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Roddenberry was married twice. He had two children by his first wife, Eileen Rexroat (to whom he was married 27 years) -- Dawn, and the late Darleen. His second marriage was to Majel Barrett, who played Nurse Christine Chapel in the original Star Trek series, Lwaxana Troi, and the voice of the computer in the later three series. He had one child, Rod, with Majel.
Roddenberry joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941 and became an aviator. After leaving the service, he was a commercial pilot for Pan American World Airways and then served on the Los Angeles Police DepartmentThe Los Angeles Police Department (usually known as the LAPD is the police department of the City of Los Angeles, California. It is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the world with over 9,000 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, covering an are from 19491949 is the common year starting on Saturday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 4 RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage January 4 February 22 Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, - 19561956 is a leap year starting on Sunday. see link for calendar) Events January January 1 End of Anglo- Egyptian Condominium in Sudan. January 16 President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine January 26 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in. Before Star Trek, he wrote scripts for many of the popular television series of the 1950Events January January 5 US Senator Estes Kefauver introduces a resolution calling for examination of organized crime in the USA January 6 The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations withs. He was also trying to get other science fiction series off the ground, mostly without success.
During the latter 1970Events January events January 1 Construction begins on Arcosanti, by Paolo Soleri, in Mayer, Arizona, located 65, miles north of Phoenix, Arizona. January 1 Unix epoch at 00:00:00 UTC. January 12 Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian civil war. Januarys, Roddenberry lectured at universities around the country. He amused the attendees with anecdotes from the Star Trek set, spoke of his visions of the future and showed the Star Trek Blooper Reel, a collection of outtakes from the original series. Fans bestowed upon him the affectionate nickname "The Great Bird of the Galaxy" after a mythical creature referenced in an episode of the original Trek series.
Star Trek ran for three seasons. Although it was cancelled due to low ratingsWhen ( US) TV viewers or entertainment writers refer to "ratings," they are talking about Nielsen Ratings a system developed by the New York City based Nielsen Media Research, Inc. firm to determine which shows television viewers watch at what times., the series gained wide popularity in syndicationIn the entertainment and news industries, syndication is a method of making content available to a range of outlets simultaneously. Syndication is important in several different forms of mass media. In television syndication individual stations buy progra. The Star Trek episode " " was meant to be the pilot for a spinoff series which never came to fruition. Nevertheless, several feature films and a new television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, were created in the 1980s. Roddenberry was deeply involved with creating and producing , although his involvement lessened in seasons 2 and 3 due to deteriorating health. Star Trek also spawned the television series , and .
Roddenberry only produced the first Star Trek film, . Due to cost overruns and a problematic relation with the Paramount management, Roddenberry was ousted and replaced by Harve Bennett. He continued as executive consultant on the next four films - Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. The last film based on the original Star Trek series, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was dedicated in Roddenberry's memory; he reportedly viewed a version of the film a few days before his death.
Writers on the show have charged that ideas they developed were later passed off by Roddenberry as his own, or that he lied about their contributions to the show at Star Trek conventions. Roddenberry was confronted by these writers, and apologized to them, but according to his critics, he continued to repeat the false claims. [1] In her autobiography, actress Nichelle Nichols who played Uhura in the first Star Trek series, reported having had a love affair with Gene Roddenberry. She felt that his strong and controversial inclination to get her on the show had a lot to do with their relationship.
Roddenberry's life and work has been favorably chronicled in the biography Inside Trek: My Secret Life with Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry by Susan Sackett, his close associate for 17 years. The book has been described as inaccurate by his critics.
Despite his reduced management of Star Trek near the end of his life, Roddenberry was still respected enough that Paramount Pictures, owners of the various Star Trek series, agreed to his request that the Star Trek Animated Series not be considered canon by the studio. According to the reference work The Star Trek Chronology, Roddenberry reportedly considered elements of the fifth and sixth Trek films to be apocryphal, though there is no indication that he wanted them removed from Trek canon.
Gene Roddenberry was a secular humanist [2]. After his death, a lipstick-sized capsule of his ashes was sent into space to orbit the earth for six years (after which they burned up in the earth's atmosphere). There is an asteroid named in his honor called 4659 Roddenberry. A crater on Mars is named after him.
After his death in 1991, Roddenberry's estate allowed the creation of two long-running television series based upon some of his previously unfilmed story ideas and concepts. and Andromeda have become reality under the guidance of Majel Barrett. A third Roddenberry storyline was adapted in 1995 as the short-lived comic book Gene Roddenberry's Lost Universe.