Star Trek Regular George Takei: A Long, Strange Trip, Indeed

Star Trek regular George Takei had it all figured out, at the time.

He was 68, he was firmly entrenched in popularity behind his fellow Star Trek cast members. Many people knew Takei’s character, Hikaru Sulu, but Kirk and Spock seemed to be more well-known. He had accepted that his acting career was near its end. But, it was then-California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger’s decision to veto the Same-Sex Marriage Bill in 2005 that did it. Takei knew he had to go where he had never gone before.

Star Trek’s George Takei was gay, and proud of it.

According to the Dehli Daily News, Takei said, “I was in my 60s. I was prepared for my career to end when I talked. But the reverse of what I had expected happened. My career started to blossom,” said the Star Trek vet. And his popularity exploded. He had been reborn as a political activist, a public speaker, and a social media icon. He had freed himself from the prison he had cloistered himself in until his announcement, now allowed to express his love for his partner, manager Brad Altman, whom he married in 2008.

Takei could not have been ready for the huge wave of popularity that hit. His surge in popularity allowed him to write and star in the play Allegiance, which had a sold-out run in San Diego’s Old Globe Theater and is looking to jump to Broadway. His Facebook and Twitter pages have exploded. His newfound fame has also led to a documentary film, To Be Takei, produced by Jennifer Kroot. The film shows Takei as he has become; comfortable in his own skin. According to USA Today, Takei’s new direction allowed him to speak on more personal topics, such as being a closeted gay man in Hollywood, keeping his 28-year relationship with Altman a secret, and a subject he has spoken on for a long time; his family’s incarceration in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II.

“I read about these shining democratic ideals, (but) it didn’t jibe with what happened to us,” he says. “My father explained to me that it’s a people’s democracy. It can be as great as people can be but also as fallible.” This became clearer to Takei when he noticed none of his history books touched the subject of Japanese internment.

What’s most interesting is that since Takei’s personal renaissance has begun, it’s Takei the person, not Sulu the character, that people follow and want to know more about. “People are interested not just in Sulu, but George Takei — and he’s gay,” Takei says. “Life is full of twist and turns.”

Star Trek seems so many light years behind him,…