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Actor James Doohan, well known for his portrayal of Engineer Montgomery Scott on the original Star Trek series, passes away at 85.

Mr. Doohan, a Canadian-born actor and master of vocal dialects, became best known to viewers worldwide as Scotty, the burr-voiced engineer of the Starship Enterprise, has died from pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, according to an AP report.

During his early career, Mr. Doohan had worked in radio as well as being a character actor. In 1966, he tried out for Star Trek, and employed several different accents during his audition.

Creator Gene Roddenberry asked Mr. Doohan which accent he liked best for the role. Mr. Doohan replied "all the world's best engineers have been Scottish." Thus the part of Scotty was filled.

Typecasting limited his work after the Star Trek television series ended, but he was able to make personal appearances at various conventions and events over the years. When Star Trek returned to the big screen in 1979, Mr. Doohan returned to his familiar role as Scotty.

As a linguist, Mr. Doohan created the Vulcan and Klingon words spoken in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Later, linguist Marc Okrand drew from Mr. Doohan's work, and fleshed out Klingon to a full-fledged language of its own.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.