William Shatner

Trained as a classical Shakespearean actor, Shatner began performing at the Shakespearean Stratford Festival of Canada in Stratford, Ontario beginning in 1954. He played a range of roles at the Stratford Festival in productions that included a minor role in the opening scene of a renowned and nationally televised production of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, Shakespeare's Henry V and Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great, in which Shatner made his Broadway debut in 1956.