DeForest Kelley was born in Atlanta Georgia January 20, 1920. He graduated from highschool at 16 and went on to sing at the church where his father was a baptist minister.At seventeen he made his first trip outside the state to visit an uncle in Long Beach California, he intended to stay for 2 weeks but ended up staying a year. Upon returning home he told his parents he was moving to California to become an actor . His mother encouraged him but the idea didn't go over well with his father. In California Kelley was spotted by a Paramount scout while doing a Navy Training film. He went on acting in many westerns and eventually played the role of Dr. Leonard McCoy which changed his life forever.


Before landing the role of Dr. McCoy, he was offered the choice to play Mr. Spock. Years later, he played both for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). He was cremated and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean. Shortly before his death he won the "Golden Cowboy Boot" award, honoring his earlier work in westerns. The "Enterprise" (2001) character, Admiral Maxwell Forrest played by Vaughn Armstrong, is named after him. Reportedly disliked doing the animated "Star Trek" (1973) series because he was never recording his lines at the same time as William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Kelley did not like this because he never got to interact with them and develop any rapport, which made reading his lines all the more difficult. Was the first primary cast member from "Star Trek" (1966) to pass away. Shortly after Mr. Kelley's passing, "He's dead, Jim" was forever memorialized by being added in tribute to Dr. McCoy for two 1999 video games: StarCraft Expansion Set: Brood War (1998) (VG) and Shatner-oids, a spoof of the classic Atari game "Asteroids". Had a great love of poetry, both reading and writing it. Later in life, he used to charm Star Trek convention audiences with three poems about Gene Roddenberry ("The Great Bird of the Galaxy") and the Star Trek franchise. They were called "The Big Bird's Dream," "The Dream Goes On," and "The Dream Forever.". He plays a medic in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956). Foreshadowing things to come, his character says, "This man is dead, Captain". His personal favorite episode of "Star Trek" (1966) was "The Empath".