From Sawdust to Stardust: The Biography of DeForest Kelley, Star Trek's Dr. McCoy

by Terry Lee Rioux

In the forty-year history of Star Trek(R), none of the television show's actors are more beloved than DeForest Kelley. His portrayal of Leonard "Bones" McCoy, the southern physician aboard the Starship Enterprise(TM), brought an unaffected humanity to the groundbreaking space frontier series.
Jackson DeForest Kelley came of age in Depression-era Georgia. He was raised on the sawdust trail, a preacher's kid steeped in his father's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743457625
• ISBN13: 9780743457620
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Gallery Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

If you want to KNOW De Kelley, then read this book

Okay, I admit I'm biased. I was vice president of his fan club for years. But for those who are shooting this book down because it doesn't cover enough Star Trek for you.. a subtle reminder. Star Trek was NOT De Kelley's career. Star Trek came at a time near the end of De's career. Yes, it is what caused fans to love him and recognize him, but it was not his career. His career started long before Star Trek was a glimmer in Roddenberry's mind. And as a person who was very fortunate enough to call the Kelleys friends, I can assure you that this book does let you in on the quiet nature of his life and the special person he indeed was. De was about the little stuff, not the big stuff. And that is how this book is written. He wasn't out for the publicity or the acknowledgement. He just did things because they were "the right things to do"... not because he would gain stardom, press, publicity or attention. In fact, he hated attention. He hated talking in front of people. So why did he go to conventions? Because he did love his fans. He loved hearing from them. And he wanted to acknowledge THEM. Not get the attention for himself. Anyway.. if you want a biography that is factual with a bunch of dates and such.. no this perhaps isn't the book for you. But it was never meant to be that type of book. But if you want a book that delves into the life of a very quiet, charming "county boy from Georgia" who just happened to become one of most beloved doctors on television, then please, read this and share it with friends. He deserves nothing less.

Warm & charming...like De Kelley himself

A warm, charming and poignant biography about a beloved actor who brought to life one of STAR TREK's most beloved characters. Even though I've had the privilege of telling stories about Dr. McCoy in the various STAR TREK novels and comic books I've written, and had the pleasure of meeting DeForest Kelley on a few occasions, he was so private during his life that I really didn't know much about him. Author Terry Rioux does an especially nice job evoking De's roots and those early days before, during and just after the war. She also conveys a real sense of the long love story between De and his wife Carolyn. It's a shame DeForest Kelley never wrote his own book, but this labor of love is the next best thing!

Meeting The Man Behind Dr. McCoy

Perhaps because I was one of those who deeply admired Dr. Leonard McCoy, and followed him into the helping professions, I greatly enjoyed reading "From Sawdust to Stardust". It painted a broad and detailed picture of the man who created, and in many ways was, my favorite "country doctor". Having first read Kristine M. Smith's "DeForest Kelley: A Harvest of Memories", Terry Lee Rioux's "Stardust" gave me the biographical/historical context into which that earlier very personal memoir fit. Read together, I felt that I had gotten to meet one of the role models of my youth, and the experience was very satisfying. Learning who DeForest Kelley really was helped me to understand why Dr. McCoy seemed so very real......He was real. These two books taken together give an in depth picture of a very special human being [and, no, I didn't belong to any fan clubs]....a man who had a quiet kind of courage, and who inspired many of us to follow him into future. I'd recommend reading "Harvest"[a heartfelt memoir] and then "Sawdust"[a well researched biography], but either way it's a great trip. And in entering the very private world of a very private man, you really do get to "go where no one has gone before."

This Is A DeForest Kelley Book - Not A Star Trek One!

I am the former president of DeForest Kelley's Australian fan club. I am very sorry to read reviews that seem dedicated to kicking the author of FROM SAWDAUST TO STARDUST in the teeth. I read and enjoyed the book immensely. I feel it is an essential compliment to Kristine M Smith's captivating personal history with DeForest Kelley (DeFOREST KELLEY: A HARVEST OF MEMORIES). Any true Kelley fan will need BOTH books to fully encapsulate a three-dimensional picture of the man, and redundancy of material is non-existent between the two books except in instances where Smith's book is quoted by Rioux's. The two books cannot be compared - they are like apples and oranges - but they enhance each other wonderfully and both enchanted me, but in different ways. SAWDUST is very well researched - I found out something about De I did not know before the title page! It is also thoughtful and methodical and tells so much of Kelley's earlier history that it reveals a different man behind the one that I, along with so many others, knew and loved. I enjoyed Smith's book "more" only because it detailed De personally, as a friend, mentor and morale booster during the days that we STAR TREK people knew him. Of the two books HARVEST was the "I can't put this down" page-turner adventure. Rioux's book is more scholarly and reveals the fact that not only McCoy, but Kelley himself, was a Healer of true mythological proportions. I agree with Harve Bennett's appraisal of SAWDUST, which is found in the foreword. With this book we see the mosiac from which came McCoy.And so came many, many other Kelley characters. I know De better and love him even more as a result of having read SAWDUST and HARVEST. Those wishing for a perponderance of STAR TREK reflections may be disappointed, as seems to be the case in some of the other reviews. But anyone wishing to know the man himself, aside from TREK - how he lived, interacted with others and what kind of legacy he left to friends and fans alike should find these books to be "just what the doctor ordered".

What a Ride!

FROM SAWDUST TO STARDUST The Biography of DeForest Kelley is the biography all of Kelley's most ardent fans hoped for and never thought they'd see. Highest possible recommendation! The research is impeccable; the effect will be life-long to the reader. You will love Dr. McCoy even more after you have discovered the actor whose genius and compassion brought him to life! Kristine M Smith, Author DeForest Kelley: A Harvest of Memories : My Life and Times With a Remarkable Gentleman Actor