Early Life and Education
Shatner was born on March 22, 1931, in the Côte Saint-Luc neighborhood of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the son of Anne (née Garmaise) and Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacturer. He has two sisters, Joy and Farla. His paternal grandfather, Wolf Schattner, anglicized the family name to "Shatner". All of Shatner's grandparents were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine), and Shatner was raised in Conservative Judaism. He attended three schools in Montreal: Willingdon Elementary School in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG), Baron Byng High School, and West Hill High School in NDG, and is an alumnus of the Montreal Children's Theatre. Shatner also studied economics at McGill University in Montreal, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. In June 2011, McGill awarded him an honourary doctorate of letters. The Students' Society of McGill University building on McTavish Street is popularly (though not officially) named "Shatner".
Shatner has said that he faced anti-semitism while growing up in Montreal.
Read more about this topic: William Shatner
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or education:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“I realized how for all of us who came of age in the late sixties and early seventies the war was a defining experience. You went or you didn’t, but the fact of it and the decisions it forced us to make marked us for the rest of our lives, just as the depression and World War II had marked my parents.”
—Linda Grant (b. 1949)
“People are less self-conscious in the intimacy of family life and during the anxiety of a great sorrow. The dazzling varnish of an extreme politeness is then less in evidence, and the true qualities of the heart regain their proper proportions.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)
“We have not been fair with the Negro and his education. He has not had adequate or ample education to permit him to qualify for many jobs that are open to him.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)