William Shatner fans can breathe easy.
The 94-year-old actor is doing well after allegedly experiencing a medical emergency Wednesday afternoon.
“I over indulged. I thank you all for caring but I’m perfectly fine,” the “Star Trek” star wrote on X Thursday alongside a meme joking about his “greatly exaggerated … demise.”
TMZ had sparked panic by reporting that Shatner suffered a blood sugar issue at his Los Angeles home and was hospitalized.
But the Hollywood legend’s representatives set the record straight.
“He is fine,” Shatner’s talent agent, Harry Gold, told USA Today. “I spoke to Mr. Shatner yesterday, and he sounded strong and his same old self.”
It’s hardly the first time Shatner’s health has made headlines.
Earlier this year, the Emmy winner opened up about his decades-long battle with tinnitus — a chronic ringing in the ears — which he said began while filming the “Star Trek” episode “Arena” in 1967.
“I was too close to the special effects’ explosion, and the result was that I was left with permanent tinnitus,” he recalled in a video for the nonprofit Tinnitus Quest.
Tinnitus is a common condition, affecting up to 20% of people, according to the Mayo Clinic.
For some, it’s mild and only noticeable in quiet moments, but for others, it can be severe and persistent.
In those cases, tinnitus can take a serious toll, often leading to sleep problems, trouble concentrating, social isolation and mental health issues like anxiety and depression.
“Over the years, I’ve had many ups and downs with my tinnitus, and I know from firsthand experience just how difficult it can get,” Shatner said in the video.
But that condition pales in comparison to what the “Boston Legal” actor faced in March 2024: a stage 4 melanoma diagnosis that could have been fatal.
The first sign of the aggressive skin cancer was a lump under his right ear.
At first, his family doctor told him not to worry, suggesting the lump was a blockage in the parotid gland that would go away with massage.
But after a month with no improvement, Shatner sought a second opinion — and learned the truth was far more serious.
“They said if this [treatment] they used did not work, I had about five months,” Shatner told Healio, without specifying the exact timing of the diagnosis.
While early detection gives melanoma patients a five-year survival rate of over 99%, that figure plunges to just 35% once the cancer reaches stage 4, according to the American Cancer Society.
Thankfully, Shatner underwent surgery to remove the lump and credits a rigorous immunotherapy regimen with saving his life and putting him in remission.
It wasn’t Shatner’s first brush with a cancer scare.
In 2016, the “T.J. Hooker” star revealed he was diagnosed with prostate cancer after a sudden spike in his PSA levels — a potential red flag for the disease.
However, he later learned it was a false alarm.
Shatner said the elevated PSA levels were actually caused by testosterone supplements he was taking at the time. After stopping them, his numbers returned to normal.
“That was really scary,” he told NBC News. “I was told by a doctor I had a terminal disease. That I was going to die.”
In 2018, the internet also prematurely killed him off — this time via a fake Facebook ad that claimed he had died.
The site quickly removed the post, with Shatner quipping: “Thank you. I’m not planning on dying so please continue to block those kinds of ads.”
But whenever the time does come, the sci-fi legend already has a plan.
“I’m going to have my ashes taken and plant a tree over them. A redwood tree,” Shatner said in an October 2022 interview with USA Today.
“So, instead of a piece of stone, there’s this living thing that is nourished by my remains and continues on.”
