William Shatner Reveals How Battling Stage 4 Cancer at the Same Time as His Daughter Changed His Life

William Shatner is reflecting on his and his daughter’s past battles with cancer.

The Star Trek actor, 95, sat down for an interview with TV Insider last week, per an article published Friday, July 3, and opened up about how he and his daughter Melanie — who he shares with ex-wife Gloria Rand — “both had, at the same time, a diagnosis of stage four cancer three years ago, and through the magic of medicine, we’re both cancer-free.”

Coming close to death changed the Emmy Award winner, also dad to Leslie and Lisabeth, and his daughter’s outlook on life. “It sharpened our attention to each other and my whole family,” Shatner explained. “And also, what do you want to do with the remaining years?”

“I’m always asking questions, because the older I get, the more fearful I will be to die with a question on my mind, like, ‘What about…,’ and I don’t have a chance to look it up on ChatGPT!” he added. “What’s the meaning of life?! Damn; the meaning of life is — and boom! I’m dead! It’s the fear of not knowing what you could have learned. I get excited by comprehending and apprehending information.”

Shedding more light on his cancer journey, the Boston Legal alum recalled how he found out he was ill.

“When I was told I had Stage 4 melanoma, and the doctor, a friend of mine, I said I got this lump, and [he] put his doctor’s gentle fingers on my cheek, and he said to me, ‘Bill, you better get this out,'” Shatner recounted, per a TV Insider article published on Saturday, July 4. “With a kind of gravitas but not alarm, like a good doctor, and I went and got it out. It took two years of treatment to become cancer-free.”

The Miss Congeniality star admitted he and his daughter had totally different reactions to their diagnoses, noting “she spent a year suffering” thinking “she was going to die.”

“I, on the other hand, said, ‘Really? Stage 4?’ It didn’t occur to me that I was going to die. It didn’t occur to me that bad fortune was going to happen,” Shatner confessed. “At 95, I’m sensing the leaves are getting a little yellow and falling off the tree, but, OK!”

“I didn’t fear dying because it didn’t occur to me that I was going to die. And that’s my attitude. Even as we speak. So what does that mean?” he asked. “I’m taking care of myself. It’s an attitude. I guess it’s acquired, but it may be inborn.”

Making the most of life, Shatner currently has a podcast in the works with his daughter called No Time to Die.