'Unfortunate': George Takei played Hikaru Sulu in the TV series
(Picture: Michael Loccisano/Getty)George Takei has continued to fan the flames of his and Star Trek co-star William Shatner near 60-year long feud by branding him a “self-involved prima donna”.
During a recent TV appearance on The Graham Norton Show, the legendary actor insisted he would never bring up Shatner, 91, again in an attempt to quell their ongoing row.
Takei told Norton, 59, last month: “You are the last chat show host to be allowed to ask that question as it has become so tiresome to talk about.”
But just a month on, the acting veteran shared his disdain for the Captain Kirk star once again during an interview where he responded to Shatner claim: “George has never stopped blackening my name.”
Takei told The Times: “Shatner is a cantankerous old fossil. All of us have had problems with him. Jimmy Doohan, who played Scotty, back when he did conventions used to go on and on about Bill Shatner.
“There is this fiction that Bill and Leonard [Nimoy, aka Spock] were good friends, but we know better — Leonard privately expressed his irritation with Bill.
“Bill is an egocentric, self-involved prima donna.”
The Standard has contacted William Shatner’s rep for comment.
In December, Takei branded Shatner a “cantankerous old man” and “vowed” to never speak about him publicly again.
The legendary actor starred as Hikaru Sulu in the original 1960s sci-fi television series set aboard the Starship Enterprise opposite the Canadian actor.
When asked about his feud with Shatner, he responded: “You are the last chat show host to be allowed to ask that question as it has become so tiresome to talk about.
“When Bill has a book to sell he needs publicity and accuses us of using him. My subject is more substantial and important.
“He is a cantankerous old man and I will not talk about him any more. I vow that this is the very last time I talk about him.”
Last year, when Shatner made history as the oldest person to reach space thanks to a rocket built by Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, Takei said he was unimpressed by his former co-star’s achievements.
“He’s boldly going where other people have gone before. He’s a guinea pig, 90 years old and it’s important to find out what happens,” Takei told Page Six.
“So 90 years old is going to show a great deal more on the wear and tear on the human body, so he’ll be a good specimen to study.
“Although he’s not the fittest specimen of 90 years old, so he’ll be a specimen that’s unfit!”
Takei also once accused Shatner of ignoring him on set and alleging changing a script so Takei’s character Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu did not take command of the starship in an episode.
