New toup-less picture.

We understand this image was taken in late January 1959 during Bill Shatner's stint on Broadway with the production of The World of Suzie Wong. That makes it the most recent toup-less picture we have found thus far. On-screen, he was already wearing a toupee at this point.

Notice how Bill Shatner's real hairline is rounder than the more pointy look that the lace created (this observation was recently made by these folks). That wouldn't last long as he soon started to recede at the front too. If you look closely at the top of the head, it appears that the hair is very short (unable to grow longer), fluffy and thin. The top of the crown (which we can't see) is likely displaying some very noticable signs of baldness.

William Shatner at age 27.

Could Shats be using some kind of spray to thicken up in the above photo, or is he just fortunate not to have been photographed under a strong light? One year and two months earlier, he already looked very fluffy on top:

Above pictures - Studio One: "No Deadly Medicine" (late 1957)

Soon after the 1959 photo was taken, Shats would shift to both on-screen and on-stage toup wearing, as evidenced in the below photo:

William Shatner with actress Julie Harris in the 1961-1962 stage production of A Shot in the Dark.

UPDATE: Two images in this post have been replaced.

1957 article confirms Shatner toupee purchase.

Studio One - The Defender (1957). The first toup appearance? In this production, Shatner is apparently wearing a quality studio-supplied toupee, but he would soon purchase one of his own.

There is a great article here at Google Docs, which is a reprint of an October 1957 Maclean's Magazine profile of the young William Shatner. The article contains the following very interesting paragraph:

"...Mel Balarino, MGM's casting director...looked Shatner over. What he saw was a splendid young bobcat of a male, with a close cap of cinnamon hair, tufted eyebrows and white teeth bared in a grin of undisciplined charm...[Gloria Rand and William Shatner] had both begun watching their diets again: steak, fresh fruit, yogurt. While others in their apartment block lounged by the pool with gin drinks and suntan oil, Shatner would withdraw into a corner and skip an imaginary rope. Then he'd dive into the pool and later, when he'd straightarmed himself out, would report to Gloria, 'Fifteen lengths that time. Best exercise there is.' He had already ordered a toupee to camouflage a thinning spot in the cinnamon hair." (Emphasis ours. The money for this purchase would likely have come from his salary from the movie The Brothers Karamazov which was filmed in 1957.)

Thanks to a reader for alerting us to this! We sincerely appreciate the detective work of all you Shatner toupologists out there!

When did William Shatner start wearing a toupee?

The short and simple answer is sometime between 1957 and 1958. From that point onwards, he would never again choose to be photographed professionally without wearing a hairpiece. The decision may initially have been only for television and film work rather than theatrical productions - but that distinction didn't last long...

Studio One - No Deadly Medicine. (1957)

Above we have two photographs of a still toupless Shatner in December 1957, performing in a TV show called Studio One - No Deadly Medicine.

The World of Suzie Wong (1958)

Perhaps the last time he was ever photographed acting without a toupee was during the long theatrical run of The World of Suzie Wong (see above and also here).

Playhouse 90 - A Town Has Turned to Dust. (1958)

That same year, the toup (albeit a rather shabby-looking one) made an appearance in a TV show called Playhouse 90 - A Town Has Turned to Dust (see above). We also have a photograph from a year earlier (see below) from Studio One - The Defender (1957) in which Bill Shatner appears to be already wearing a hairpiece. Was this the first ever first toup appearance? The point here is that it likely wasn't entirely black & white - during the crossover period, Shats may have worn a toup in one show and still relied on sprays and combing techniques in another.

Studio One - The Defender (1957). The first toup appearance?

And of course, we also saw Shats in the movie The Brothers Karamazov (released in 1958, but filmed in 1957) - although his toup in that film is perhaps better described as a stage wig.

The Brothers Karamazov (1958)

After 1958, the toup never ever went away and by 1959, the classic Star Trek: TOS look was essentially born with Shatner now wearing an (expensive) front lace toup as well as a hairpiece that covered the crown (the pieces may or may not have been separate). These toups were almost certainly provided by the productions Shats was working for, rather than anything the struggling young actor could afford to buy for himself - the latter would likely not have been particularly suitable for filming.

However, Bill Shatner was doing a lot of very low budget TV at this time, so perhaps with the money he had made from The Brothers Karamazov he also decided to fork out for his own personal toup in case the budget of a particular production could not cover this expense - Shats may have also felt that it helped his chances at auditions. Star Trek (which was a considerably higher budget TV production) producer Bob Justman later noted that Shatner's "Own 'personal' ones were too ratty-looking [to be used in front of the cameras]." (see here).

Shatner in CBS's The Story of a Gunfighter (1959)

So, if we want to celebrate Bill Shatner's 50th anniversary of wearing a toupee, I am afraid we are a year too late. But maybe better late than never: Happy "Golden Toup Anniversary" to you...!!

More from 1957's "The Glass Eye"

Some screengrabs from a 1957 episode of Alfred Hitchcok Presents called "The Glass Eye". We would venture to say that Bill Shatner is still toupless here. The front hairline is evidently receding, but the real key is what is happening at the back. Whereas the rear toup that he soon started to wear smoothed over the crown in a rather singular fashion, here we don't see that effect yet at all. Instead, it appears that Shats has grown his front hair a little longer and is combing it back over the area of thinning.




A year later, (see previous post), the rear thinning became too prominent to conceal.

Great new "toupless" picture.

Thanks to a reader for this. Alas, no date or source (please let us know). Suffice to say it is a very young Shatner, probably mid-1950s. The thinning at the front is very noticeable, but we can't say for sure that he isn't wearing a toup at the back of his head to cover a thinning crown.

UPDATE: According to a commenter: "Taken on April 11, 1957 during the filming of an episode of the TV anthology series The Alfred Hitchcock Hour entitled 'The Glass Eye'." Many thanks.