To the Stars

George Takei shares the dramatic and turbulent events of his career, from his childhood and life in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, to his years on Star Trek, to his success as an actor, author, and businessman. 85,000 first printing. Tour.

Asian-American actor Takei attributes his success to his role as Mr. Sulu on the Star Trek TV series and in six full-length motion pictures (1966-1991). Starting with his Japanese-American family's internment in a WWII high-security camp in northern California, this lively memoir reveals the author's upbeat but pragmatic nature. The boy's early fascination with the theater, abetted by supportive parents and a B.A. and M.A. in theater from UCLA, led to his discovery when he was 27 by Gene Roddenberry, creator/producer of Star Trek. While Takei's film credits include Ice Palace, Green Berets and [Return from the River Kwai], most of the book, of major interest to Star Trek fans, deals with behind-the-scenes accounts of the series' filming and production.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Takei's account may go where others- namely William Shatner's Star Trek Memories (LJ 10/1/93) and Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek: The First 25 Years (Pocket Bks., 1991)-have gone before: to the best sellers lists.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Star Trek's Mr. Sulu may be famous for fictional adventures out among the asteroids, but his own life, especially the early years, down on terra firma has been adventurous, too. To begin with, adventure stemmed from the accident of birth. The first child of a Japanese American mother and Japanese immigrant father denied U.S. citizenship because of the naturalization quotas then in force, Takei went with them into internment camps, first in Arkansas and then in California, during World War II. After the war, the family settled in East L.A., where George began school and a lifelong appreciation for Latino culture. Later, his father managed a crosstown move that put George into a mixed-race, up-and-coming, middle-class neighborhood, and his first adventure in political action occurred when teenage George found summer work picking strawberries and discovered the paymasters cheating Mexican pickers. Takei relates the incidents of these and his subsequent years establishing an acting career and continuing to express his social ideals (he even ran for the L.A. city council) in an anecdotal style that sounds as if he's honed it at many a Trekkers' convention. They're darn good stories and less predictable than his Star Trek memories, which tend to reinforce what Trekkers already know: for example, Bill Shatner is a tad egoistic, and Nichelle Nichols is pretty wonderful. So boldly go and read his book. Ray Olson