Scotty beamed up this morning.

James Doohan - Scotty from Star Trek. 

Died this morning.

He was 85.

"..here's to ya, lad."

This from the BBC -

Doohan, whose role was immortalised in the line "Beam me up, Scotty", [a line I believe was never used in the original series...WD] had been suffering from pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, his agent said.

Wiki -

At the outbreak of World War II, aged 19, he joined the Royal Canadian Artillery, and was eventually commissioned as a lieutenant. His first combat assignment was the invasion of Normandy at Juno Beach on D-Day. Shooting two snipers along the way, Doohan's unit made its way to higher ground and took defensive positions. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: four in his leg, one in the chest, and one through his middle right finger. The chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case; he would later generally hide the amputated finger on screen. Despite his wounds, Doohan remained in the military, trained as a pilot for the Royal Canadian Air Force, and flew an artillery observation plane, though he was once labeled the "craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Forces".

James joins DeForest and Gene now. Part of a crew that is probably responsible for inspiring more kids to become engineers, scientists and astronauts than any other reason, especially after the Apollo program was defunded in the early '70's.

Unlike the majority of those kids, he will actually get to go to space - for real.