Early acting career
After the war, Doohan moved to London, Ontario, for further technical education. After hearing a radio drama and believing he could do better, he recorded his voice at the local radio station, and learned about the Lorne Greene Academy of Radio Arts in Toronto. There he won a two-year scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where his classmates included Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall, and Richard Boone.
In 1946, he had several roles for CBC radio, starting January 12. For several years, he shuttled between Toronto and New York as work demanded. He made his TV debut as a detective on the show Martin Kane, Private Eye, and appeared in 54 episodes. He estimated he performed in over 4,000 radio programs and 450 television programs during this period, and earned a reputation for versatility.
In the mid-1950s, he appeared as forest ranger Timber Tom (the northern counterpart of Buffalo Bob) in the Canadian version of Howdy Doody. Coincidentally, fellow Star Trek cast member William Shatner appeared simultaneously as Ranger Bill in the American version. Doohan and Shatner both appeared in the 1950s Canadian science fiction series Space Command. Doohan also appeared in several episodes of Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans in 1957–1958.
For GM Presents, he played the lead role in the CBC Television drama Flight into Danger (1956) by Arthur Hailey, and in others such as Hailey's Shadow of Suspicion (also 1956), and The Night they Killed Joe Howe (1960). (Arthur Hailey rewrote the former into the novel Runway Zero-Eight, and it was also adapted into the film Zero Hour!. This story was later satirized in Airplane!.)
Doohan's credits included The Twilight Zone (Season 4, Episode 3 "Valley of the Shadow" - 17 January 1961), GE True, Hazel ("Hazel's Highland Fling" as Gordon "Gordy" MacHeath). The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, Bewitched, Fantasy Island, Magnum, P.I., The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Season 1, Episode 4 "The Shark Affair" - 1964 - and Season 2, Episode 20 "The Bridge of Lions Affair, Part 1" - 1966), and Bonanza. In the Bonanza episode "Gift of Water" (1962), he co-starred with actress Majel Barrett who would later play Star Trek's Nurse Christine Chapel. He played an assistant to the United States president in two episodes of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He had an uncredited role in The Satan Bug (1965), appeared in the Daniel Boone episode "A Perilous Passage" (1970), appeared as a state trooper in Roger Vadim's film Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971, which was produced by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry), and played opposite Richard Harris in the movie Man in the Wilderness (1971).
Doohan also acted on stage, including Every Bed Is Narrow (1956) Bright Sun at Midnight (1957) and King Lear (1960) on the Crest Theatre in Toronto.
