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Growing Up

The Name "DeForest"
Family History
Growing Up Southern
First Acting Role
First Job
Singing Career
The Pinky Ring
Early Ambitions

The Name "DeForest"
The origin of being named DeForest? I was named for Dr. Lee DeForest, who was an inventor of note in the States, but not too recognized. He was responsible for the vacuum tube in radio and television, which made that possible. I had the privilege of meeting him, oddly enough when I... I was born in the south, in the state of Georgia in the United States, and they are not unlike you in many ways. You were raised with the queen and the king, I was raised with the Civil War. All the kids were named after Civil War generals and so forth. But there was a friend of my mother who was related to Dr. DeForest and, somehow or other, they decided to give me that name, but not without taking Jackson in front of it. Stonewall Jackson, you know. So it's Jackson DeForest Kelley, but my family has always called me DeForest. I had never heard the name Jackson until I went into the service and, all of the sudden, there it was. (laughter)
But I was at Fox 20th doing a movie and I was having lunch in the commissary. A camera man walked by, a photographer, and he said, “Hi, De.” And I said, "Hi." He said, "I'm going over and talk to someone who has your own name, a namesake." I said, "Who's that?" He said, "Dr. Lee DeForest." I said, "Well, that's the man I was named for." He said, "You're kidding?" I said, "No, I'm not." He said, "Get up." So I got up and went over to this table. He was about 80 years old then, I think, about that old, and he was on the Fox lot because they had anticipated doing the story of his life, which they never got to. It would have made a very interesting film. So I was introduced to him and he was very, very happy to know that someone had been named for him. It was a very emotional, wonderful scene. They took the pictures and they were sent to him and he sent them back signed to me, for which I was very proud to have met him. Did you want a long answer to that question? (Laughter)
[Convention: Midcon, England, September 1986, transcribed in Guyer, 1993.]

Family History
Is my family originally from Ireland? I'm one of those southerners that doesn't know. But I can tell you this, as I was telling someone earlier this morning, that my mother was a Casey and my father was a Kelley. I have a brother whose name is Casey Kelley. I think we're Irish. (laughter) And my wife has the name that's a killer Meagher, M-e-a-g-h-e-r. Everybody spells it Meager, pronounces it Meager, Meger, but it's Meagher. So I don't know, we're either Irish or Jewish. (laughter)
[Convention: Midcon, England, September 1986, transcribed in Guyer, 1993.]
Growing up Southern
As a southerner, do I feel different? No, because, really, after all these years, I am a Californian. I came to California as a teenager, but I did spend the impressive part of my youth in the south. No. The roots, somehow, hang in there. You think a lot about the south and you return to the south and I realize I could not live there again. I realized that after I was away for a year and went back. I went back home to stay. I stayed in California for a year and I went back home and after I stayed there for a few months, I had to go to my mother and say, "I just can't stay here any longer." And with great emotion and many tears, I got on a bus and went back to California. But I knew something was pulling me. I had to go. You don't know why. So I consider myself a Californian, really, now. But there are a lot of good things about the south and there are a lot of things that I'm very grateful for. I would not have taken anything from my childhood. The Huckleberry Finn kind of a life that I had... I think I was very fortunate to have had what I had as a youth. I'd like to have some of it back. (laughter)
[Convention: Midcon, England, September 1986, transcribed in Guyer, 1993.]

First role
The first play I ever played was, when I was in grammar school I did Tom Sawyer, whitewashing the fence.
[Convention: Los Angeles, 10/24/87]

First Job
Childhood singing career
[You started out as a singer. Do you still sing?]
No. I wish I did from what singing I hear on the radio today. (Laughter) I would have been an enormous hit. No. As I told you, my father was a Baptist minister and he was quite musical in his view. And he had a marvelous singing voice and played piano. They started me as a very young child singing in church and I went from church to a radio show. Then I did sing until I was around 12 or 13. I had quite a good voice for a young kid. But I don't know, it got all screwed up in high school and, somewhere along the line, it left me. But I joined the glee club.
[Convention: Midcon, England, September 1986, transcribed in Guyer, 1993.]

The Pinky Ring
[Q: didn't see ring, why did he take it off?]
You didn’t see it. It must have fallen under like this, because I never took this ring off. Oh, yes, I’ve never taken it off, it was in every Star Trek. You know, this ring was my mother’s ring and as a child, I used to admire it.The prongs used to set way up high with a stone in it, you know, it had a diamond in it. We were living in the South and we raised a lot of chickens, and she was feeding the chickens one day and the stone came out of it and it broke everybody’s heart. But we ate a lot of chicken; we were very poor folks. It’s true. She was cleaning the chicken and she was cleaning out the craw one day, and there was her diamond. So, when she passed away, they asked me what I wanted of her belongings, and I said, “I don’t want anything except one thing, and that is that ring that she wore”. Which is now... from washing and ironing and working, it’s all smooth; it doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t stand up any more. It’s a very sentimental thing. And when I went into Star Trek, they said, “You’ll have to take that ring off,” and I said, “You’ll have to take me off with it.” And so that’s the reason I kept it on.
[Convention: Los Angeles, 10/24/87]

His interest in Medicine
Have I felt any interest in medicine? I've always been interested in medicine to a certain degree. I don't know why. I was known as a house baby. I was born in the house. My father's brother in Atlanta was a physician and he delivered me. My brother attended Emery University there, which is a medical school, as you know. Maybe you don't know. Anyhow, it's... I forget where I am. I'm not in the United States and you don't know where Emery University is, but it's a medical school. He never made it and I suppose it maybe started there. I find myself reading med­ical articles for some reason. I always have. But I don't know, maybe I am a frustrated doctor. (laughter)
[Convention: Midcon, England, September 1986, transcribed in Guyer, 1993.]
Recognition in American Medical News
[...] after my graduation from high school in the state of Georgia, I really wanted to become a physician. My uncle, Dr. L.H. Kelley delivered me; I was a ‘house baby’ and I admired him very much, and I’d hoped to go to medical school. But hard times fell on this preacher’s son and his family, and I couldn’t make that. Now, recently I was very flattered when I went to see my own physician (yes, I have one, too) and he said, “Did you see the article in the American Medical Journal concerning you?” [actually, this is American Medical News, an AMA newsletter] So he reached over and pulled out the American Medical Journal and – did any of you happen to see that? Well, there’s an article on McCoy and it tells in the beginning how he wanted to be a doctor and later became the most famous doctor in the galaxy. And my doctor told me, “De,” he said, “in my 50 years of practice,” he said, “I’ve never seen an actor get a spread in the American Journal.”
[Convention: Dearborn, 7/19/87]