabeth Martin, 67, divorced in 2020, but he tells HELLO! that they remain "very close" amid reports that they rekindled their romance while William faced a stage-four malignant melanoma diagnosis in 2023.
© Getty ImagesA lump on his face and neck spread to his lungs and brain, and he underwent immediate surgery and two years of immunotherapy. At the same time, his youngest daughter, Melanie, 62, was fighting stage-four breast cancer. Both publicly confirmed their remission in July this year.
As well as Melanie, William also has daughters Leslie 68, and Lisabeth, 65, with his first wife, the late actress Gloria Rand.
© Getty ImagesStar Trek, the original series, ran for nearly three years between 1966 and 1969, later sparking 13 feature films and 12 spin-off series. The show helped William build a legendary career and lifelong friendships: "I loved some of the cast members; Leonard Nimoy was the brother I never had, we were very close," he says.
But it also bred well-documented rivalries: William famously did not get along with co-stars George Takei and James Doohan.
