Star Trek Original Series Cast: Then and Now

Talk about a first-class crew.

When the original Star Trek TV series premiered on NBC more than 50 years ago, it didn't just make stars of its actors, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley, it made icons -- icons who would help spawn a multi-media franchise that continues today via CBS All Access' Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Discovery.

PHOTOS: See the original Star Trek stars

Here's a look back at the historic cast -- and a look at how each fared after the 1966-1969 series ended its primetime run. We've included series regulars, such as Shatner, who starred as Captain Kirk, and key guest stars, such as Susan Oliver (pictured, left), who's seen as the Orion slave-girl dancer in Season 1's "The Mengerie, Part II," and France Nuyen (pictured, right), who tempts Kirk in Season 3's "Elaan of Troyius."

Click on the arrow to beam up the pics!

(Disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.)

William Shatner plays the USS Enterprise's brave (and frequently shirtless) Captain James T. Kirk in the 1966-1969 Star Trek series and the first seven Star Trek movies, from Star Trek The Motion Picture to Star Trek: Generations. Like several of his Trek castmates, Shatner went on to voice his character in various Star Trek video games, and in the 1970s' cartoon, Star Trek: The Animated Series.

Shatner claimed two Primetime Emmy awards for playing the same role, attorney Denny Crane, on a pair of ABC legal dramas, The Practice and Boston Legal. He's seen here in 2020 at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo.

Leonard Nimoy plays the USS Enterprise's beloved half-Vulcan, half-human science officer, Spock, on the original Star Trek series, and in eight big-screen Star Trek movies -- two of which he directed (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home).

In addition to following his other creative passions -- photography, poetry and music -- Leonard Nimoy directed the hit movie, Three Men and a Baby.

Nimoy, who died in 2015 at age 83, made his last on-screen appearance -- as Spock, natch -- in 2013's Star Trek: Into Darkness. He also appeared in the first film from the Trek franchise's J.J. Abrams era, 2009's Star Trek.

DeForest Kelley plays Leonard "Bones" McCoy, who is a Starfleet doctor -- and not anything else -- in the original Star Trek series.

DeForest Kelley appeared in the first six Star Trek movies, with his last major on-screen appearance coming in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He died in 1999 at age 79.

The Canadian-born James Doohan affects a Scottish accent to play Montgomery Scott, or Scotty, originally the USS Enterprise's chief engineer. Doohan plays Scotty in the 1966-1969 Star Trek series, and in seven Star Trek movies. He also plays the character on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Credited with helping develop the Vulcan and Klingon languages, Doohan was a regular on the Star Trek convention circuit until being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2004. He's seen here that same year at a ceremony honoring him with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star. Doohan died in 2005. He was 85.

With her role as Lt. Uhura, the USS Enterprise's communications officer on the original Star Trek, Nichelle Nichols made history as the first actress to play an African-American professional woman, per the Historical Dictionary of African American Television.

Nichelle Nichols played Uhura in the first six Star Trek movies. She's gone on to appear in NBC's Heroes and the CBS daytime soap, The Young and the Restless. Seen here at a 2018 Star Trek convention, Nichols also worked with NASA to help recruit minorities and women for the astronaut program.

George Takei plays Lt. Hikaru Sulu, the helmsman of the USS Enterprise on the 1966-1969 Star Trek series. He went on to play Sulu in the first six Star Trek movies -- a run in which his character was eventually promoted to captain of the USS Excelsior.

Today, George Takei, seen at the 2019 Saturn Awards, is a vocal LGBTQ activist, and the co-author of the graphic-book memoir, They Called Us Enemy, about his experience in the U.S. internment camps that held Japanese-Americans during World War II. He appeared in the Broadway musical, Allegiance, which is also based on his life.

Walter Koenig joined the original Star Trek cast in Season 2 as Ensign Pavel Chekov, the Monkees- and Beatles-channeling navigator of the USS Enterprise. He plays the Russian-accented character in the first seven Star Trek movies.

Among his considerable post-Star Trek series credits, Walter Koenig was a star and consulting producer on Star Trek: Renegades, a partly crowd-funded pilot for a would-be new Trek series. In 2010, he endured the death of his actor son, Andrew Koening (Growing Pains).

Majel Barrett plays Number One (pictured, left) in the original Star Trek pilot, known as "The Cage." In the rejiggered version of the show that NBC picked up in 1966, Barrett plays the Spock-infatuated USS Enterprise nurse, Christine Chapel (pictured, right).

There really was no life after Star Trek for Majel Barrett: She married franchise creator Gene Roddenberry in 1969, and went on to play roles in numerous other Trek projects. She is heard as the voice of Starfleet computers in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise and the 2009 J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie.

Roddenberry died in 1991; Barrett, seen in 2006 with her son, Eugene Roddenberry, died 2008. She was 76.

In the original Star Trek pilot, "The Cage," Susan Oliver plays Vina, a shipwrecked woman on the planet Talos IV, who is used by the Talosian powers-that-be to tempt Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter). In one famous scene, Vina is seen as an Orion slave dancer. Oliver's Vina scenes are repurposed for the Star Trek Season 1 episodes, "The Menagerie, Part I" and "The Menagerie, Part II."

Susan Oliver is seen in a paparazzi shot from 1986. She died in 1990 at age 58. Her post-Star Trek credits included guest spots on Murder, She Wrote and the original Magnum, P.I.

France Nuyen stars as the strong-willed titular character of the Season 3 Star Trek episode, "Elaan of Troyius."

Seen at a 2018 Motion Picture Academy screening of The Joy Luck Club, a movie in which she starred, France Nuyen's post-Star Trek credits include a stint as a series regular on the 1980s NBC medical drama, St. Elsewhere.

Grace Lee Whitney plays the USS Enterprise's beehive-boasting Yeoman Rand on the original Star Trek series.

Though Yeoman Rand was written out of Star Trek after Season 1, Grace Lee Whitney went to appear in Star Trek movies and several other franchise properties, including an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Whitney died in 2015 at the age of 85.

Joan Collins stars as the doomed social-worker Edith Keeler, one of the great loves of Captain Kirk's life, in the Season 1 episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever," TV Guide's pick for the best original-series Star Trek episode of all time.

Joan Collins is arguably best known for playing the dastardly Alexis Carrington on the original Dynasty series. In 2018, she played two characters in FX's American Horror Story: Apocalypse.

In the Season 3 Star Trek episode, "All Our Yesterdays," Mariette Hartley plays Zarabeth, an ice age-era woman who Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and McCoy (DeForest Kelley) encounter on the planet Sarpeidon.

Of late, the Emmy-winning Mariette Hartley has had recurring roles on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Fox's 9-1-1 (pictured), where she played the ailing mother of Connie Britton's character in Season 1.

Ricardo Montalban plays Khan Noonien Singh, the super-powered strongman who's found aboard the SS Botany Bay in the Season 1 Star Trek episode, "Space Seed." The installment would serve as the basis for the hit movie, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, in which he also starred.

From 1977-1984, Ricardo Montalban starred as the mysterious Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island. He went on to do voice work on Kim Possible, and appear as Grandfather in the Spy Kids movies. He died in 2009 at age 88.

Diana Muldaur appears in two original-series Star Trek episodes: Season 2's "Return to Tomorrow," and Season 3's "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" Muldaur plays different characters in the episodes -- both are doctors.

Diana Muldaur played yet another Star Trek M.D., Dr. Katherine Pulaski, in Season 2 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Her more recent credits include a voice-over role in Batman: The Animated Series (pictured). Her character? Leslie Thompkins -- a doctor, of course.

Mark Lenard is another actor seen as multiple characters on multiple Star Trek episodes: In Season 1's "Balance of Terror," he plays a Romulan commander (pictured, left); and, in Season 2's "Journey to Babel," he is introduced as Sarek (pictured, right), Spock's Vulcan father.

In real life, Mark Lenard was less than seven years older than Leonard Nimoy. But on screen, he was the perfect Spock dad, and he would play the character in subsequent Star Trek series, and in three Star Trek movies, including Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (pictured). He also played a Klingon in 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Lenard died in 1996 at the age of 72.

Teri Garr appears in the Season 2 Star Trek episode, "Assignment: Earth" (where she's billed as Terri Garr). The episode is a modern-day tale (for, well, 1968) about a time-traveler, and his secretary (Garr). The episode was a backdoor pilot for a never-was TV series.

Teri Garr's considerable post-Trek film credits include Young Frankenstein, Tootsie (for which she was nominated for an Oscar), Mr. Mom and, of late, Unaccompanied Minors (pictured). She had a recurring role on Friends as the mother of Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow).

Jeffrey Hunter stars as the USS Enterprise's Captain Christopher Pike in the original Star Trek pilot, "The Cage," which was presented to -- and rejected by -- NBC in 1965. His work as Captain Pike would finally make it to air in the Season 1 Star Trek episodes, "The Menagerie, Part I" and "The Menagerie, Part II."

Best known for playing Jesus in the film, King of Kings, post-Star Trek, Jeffrey Hunter appeared in the 1968 Bob Hope comedy, The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (pictured). He died in 1969 at the age of 42.

A young Clint Howard plays Balok, the commander of a starship who uses a scary-looking creature (played by The Addams Family's Ted Cassidy) as a front as he toys with the USS Enterprise in the Season 1 Star Trek episode, "The Corbomite Maneuver."

Clint Howard, the younger brother of Ron Howard, is a familiar face from his sibling's movies, from Eat My Dust to Solo: A Star Wars Story. In addition to Star Trek, Howard has appeared in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, and a Season 1 installment of Star Trek: Discovery (pictured).

Sally Kellerman appears as Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in "Where No Man Has Gone Before," the second crack at a Star Trek pilot, the one that sold the series -- and that aired as the show's third-ever episode in 1966.

Sally Kellerman is seen at a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas in 2016. After Trek, Kellerman notched an Oscar nomination for the film version of MASH. Her latter-day credits include an episode of Hulu's Difficult People, and a recurring role on IFC's Maron.