DeForest Kelley

Jackson DeForest Kelley (January 20, 1920 – June 11, 1999), known to colleagues as “Dee”,[1] was an American actor, screenwriter, poet, and singer. He was known for his roles in Westerns and as Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy of the USS Enterprise in the television and film series Star Trek (1966–1991).

Kelley was delivered by his uncle at his parents’ home in Toccoa, Georgia, the son of Clora (née Casey) and Ernest David Kelley, who was a Baptist minister of Irish and southern ancestry.[2][3] Kelley was named after pioneering electronics engineer Lee de Forest. He later named his Star Trek character’s father “David” after his own father. Kelley had an older brother, Ernest Casey Kelley.[4] Kelley was immersed in his father’s mission (church) in Conyers, Georgia, and told his father that failure would mean “wreck and ruin”