Terry Lee Rioux

Well... nice.

It’s great to find out a bit more about (Jackson) DeForest Kelley and his years before “Star Trek” – and also the “Star Trek” years, of course. That, and – as far as I know – it’s the only biography about “De” at all.

So it’s totally forgivable that it gets a teeny-tiny bit repetitive in the later chapters, but there comes a point when you’ll roll your eyes and think, “Yes, we KNOW he was a gentleman, we KNOW he was a wonderful guy, we KNOW that Carolyn was the love of his life and vice versa. WE KNOW! You can stop telling us.”

Between repeating too much about DeForest Kelley’s character and his happy, quiet life with Carolyn, Terry Lee Rioux also has the annoying habit of not telling us enough. He often stops in the middle – or at least that what it felt like to me – of a story and leaves out the actual solution. Like the story he told about Phil Weyland, a friend of De and hired as his stand-in for Star Trek – The Motion Picture.

Rioux wrote, “When Kelley found out that Weyland and another stand-in had stood over that hot transporter-room floor grill for hours without a break, he made short work of the situation.”
(“From Sawdust To Stardust”, page 232)

How? What exactly did he do? Did he pull the boys out and spent them a meal and lots of water? Did he yell at the excutives? Did he calmly threaten to quit the production? What?

There are a lot of stories and anecdotes that end like that, which makes the whole book a tad... unsatisfactory. But it’s still interesting and a good read, so... yeah. Still three stars of five.