Kevin Paul · CC BY 4.0

Played Captain James T. Kirk across three seasons of the original Star Trek and seven feature films, a role that made him one of the most recognized faces in American television despite the series' initial cancellation after low ratings. He kept working steadily afterward rather than living off the part — starring in T.J. Hooker, hosting Rescue 911, and winning an Emmy decades later as attorney Denny Crane on Boston Legal — and has published both memoirs and a run of Star Trek and science-fiction novels under his own name.