In the forty-year history of <I>Star Trek</I>®, none of the television show's actors are more beloved than DeForest Kelley. His portrayal of Leonard "Bones" McCoy, the southern physician aboard the <I>Starship Enterprise</I>?, brought an unaffected humanity to the groundbreaking space frontier series. <P> 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 literal faith and judgment. But De's natural artistic gifts called him to a different way, and a visit to California at seventeen showed a bright new world. <P> Theater and radio defined his early career -- but it was a World War II training film he made while serving in the Army Air Corps that led to his first Paramount Studios contract. <P> After years of struggle, his lean, weathered look became well known in notable westerns and television programs such as <I>You Are There</I> and <I>Bonanza.</I> But his work on several pilots for writer-producer Gene Roddenberry changed his destiny and the course of cultural history. <P> This thoroughly researched actor's life is about hard work and luck, loyalty and love. It is a journey that takes us all...from sawdust to stardust.