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

Rating:
Summary: From Sawdust To Shelf Dust
Review: Detailed research, horrible writing and lousy choice of photos! Rioux was given access to decades of Kelley family memorabilia, but writes like she trained on bad romance novels and new age psychobabble. The Kelley's pet tortoise, for example, is "...a mythologically powerful living creature that could entrance and soothe and teach....a living symbol of their commitment to the earthly round of seasons and the simple days marked by the sun's journey from one end of the yard to the other."

We get background on the Kelley family and friends, but there are few recollections by Kelley himself about the original 1960s Star Trek series. You'd think someone who'd taken the time to interview his mailman (at length) would bother to quote more from recordings of the actor talking about the episodic show he's most famous for. You'd also think the author would talk with the original series' staff -- cameramen, set workers, costume assistants, etc. but for that part of his life she mostly retells tv episodes or rehashes material culled from other published works. If you're going to pitch a book based on a particular association, why not delve into it? There's more coverage of the later films, but that only leaves you wondering why there was less on the original stuff.

The parts of his life she does detail are written in an oblique style that is difficult to wade through, sometimes as if she were summarizing events in private notes meant only for herself. The trivial is enlarged, the larger-than-life trivialized -- of the famous folks Kelley hangs out with, and other tv series he worked on, there are usually just passing mentions that leave you wishing for more (lunch with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, film work with Steve McQueen, several episodes of The Lone Ranger (possibly his earliest portrayal of a doctor).

Most of the photos usually standard with an actor's biography are missing as well -- the actor as a child with his family, stills from his pre-Trek film career, behind-the-scenes shots from any of the many Westerns he was in, Kelley with other famous (non-Star Trek) actors he worked with (there were a lot), etc. No photos from the original series, either -- except on the cover, and inside a copy of a theater poster done after the series' cancellation, featuring Kelley as McCoy (basically a photo of a photo). The only direct "Trek" images, in fact, are four shots of the actor in costume for the later films, two of which include the actor with the same friend. There are no pictures of Kelley with Gene Roddenberry, none of his receiving a star on Hollywood Boulevard, not even an image of the sidewalk star with his name on it, though discussing this event takes up several pages.

No filmography of Kelley's work included, either, though much of it is cited throughout.

And why didn't Rioux explain why the title -- suggested by Kelley -- was the same as a quote more often associated with aviation pioneer and fellow Southerner Jacqueline Cochran? Cochran was of Kelley's generation, and likely familiar to him, especially considering his friendship with another spunky female pilot. Was this just a coincidental phrase match?

Overall a frustrating read.


Rating:
Summary: What a Ride!
Review: 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!

I hope SAWDUST/STARDUST reaches the top of Star Trek's bestseller list,as well as the New York Times bestseller list. It deserves the honor. 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 of DeFOREST KELLEY: A Harvest of Memories

Rating:
Summary: This Is A DeForest Kelley Book - Not A Star Trek One!
Review: 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".

Rating:
Summary: Kelley-Bashing?
Review: I read over 300 pages in search of DeForest Kelley, his life and his career. I didn't find what I was looking for. Instead I got tons of information on his wife, his female fans and an obscure person I had never heard of before by the name of Kris Smith (and family) dominating the total of the last eighty pages of this so called "biography".
I'm now doomed to live under the impression that DeForest Kelley was a mediocre actor - if actor at all, see p. 330: "The answer must be no(...)", - totally focused on his wife and his turtle and surrounded and supported in his feeble struggles for a career by a bunch of Wonderful Females.
Dommage.
He deserved better.
Some further points of critique are a missing index, a very sparse collection of very mediocre photos and a style of writing that can drive you to tears of frustration if you didn't fall asleep already from boredom.
If you really want to know about DeForest Kelley go to Leonard Nimoy - an actor Miss Rioux could have interviewed on the subject rather than Kelley's postman. I recommend 'I am Spock'(use the index).

Rating:
Summary: Meeting The Man Behind Dr. McCoy
Review: 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."

Rating:
Summary: My mailman is more interesting
Review: The point of a biography is to understand the subject, to know what made him tick. This book doesn't even attempt to do so. From what I read DeForest Kelley was a man of no opinions, no personality, no insight. This book doesn't even tell us what music, movies, or books he was interested in. The best biographies make the reader feel like he/she has spent time with the person. Not here. Think I'll read the phonebook for more captivating literature.

Rating:
Summary: McCoy Deserves Better
Review: This book is a waste of time for true fans of Deforest Kelley.
It is obvious that the research was done. It is just as obvious that it was missused. This book is poorly written, repetitive, and just plain hard to understand.The obscure information presented is really of no interest to the average Trek fan. It is painfully clear tht the author was in possesion of facts and information that could have resulted in a good if not great book. Why she chose to write about turtles and other non pertinent facts is a mystery. Don't waste your money or your time.