William Shatner

William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk of TV’s Star Trek, is the first to be awarded the Genius Gala’s Icon Award for his role in inspiring science enthusiasts. In 2021, at the age of 90, after decades of fictitious spaceflights, Shatner became the oldest person to actually fly into space, aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepherd with fellow astronaut Jeff Bezos.

“I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened,” Shatner said when he emerged from the spacecraft. “It’s extraordinary, extraordinary. It’s so much larger than me and life. It hasn’t got anything to do with the little green men and the blue orb. It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death. To see the blue color whip by you, and now you’re staring into blackness … everybody in the world needs to do this. Everybody in the world needs to see this.”